With or without a microphone as loud as ESPN’s, Paul Pierce never fails to draw attention.
And that’s for better or worse.
Pierce, an all-time Celtics legend, has spent the better part of his post-NBA career, going viral for his online personality. That willingness to say whatever’s on Pierce’s mind began during his time as an analyst for ESPN, before the network fired the former NBA All-Star for making his off-the-job extracurricular activities public on social media.
This time, Pierce took a hilarious shot at ex-ESPN colleague Richard Jefferson.
“Overrated, that I played against? … I’ma say Richard Jefferson,” Pierce said on the “I AM ATHLETE” podcast, sparking a shower of laughter. “… He was overrated than a (expletive)!”
Jefferson, like Pierce, also has an NBA Finals title (well, three) to his resume, albeit in a significantly smaller role.
Strange to throw the “overrated” label on Jefferson considering his place among the all-time greats is a relatively widely recognized view. He wasn’t up there, nor was he even close. Jefferson was the Achilles heel to two NBA Finals-losing New Jersey Nets teams in the early 2000s, then the same as the bench-warming old timer along LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Nevertheless, Jefferson wasn’t having any of Pierce’s shenanigans.
“Paul Pierce, one of the best players of the generation. 100% better than me. Comparing me to him is like comparing him to (Dwayne) Wade. They’re different stratospheres, we don’t even do that,” Jefferson responded in a since-deleted video. “… Bro, we beat you 10 out of 11 times. We beat you three times in the postseason, in the (Eastern) Conference finals.”
Shall this be the end of the birth of a Pierce-Jefferson clash? Perhaps.
But that’s not stopping “The Truth” from reeling in his next viral moment. Time will only tell when that is.
