The basket was set up over the garage behind his house in Inglewood, Calif., just miles from the court Magic Johnson called home. His driveway stretched all the way from the back of the house to the street, as long and seemingly endless as the road to stardom has been for 25-year-old Paul Pierce.

"He was a dumpy, goofy kid back then," said Thaddeus McGrew, Pierce's summer-league coach. "He was big-chested with a large belly and he was slow, but one thing he always knew how to do was score."