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NY Post
New York Post
10 Apr 2023


NextImg:Paul Pierce on ESPN firing after stripper, weed video: ‘What did I do wrong?’

Two years later, Paul Pierce still wonders what he did wrong to get fired from ESPN.

Pierce appeared on the “I Am Athlete” podcast and discussed the situation in which he got terminated by the Worldwide Leader after posting a video on Instagram in which he was playing poker, surrounded by exotic dancers and smoking marijuana.

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“I got fired for what?” Pierce asked.

The group made a joke about it being “on your day off” – a reference to the movie “Friday” – and LeSean McCoy interjected about one of the dancers, “Shorty did look thick though! If you’re gonna get fired go out like that!”

Pierce continued, “I got fired for having some entertainment. I’m playing cards. It’s my boy’s birthday. It’s girls dancing. We’re blowing some tree. What did I do wrong?”

Brandon Marshall laughed that the video “looked like an orgy” was going on, but Pierce said that they were just playing cards.

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Paul Pierce at the 2022 NBA Finals.

Paul Pierce at the 2022 NBA Finals.
NBAE via Getty Images

Asked who filmed the shindig, Pierce said that it was a selfie video, and the group laughed about it being a Ja Morant situation, similar to when the Grizzlies superstar broadcasted himself on Instagram at a strip club in Colorado while appearing to brandish a gun.

“I don’t ever go live either, I was just feeling my [hair] cut or something, and then it was popping behind me,” Pierce said.

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Pierce said that he was called by an ESPN higher-up who said she was conducting an investigation and asked him what was going on in the video, to which he responded that it was “self-explanatory.”

Marijuana is legal in California, where the video took place, but the whole production was a bridge too far for ESPN.

Paul Pierce was fired from ESPN in 2021 after going on IG Live with exotic dancers at a poker game at his friend's house.

Paul Pierce was fired from ESPN in 2021 after going on IG Live with exotic dancers at a poker game at his friend’s house.
Instagram / Paul Pierce

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“At the end of the day, it’s Disney, and they have a morals clause, and they just said it was immoral,” Pierce explained.