Austin Daye grew up watching Paul Pierce

SLAM has a brief interview with Austin Daye about growing up in Southern California. Daye talks about a NBA player he was influenced by growing up:

"SLAM: When you were growing up, who was the one guy you had to watch on television?AD: Paul Pierce. I just really liked his game. He wasn’t the fastest, wasn’t the most athletic, but he was always able to get to where he wanted to get to and be able to score, and he was scoring at will when he was in the Playoffs back then."

Daye’s game isn’t that similar to Pierce’s on the surface because Pierce is so ridiculously strong for a wing player, but like Pierce, Daye isn’t an elite ball-handler or especially quick off the dribble and in limited situations, Daye has shown some craftiness using angles and body positioning to create a little bit of daylight to get his shots off.

In the interview, Daye also talks about the first time he beat his dad, former NBA player Darren Daye, one-on-one.