Paul Pierce is one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
One of the stories that will on in infamy, beyond his wheelchair fiasco, is the time he got stabbed in a nightclub.
On September 25, 2000, Pierce was stabbed 11 times.
Recently, the Celtics legend appeared on the Draymond Green Show and spoke very openly about the incident.
“I don’t even know how I’m alive truthfully when I look back at it,” Pierce said.
“I’m a true believer in God. He knows what your time is and it wasn’t my time… I talked about the incident and being in the club, being stabbed by like multiple men and three different knives and well people don’t know I played because I played through pain.”
The incident, understandably, stayed with Pierce.
“Being on the court was the only thing that gave me peace. Because I’m traumatized, I’m in my house, I’m scared but at the same time, I’m paranoid. I can’t sleep. I had to wear like a vest. This is what people don’t know, I had to wear a vest underneath my uniform.”
That said, Pierce refused to let it halt his pro basketball career.
“So, I disobey doctor’s orders, I practice before I was supposed to practice,” he continued.
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“I wore like a damn near bulletproof vest or whatever kind of vest they got for me and I just played through it until I healed and I really didn’t heal until after the season.”
Between Pierce’s stabbing and the time Kobe Bryant faced off against a NYC gun-wielding gangster, it is safe to say that NBA players live a much more dangerous life than fans give them credit for.
Hopefully more stars like Pierce come out and share the tales of what they went through during their playing days, because stuff like this definitely adds to their hoops lore.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.