Paul Pierce claims he spat at the Cleveland Cavaliers bench in 2004 and almost fought LeBron James after the game because of it.
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Kendrick Perkins essentially confirmed on two separate occasions that LeBron James and Paul Pierce aren’t particularly fond of one another. It’s unclear whether this still stands to this day but considering the fact that the Celtics legend claimed he grew extremely tired of having to talk about James while on air, safe to say that they haven’t yet reconciled their differences.
Their ‘beef’ was publicized when Paul Pierce and his Boston Celtics repeatedly matched up against an iteration of LeBron’s team in the Playoffs. This took place for both the late 2000s Cleveland Cavaliers and the early ‘10s Miami Heat.
2008 saw the Celtics barely make it out of a grueling 7 game series against the Cavaliers while 2010 resulted in LeBron James and the Cavs giving up a 2-1 lead in the ECSF to lose three straight.
When on the Miami Heat, LeBron returned the favor by beating the Celtics in two straight postseasons to reach the NBA Finals.
Paul Pierce on him spitting at the Cavaliers bench and almost fighting LeBron James.
Despite the aforementioned run-ins in the Playoffs between LeBron James and Paul Pierce, the start of their on-court feud was during a measly 2004 preseason game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics.
While on NBA Countdown, Pierce talked about the time him and LeBron were trading buckets during a preseason game. After trash-talking the Cavs bench, Paul claims to have spat at the bench, resulting in an on-court dispute with James.
“I’m glad social media wasn’t out then because I spit at they bench. I probably would’ve got fined.” @paulpierce34 confirms @KendrickPerkins‘ story that him spitting toward the Cavs bench started his beef with LeBron. pic.twitter.com/k1DbLKhcQq
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 22, 2020
Tensions flared to a point where Pierce and James nearly decided to settle their differences after the game in the back but did not go through with it.
The Celtics claims to have never been fined for the incident but records show that he was in fact fined a whopping $15,000 for spitting in Cleveland’s bench’s direction.
