Upon retiring from the NBA, Paul Pierce turned his head to sports analysis, like many athletes post-retirement. While he wasn’t the most captivating guy on television when it came to talking hoops, he did have his fair share of viral moments. Anything LeBron James related from his side was most definitely must-watch TV.
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Though, in spring of 2021, Pierce would be relieved of his duties at ESPN following a singular incident. This incident would be him taking to his Instagram live and showing off ‘strippers/exotic dancers’ while smoking to an audience of thousands of fans.
ESPN would go on to cut ties with the former Boston Celtics champion quite quickly after this moment. Since then, Pierce has had little to nothing positive to say about his experience working at ESPN. To add insult to injury, it was also revealed just how much he had lost due as a result of his firing.
Paul Pierce reportedly lost $100,000 in the span of 24 hours
Paul Pierce was reportedly earning $1.5 million a year from his sports analysis on ESPN. This was a far cry from what he was earning while playing on NBA hardwood but it was still a steady stream of income for a man who had retired from the game.
Upon getting fired, he would of course, not receive this. Furthermore, according to Tyler Conway on Twitter, in that 24 hour span between his Instagram live and his firing, he would go on to lose $100,000 and would wake up to a dozen missed calls from ESPN headquarters.
Paul seemed to be taking the whole situation in stride however as he claimed he was ‘done with them anyway’. He would go on to defend himself, saying he was a divorced man and that he technically didn’t do anything wrong.
Paul Pierce hated talking about LeBron James
In the wake of this whole debacle, Paul Pierce would go on to admit he did not like to be forced into talking about LeBron James. A lot of takes revolved around him and he felt as though he wasn’t given a great deal of freedom in that aspect.
As everybody knows, Pierce and James had quite the rivalry in the late 2000s and early 2010s. They would trade blows in the Playoffs until LeBron finally defeated the ‘Big 4’ Celts once and for all in the 2012 Playoffs.
