Paul Pierce has been getting roasted by NBA fans on Twitter since Friday night when he claimed he had a better overall career than the Miami Heat’s retiring star Dwyane Wade. He ignored the stats and accolades, which favor Wade, by arguing that his resume would be even better if he had played with guys like LeBron James or Shaquille O’Neal.
While many NBA fans took this as an example of Pierce’s ego and confidence blinding him to the facts, Gabrielle Union, who is married to Wade, perceived the player-turned-analyst’s comments as an attack tearing Wade down.
Wade has not publicly reacted to Pierce’s claim yet, but Union tweeted a defense of her husband — who’s NBA career seems likely to be over in a few days — and explained why she was bothered by his argument, which goes beyond basketball.
It’s possible the ESPN analyst set himself up to be roasted because he knew an outrageous claim on TV would be talked about and rewatched by basketball fans. It’s also possible Pierce wasn’t trying to tear Wade down as much as he was trying to build himself up. But he arguably did that anyway, regardless of his intentions.
On ESPN on Friday, Pierce played the “This or That” game with Jalen Rose, Brian Windhorst and Michelle Beadle and argued that if he played with Shaq or LeBron, he’d have five or six championships easily instead of the one.
