Social Media Monitoring (Paul Pierce)

Social Media Monitoring (Paul Pierce)



My social media monitoring project is on Paul Pierce, a National Basketball Association (NBA) player with the Boston Celtics. As an ardent fun of basketball and for that matter Boston Celtics, I chose to look at the life of Pierce who has been dedicated and committed to the Boston Celtics over the past years. My interest in monitoring Paul Pierce sterm from a couple of factors: one that both of us have the same first name (Paul) and secondly for his commitment and dedicated service to the ball club, Boston Celtics.

Paul Anthony Pierce (born October 13, 1977 in Oakland, California), is als known as The Truth. He earned First Team All-America honors in his junior year at Kansas, and has been a starter every season since being selected by the Celtics with the 10th overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft. He is an eight-time All-Star, four-time All-NBA team selection and also led Boston to the NBA Finals in 2008, and 2010, winning the 2008 NBA Finals. He was named the 2008 NBA Finals MVP in his first trip to the NBA Finals.



Researching on the life and activities of Paul Pierce, I became amazed about the volume of publication and commentaries about his life both on and off the court that I found both in print and social media sites as well as other sports channels on the television. Most of these commentaries were positive but there were a few ones which were negative. These types of comments go to butress the point in Groundswell that “Your brand is whatever your customers say it is".

Most people were of the fact that Paul Pierce is talented, funny, confident, honest, hardworking, aggressive and dedicated. Going through the various online tools such as Wikipedia, IceRocket, Facebook, YouTube, Google Blog Search among other, I realized that Pierce has made a name for himself.

Although he has enjoyed a lot of positive reportage and commentary, there has been a few negative ones stemming from his stabbing incident that occured on September 25, 2000, where he was stabbed 11 times in the face, neck, and back and had a bottle smashed over his head while at the Buzz Club, a late night dance club in Boston's theatre district. He had to undergo lung surgery to repair the damage. Nevertheless, Pierce was the only Celtic to start all 82 games in the 2000–01 season. Also, witnesses say that Pierce was attempting to separate the fighters when he was stabbed. Tony Battie, Pierce's teammate at the time, along with his brother, saved him by rushing him to a nearby hospital after the near-fatal stabbing.



On the international scene, Pierce was a member of the US national team for the 2002 FIBA World Championship, starting all nine games and averaging 19.8 ppg. Pierce was also selected for the United States National Basketball team for the 2006 FIBA World Championship, but did not compete because of minor off-season surgery.

After his NBA debut, Pierce's ability to score, rebound and play defense, and a healthy dose of late-game heroics led to his emergence as a top player in the Eastern Conference. Along with forward Antoine Walker, Pierce led the Celtics to the playoffs in 2002 for the first time in seven years and on to the Eastern Conference Finals. In the historic Game 3 of that series, he led the Celtics to the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in NBA playoff history. Pierce scored 19 of his 28 point total during the fourth quarter, and the Celtics recovered from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the New Jersey Nets.



Paul Pierce has averaged 22.5 points per game over his 12-year NBA career and is a 8-time NBA All-Star. Trade rumors involving Paul Pierce swirled when Danny Ainge returned as the Executive Director of Basketball Operations in May 2003. Ainge laid most of these rumors to rest in the 2006 off-season by signing Paul Pierce to a 3-year, $59 million contract extension. Ironically, Pierce is the only player left from the moment Ainge took over.

Pierce has often played his best games against the best individual competition, such as LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, and Kobe Bryant. For instance, Pierce scored a career high 50 points in a loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers on February 15, 2006. After the game, James stated that he feels that Pierce is the top at the position in the Eastern Conference.



Prior to the 2007–08 season, he expressed great excitement at the Celtics' acquisitions of fellow All-Stars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, and at the chance to contend for a championship. He slimmed down to his college weight of 235 lb (107 kg; 16.8 st) and vowed to pay more attention to defense, as he would not have to carry the offense anymore.



Pierce, who has been with the Celtics for 11 seasons, is tied with Zydrunas Ilgauskas of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks for fourth place among active players who have played their entire NBA careers for one team. Pierce became the first Celtics player since Larry Bird to reach 2,000 points in a single season.

On April 28, 2008, Pierce was fined $25,000 by the NBA for an alleged menacing gesture after falling to the ground and being taunted by Al Horford in Game 3 of the first round in the 2008 Playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks on April 26, 2008. Sources claimed this gesture was a gang-related hand sign, but Danny Ainge, general manager of the Celtics, stated that Pierce has been repeatedly doing it before and that it was not gang-related, but rather a symbol used within the team. Pierce himself denied it, adding that his foundation was committed to helping urban youth keep away from gangs.

