NBA champion and Boston Celtics icon Paul Pierce took courage and apologized to Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks after losing a bet that they would not make it out of the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Brunson and the Knicks dispatched the Philadelphia 76ers in six games to advance.
“First of all, I like to apologize to the Knicks and Jalen Brunson because I didn’t show them any respect,” Pierce said on “Undisputed” on May 3. “But after this [first-round win], hats off to them. I didn’t see it coming, Skip (Bayless), really. When I watched the series before it started, I thought Philadelphia just had too much manpower for the Knicks, Short-staffed.
Even without three-time All-Star forward Julius Randle and center Mitchell Robinson limping to finish the series, the Knicks had enough.
“I knew Jalen Brunson was going to play well,” Pierce continued. “I thought he was going to play well. I didn’t know he would play so well.”