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During his incredible, 15-year run with the Boston Celtics, Paul Pierce developed a penchant for capturing fans’ imaginations with incredible feats and eye-catching moments on the hardwood. His Willis Reed-esque “Wheelchair Game” in the 2008 NBA Finals immediately comes to mind.
Over the weekend, though, he was the talk of the basketball world once again for an entirely different reason.
Pierce went viral on social media on Friday after broadcasting himself during a poker night with the boys. In this game, though, he and his friends were clearly focused on things outside of chip counts or which river card was going to hit.
Paul Pierce Livestreams Himself Wild’n Out on IG Live
Pierce, an NBA champion, Finals MVP and 10-time All-Star, took to Instagram Live to offer the world a glimpse into his world with a poker-night stream. However, there appeared to be a high level of extracurricular activity occurring during the game.
In the livestream, which was captured and re-shared via Twitter, the red-eyed Celtics legend was shown receiving a massage from a stripper. Simultaneously, another dancer could be seen on the floor, undulating and twerking for the camera. Seconds later, some of Pierce’s friends began to throw poker chips at her as she writhed about.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Pierce to become a trending topic on Twitter. And through no fault of her own (or Pierce’s, really) his ESPN colleague Rachel Nichols trended as well after she was mentioned in the IG Live comments.
Needless to say, it probably wasn’t what Nichols had in mind for her Easter weekend.
Since wrapping up his 19-year playing career, during which he amassed more than 26,000 points, Pierce has been a fixture on ESPN’s NBA programming. He regularly appears on shows like The Jump and NBA Countdown.
NBA Players React
Fans and members of the media alike have been abuzz throughout the weekend over Pierce’s wild video. However, the best reactions to the incident may have come from a pair of NBA players.
Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal — who was a teammate of Pierce’s during the 2014-15 season — fired off multiple tweets reacting to Pierce’s Instagram moment. And each one was better than the last.
“P wildinnnn,” read his first tweet, along with a slew of face with tears of joy emoji.
Shortly thereafter, Beal joked that Pierce must have forgotten to limit who could see his live video. “Forgot to hit that close friends,” he wrote.
Finally, Beal lamented being faced with a scene so wild at such an early hour. “Too early for this!!” he wrote in a tweet that was capped by the man facepalming emoji.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma was more pointed with his own Twitter response, exclaiming, “Paul pierce a sicko.”
Still, the best response may have come from Pierce himself on the day after he had gone live and wild. Instead of going right into some kind of explanation or apology, he fired off the following tweet (at a particularly strange time of day):
Good morning
Good morning, indeed.
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NBA Stars React to Celtics Legend’s Wild Instagram Live Moment