Three NBA columns for the price of one . . .

PAUL PIERCE

Even with all of his obvious talent, I never was a big Paul Pierce fan.

He was too selfish, needed the ball too much, his game all about taking bad shots and going one-on-two. He also was the beneficiary of the NBA reality, living at the free-throw line, even though he seemed to travel on every other drive to the basket. All this and pouty, too.

So I never was much of a fan, even when it was apparent that Pierce was one of the great scorers in Celtics history, right up there with any of the icons.

But I am now.

That started last year when Pierce took a young team and began to teach it how to compete night in and night out in the NBA. For that's what Pierce does. He brings it every night, even on those nights when he's not shooting well, those nights when his team is not going to win. He scores. He rebounds. He battles. And in a league where too many so-called superstars mail it in every once in a while, go on cruise control, Pierce never does.

Not that he's ever going to be noticed for this. It's his fate to be a great player on a young team, a great player on a team that no longer seems to count in the glamour world of the NBA, a franchise that too often is viewed as an afterthought, all about the past. It's his fate to be seen as a great player, certainly, but not a truly elite one. That's your fate when you're on the wrong side of glamour.

So far, anyway, it's been Pierce's fate to be a great Celtic in the wrong era, one in which the Celtics are forever trying to crawl out from the overwhelming shadow of the Red Sox and Patriots. His fate to be taken for granted.

That's unfortunate.

For we are seeing one of the all-time great Celtics, all grown up and in his prime. Even if he still travels on every other drive to the basket.

KNICKS-NUGGETS

The last thing the NBA needed was another brawl, another public stain on the body politic, another piece of bad p.r. that goes out across the country with all the force of a slam-dunk. It's too soon after the Pistons-Pacers debacle of two years ago, the wrong message in an NBA that's trying to polish its tarnished image.

That's one problem.

Another is that we've all seen the fight too many times.

There have been fights in the NBA since the beginning of time. The difference was that once upon a time they took place in a vacuum. Now they're replayed over and over, an endless reminder. Certainly, this one has been.

And you can throw the blame in any direction you want. There's no paucity of subjects. But when the blame settles, one thing remains: at a time when David Stern is trying to clean up the NBA's image, very sensitive to its thug image, the league didn't need this, regardless of who was at fault.

ALLEN IVERSON

So now the act goes to Denver.

Rocky Mountain High with a killer crossover.

In a sense, his game always has existed beyond traditional parameters. Maybe it's this simple: In the history of the NBA, there's never been anyone quite like A.I., a small, thin player who puts up incredible scoring numbers and always leaves his heart on the floor. No one's ever questioned his will.

That's one side.

The other is more complicated, because with A.I. it's always layered.

He is, arguably, the game's first hip-hop superstar, complete with his corn rows, his tattoos and his rap star aspiration, and like all pioneers Iverson has paid a price for this. Suffice it to say there's a significant difference between Michael Jordan's "I want to be like Mike" and Iverson's "keeping it real."

I suspect that his attempt to stay true to his street roots, all the while living with the perks of an NBA superstar, are at the root of Iverson's public persona, the problem child that a variety of coaches have had difficulty dealing with. Hip-hop heroes and being coachable aren't exactly on the same page. Iverson's game also can be a liability; the knock on him being that, for all of his brilliance, all too often his teammates stand and watch him take it to the hoop against the world.

Now, he gets another chance to prove he's about winning, not just highlight films and scoring titles.

Can he co-exist with another superstar -- and a younger one, at that?

Can he co-exist with George Karl, a no-nonsense coach?

Can Allen Iverson find a second act?

We'll see.