Rookie Branden Dawson Sang Happy BIrthday To Paul Pierce And Doc Rivers, Who Are Basically Just Peers At This Point

@laclippers rookie @bjdawson22 sings Happy Birthday to Doc Rivers & @paulpierce in Shanghai! #NBAGlobalGames

A video posted by NBA (@nba) on Oct 12, 2015 at 7:45pm PDT

Take a look at these two....

This picture might as well have been taken on a fishing boat, because they look like two look old friends reminiscing upon days gone by. Just cracking beers and talking about the good old days. If you didn't know who Paul Pierce and Doc Rivers were and you saw them sitting on a park bench together you would assume they were just two old high school buddies shooting the shit. You certainly wouldn't assume that one had authority over the other. That couldn't look like less of a player/coach dynamic. I think Paul Pierce is just the liaison between players and coaches at this point. He's not too old to be completely disconnected from how young players think, but he's not too young to know how they should be thinking. Other than LeBron James rendering David Blatt a useless shell of a man on the sideline last year, Paul Pierce is the closest thing the NBA has to a player coach. He's basically more of a coach than a player except, against all odds, he's still pretty good at basketball. Is there any doubt that Paul Pierce gets along better with Doc Rivers better than he does with someone like Branden Dawson? He's pretty much one retirement ceremony away from using the phrase "kids these days" in reference to the Clippers rookie. No doubt that Paul Pierce still understands the culture of an NBA locker room, but if it's between a night on the town with the boys are firing up a couple steaks with the coach, I think we know which direction 'The Truth' is trending.