biNew York Times ibestselling sportswriter Michael Holley tells the inside story of how Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett joined together to form the most dominant team in basketball and lead the Boston Celtics to their first championship in more than two decades.bbrThe first of The Big Three was Paul Pierce. As Boston Celtics fans watched the team retire Pierce's jersey in a ceremony on February 11, 2018, they remembered again the incredible performances Pierce put on in the city for fifteen years, helping the Celtics escape the bottom of their conference to become champions and perennial championship contenders. But Pierce's time in the city wasn't always so smooth. In 2000, he was stabbed in a downtown nightclub eleven times in a seemingly random attack. Six years later, remaining the sole star on a struggling team, he asked to be traded and briefly became a lightning rod among fans.brThen, in 2007, the Boston Celtics General Manager made two monumental trades, bringing Ray