When asked to compare Paul Pierce to some of the league’s great scorers in Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, the always-hilarious Artest said, “Paul has been that young, hot stud, the next upcoming guy, when he was their age, when he was 24 and averaging 25 points. So, he’s been there.” Outside of the time we played pool with Pierce, one of our favorite nuggets about him is that when he was a star at Kansas, his 96-98 teams were seeded 2, 1, 1, respectively, in the NCAA tournament. He never got to a Final Four. Lost to Syracuse (John Wallace), Arizona (Bibby-Simon-Dickerson) and Rhode Island (Tyson Wheeler). [LA Daily News, photo: Getty]