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Paul Pierce to retire after this season

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Paul Pierce played 15 seasons in Boston before making stops with the Nets, Wizards, and Clippers.Danny Moloshok

Former Celtics captain Paul Pierce announced Monday that the upcoming NBA season would be his last.

"Just like any difficult decision, I think you've got to be at peace with yourself. I'm at peace with retiring, but I've got one more ride left. One more season. One more opportunity," Pierce wrote on The Players Tribune.

Pierce has played 18 seasons in the NBA. His first 15 were with the Celtics, who drafted him in 1998, and he helped Boston win its 17th NBA championship in 2008. He was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013 and played one season there. He played last season for Clippers in his home town of Los Angeles, and wrote he wants one more shot at a title.

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"With the Clippers, in the city where I grew up, I feel like I have that opportunity on a great team. We're hungry. We want to win a championship," he wrote.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers said in September that Pierce intended to retire as a Celtic by signing a one-day contract with the team once his playing days end.

"[Celtics president] Danny [Ainge] and [assistant general manager] Mike [Zarren], we've already talked. The day he retires, he's going to retire a Celtic and he has to. I don't think anyone disagrees with that," Rivers said.

Pierce's last game in Boston will be on Feb. 5, Super Bowl Sunday, when the Clippers face the Celtics. He will face his former team one more time on March 6 in Los Angeles on the third leg of a five-game West Coast trip for the Celtics.

He enters his final season averaging 20.0 points per game for his career. He has 26,616 points, good for 16th on the all-time scoring list in the NBA.

The news follows Friday's retirement announcement by Kevin Garnett, who joined Pierce and Ray Allen to form the "Big Three" on the 2008 Celtics championship team.

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