Former Boston Celtics stalwart Paul Pierce, who became a basketball analyst on ESPN’s The Jump and NBA Countdown programs following his playing days, has been sacked by the sports channel after a recent Instagram Live that sparked up much controversy.
Last Friday night, Pierce went live on Instagram where he was seen visibly drunk and around a couple of half dressed women who were speculated to be strippers, as well as playing poker with some of his friends. Later, he posted a picture of himself smoking marijuana as well.
As Instagram Live quickly went viral all across multiple social media platforms, multiple sources started to claim that ESPN, who hired Pierce back in 2017, had fired him immediately. However, The Walt Disney Company owned channel themselves have declined to comment on that matter.
Soon after the claims from multiple sources about his sack, Pierce posted a short four second clip on his official Twitter handle, which said “smile”. Nicknamed “The Truth” the former small forward captioned the video with, “Big Things coming soon stay tuned make sure u smile #Truthshallsetufree”
Later, the 2008 NBA champion and Finals MVP took to his Instagram to share some words on the entire incident.
“Just want to thank all my supporters and thank my haters and everything. Look, but check it out, bigger and better things are coming baby. Don’t worry about it. You fall twice, you get up three times. Just always remember to smile. I am good,” the 43-year-old said.
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We’d love to have him: Barstool Sports founder reaches out to Paul Pierce
Meanwhile, Barstool Sports decided to reach out to the former NBA star as word about his dismissal from ESPN had gotten out. David Portnoy, the founder of the digital media company, made a cryptic tweet as he shared Ryan Glasspiegel’s post. He wrote “Hey” while tagging Pierce and adding a phone call emoji
Later, Portnoy confirmed on his “Davey Day Trader” stream that he has indeed contacted the former ESPN employee for a job offer and insisted that he was completely unbothered about the entire Instagram Live situation.
“Listen, Paul Pierce, I’m gonna make a run at Paul Pierce,” Portnoy said on the stream, “I’m gonna make a run at his a–. I reached out.”
“Contact has been made. He got fired from ESPN for having strippers and blunts in the background of a livestream. Whatever, I don’t give a f— about that. We’d love to have him,” he added.
