The worst night of Paul Pierce’s career had a hangover.
It wasn’t enough that the future Hall of Famer was held scoreless Monday for the first time since 1999, when he was a rookie.
It also wasn’t enough that the Brooklyn Nets forward’s scoreless night ended with an ejection for a flagrant-2 foul on Pacers guard George Hill.
On Tuesday, NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn – apparently not in any sort of holiday spirit – fined Pierce $15,000 for his clothesline on Hill in the third quarter of Brooklyn’s 103-86 home loss.
Here’s the play:
The league said Pierce made “excessive and unnecessary contact” with Hill, who didn’t think Pierce had gone over the line.
“It was a basketball play. I think back in the day, hard fouls was good,” Hill said after the game.
If you want to spend your Christmas trolling, that’s fine. But Paul Pierce is a 10-time All-Star who ranks in the top three in every offensive category for the most storied franchise in NBA history. He is 20th on the all-time scoring list. His “fluke” championship was accompanied by an NBA Finals MVP award. And these 25-win teams you mention were a total of 635-546 while he was in Boston. Also, it is the Basketball Hall of Fame, and he was a college All-America. Basketball Reference puts his HOF probability at 98.4 percent. What’s laughable is you spending Christmas showing how little you know about the game.