Celtics’ Star Paul Pierce Allegedly Talks Post-Game Trash On Twitter
The NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals are two games in, and the Boston Celtics have taken a commanding 2-0 lead over the Orlando Magic. Celtic’s star Paul Pierce caused a bit of a stir when he appeared to imply an impending sweep by tweeting out “Anyone got a broom?” The offending tweet caused a bit of a dust-up, even getting mentioned in a post-game press conference. But it now appears that Pierce’s Twitter feed was hacked. What’s up with the Celtics and Twitter?
Writing for NBC Sports Pro Basketball Talk,Rob Mahoney reports:
Paul Pierce’s Twitter account, @paulpierce34, has been verified for authenticity to give his followers the assurance that the feed is, in fact, legitimate. There’s no guarantee that Pierce is the man behind the keyboard (or plugging away from his phone, whatever), but at the very least we can rest assured that the messages being broadcast through that frequency are done so as a representation of Pierce himself.
That makes a few of Pierce’s latest tweets a bit interesting. The tweets from his account started off with some mild trash talk, warning that “You know we going crazy tonight. sorry Dwight.” He followed that up with an affirmation of his earlier taunt following the Celtics Game 2 victory, and finally, a tweet heard round the world:
“Anybody got a BROOM?”
There are numerous pieces of evidence that point to this being something aside from the mouthpiece of Pierce himself. The account is verified and does belong to Paul, but the bizarre online trash talk seems to have come from nowhere, contradicts Pierce and the Celtics’ “taking care of business” company line in favor of a more brash approach, and while all of Pierce’s other tweets were submitted via text or Twitter’s web site, the tweets in question were sent in using a non-browser agent called Twitterific. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d say this is a hack.
There certainly appears to be a special relationship between the Celtics and Twitter. In the conference semi-finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, ESPN’s Bill Simmons (an avowed Celtics fan) came up with an innovative way to use Twitter: as digital cheerleader to fans in the Fleet Center (where the Celtics play their home games.) As Dave Levy wrote last week:
Anytime an entire arena gets into a chant, it’s always kind of entertaining to watch. The interesting part about it, though, is that it may not have originated from inside the building. The idea and catalyst have at least a connection to a certain Sports Guy’s couch in Los Angeles – some 3,000 miles away. We discussed it here on Mediaite earlier this week: Bill Simmons – ESPN’s sports, pop culture and now apparently technology columnist – had a fascinating idea to try and use Twitter to corral fans and coordinate cheers on the fly through a dedicated account called CelticsChants.
Boston Celtics and Twitter – an odd marraige that somehow currently appears to be working.
