Hall of Famer Paul Pierce appeared on the latest episode of the Club Shay Shay podcast, where he spoke about not succumbing to the gang culture in Oakland and Inglewood when he was growing up. Pierce explained that sports and gang culture went hand in hand, especially for inner city kids, but he wanted to get to the age of 21 at a time when many young Black men weren’t.
Paul Pierce: “I seen guys that was great at basketball, but they were still in the streets. And that comes from, I think, having the right people around you, the right friends, and the right parents. I saw my mom struggle. I come from a single-parent home, and I never met my father.”
Shannon Sharpe: “To this day?”
Pierce: “Well, I seen pictures of us when I was little. I don’t remember.”
Sharpe: “You don’t really remember it, though.”
Pierce: “No, I was like three or four. But I don’t have a memory of him. And so, the one thing I always preach like don’t be a follower. ‘Cause I think that’s what the gangs is all about. Just following each other.”
Sharpe: “… I’ve heard people say, ‘It’s the only family I know. It is the only family I had. They made me feel like I was a part of something… You’re supposed to feel the love. And I never felt love at home, but I felt love from this group.'”
Pierce: “But like, if this is love, then why are y’all beating my a** like to get on? If this is love, why you asking me to put my life on the line and have dangerous acts? I’m getting in the car, and there’s a drive-by; I can go to jail. I’ve been caught in one of them cars, Shannon. Man, I’ve been caught in one of them cars, and my life flashed between my eyes, and I never got in that car again. I didn’t know it was gonna happen. But I was just like, I can’t put myself in this situation no more.
“Because I see a lot of my young friends get killed… It’s crazy, like, as a kid, you don’t really think about it ’cause we so used to it growing up. It’s traumatizing now when you think about it.”
Sharpe: “What could have been or what could have been lost?”
Pierce: “But we taught to be tough when I just lost my friend I was with at the movies yesterday. I went to like three funerals in high school. That’s not normal.”
Sharpe: “Right. No. Absolutely not.”
Pierce: “But we looked at it as like, man, deal with it. This is what happens. Today, you going to have to see somebody and talk about it, whereas [back then] you got to deal with it… My mindset was like, ‘Man, I just want to make it to 21.’ Damn, ‘What you want to be when you grow up? Man, ‘I want to just be 21.’ Because you know the statistics was most young black kids before the age of 21 would be dead or in jail. And you hear that all the time growing up. And I was just like get to 21.”
Pierce kept his focus on basketball growing up and tried his best to stay out of trouble. He’d eventually move out of Inglewood when he headed to the University of Kansas, where he made a name for himself on the national stage.
Pierce was a consensus first-team All-American as a junior and would be selected with the 10th pick in the 1998 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. The 48-year-old spent 19 seasons in the NBA, winning a title and a Finals MVP in that time. Pierce also made 10 All-Star and four All-NBA teams, and was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
