Paul Pierce has had quite the week. The former All-NBA wing went onto Instagram Live and appeared to accidentally broadcast himself having a racy house party to his entire follower list instead of a close group of friends. While a bunch of current NBA players thought the whole thing was hilarious, Pierce’s now-former employer didn’t think it was quite as funny, as ESPN parted ways with the former Celtics, Nets, Wizards, and Clippers standout.
Pierce seemed to take the whole thing in stride, posting a few messages to social media in which he thanked both his supporters and his haters. Now, one of his former teammates chimed in … well, kind of.
Shaquille O’Neal, who played against Pierce for years and suited up alongside him in 2010-11 in Boston, laughed at the mere mention of Pierce’s name during TNT’s pregame show on Tuesday night.
SHAQ brings up Paul Pierce.
pic.twitter.com/ZDDWRyhhEB
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) April 6, 2021
The great thing about this video is it’s not commentary on anything that happened with Pierce, it is literally just bringing up Pierce’s name in conversation and Shaq immediately laughing. The camera then pans over to the rest of the TNT crew, and while Adam Lefkoe has a smile on his face, both Candace Parker and Dwyane Wade couldn’t help but react to the fact that bringing up Pierce made Shaq’s mind go to that place.
We’ll have to wait until Thursday night to see if Shaq and the Inside the NBA crew have a similar reaction should Pierce’s name pop up. Our bet: Yes, and also, there will be riffing.