April 07, 2021

ESPN Strips Paul Pierce of Pundit Gig: The best part of Paul Pierce being fired as an ESPN basketball commentator is the part of the Instagram Live video where he compared the backside of one of the strippers to "two Boston Celtics championship trophies." One cheek is Pierce's trophy from 2008, but the second can't be any more recent than 1986.

posted by rcade to basketball at 11:01 AM - 5 comments

Fortunately they did not Strip Paul before he had some fun.

posted by cixelsyd at 04:11 PM on April 07, 2021

When it's party time with a booty queue, some crack broadcasters can't help but go analyst with a long "a".

The Truth shall be revealed.

posted by beaverboard at 04:38 PM on April 07, 2021

After what happened in 2000, one would think that Pierce might have outgrown such behavior. Evidently not, but he's more careful about the place and the clientele. At least one local Boston commentator suggested that he might come back to Boston and connect with NBC Sports Boston, the cable outlet that carries Celtics games. I think it unlikely for several reasons, not the least of which is that one of the voices on the outlet's general sports update programs is an ardent feminist (and I mean this in the way of a compliment rather than a derogatory slur), and I believe she would be rather upset should he be brought aboard. She gives the impression of knowing what she is talking about, and more importantly she knows what she doesn't know. She seems to wield a bit of clout, thus my doubts about Pierce coming back on anything but an occasional visit.

posted by Howard_T at 06:52 PM on April 07, 2021

Pierce's lack of contrition is nice. We don't get that very often. Everybody has to don the hair shirt.

Inviting strippers to your poker game at somebody's house, getting high or drunk and embarrassing your employer by filming yourself is not an egregious offense. Though of course he was gonna get fired.

posted by rcade at 09:53 AM on April 08, 2021

As a huge fan of the Celtics and #34, I can't say I will miss hearing his takes, though, sadly, he might improve the quality of discourse in Boston sports (though not on NBCSN which is pretty solid depending on how you feel about Scal. Oh and if you can tolerate Perk. God help us.)

posted by yerfatma at 01:40 PM on April 08, 2021

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