Paul Pierce is officially making admission No. 2 about his infamous wheelchair incident from 2008.
The retired Boston Celtics legend spoke Friday in an interview with Michelle Beadle of The Athletic. One of the topics they discussed was the notorious episode from the 2008 NBA Finals when Pierce went down in a dramatic heap and used a wheelchair get off the court, only to return to the game in invigorated fashion shortly thereafter.
A couple of years ago, Pierce already made a stunning admission about the incident — that he just needed to use the bathroom. In his interview with Beadle though, Pierce made another admission — that he did not actually poop himself on the court as many had believed all these years.
“If you poop your pants, does it make sense to sit down and mush it in a wheelchair?” said Pierce. “I would walk back there and go straight to the bathroom. Why would I need a wheelchair if I pooped my pants? You don’t sit down on your poop, right? It doesn’t make sense.”
Pierce does have a good point there. The last thing that you want to do with a fully-loaded trunk after all is to sit down on it. You may recall too that the Celtics were playing at home during the incident, which occurred in Game 1 of the Finals that year against the Los Angeles Lakers. That means that they were wearing their white uniforms and that there definitely would have been … evidence of such a mishap.
The Basketball Hall of Famer Pierce’s wheelchair stunt will live on forever in cultural lore. Even stars in other sports have joked about it in recent years. But it turns out that the incident was actually a little bit … cleaner than Pierce gets credit for.
Photo: Jul 10, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Former basketball player Paul Pierce arrives on the red carpet at Microsoft Theatre. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
