Paul Pierce recently vented to Sports Illustrated about his viral IG Live video that caused him his job at ESPN, and he says he’s not going to apologize for having fun.
The video was recorded in April, while Pierce was playing poker at a friends house in Los Angeles.
There were strippers at the get together, and after a few drinks, Pierce decided he wanted to show them off.
He went on IG Live and showed the strippers dancing, not knowing that his IG Live video could be recorded and reposted.
Paul deleted the video when he got off of IG Live, thinking it would be gone forever.
By the next morning, the video had gone viral.
ESPN fired Pierce behind the video, but Pierce said he didn’t feel like he was a good fit at ESPN anyway.
I was done with them, anyway.
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.
After Pierce was fired, his agent Jeff Schwartz suggested that he apologize fearing that the video would influence Hall of Fame voters to vote against Pierce being inducted in the Class of 2021.
Pierce refused to apologize saying that he was just having fun, and many of the players currently in the Hall of Fame have done much worse.
Come on, I didn’t do anything illegal.
These motherf***ers in the Hall of Fame, some did cocaine, f***ing battery.
What the f*** did I do? I was just having a good time.
All the people coming after me, half you motherf***ers do the same s***. You’re just hiding it.
And you all are married while you’re doing it. I’m divorced. I’m retired. I’m having fun. If I didn’t make it with this class, it would be the biggest stiff job in Hall of Fame history.
Turns out Pierce was right, the Hall of Fame did not hold the video against him.
Paul Pierce will be inducted as a member of the NBA Hall of Fame Class of 2021 this Saturday (Sept. 11) in Springfield, Massachusetts, along with Chris Webber, Ben Wallace, and Chris Bosh.
Congratulations to Paul “The Truth” Pierce!
Source: Sports Illustrated
