Paul Pierce's maturity / gang signs? (merged)

[cdif911]

They reason the players come through unscathed is they have underworld figures watching their backs. I.E. Look at the example in "He Got Game" with "Big Tyme".

you realize that was a movie... a fictional movie... Ray Allen's name isn't really Jesus....

[CelticHooligan3]

Good joke TP for you lol. My point was that a lot of those players are supported by a close network of friends and family and comeing from the neighborhoods and places they come from its not uncommon for a few of the hangers on to be gang affiliated. Just look at Darren McFadden for a quick example. Im just saying im not surprised these guys feel a lot of loyaly to the people who got them through. And on another note that movie was fiction yes but it was all based on fact and a lot of players have gone on record to say it was extremely realistic and very relateble to their own personal situations.

[BigAlTheFuture]

I just remembered something. The sign that Pierce flashed could also mean Boston. Throwin' up three fingers could be that you are representing Boston.

[FatoineLover]

I am as big of a Pierce fan as anyone, but I don't understand why people are making excuses for him. The man is over 30 years old. This is the age of doctors, lawyers, CEO's, and fathers of children in the 6th grade. A grown man has no excuse to act like that and should be able to control his emotions. He is paid millions to be a professional and he is acting like some 14 year old street thug that should be in juvenile hall.  That is not what the Celtics franchise is all about.

[nickagneta]

I nominate this as the most ridiculous thread ever. Not only because it's inherently stupid, but because of the racial politics that underlie it, that have given it impetus. A black player makes an ambigious hand gesture? Well, obviously it's a gang sign. A black player gets angry about something and expresses himself? Well, obviously it's a sign of his immaturity and thuggery. Thank God the level-headed, reasonable white guy (Scalabrine) was there to put an end to it, otherwise we would have had Watts '65 on our hands. Honestly.

while I don't like going to the race card all that often, you probably have a good point. No one would assume anything of this hand gesture if wally szcerbiak was making it.

Back in the 80's the celtics use to get in full-on brawls, and we have what I would assume are fans of the older celtics getting all worked up over paul pierce throwing up a "3" with his hand. larry bird once choked Dr. J, and we have fans like Andy Jick jumping down paul pierce's throat for walking in the general direction of the other team, and using a hand gesture. simply ludicrous.

Actually I would assume that it's the younger guys accusing Paul of using a gang sign and starting this stuff. Most of us older guys probably didn't even know that gang hand gestures actually existed.


Also, let's not go the racial route it'll open up a discussion that will get locked within seconds.


On the other hand maybe it will get this ridiculous thread locked.

nick while we're both just speculating, a younger audience of fans probably loves paul pierce because he has been the best player on the team for 10 years, and would have a bit more loyalty to a guy who has been a member of the celtics for the majority of their time as a fan.

meanwhile other people who have been negative of pierce in this thread have icons of Parish and bird just for an example. they long for the days of the old NBA where players punched and choked as opposed to walking angrily towards the opposing teams bench. those guys in the 80's were just so much more mature.

You bring up a good point with the younger guys having loyalty to Pierce because he has been their Celtic icon for so long. I just think us older guys know very little about gang signs and are the group that could really care less about the whole topic because we do remember what happened to the Celtic greats of the 60's through the 80's.

But as you say that is just speculation and unless we ran some type of poll we'll never know for sure.

For me, I love Paul Pierce and have since the day I was watching the NBA draft and watched and prayed that he would continue falling into our laps. I thought he got a bad rep simply because he had one bad game for Kansas in the NCAA tournament.

And as I said more than a few times, I think this is all useless speculation over nothing and because I love my man Pierce I'm going to cut him some slack that some here aren't.

But that's their perogative and and giving him slack, well, that's my perogative.(Yes I was referencing a bit of Bobby Brown).

