Former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce recently visited the ‘All The Smoke’ podcast, hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
During the interview, he revealed that after his 2000 stabbing at a nightclub, he walked around carrying a weapon for two years.
“It was so bad that I couldn’t even, like, sleep,” said Pierce. “I had to have a 24-hour police surveillance in my house, that’s how paranoid I was.”
“People don’t know this, but I actually carried a gun for two years right after that,” Pierce revealed. “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.”
Pierce was stabbed eight times in the back and stomach at a nightclub in Boston by the name of Buzz Club, which has since closed down permanently. The stabbing occurred right before the start of his third season in the league.
“It changes you, dude,” he said. “You don’t know where to go; you don’t know who to look at, you on your toes. You’re, like, really on your toes, like, ‘Man, I’ll kill somebody.'”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Pierce alleged the stabbing occurred following a conversation with a woman, according to the New York Post.
In 2002, William Ragland was found guilty for the stabbing and was sentenced to 7-to-10 years in prison.
Trevor Watson, who hit Pierce during the attack, was sentenced to one year in prison as well.
“I was like to the point of, like, losing it,” Pierce added.
