Given the Celtics’ propensity for trash talk, I was amongst those unshocked by a tweet from Paul Pierce’s Twitter-verified account reading, “ANYONE GOT A BROOM?” shortly after Boston’s Game 2 win in Orlando Tuesday night.  Trouble is, The Truth insists he’s the victim of a high-tech flagrant foul (I am already sorry I came up with that one).  From the Boston Globe’s Chad Finn :

Athlete Interactive, which represents Pierce™s digital media initiatives, tweeted the following yesterday at 3 a.m.: œThat is NOT @paulpierce34 tweeting ” the previous four tweets are all courtesy of a hack. Looking in to it.™™.

œThe point when we realized it wasn™t him was when he was still speaking to people,™™ said David Neiman, who manages Pierce’s account. œSomeone called us from Orlando and said, ˜Is Paul tweeting?™ because a message came up when Paul was at the podium. So it seemed kind of unlikely that he was doing it.™™

There is evidence that Pierce was indeed hacked. His previous tweets on the account ” which has more than 1.5 million followers ” have come from Boston or Pierce™s location at the time. The four tweets in question came from an address in Michigan, according to a search of coordinates on Google Maps. Also, Pierce typically tweets from his cell phone, while Tuesday night™s tweets were posted via Twitterific software.

œPaul has never used [Twitterific] before,™™ Neiman said. œAnd the last tweet ” ˜Anyone got a broom?™ ” it seemed a little over the top, especially for Paul. So it was kind of like, ˜What™s happening here?™ ™

Who might responsible for such nefarious activity?  I figure it has to be a person wishing to exact a measure of revenge, possibly a person with connections to the law enforcement community, and certainly someone thoroughly familiar with Twitter. Say it ain’t so, Shaquille O’Neal!