My take on Paul Pierce's actions

I'm finding it hard to reconcile the description of Paul Pierce in the Globe as a young man who understands the caution that a wealthy, prominent, young athlete is advised to take when going out in public, with the fact that he apparently got into a public shouting match with a "gangster" over a woman. That's just not a very smart thing to do, is it? I think we've seen other times that Pierce has a lot of pride. The whole thing about getting revenge on the teams that passed over him in the draft, for instance. He's also shown that he likes to talk a little trash and taunt other players now and then. Just from little things like the Celtics promo's I've seen, he'll talk trash to people about playing pool (how ironic, or perhaps not coincidental), he'll talk trash with Vitaly, he'll even talk trash while getting his ass kicked by Johnny Joe Idaho in a three point shooting contest. I sort of surmise that he likes talking trash. Don't get me wrong, this is no justification for stabbing the guy, but I think he needs to learn that there are times that running your mouth off gets your ass kicked, or worse. Frankly, I think Pierce is a "good guy" who is trying to be a very good basketball player, and needs a certain amount of bravado and in-your-face aggression to reach his life's dreams (and our's). Hopefully, though, he has learned that doing that on the basketball court is different than out in public, where people carry knives. Kestas is right, Paul needs to watch his back very carefully from now on.

I hope nobody reads this post as in any way agreeing with sentiments like those posted by Dan Forant, though. Joe said Dan could be "pulling our leg", and I think he's right. Dan has a tendancy to state his opinions in a ridiculously simplistic, overstated way (at least I don't think he's really that dumb), because it seems he gets some joy out of being called a sour puss. I'd have to agree with Bentz, though, that choosing this occaision to do such a thing is pitiful and pathetic. As Bill Walton would say, "what a sad, sad excuse for a human being".