The Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce, the most valuable player in the 2008 NBA Finals, was handcuffed by Las Vegas police early Sunday after he was initially uncooperative following a traffic stop for driving erratically on the Strip.
Bill Cassell, public information officer for the Metropolitan Police Department, said he did not have the details about why Pierce was cuffed but said it often happens when "an individual is loudly hostile."
"You have to remember he's a big guy," Cassell said.
Pierce, a forward who is 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 235 pounds, "rapidly calmed down," and police removed the handcuffs after about 15 minutes, Cassell said.
"We find this happens a lot of times," Cassell said. "Someone is a little agitated, and when they're placed in handcuffs, they rethink things."
The traffic stop occurred around 3 a.m. near Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, Cassell said.
Officers gave Pierce field sobriety tests, which often take up to an hour, he said.
A Breathalyzer showed Pierce registered below the 0.08 level that defines legal intoxication in Nevada.
Can they at least tell us what his breathalyzer reading was? Or does that require a FOIA request?
I know a thing or two about hostility towards police. Luckily, I've never been handcuffed after a blowup.
I was given a field sobriety test once - at age 18, during my freshman year at Indiana University. I was walking next to a major road, around 2 in the morning, and attempting to find my way home from an off-campus apartment party (this was my second month in Bloomington, so you can imagine my lack of familiarity with the roads -- especially since I didn't have a car on campus). I never expected that the police would pull me over while WALKING home. I could have gotten a ride back to my dorm, but I observed that all of the people who were driving were buzzed ... so I walked instead. It was the safest way to go ... even though I had no idea where I was going.
When the officers informed me that I would have to take a field sobriety test (it was their aim to nail me for public intoxication), I asked them a question -- with slurred speech. "Who am I harming by walking home? I know I had a few drinks. Is it better to endanger my life as a passenger in someone else's car while they're driving buzzed? Who am I harming? You should be stopping the people who are driving drunk ... not the people who are walking home and pose no threat at all."
One of the officers at the scene said that I was in fact "endangering" myself; I could be struck by a car since I was walking along the side of a road at night and wearing a dark shirt.
"Oh, I'm sorry officer - I left my reflective tape at home. How the &^%$ is a car going to hit me? There have been about 3 cars on this road during the half hour I've walked it ... I'm starting to think that those were the only 3 cars in Indiana outside of yours."
Nothing quite like insulting the state you've just moved to, eh? No one said I was smart.
The officer told me that I would have to calm down or things would get much worse for me. So I took the field sobriety test. And somehow, I passed it. I couldn't wait to throw one last zinger at the cops.
"Hey, since I'm endangering my life by walking this road, do you think you could give me a ride back to Teter (my dormitory)?"
"I'm sorry son, we can't do that," the officer said.
"Well, what good are you then?"
Whenever we start reacting to these stories about athletes and their run-ins, I think there's a tendency to forget about the episodes in our own lives which would become major stories if we were indeed famous.
Field sobriety tests. Unpaid parking tickets. Failure to appear for jury duty. Appearing before Indiana University Student Ethics on charges that you stole another student's pillow. <--- Ok, some of these things only happen to me ... granted
Think about the things which would be dug up about you if you were indeed front page tabloid fodder. My past would fill 8 pages ... and most of it is pretty insignificant, kind of like Paul Pierce's traffic stop.
He wasn't arrested. Who cares? Boston fans are going to talk about the return of Paul's "bad habits" and the "distractions" which can sabotage NBA careers. And do they think summoning him back to Boston is going to help? As if there are no "distractions" here? There are opportunities to get into trouble in every corner of the country ... it's not just Las Vegas which allows for it. Or "South Beach" (yes, Michael Beasley -- I believe you have just as good a chance of getting into trouble in Des Moines as you do in Miami ... and that's no commentary on you as a person).
So Paul, baby ... don't sweat the fact that Bob Ryan is going to lecture you and write a whole column about the fact that you should be focusing on title #2. I realize, fully well, that this is a huge non-story. You're famous -- if you drive a hard bargain buying books at a garage sale, someone's going to write a feature story about your negotiation techniques. Every aspect of your life becomes compelling to people just because you can put a basketball in a hoop.
One last thing though: watch out for that breathalyzer ... these 0.08 states should not be messed with.
2 comments:
How you made it through that post without using the phrase "pre-trial diversion" is beyond me.
Even I'm amazed ... believe me, it was on the tip of my tongue.
I was actually going to talk about my dorm noise violation first -- the one which carried 8 hours of community service. I appealed the charge and they gave me 15 hours of community service. I didn't complete the community service hours in time so they were planning to suspend me for the fall semester. Thankfully that didn't happen. Instead, they gave me a one month extension and 20 hours. All springing from being in a noisy dorm room where they "suspected" we had alcohol but had no proof. IU Residence Hall Justice = guilty until proven innocent.
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