Pierce pulled over for erratic driving in LV

[EJPLAYA]

TP's for BudC, Crownsy and the always excellent Steve Weinman. People here are going above and beyond the realm of rationality. The refuting of the claims of PP being all out blitzed, driving like a maniac, etc have been wisely made already.
He passed every sobriety test, jeez.
Also, is everyone overlooking he called a cab afterwards just to make sure.
I wasn;t going to join in here because it seems like a non-issue to me but some of the things being written here are absolutely absurd. There was nothing wrong here.
And Steve, thank you. It is called the off season for a reason. Do you know PP isn't excercising, working on his game, etc? No you don't.
And yes ESPN veers closer and closer to TMZ but that doesn't make TMZ a reputable source. Their whole m.o. is to make things seem over the top and huge news. You gotta know the messanger.

It could have just as easily been the officer telling him to get in a cab and go home or he was taking him in. If you are going to rip people for their interpretation of what happened, then don't make up your own. Plain and simple fact is that he went out drinking, got behind the wheel, committed a traffic violation, got pulled over and was forced to take a sobriety test which he passed, and went home in a cab. That in itself is enough to label him not being smart and putting him in a bad position. I don't care that he isn't out there sitting in the gym every day. I think he should relax and enjoy himself before it is time to get back to work. Don't let that override the problem though and that was he made a stupid choice at  a stupid time of night to be out driving around, and now he has to publicly pay the price in the media for it. He should be smarter than that. He isn't 18 years old and fresh out of HS...

[bbc3341]

Did they give him the breath-a-lizer when he said he was better than Kobe? I think that showed more erraticism than what I've heard of this incident...

[ChainSmokingLikeDino]

TP's for BudC, Crownsy and the always excellent Steve Weinman. People here are going above and beyond the realm of rationality. The refuting of the claims of PP being all out blitzed, driving like a maniac, etc have been wisely made already.
He passed every sobriety test, jeez.
Also, is everyone overlooking he called a cab afterwards just to make sure.
I wasn;t going to join in here because it seems like a non-issue to me but some of the things being written here are absolutely absurd. There was nothing wrong here.
And Steve, thank you. It is called the off season for a reason. Do you know PP isn't excercising, working on his game, etc? No you don't.
And yes ESPN veers closer and closer to TMZ but that doesn't make TMZ a reputable source. Their whole m.o. is to make things seem over the top and huge news. You gotta know the messanger.

It could have just as easily been the officer telling him to get in a cab and go home or he was taking him in. If you are going to rip people for their interpretation of what happened, then don't make up your own. Plain and simple fact is that he went out drinking, got behind the wheel, committed a traffic violation, got pulled over and was forced to take a sobriety test which he passed, and went home in a cab. That in itself is enough to label him not being smart and putting him in a bad position. I don't care that he isn't out there sitting in the gym every day. I think he should relax and enjoy himself before it is time to get back to work. Don't let that override the problem though and that was he made a stupid choice at  a stupid time of night to be out driving around, and now he has to publicly pay the price in the media for it. He should be smarter than that. He isn't 18 years old and fresh out of HS...

And your inferring isn't just that? I'm not going to get into legal arguments based on the reports of TMZ. The main thrust anyways was the absurdity of this "sky is falling" attitude where every little thing becomes an instance of a player failing one's lofty expectations. I still don't see anything wrong with the goings on of PP the other night. He was under the legal limit but this instance makes him labeled not being smart. yuck. Why does every instance of a micro analyzed life have to be taken in such black and white? He's great or he's horrible, no one has the perspective to acknowledge the inbetween anymore. Same goes for many on court issues too. I just get fed up at the all or nothing, reactionary posts in which people tend to make mountains out of molehills and fail to look at the bigger picture, the picture which teaches you much much more by the way.

[tenn_smoothie]

i thought Pierce had grown up.

none of the great Celtics ever settled for just one championship.

[Hal Jordan]

Man, looks like someone at TMZ is really smartin' about the Finals.  This isn't the first "Gotcha" style piece they've run on Paul.  Didn't they do a stupid "story" on Ray not getting into a club a while back too?  I say, let these homers keep slingin' their dirt.  It sure doesn't change the fact that 17 is going up in a couple of months, and that 18 is well within the Celts' power to take home this season!

Go C's!

[ChainSmokingLikeDino]

i thought Pierce had grown up.

none of the great Celtics ever settled for just one championship.

Ugh. This is what I bemoan. On what is this snark filled comment based? This one non-incident?

