It’s hard to blame someone for being paranoid after being stabbed once, never mind 11 times.
And that’s exactly what happened to Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce in September of 2000 at an area nightclub that would result in a collapsed lung — but somehow no missed games in the 2000-01 NBA season that began just weeks later.
Pierce revealed that the intense fear of being attacked again plagued him after the incident, changing his life in surprising ways.
It caused him to avoid crowds and carry a gun for self-protection for a period of time following the stabbing, which he talked about on an episode of the All the Smoke Podcast, hosted by former NBA peers Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes.
“People don’t know this, but I actually carried a gun for two years right after that,” said Pierce. “I was so paranoid. Like, I kept it in the car, I had it on me, I was so paranoid after that. I was just like, I couldn’t be in crowds.”
“Something like that happens to you, man, it’s traumatic,” he added.
Pierce even hired 24-hour police surveillance for a time, just as a precaution. “It changes you, dude. You don’t know where to go, you don’t know who to look at, you are on your toes.”
Somehow, Pierce managed to not only avoid missing games that season despite the violent attack, but managed one of the better seasons of his career.
The 10-time All-Star logged 25.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game that season, a top-5 season in his 18-season career.
