Paul Pierce interested in being the next Bachelor: ‘I’m looking for love’

Paul Pierce is no stranger to being surrounded by a lot of women on camera, and maybe he’ll do it again, on a future season of The Bachelor.

Tuesday evening on FS1’s Speak, Joy Taylor broached the topic of Pierce having interest in being the next Bachelor. The former Boston Celtics swingman didn’t back down.

“Hey, if I’m on The Bachelor, let’s go, I’m ready,” Pierce said with a smile, prompting Taylor to remind him, he would have to “propose on the show… you’re gonna get married again?”

“I’m ready,” Pierce said, sounding a little more reluctant. “I’ve opened my mind up to that, the idea of that. Why not… I’m looking for love.”

Keyshawn Johnson and Michael Irvin joked that they already witness a real version of Pierce acting as The Bachelor every day.

“I hope they got enough roses!” Irvin joked. “Because Paul is passing them out to everybody. ‘You get one and you get one and meet me in the room and you meet me later.’ It will be hard to dwindle that thing down to one. I’m just letting you know, I spend some time with him.”

It was a little strange to hear this banter considering the recent sexual harassment lawsuits to hit FS1, one of which named Joy Taylor as a defendant. But Speak didn’t seem concerned. Speak also didn’t create this conversation; it was originally crafted by Kevin Garnett, who recently posed the question to Pierce on their podcast.

Garnett asked Pierce, “Would you do The Bachelor?” To which Pierce quickly answered, “I probably would” before adding that he would prefer to do it on a less traditional format than the one that airs on ABC.

Pierce probably missed his potential calling to be the next Bachelor when he left ESPN anyway. ABC putting Pierce on The Bachelor when he was on ESPN could have been a great opportunity for some cross-promotion. But now that he’s with Fox Sports, it seems less likely that ABC would be interested in platforming Pierce, especially considering his unceremonious departure which occurred after he went on Instagram Live with several exotic dancers.

So maybe it won’t happen on ABC. But that doesn’t mean Pierce isn’t interested in finding love by creating and monetizing his own version of The Bachelor.