Paul Pierce played basketball.
The Consensus 1998 College Basketball All-American team , as determined by aggregating the results of four major All-American teams . To earn `` consensus '' status , a player must win honors from a majority of the following teams : the Associated Press , the USBWA , The Sporting News and the National Association of Basketball Coaches . The Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award ( formerly known as the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award ) is an annual National Basketball Association ( NBA ) award given since the 1969 NBA Finals . John Joseph `` Hondo '' Havlicek ( [ ˈhævlᵻtʃɛk ] ; born April 8 , 1940 ) is an American retired professional basketball player who competed for 16 seasons with the Boston Celtics , winning eight NBA championships , four of them coming in his first four seasons . Paul Pierce . Pierce spent the first fifteen years of his career with the Boston Celtics , who drafted him with the 10th overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft .