The NBA pre-season is supposed to be a time when ball players both old and young come together to get in shape and get ready for the upcoming season.
Many players use pre-season game opportunities to fight for their place in the team, while some veterans use the pre-season games as a way of slowly working themselves back into some sort of match fitness before the real stuff starts in late October.
Abnormal superstars
But clearly, Paul Pierce and Joakim Noah are not normal veteran players, with the superstars showing on Monday night that there is nothing friendly about a Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls pre-season game, as they briefly engaged in a war of words which escalated into an almost fully blown fight.
Everything started when Pierce, known for his battles with the Bulls in the past, fouled Jimmy Butler in the first quarter. As the game timed out for a while, both Pierce and Noah got into it after Noah took exception to Pierce's foul play.
A bit of pushing and shoving began before Pierce bizarrely decided to try and poke Noah in the eye. Naturally, the Bulls player was offended as things almost escalated into a fully blown fight.
See the video below for the fight.
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Don't mess with Noah
Joakim Noah is one of the weirdest players in the NBA, and Pierce took his life into his own hands when he decided to go toe to toe with the Bulls center.
One of the reasons that Noah is probably best not messed with is because of how bizarre and unpredictable he is as a person. Put simply by his teammates, he's weird.
That doesn't stop him being a little odd though, according to his fellow Chicago teammates: Put simply by Taj Gibson: "He's a weirdo."
And fellow Bull Carlos Boozer chimed in to, according to Ken Berger of CBS: "He's different; he grew up different.
"He's a very free spirit and it works for him," said the power forward."
New home for Pierce
Pierce has shown his talents on the basketball court over the years for both Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets. Pierce led the Nets into the playoffs last season, but it was his play with the Celtics that made him well known around the league as he helped the Celtics to the NBA title in 2008.
But Pierce moved to the Wizards this off-season from the Nets and he has explained that one of the reasons for making the move was down to the opportunity to play alongside Wizards' point guard John Wall.
