by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

April 12, 2023

Paul Pierce Still Wonders Why ESPN Fired Him: ‘I Mean, What Did I Do Wrong?’

Over two years ago, Boston Celtics great Paul Pierce was terminated from his ESPN analyst gig after he posted a video clip on his Instagram Live of him partying with a group of strippers and getting a haircut.

He still doesn’t feel he should have been let go for “having some entertainment.”

On a recent episode of I Am Athlete, he peered into the camera and said, “I got fired for what?” The podcast’s hosts, former NFL players Brandon Marshall, Channing Crowder, and Chad Johnson, laugh at his remarks and remind Pierce he was fired in the same way Ice Cube‘s character in Friday was terminated—on his day off.

“I got fired for having some entertainment,” Pierce said. “I’m playing cards. It’s my boy’s birthday. It’s girls dancing, and we’re blowing some trees. I mean, what did I do wrong?”

Someone asked Pierce who recorded the video. He said he did.

As Pierce recalled the incident, he bragged that he was also getting a haircut as all of the shenanigans are going down. He then used his “hood” background to justify his actions at the time.

He also reenacted the phone call he received from an ESPN executive after the incident.

“They hit me, and it was a higher-up,” Pierce recalled. “It was a lady. I’m like, ‘Hello?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re doing an investigation. Could you tell us what happened?’ I’m like, ‘You didn’t see it?’ I was just hanging out, playing cards. It wasn’t my house. I mean, it was self-explanatory.”

He explained that although he did nothing illegal, ESPN is a Disney property. “At the end of the day, it’s Disney, and they have a morals clause, and they just said it was immoral,” Pierce said.


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