A couple of days away from being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Paul Pierce reflected on his career and what came after he retired from the game. The Boston Celtics icon surely has a lot of things to say, and a recent interview was the perfect opportunity to get some things off his chest.
In case you don’t know, Pierce and ESPN parted ways a couple of months ago after he broadcasted a controversial Instagram Live surrounded by strippers, playing poker and drinking. That stream went viral, leading to Paul’s departure from the network in one of the biggest stories of the year.
A lot has happened since that moment, and The Truth has finally opened up on that situation. Talking with Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, Pierce revealed that leaving ESPN was something he had thought before, especially with the fact that he needed to talk about LeBron James all the time.
ESPN didn’t ask for an apology. The relationship between Pierce and the network had become strained over the past two years. Pierce hated the travel. Network executives didn’t think he was working hard enough. The video, industry sources told Sports Illustrated, was the last straw. “I was done with them, anyway,” says Pierce between pulls of lemon mint. “It wasn’t a great fit. There’s a lot of stuff over there that you can’t say. And you have to talk about LeBron all the time.”
It’s well known that LeBron and Paul never liked each other. Rumors suggest this happened during Bron’s first preseason in the league. After a brawl with the Celtics, the relationship between them ended without even starting.
The next decade saw Pierce and James clash in the regular season and playoff, with the former winning the first duels. The King would take revenge when he joined the Miami Heat in 2010, dominating the Eastern Conference with both the Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Even as an analyst, Pierce always took shots at LeBron, and now that he’s a free agent, that won’t change.
