Why One Guy Wrote-In Paul Pierce for President of Poland

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[Paul Pierce, via instagram.com/truthaboutit]

Due to the lack of better candidates, I voted @paulpierce34 for the President of Poland today. pic.twitter.com/r58AYi0j6B

— Bartosz Bielecki (@bart__92) May 10, 2015

May 10 was a presidential election day in Poland. You might think that when there are eleven candidates to choose from, there is a little something for everyone. Well, there wasn’t for me. Obviously, I could have just skipped the ballot, like more than 50 percent of Poles did, but I figured that sending in an invalid vote would be more meaningful in terms of protesting against the current political system in Poland.

On the eve before the election, at almost 2 a.m. in Poland, Paul Pierce hit that buzzer-beating shot to win Game 3 for the Washington Wizards in their second-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. It was so emotional for me that I caught myself staring at “The Game Has Ended” League Pass screen for nearly an hour. And that’s pretty much why I decided to write-in vote Pierce for President of Poland the very next morning. None of the eleven candidates ever made me as happy as The Truth, and none of them is as heroic.

You may wonder, why, as a citizen of Poland, I didn’t write-in Marcin Gortat. Firstly, because Pierce’s shot could not escape my mind. In a year—two years, three years, several years—no one will remember Gortat’s performance in Game 3 of the Hawks-Wizards series. Hell, most of us won’t even remember that the Hawks came back from a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter. But we surely won’t forget Pierce’s shot. (There’s a chance Pierce’s shot could be the best in modern Wizards playoff history, trumping Gilbert Arenas’ 2005 game-winner in Chicago.) Additionally, there is a decent probability Gortat will get my vote one day. A real, valid vote, as he’s mentioned several times before that he would consider running for presidential office in Poland in the future. It turned out, I wasn’t the only Pole to vote for Pierce, as an NBA blogger Przemek Kujawiński also decided to write-in “The Truth.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for Pierce to be elected.

As you probably know, Gortat’s trade to Washington made the Wizards quite popular in Poland. It should be noted, though, that basketball is barely, if even, a top ten most popular sport in the country. It means that we don’t have many basketball laymen, and the mere fact that the only Pole in the NBA is playing for Washington doesn’t make the Wizards the NBA’s most popular team over here. I bet there are still more Bulls, Lakers, or Celtics fans, but undoubtedly the Wizards are on the rise. The team name is starting to ring a bell in more and more Polish minds. The media are paying attention to every Wizards game, but there is no denying that they mostly focus on Gortat, who, despite basketball being so unpopular, has really become a huge star and one of the better-known Polish athletes. The sad reality is that many fans in Poland care more about Marcin’s individual stats rather than the outcome of the game. Personally, I have never been so much involved, and immersed, in following an NBA team like I am for the Wizards this season. I always kept close tabs on Gortat and his teams, but the team the Wizards have is something special, even compared to the 2009 Orlando Magic team, which reached the NBA Finals. A special team demands special actions, and that’s why I voted Paul Pierce for president.

This is crazy…!!!! Paul P. On voting cards for president in Poland :))) #dcrising pic.twitter.com/Vb7nRIcJkx

— Marcin Gortat (@MGortat) May 10, 2015

Paul Pierce for President! The Truth was a write-in on a presidential ballot in Poland. (via @MGortat) pic.twitter.com/SDxLHcaTvF

— ESPN (@espn) May 10, 2015

Prawda. Jedyny słuszny kandydat. pic.twitter.com/IW0ZFPhi3k

— Przemek Kujawiński (@Sobriquet84) May 10, 2015