Go to do a google search for Robert Parish and marijuana and tell me what you find. Is he a Celtic great? yes.

Think Larry Bird didn't like to drink? Did they not trade his favorite drinking partner for that reason? yes.

What in this instance makes you think Paul Pierce is "settling" for one championship? Seriously.

This is what I mean by everything being all or nothing, the sky is falling, over the top and reactionary without stepping back for one second to look at the big picture. What does this tell you about Pierce wanting to win #18 for The Celtics. The guy has been the consumate Celtic, the guy who understands what it means to wear Green, who knows what it meant to win this one for Red, who has toiled for years in the uniform and you use this instance to dismiss his desire and heart and his status as a great? Give me a break.

[ChainSmokingLikeDino]

So, for all the criticism here, do all of you out and out dismiss The Chief, Robert Parish as well?
Was he the equal embarassment of The Celtics franchise? Was he, to extrapolate from one poster, willing to "settle for one championship"? Was he not a hall of famer and a Celtic great?

Just for kicks, the following is from the New York Times (and yes it is an AP article):

"February 26, 1993
SPORTS PEOPLE: BASKETBALL; Parish Admits Validity Of Marijuana Charge
The judge who heard ROBERT PARISH admit to marijuana possession said he was treating him the same as any other offender, but he added that the Boston Celtics center has a special responsibility.

"You have an extra burden of great fame and notoriety," Waltham (Mass.) District Court Judge PAUL CAVANAUGH said yesterday as Parish admitted that there were sufficient facts to warrant the charge. "The people of this area place a vast reservoir of good will in you. I hope you can put this behind you and repay that trust."

The charge against Parish, a nine-time All-Star, will be dismissed if his record is clean for the next six months. Following the normal procedure for a first-time offender in Massachusetts, Parish did not formally enter a plea but admitted the validity of the charge and waived his right to a trial.

Parish, 39, will have to pay a $30 court fee. The hearing took place three days after Parish's teammate ALAA ABDELNABY pleaded innocent to a marijuana charge in Milwaukee and requested a jury trial in the case.

Marijuana is not among the substances included in the National Basketball Association's anti-drug policy, and players are not tested for it. (AP)"

[Schupac]

TP's for BudC, Crownsy and the always excellent Steve Weinman. People here are going above and beyond the realm of rationality. The refuting of the claims of PP being all out blitzed, driving like a maniac, etc have been wisely made already.
He passed every sobriety test, jeez.
Also, is everyone overlooking he called a cab afterwards just to make sure.
I wasn;t going to join in here because it seems like a non-issue to me but some of the things being written here are absolutely absurd. There was nothing wrong here.
And Steve, thank you. It is called the off season for a reason. Do you know PP isn't excercising, working on his game, etc? No you don't.
And yes ESPN veers closer and closer to TMZ but that doesn't make TMZ a reputable source. Their whole m.o. is to make things seem over the top and huge news. You gotta know the messanger.

It could have just as easily been the officer telling him to get in a cab and go home or he was taking him in. If you are going to rip people for their interpretation of what happened, then don't make up your own. Plain and simple fact is that he went out drinking, got behind the wheel, committed a traffic violation, got pulled over and was forced to take a sobriety test which he passed, and went home in a cab. That in itself is enough to label him not being smart and putting him in a bad position. I don't care that he isn't out there sitting in the gym every day. I think he should relax and enjoy himself before it is time to get back to work. Don't let that override the problem though and that was he made a stupid choice at  a stupid time of night to be out driving around, and now he has to publicly pay the price in the media for it. He should be smarter than that. He isn't 18 years old and fresh out of HS...

EJ I'm just going to assume you've never never changed lanes without signalling.  Because if you have, and you weren't drinking... well I just can't explain it.  I mean, the only way a person could possibly do something like that is if they were an irresponsible drunk. 

We need to control this madman Paul Pierce before his rampant lane shifting and legal levels of intoxication lead to babies exploding.

[professorperkins]

I think it's entirely possible that the officers ran his plates, saw his name, and decided to pull him over just to say they did it. This same situation happened to James Posey a couple of off-seasons ago, no one even remembers that now.

However, like Steve said, why wouldn't a millionaire athlete just pay one of his buddies to be his personal driver? If anything, it seems like he stopped drinking, tried to sober up, then was driving sketchily because he was tired...not legally impaired but probably a little hurt up.

I'm sure KG already called Paul to yell at him  , and we can all just watch the Olympics and forget this ever happened in 2 months.

