Paul Pierce spoke about his exit from ESPN – which took place after he posted a video with strippers to his Instagram – in an uncensored conversation on Michelle Beadle’s new podcast.
“This is our first time getting to talk without having a lot of rules that we normally would’ve had,” Beadle – also an ousted ESPNer – said on her “What Did I Miss?” podcast with The Athletic.
“You and I both left ESPN. I left quietly. You decided to leave with a retirement video with strippers.”
In April, Pierce was fired from ESPN as an analyst after he shared an Instagram Live video at a house party that included the aforementioned strippers dancing in the background, as well as smoking.
“I kinda went out with a bang,” Pierce said, as the pair laughed.
Beadle asked, “Was that your plan when you did that honestly?”
“That wasn’t really my plan but I wasn’t tripping,” Pierce said. “I was just like, ‘you know what, at the end of the day, I am retired.’ I was tired of them anyway, truthfully. I don’t got nothing against them, but I was getting bored there. Stuff was changing all the time and it just wasn’t the same feel like it was when we was doing it,” he said about his former “NBA Countdown” co-hosts, Beadle, Jalen Rose and Chauncey Billups.
Pierce previously alluded in September that his work schedule and topic selection at ESPN were persistent points of contention.
Beadle left ESPN in the summer of 2019, after the network bought out her $5 million per year contract. In October, the Spurs announced that Beadle will join their broadcast team as a “special correspondent” for the 2021-22 NBA season.
“It was too much changes. I got to the point where I was like this is my last year anyway and I’m just having fun, I’m retired, I’m allowed to have fun,” Pierce said.
Beadle wasn’t surprised when she saw the video.
“As soon as that video was on the internet and I watched it, I was like, ‘That was perfectly Paul,” she said. “That was the most on brand thing I’ve ever seen you do.”
Pierce explained that he “didn’t understand” how the Instagram Live feature worked at the time.
“I didn’t know other people could record your Instagram, so I just thought a few people were going to see it,” Pierce said.
Still, Pierce has no regrets about how he went out at ESPN.
“I did it, you know I’m having fun, I had some drinks, whatever, and so I wake up the next morning and my phone got about 200 messages,” the Celtics great said. “My Twitter is going off. I’m like, ‘What happened?’ because I passed out on the couch and I wake up to all kinds of people trying to reach me… And I look, like, ‘Oh wow, okay. This video is kind of viral right now.”
Pierce, since leaving ESPN, has teased multiple business ventures, including a podcast with his former Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett.
The Truth was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in September as part of the 2021 class, along with Garnett as part of the 2020 class.