'Beginning of the End': Paul Pierce Explains What Social Media Did to the NBA

The growth of social media hasn’t just become a huge part of the NBA for fans, but also for the players. It has certainly helped raise their profiles and made them stars on a global scale. But there are some who believe that the NBA needs to go back to the old ways. Former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce is one of the few players who lived through both eras and witnessed firsthand the impact it had on the league.

Pierce entered the NBA in 1998 and played his final game in 2017. Over the course of his 19-year career, he has witnessed not just the league but the world change drastically. After all, the first mainstream social media platform, Facebook, didn’t launch until 2004, by which time Pierce was already in his 6th year in the league.

Neither he nor his teammates during his tenure with the Celtics relied on social media. Pierce never allowed for any distractions to get in the way of practice and giving everything on and off the court; something he believes the newer generation began lacking as soon as social media became the norm.

In the 2014-15 season, Pierce joined the Washington Wizards. The front office sought his veteran experience to guide their young core of John Wall and Bradley Beal.  But he quickly realized there was a disconnect.

“When I got to Washington, nobody was on the court until shootaround started,” Pierce revealed on Podcast P. The 10-time All-Star typically would be working out an hour before shootaround began, but his teammates weren’t following his lead. Instead, they were preoccupied elsewhere.

“I go in the locker room like, ‘What’re y’all doing?’ Everybody is on their phones. I knew where it was heading. It was the beginning of the end,” Pierce proclaimed.

Pierce could’ve used his authority to scold his teammates, but didn’t want to come across as Oscar the Grouch. Instead, he understood that this was a sign his career wouldn’t be going on for much longer. He would go on to be right as he would play only two more seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers before calling it a wrap.

The Hall-of-Fame forward knew that social media would infiltrate the minds of young players. Instead of moving on to the next game after a poor performance, they would lean into the negative comments on social media and suffer mentally courtesy of the hate.

Social media playing a huge role in commercial deals also means that players cannot be off it, even if it is what they desire, which gives fans a lot more power than they used to have.