Paul Pierce had an entertaining stint on ESPN, and his exit from the network was even more poetic than his incredibly hot takes. The Boston Celtics icon constantly received criticism for his inputs.
He often criticized LeBron James, dismissing The King’s contributions to the game, which earned him a lot of criticism from fans. However, this wasn’t the reason why he left the multimedia giants.
A couple of months ago, Pierce started an Instagram Live, showing he was playing some cards with friends. That was completely normal, but The Truth had more guests to the party. He was surrounded by exotic dancers, smoking cigarettes, living the best life.
This didn’t sit well with the bosses in the company and the former player-turned-analyst was released a couple of days after the incident. Pierce has joined Showtime recently, and he seems to be happy with that.
Talking with former ESPN colleague Michelle Beadle on the ‘What Did I Miss?’ podcast, the small forward opened up on that moment, talking about the aftermath of that situation, even revealing he had passed out before his phone blew up with messages.
Via The Athletic:
In his post-playing days, Pierce continued to remain around the game by working as an NBA analyst for ESPN. However, in April, three days after the NBA champion posted a video of himself on Instagram Live drinking and smoking while playing poker with exotic dancers in the background, Pierce was fired by the worldwide leader in sports.
“I wake up the next morning … my phone got 200 messages,” Pierce said to Beadle, his former ESPN colleague. “My Twitter is going off. I’m like what happened … ’cause I passed out on the couch. … I wake up to all kinds of people trying to reach me and I’m like, damn, what happened? Did somebody die?”
After that moment, No. 34 took some jabs at the worldwide leader of sports. He initially stated good things were coming his way, showing no remorse for his antics on Instagram.
He continued to take shots at his former employers, but that’s part of the past now. He’s looking good and ready to embrace new challenges. Pierce was one of the most entertaining analysts on ESPN, and plenty of fans surely miss him, especially when they listen to Kendrick Perkins.