HoopsVibe

This 6-6 230 lb. forward is arguable one of the NBA's brightest stars because he puts up obscene numbers each season, but he's irreplaceable to the youth of America that adore him because he is "The Truth." He's inspired countless kids through his dozen or so charities and shown that he never forgets his roots.

Inglewood high school security officer Jack Brown who grew up with Paul describes him best, "He's just a good guy, all the kids around here need a person like him that they can emulate, more cities everywhere should have a Paul Pierces of their own."

Basket-ball.com sat down with Paul at his camp and dared to ask the personal questions to find the essence of Paul Pierce, like me, I bet you will come away impressed by this man among men from Inglewood, California.

HoopsVibe.com: Paul, what was the inspiration for this camp of 300 this week in Inglewood?
Paul Pierce: I just wanted to do this camp to show them my heart and soul for this place, Pat Roy gave me so much coming up that I just want to give back a little bit.

HoopsVibe.com: On to your professional life, what are your goals with the Celtics this year?
Paul Pierce: Realistically, this might be a little bit of a rebuilding year for us, but if we come together and stay together we'll grow to be a good team. You just can't build that togetherness overnight.

HoopsVibe.com: What would've been an alternative career for you besides basketball?
Paul Pierce: I definitely would have been in the FBI or something like that, or I might've gone into the real estate market, I know would've been successful at something like that.

HoopsVibe.com: What is something that you want your fans to know about you and your charitable activities?
Paul Pierce: Definitely want people need to know how much fun we have at the "family fun day." We bring great ball players to have a super charity game each year, even Kenny Latimer came to sing the national anthem this time. We give away a lot of free prizes and it's just a time when everyone can come together and have fun.

HoopsVibe.com: A couple of years back you were attacked with a knife in a nightclub, it left some bad scars on you, have you been able to get past this incident or does the experience still haunt you?
Paul Pierce: Man, I wake up every day and have to see those scars on me, I told myself that it could eat me up or I could just channel that experience into something positive. Yeah, I felt the urge to fight back and do something to the people who attacked me, but I have all these great kids around me that look up to me as a role model, you just have to turn a bad thing into a positive thing sometimes.

HoopsVibe.com: Anything else you want the people to know about you?
Paul Pierce: I want them to know the real me from Inglewood, that what you see is what you get with me, I always want them to see my face around here and know I love this place.

HoopsVibe.com: That's real Paul, by the way, I'm doing a story on the talented ball player Hassan Adams from Arizona who is from Inglewood like you, have you seen him play and if so what do you think of his game?
Paul Pierce: I've seen Hassan play, you're looking at a future pro in him, he does some nice things with the ball and is going to rep Inglewood in the NBA one day.

HoopsVibe.com: Thanks Paul, we appreciate the time to interview with HoopsVibe.com.
Paul Pierce: No problem, thanks for coming out to see us.

To ask Paul Pierce additional questions, you can also go to his official fan website where he picks out some posts every month to answer: www.thetruth34.com