Paul Pierce reportedly drinking the night before a playoff game; do you care?

[moiso]

He looks like he's taking it easy, relaxing, and thinking about the game.  It's not like he's doing shots with half naked women.  

[hpantazo]

it's not like he had to get up for work at 8am... geez.

exactly.

exactly! Game starts at 7 PM, not AM.

[Marcus13]

We don't play until 7:00 tonight...I have no issues here

[Fafnir]

It all hinges on how much he had to drink.  If he's just having a cocktail or two to unwind, I have absolutely no qualms about it.  If he's getting plastered, then I have concern.  

I don't care as long as he didn't over do it and got his rest in.

I don't think a couple beers will really effect his performance.

[RAcker]

This is much ado...

Considering the multitude of other things he could be doing in Miami and the hours he could be staying out, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

[Fan from VT]

My initial impulse is to not care.

I guess it really comes down to what does he USUALLY do before a game? Before a game in Boston?

If it's have a couple drinks and watch a movie with his wife/gf/buddy, and that's what he does, no big deal.

[KCattheStripe]

It's especially no big deal because, at least judging by his chip stack, he wasn't getting too bombed to  play good poker.

[Drucci]

It appears to be a real story according to the "report" and the picture. I don't have a problem with that, Pierce seemed to have a good time in Miami by playing poker and drinking a little bit but he didn't spend the whole night awaken and did say that he had to get some rest for the game, which is on the evening of the next day so I don't see why we should criticize him, I think he just had a good time. And it's true that, considering all the other "temptations" in Miami, he was reasonable.

By the way, I find it interesting to see how the players can easily be "tracked" thanks to the new multimedia, with Internet, etc. I remember a recent similar story with Turkoglu, although it was worse because he said to his team he was sick or something like that while he went partying in Toronto... but got "busted" by some fans.

[guava_wrench]

So long as he got sufficient sleep and didn't drink too much, I'm ok with this. I think we can wrongly assume that they have to be a basketball player in all waking moments.

Sometimes players need to let off steam.

We have something to blame if he doesn't perform well tonight.

[Birdbrain]

I have no issues although he'll be chastised for it if he plays poorly tonight and his late night will be reason... 

[Cman]

I saw this over on RealGM:

I played poker with Paul Pierce tonight...

...at the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Hollywood, FL. I was pretty shocked to see him there, especially the night before a playoff game, and to top it off, he was drinking. I ended up sitting at his $5-10 no limit table and played with him for about an hour before he left. He stayed pretty quiet and definitely looked like he was trying to go unnoticed-- he was sporting a bucket hat, big shades, and a bright red shirt Heat-colored shirt. He had at least a couple of glasses of red wine and sounded kinda tipsy as he playfully cursed out his friend for surprising him from behind as he was playing. Around midnight, right after he got me for $300, he pulled a little hit-and-run and said "all right guys, I gotta get some rest for the game tomorrow."

Anyway, I know it's not a big deal for players to go out and do whatever the night before a game but I just thought it was odd that he was there seemingly by himself, playing till kinda late, and having multiple drinks the night before a playoff game.

It was really difficult to snag a picture of him with my phone since I was sitting right next to him and trying to do so in a casino, where taking pictures is a big no-no, but I did manage to get one decent shot:

Do you care?  Personally, I don't, assuming: 1) Pierce didn't get completely smashed, and 2) he got enough sleep.  Based upon the above, I see no reason to think he did anything irresponsible.  Rather, I'd say this is probably fairly typical for our professional athletes.  Sure, it's probably better if Pierce wasn't drinking at all, but there are worse things than a couple of glasses of wine at a casino.

Interesting.
In general I have no problem with it, but if PP plays poorly, then this will come back to haunt him...

[misha]

This is not Paul Pierce. It's his evil twin Pete Pierce, hired by the Heat in the desperate attempt to unstable the Celtics.

[rickyfan3.0...]

He's relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaxed...

[angryguy77]

He may have not done anything wrong, but Stern will fine him for  having some fun.

[Birdbrain]

This is not Paul Pierce. It's his evil twin Pete Pierce, hired by the Heat in the desperate attempt to unstable the Celtics.

Pete Pierce pretty funny.

TP