With the sting of his last second shot being waived off because time had expired and his team being eliminated from the postseason still fresh, the Wizards‘ Paul Pierce now has to make a decision regarding his player option for 2015/15 worth $5,543,725, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com writes. “I haven’t really thought about it,” Pierce said. “I don’t even know if I am going to play basketball anymore. These seasons get harder and harder every year, every day. Summers get even harder when you start getting back in shape. I’m 37 years old. I’m top two or three oldest in the league.” Pierce indicated he would take some time and discuss the matter with his family before making his call on next season, Youngmisuk adds. “I have been playing this game [for] like 32 years. Since I was a little kid. Probably going to be the hardest thing to do is put the game down. But I know that time is coming one day. I am not sure if it is this year or next year. I will sit down with my family and figure things out,” Pierce said.
Here’s more out of the Southeast Division:
- Wizards coach Randy Wittman indicated that he’d be very surprised if Pierce didn’t opt in and return to the team next season, J. Michael of CSNWashington.com relays (Twitter link).
- Heat president Pat Riley interviewed Kansas swingman Kelly Oubre at the draft combine, Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post tweets.
- While at the draft combine Hornets executives met with Kentucky’s Devin Booker and Willie Cauley-Stein, as well as Duke forward Justise Winslow, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer reports in a series of tweets.
- Riley also sat down with Booker for an interview, who said that the Heat executive told him that Dwyane Wade was in the final stage of his career and that the young guard would be able to learn from him, Lieser tweets. Also meeting with the team while in Chicago were Arkansas forward Bobby Portis and Kentucky forward Trey Lyles, Lieser adds (Twitter links).