[kozlodoev]

Parish, 39, will have to pay a $30 court fee. The hearing took place three days after Parish's teammate ALAA ABDELNABY pleaded innocent to a marijuana charge in Milwaukee and requested a jury trial in the case.

You can plead innocent? That's news to me.

[Roy Hobbs]

Parish, 39, will have to pay a $30 court fee. The hearing took place three days after Parish's teammate ALAA ABDELNABY pleaded innocent to a marijuana charge in Milwaukee and requested a jury trial in the case.

You can plead innocent? That's news to me.

That's for those who want to plead "not guilty", but really mean it.  It's how they roll in Wisconsin.

[CoachBo]

If he wants to have a second banner I think he needs to start getting his off season re-aligned pretty soon.  I for one am getting sick of reading about PP in Spain, in Las Vegas, on the David Letterman show.....you name it.  Maybe the off season media attention is more than he or any of us are used to but it sure does not bode well for the upcoming season when the captain of the team is constantly in the papers for the wrong reasons.

I'll disclaim my commentary here by making it clear now that -- save for commending Reyquila on two excellent posts -- I want no part of getting involved with the "Paul versus the Law and logistics of drinking and driving" discussion that has made up most of this thread.  I'm content to sit that one out and merely absorb the varying perspectives from the different members of our community.

But with all due respect, I can't help but raise an objection with the quoted material above.  There's just something that rubs me the wrong way about the way in which that's phrased.  It's one thing when there are issues of misconduct and the law (as is being debated in this thread), but to be taking shots at the guy for effectively going on vacation strikes me as off base and a bit unnecessary.  Sure, when it comes down to it, for many of us fans, what matters when all is said and done is winning championships -- so perhaps it's easy to forget that all of these guys are human beings and that they aren't athletic machines who spend 400 of the year's 365 days in the gym.  These are people.  They have jobs.  They do them for a certain percentage of their time, and they have off for a certain percentage of the time.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't do my job 365 days a year, and I'm having a hard time thinking of too many people in my life who do either.  Sometimes, I go on vacation.

When it mattered most, Paul Pierce did his job better than anybody else in his field.  He did everything that both his employers and fans could have asked from him and attained the ultimate success in the 2007-08 'employment cycle,' so to speak.  Then he went on vacation.  If his performance over the past year hasn't given us reason to trust that he knows when vacation needs to end and basketball work needs to start again, I don't know what will.  And if he never does give us that reason, tough cookies for us.  Because it's his life in the first place.

Finally as crownsy notes, if the complaint is that you keep hearing about Paul's vacations and activities in the media, that's something to take up with the media, not against Paul.  The media doesn't cover my vacations because somehow, "Inside the Life of the Daily Babble" doesn't generate high ratings (silly American public  ).  It does cover Paul's because he's an NBA player and now an NBA champion.  That's the nature of the beast.

The issues over his behavior with regard to the law are one matter.  The issues regarding a man's decision to take some time off -- when his occupation is 'out of season', no less -- just seem a bit much to me.

-sw 

Boy, it's going to be a long summer around here.

Steve, directly on point as usual.

I cannot believe that a) this is a story and b) that it matters to anyone.

This is a gigantic non-story, and it's evoked exactly the kind of hysterical reaction in this thread that TMZ hoped to create.

Man's on vacation, he violated no laws. I wouldn't have an issue with this incident if it happened to one of my players - unless he blew over the limit. NOTHING whatsoever to see here.

Move along.

[EJPLAYA]

Clarification on stance. There are a lot of people on here that have made a big deal about the fact he is out celebrating. I have no problem with that. Have at it PP. I have one problem with his actions. He was out partying and drinking and then got behind the wheel. Dismissing drinking and driving, whether it is DRUNK driving or not, shows your selfishness and lack of concern for others. If you have one beer or a glass of wine with dinner and then drive home, fine. If you are drinking the hard stuff or have multiples of the above then stop getting behind the wheel. PP would not have "smelled of alcohol" if he had a glass of wine with dinner. All I am saying is you have to be smarter than that. You also need to think of others. Don't drive around even "partially" impaired. If you do, then I hope the cops stop and harass you every single time.

[EJPLAYA]

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/53866/20080804/pierce_handcuffed_during_traffic_stop/

It appears it was a little more than people are saying. They don't handcuff you until you settle down 15 minutes later if it wasn't a big deal.

[bleedingreen]

Well I see no alternative, it's time to trade Paul Pierce.