[Tommysgod]

So what excuses do all you people who complain about Pierce say about Bird when he used to get into actual fist fights with other "grown" professionals on the court? Personally I love Pierce because of his fire and ego that's what separates athletes sometimes. Pierce doesnt have top ten talent in the nba but he sure is top 5 heart wise and competitive wise and thats what puts him in the top ten overall in the league in my book for nba players right now.

[Mr21]

ok it is a gang sign people....and he got fined $25,000 for it. peroid.

[jimmyt]

ok it is a gang sign people....and he got fined $25,000 for it. peroid.

who got fined $25,000?

edit: wow pierce was fined for that?! WOW

[crownsy]

right, because if the NBA says it is so, THEN LET THY PEOPLE BELIEVE!

sorry, i have no respect for a NBA discipline office at this point. This is the same office that had a crooked ref taking bets for vegas, and found out 10+ other refs are breaking gambling codes, but stern let them off because it "wasn't in the spirit of the rule" to punish them.

Thats a good one, i should use that if i ever get caught breaking my company's SOP.

also, they didn't say it had anything to do with gangs. They also fined deshawn Stevenson for a menacing gesture. Did he throw a gang sign to?

[Andrew Celtic Nation]

ok it is a gang sign people....and he got fined $25,000 for it. peroid.

So Stevenson's "You can't see me" that got him fined is a gang sign too? Just because he got fined doesn't make it a gang sign.

BTW, to file it under the im not surprised, Charles Barkley just said on PTI that he had no problems with a rookie Horford, trash talking a respected vet in Pierce but did have trouble with Stevenson trash-talking Lebron. Just to further prove his Pierce hatred.

[crownsy]

ok it is a gang sign people....and he got fined $25,000 for it. peroid.

So Stevenson's "You can't see me" that got him fined is a gang sign too? Just because he got fined doesn't make it a gang sign.

BTW, to file it under the im not surprised, Charles Barkley just said on PTI that he had no problems with a rookie Horford, trash talking a respected vet in Pierce but did have trouble with Stevenson trash-talking Lebron. Just to further prove his Pierce hatred.

come on andy, you know deshawn is a charter memeber of the 102nd street "you cant see us" posse.

[Chief]

I knew it!!!

[ma11l]

ok it is a gang sign people....and he got fined $25,000 for it. peroid.

So since David and Stu Jackson say that it is a menacing gesture then it is a gang sign?  I don't think those are the two I would go to be the best judges of this.

[Celtic]

I know there was a great deal of debate on here about whether it was a gang sign or not, I recognized it immediately when he did it, which is why it doesn't surprise me that some one int he league offices recognized it too. I think Paul just got caught up in being so angry with Horford and that was the first thing he cam up with, giving the finger would have been pretty lame, we've all done things in the heat of the moment that we haven't really thought all the way through. In a strange way I like it, it adds another level of intensity to Paul, and shows you how seriously he is taking this series, I know some will have a problem with that line of thinking, but lets be real Paul isn't going to shoot anyone, he's simply going to shoot the lights out.

[Schupac]

So what excuses do all you people who complain about Pierce say about Bird when he used to get into actual fist fights with other "grown" professionals on the court? Personally I love Pierce because of his fire and ego that's what separates athletes sometimes. Pierce doesnt have top ten talent in the nba but he sure is top 5 heart wise and competitive wise and thats what puts him in the top ten overall in the league in my book for nba players right now.

Thank you.  Some of the Cs greatest legends did things much worse than this, but they are venerated without anyone talking about them being immature, dirty, thuggish, etc.

I think it's a product of how the league office has trained people to look at these players.  You know what the worst thing about the "brawl" at the palace was?  Normally, it's the media's job to freak out and over-react.  But the NBA was way ahead of them.  Which leads to things like last season's "slap brawl" in Denver that was so blown out of proportion.

I'm going to walk up to my boss right now and give her three fingers.  Let's see if I get fired.


update:  Nope, still here.  She gave me a quizzical look.  Apparently it's not all that bad.


unrelated note... I better get back to work.