Irked by 19 Y/O Kevin Garnett’s ‘Audacity,’ Michael Jordan Once Made Celtics Legend Profusely Apologize to a Teammate

Kevin Garnett is one of the most lethal trash-talkers in NBA history. Numerous tales regarding Garnett being more ruthless than what is required, have now become folklore of sorts. That said, at a very young age KG realized that trash-talking Michael Jordan wasn’t a great idea.

A couple of years ago, the Boston Celtics legend made an appearance on Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes’ All The Smoke podcast. Garnett spoke about the incident that took place during his rookie season.

During the Minnesota Timberwolves-Chicago Bulls clash, a 19-year-old Garnett made the mistake of chirping at a highly competitive Michael Jordan. The Wolves forward thought he was motivating his teammate Isaiah “J.R.” Rider to keep “killing” Jordan. Taking offense to KG’s words, MJ decided to go berserk.

Eventually, KG did apologize to his teammate for letting MJ loose.

“I see him and Mike having a conversation, saying “He don’t really know, he’s excited.” So now MJ is on the back leg joint, nodding his head saying “Oh yeah?” and I can’t even describe the next six, seven minutes of play. Yo, we’re down 25 now, it was just at two.”

It got bad quick. I’m like, “JR, my bad, dog. Sorry, man. I’m sorry.” He said, “It’s good man, I told you shut your ass up” Mike came over like “Damn, young fella, damn, y’all done?” Never talked s*** to Mike ever again in life.”

Michael Jordan always clapped back at the trash-talkers

Michael Jordan is one of the players who thrives on hate. In fact, Jordan would unleash his true self only to prove his opponents wrong. Regarded as one of the greatest basketball players ever, players were sensible enough to not indulge in any trash-talk with the Chicago Bulls legend. However, there have been a few players who wanted to try and get under MJ’s skin… and it is pretty safe to say that their experiment failed miserably.

Even after his NBA career was over, His Airness still had the same competitiveness. O.J. Mayo learned it the harsh way. Back in 2006, Mayo was a top high school player who attended MJ’s Summer Camp. While playing against Jordan, Mayo kept chirping, “You can’t guard me, you can’t do this.”

After every other camper went to bed, Mayo and MJ had yet another duel. This time, a 43-year-old Jordan managed to shut the talented prospect up once and for all.

“We go back to playing, and he starts his whole thing ‘you can’t guard me.’ Finally I just said, ‘You may be the best high school player, but I’m the best player in the world.’ So from this point on, it’s a lesson. And from that point on, it was a lesson. He never won a game,” Jordan claimed.

Talking trash towards MJ was a risk that many took at their own caution.