By: Simon
Name: Paul Pierce
High School: Inglewood High School (Inglewood, CA)
Freshman Year: 1991-1992
Simon: What were you like when you were a freshman?
Paul Pierce: I was a normal kid, just trying to get my feet wet in high school, trying to make adjustment.
Simon: What was a typical outfit you would wear?
Paul Pierce: I was a typical K-Swiss guy with sweatsuits. I was a ball player, so the ballers, we wore our game shorts to class. We didn't really have a fashion in high school, like other kids.
Simon: Did you play any other sports?
Paul Pierce: I played baseball and football.
Simon: What musical artists did you listen to at the time?
Paul Pierce: I listened to Tupac and a lot of Biggie Smalls.
Simon: What TV shows did you watch?
Paul Pierce: Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Martin Lawrence. Those were my two favorite shows.
Simon: What video games did you play?
Paul Pierce: We used to play Double Dribble on Nintendo. Later in high school it was more NBA Live and John Madden Football.
Simon: What was your favorite class?
Paul Pierce: My favorite subject was math. I was one of the top three in math.
Simon: And your least favorite?
Paul Pierce: My least favorite was probably science. I knew I wasn't going to be a scientist, I knew that early. When they started talking about dissecting frogs, I knew I wasn't going to be a scientist.
Simon: What were your friends like?
Paul Pierce: My friends were the basketball guys. Like the guys on the team as well as the guys from my neighborhood.
Simon: Were you a ladies man?
Paul Pierce: Not in ninth grade, I was more into basketball. And then as I got into 10th grade I started to get my social life together, I had a girlfriend, that I was going steady with in the 10th grade. But my main focus was still on basketball.
Simon: Did you get nervous asking girls to go to dances with you?
Paul Pierce: I always got asked to the dances though. I was one of the better looking guys in my school.
Simon: Did seniors pick on you?
Paul Pierce: Seniors always pick on the ninth graders, especially in sports, they always try to play jokes on you. I'd go in there and they'd wet your clothes up. When you change for practice, you're clothes would be soaked in the pool, it was hard.
Simon: If you could go back, would you do high school all over again?
Paul Pierce: Yeah, it was all fun, you got to experience it man. You got to experience being wet behind the ears being a freshman. That is how you learn things about life. Then once you go through it, you learn how to put the other person that has to go through it.
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