Paul Pierce Attends Capitals' Stanley Cup Playoffs Game, Mad Dogs Islanders

Paul Pierce is in the midst of a late-career renaissance—or, at the very least, he’s using his last drops of gas to burn donuts in the postseason parking lot as he presents a middle-finger to the North.

After pissing off the entire city of Toronto and then administering last rites to its basketball team, the Washington Wizards’ one-man Statler and Waldorf show enjoyed a hockey game while resting up for the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs.

Joined by John Wall and other teammates, Pierce sat rinkside Monday night and watched the Washington Capitals take Game 7 of their opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series with a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders.

Ostensibly there to chill, Pierce’s instinctual need to demoralize any and all opposing forces appears to have quickly overridden any relaxation he might have aspired to. 

The Washington Post’s Scott Allen (h/t Next Impulse Sports) posted a Vine of Pierce supporting the Capitals. The broadcast whipped over to the row of Wizards for a brief crowd shot. As water remains wet, Pierce stayed Pierce.

At this point, it’s clear this isn’t a voluntary reaction for Pierce. This is elemental, like tectonic plate movement or Mark Ruffalo’s chest hair. It’s the way things have always been, and it will never change.

Enjoy Pierce while you can, everyone. He will retire one day (I think), and when he does, he will take his considerable trash-talking talents to a porch in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where he will drink Pabst Blue Ribbons and verbally haze an at-risk youth into becoming a better man.

Cherish him.

Dan is on Twitter. Paul Pierce is really just basketball's Clint Eastwood.