Paul Pierce is about to join an exclusive club, and he’ll likely be doing so in Kings County.
The Nets forward is just five points shy of 25,000 career points as the Nets enter a three-game homestand. He almost certainly would have crossed that barrier on Wednesday night in Orlando if he hadn’t been held out to rest a right hip pointer.
The NBA’s 25,000-point club currently boasts 17 members, three of which are active players — the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, the Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki and Pierce’s teammate Kevin Garnett.
Pierce failed to score at least five points in just eight of 72 games played this season for the Nets, who acquired the future Hall of Famer along with Garnett and the since-traded Jason Terry from the Celtics during the offseason. Only nine players in history, including active players Bryant, Nowitzki and the Spurs’ Tim Duncan, have scored more points with one team than Pierce’s 24,021 points while playing for Boston.
Once Pierce hits that milestone, the next big number to hit is associated with an even more exclusive club: 2,000 career 3-pointers. Only Heat guard and former Pierce teammate Ray Allen and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller have reached that mark, and both are also members of the 2,500 3-pointer club.
