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Paul Pierce opened up about the importance of winning a championship in Boston

Paul Pierce’s No. 34 will be headed to the rafters at TD Garden Sunday evening, but the former Celtics forward still remembers when the team raised a different kind of banner nearly a decade ago.

October 2008: The Celtics were given their championship rings and raised banner no. 17 to the rafters in a pregame ceremony.

“The last time I was in the Garden to pull on some strings to put something up, I know I cried,” he told reporters at the Four Seasons Hotel Saturday night. “I’m not really a big crier.”

Pierce was a part of the 2007-2008 Celtics team that won the franchise’s first NBA title in over 20 years.