Paul Pierce is alive and well today, but he nearly lost his life in a fight at a Boston nightclub in 2000. Pierce was stabbed 11 times at the Buzz Club on Sept. 25 and spoke about the incident on the Club Shay Shay podcast.
“I really believe that it was an isolated incident,” Pierce said. “And I think egos got involved in it. And it shouldn’t have happened… I want to meet some girls that’s attractive. I’m young, successful, and I get into a situation, and it’s still blurry. I don’t remember completely because I had a concussion from it and everything, but the only thing I really remember was three girls and one guy.”
Pierce claimed he didn’t disrespect anyone, but did acknowledge he made one mistake. The Boston Celtics icon had left the group he had come in with to speak to those women, and they could have helped de-escalate the situation.
“Went from talking to some girls, to argument, pursuing, and then next thing you know, I’m feeling attacked,” Pierce said. “… It looked like one guy right here, but after it was all said and done, it was like three or four guys, and I’m a big dude, right? So you ain’t gonna just take me down.
“And so the reports that came out from the people was like, ‘Man, if you didn’t fight for your life, you would have been dead,'” Pierce continued. “They was like, ‘You was fighting, but they was jumping on you and everything, but you were still fighting back and everything.’ When three guys with three knives—It’s three knives. It wasn’t just one… Based on the puncture wounds, it was three different knives.”
Pierce was stabbed multiple times in the neck, chest, and back, in what was a vicious attack. Host Shannon Sharpe asked him if the leather jacket he was wearing that night might have saved his life, and the 48-year-old felt it might have.
“I had a tough leather Avirex jacket,” Pierce said. “I wish I had a picture of it, ’cause it was shredded. And then when I came out of all of it, I just remember the end of it. I’m looking at myself, I’m like bloodied up. Boom. I just remember wiping the blood. It was like bleeding profusely. And then it was just like, ‘Damn, I need to go to the hospital,’ ’cause my clothes is soaked in blood.
“And fortunately, I made it down the stairs,” Pierce added. “‘Cause I got pulled into like a black room over here… And the hospital was literally one block away. Like literally. I could have walked there, but we drove there, got in, and man, who knows, if the hospital wasn’t right there, I couldn’t be sitting here talking to you today.”
Pierce carried a gun with him for two years after the incident. He was traumatized and had become paranoid.
Pierce didn’t allow the incident to impact him too much on the court, though. He remarkably played all 82 games for the Celtics in the 2000-01 season. Pierce was shining on the court too, as he averaged 25.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game in that campaign. He would go on to establish himself as one of the best players of the decade, with his crowning moment being when he won the title and Finals MVP with the Celtics in 2008.
