Las Vegas Weekly

December 3, 2008 · 12:34 PM

NBA champ Paul Pierce’s tattoo represents life-changing attack

By Robin Leach

Paul Pierce with the Playboy Bunnies.

Photo: N9NE Group

Even though NBA star player Paul Pierce is captain of the champion Boston Celtics, his legal residence is right here in Las Vegas, and he maintains a condominium hotel near South Point. Paul even voted here!

Now for the first time, he’s talked candidly about the awful night he was stabbed 11 times in the face, neck and back that required life-saving surgery after somebody picked a fight with him in a Boston nightclub. He proudly displays a tattoo on his arm that shows a dagger going through a basketball!

“It represents how close I came to losing my life. Basketball is my gift and my curse. Obviously there are all the good things that come from playing basketball, but you also have to deal with all the negative things that come with being a basketball player. You have people who are envious,” he told famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz in an exclusive interview for our sister magazine Boston Common.

“When I was attacked, my life flashed before my eyes,” he continued. “You ponder all your relationships, your family. It helps you grow so much as an individual knowing that it can all end in a second at any given time. I still worry for my safety, but I live a different lifestyle now. I have a child now, and I think about that first. Her name is Prianna Lee -- 7 months old. I had my first child the year I won a championship.

“I carry a responsibility for kids who look up to me, kids who ask for my autograph and buy my jersey. Kids have so many negative influences that I feel if you can change even one kid’s life, you’re doing your job. I say kids have to educate themselves on the reality of life. I will never tell a kid what he can’t do. I tell them that if that’s what they want and you follow it hard enough, you have an opportunity to do it, but you have to have a Plan A, Plan B and a Plan C.”

Paul disclosed that if he goes anywhere now that could have even the slightest hint of potential trouble or difficulty, he takes security with him. “If I go places where I need security, I’ll hire security.”

Now 31 and in his 11th season in the NBA, he says he hopes to still be able to commute between his Vegas home and Boston after he retires -- and eventually open up a restaurant, a sports bar or a car dealership.

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