Brandon Jennings Throws Unnecessary Shade at Paul Pierce Following His Final NBA Game

Brandon Jennings tweeted—and then deleted—some shade at Paul Pierce following The Truth’s final NBA game on Sunday.

Paul Pierce reacts to a call during a playoff game.
USA Today Sports

Image via USA TODAY Sports/Mark J. Rebilas

Paul Pierce reacts to a call during a playoff game.

Paul Pierce’s NBA career is officially over. After announcing that he would call it quits at the end of the year right before the start of the 2016-17 NBA season, Pierce’s career came to a close on Sunday afternoon when his Clippers lost to the Jazz in Game 7 of their playoff series. And in the aftermath of his final game, quite a few NBA players, past and present, paid their respects to Pierce, who will no doubt end up in the Hall of Fame once he’s eligible for it:

The Players’ Tribune also released a video filled with NBA stars talking about Pierce’s impact on the league:

Pierce thanked everyone for their kind words and acknowledged that he will, in fact, retire by sending out a series of thank you messages on Twitter:

But there was one current NBA player who didn’t send his warmest regards in Pierce’s direction. At around 1 a.m. on Monday, Wizards guard Brandon Jennings decided to instead send shade at Pierce in a tweet that he later deleted. In the tweet, he questioned why Pierce was getting the "farewell tour" treatment despite winning just one ring during his 19 years in the NBA. The tweet didn’t stay up long, but several people screengrabbed it before it disappeared and posted it for all to see:

Don't try and delete it now @brandonjennings pic.twitter.com/EwZ8ozDgwd

The backlash to what he said was strong. Jennings’ Wizards are currently playing the Celtics in the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs, so both those in Boston and those who just realize what a great career Pierce had were quick to respond to Jennings and call him out for being disrespectful:

For what it’s worth, Draymond Greensaid something similar about Pierce in the middle of a game back in March. He ripped him for going on a "farewell tour" and later explained that he didn’t regret doing it. But what Green said took place within the context of a game when a lot of trash talk was being exchanged, which makes it different from Jennings just popping off about Pierce in the middle of the night on social media less than six hours after Pierce’s final game. Plus, Green and Pierce had a bit of history when it came to throwing jabs back and forth at one another.

Jennings doesn't seem to think that what he said was all that bad. He responded to the reaction his Pierce tweet received by posting this on Twitter on Monday afternoon:

But he's probably going to get an earful during Game 2 of the Celtics/Wizards series. Even though Pierce doesn’t play in Boston anymore, that doesn’t mean Celtics fans won’t ride for their former hometown hero, especially since he's planning to return to the team that drafted him to retire.

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