Pierce at the championship parade of the 2008 NBA Champions Boston Celtics. On May 18, 2008, Pierce recorded the second-highest point total in franchise history in a Game 7 with 41 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers, as the Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. On June 5, 2008, in Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, Pierce was injured in the third quarter and was carried off the court in serious pain. However, he came back to the court only a few minutes later to spark the Celtics with 15 points in the third quarter en route to a 98–88 victory. He went on to lead the Celtics to their 17th championship after defeating the Los Angeles Lakers four games to two. Pierce was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player after the Celtics' 131–92 victory in Game 6 on June 17, 2008.



Not long after winning the championship, Pierce was asked, "Is Kobe (Kobe Bryant) really the best player in the world?" Pierce responded by saying, "I don't think Kobe is the best player. I'm the best player. There's a line that separates having confidence and being conceited. I don't cross that line but I have a lot of confidence in myself." The quote drew minor controversy.



Pierce has had a number of aareer highlights in his NBA career. For example in 1999, he was selected NBA All-Rookie First Team: 1999: in 2002, he was the NBA regular-season leader with total points (2144): In 2003, he was NBA regular-season leader, in free throws made: (604): he was selected 3-time All-NBA Third Team in 2002, 2003, 2008. He is an an 8-time NBA All-Star: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, he won an NBA Champion in 2008 and was adjuged NBA Finals MVP in 2008. In 2009 he was selected as an All-NBA Second Team, and he has crowned all these success career highs by winning the NBA 3-Point Contest at the 2010 NBA All Star Games.



NBA career statistics
Legend
GP - Games played: GS - Games started: MPG - Minutes per game:
FG% - Field-goal percentage: 3P% - 3-point field-goal percentage: FT% - Free-throw percentage: RPG - Rebounds per game: APG - Assists per game: SPG - Steals per game:
BPG - Blocks per game: PPG - Points per game:

Regular season
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1998–99 Boston 48 47 34.0 .439 .412 .713 6.4 2.4 1.7 1.0 16.5
1999–00 Boston 73 72 35.4 .442 .343 .798 5.4 3.0 2.1 .9 19.5
2000–01 Boston 82 82 38.0 .454 .383 .745 6.4 3.1 1.7 .8 25.3
2001–02 Boston 82 82 40.3 .442 .404 .809 6.9 3.2 1.9 1.0 26.1
2002–03 Boston 79 79 39.2 .416 .302 .802 7.3 4.4 1.8 .8 25.9
2003–04 Boston 80 80 38.7 .402 .299 .819 6.5 5.1 1.6 .6 23.0
2004–05 Boston 82 82 36.1 .455 .370 .822 6.6 4.2 1.6 .5 21.6
2005–06 Boston 79 79 39.0 .471 .354 .772 6.7 4.7 1.4 .4 26.8
2006–07 Boston 47 46 37.0 .439 .389 .796 5.9 4.1 1.0 .3 25.0
2007–08 Boston 80 80 35.9 .464 .392 .843 5.1 4.5 1.3 .4 19.6
2008–09 Boston 81 81 37.5 .457 .391 .830 5.6 3.6 1.0 .3 20.5
2009–10 Boston 71 71 34.0 .472 .414 .852 4.4 3.1 1.2 .4 18.3
Career 884 881 37.3 .445 .369 .802 6.1 3.8 1.5 .6 22.5
All-Star 8 0 14.1 .500 .160 .778 2.9 2.0 1.5 .0 10.9

Playoffs
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2001–02 Boston 16 16 42.0 .403 .288 .764 8.6 4.1 1.7 1.2 24.6
2002–03 Boston 10 10 44.5 .399 .356 .863 9.0 6.7 2.1 .8 27.1
2003–04 Boston 4 4 40.5 .342 .294 .839 8.8 2.5 1.2 1.0 20.8
2004–05 Boston 7 7 39.6 .505 .259 .868 7.7 4.6 1.9 1.4 22.9
2007–08 Boston 26 26 38.1 .441 .361 .802 5.0 4.6 1.1 .3 19.7
2008–09 Boston 14 14 39.7 .430 .333 .842 5.8 3.1 1.1 .4 21.0
2009–10 Boston 24 24 38.8 .438 .392 .824 6.0 3.4 1.0 .6 18.8
Career 101 101 39.9 .425 .340 .820 6.6 4.1 1.3 .7 21.4



During this project, I did not look specifically at a campaign for Paul Pierce's career but i look in general for social media sites and looks for what he has been able to accomplish for himself throughout his NBA career.

Although Pierce became a free agent after the 2009/2010 season when the Celtics were lossing finalist to the Lakers, the management of Celtics did not want their captain to go, hence they reached an agreement with him to extend his contract for four years for a fee of $61 million.




Sources and links: YouTube, Wikipedia, Groundswell, Facebook