Paul Pierce on ESPN: What Happened to the Morals?
Paul Pierce has a new podcast called The Truth Lounge. The debut episode was released on Friday and Pierce came out firing on all cylinders, smoking from a hookah and something he called "truth serum." To kick off his first episode he pulled out a piece of paper that apparently had some hot button issues jotted down on it and the first thing he addressed was his ESPN exit
The best part about this is that Pierce is simply rehashing a story that we all basically saw play out in real time. And it's not even a new story for him to tell. The Instagram Live incident took place in the Spring of 2021. He opened up about it that September. And then again two months later on Michelle Beadle's podcast. And more recently in a conversation with Lance Armstrong during his appearance on FOX's Stars on Mars in 2023.
Pierce also had "wheelchair" written on his piece of paper, which is something he's been discussing publicly for about five years now. The most shocking reveal might be that Pierce hasn't also addressed these things on his other podcast with Kevin Garnett.
Anyway, Pierce did stumble on one interesting point while re-telling his ESPN story: what happened to the morals that got him fired?
"I got fired for literally having a good time. And now we watch these shows. You know you got employees for ESPN and FOX who have their alternate shows. Now tell me where the morals in all of that when they talking about women and strippers and drinking alcohol on the set. And doing all this other stuff. Where the morals at now? Why it change now? You know, I don't get it. It was morals two years ago, but they don't have morals no more? What's the deal with that?"
He's clearly talking about Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith here. Smith's podcast continues to go places that ESPN's moral clause might call into question if he wasn't their highest-profile employee. Sharpe meanwhile has free-flowing conversations on the Club Shay Shay podcast and made himself a drink on the air while still on Undisputed.
He's got a point! Maybe Pierce was just ahead of his time when he was on ESPN. Nowadays having a unfiltered podcast to supplement the many hours you're on television and unable to share every single thing that runs through your head is considered a good thing. At least Pierce has that. Even if he's a little light on new stories.