Kevin Garnett could talk smack all day long. His trash-talking was perfect for rattling an opponent and getting under their skin during a game. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that former Washington Wizards forward Andray Blatche found him insufferable.
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Since Blatche often drew KG as his defensive assignment, he had to undergo the former Timberwolves star’s chirping relentlessly. On the Above the Rim pod with Dwight Howard, Blatche revealed how his perceptions regarding Garnett changed over the years.
Initially, the 38-year-old came into the league with a lot of respect for KG because the former Minnesota Timberwolves star was his favorite player. But when he clashed against Garnett for the first time in his career, Blatche was subjected to nasty words straightaway. It quickly changed the way he felt about KG.
“The craziest thing is I used to hate KG…That’s the one person who could get under my skin every time I play him,” Blatche said.
The 6’11” forward then developed an animosity against him that lasted till they teamed up. When Garnett got traded to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013, he joined Blatche as a teammate. Blatche then realized that KG is actually a terrific man when he is not playing basketball.
Blatche described his experience with Garnett on the podcast, saying,
“That [KG] was one of mine’s[favorite player] until I got to the game to guard him. He said, ‘Who the fu** is this ni**a guarding me? No, they didn’t, they didn’t put him on me.’ At that moment, I was like every thing I thought about you I’m over that and we just had a straight beef for years until we came on Brooklyn together.”
“When you meet him off the court, totally different dude man.. Funny dude.”
Such an experience wasn’t unique to Blatche. Kevin Garnett was a master of unsettling his opponents. He had no limits when it came to dissing them.
Kevin Garnett was a nightmare to deal with
In 2008, when a rookie Joakim Noah told KG that he has his posters on his wall, the then Celtics forward had the most nasty reaction possible. He rebuked Noah by saying, “Get off my D**K ! F**k you!”
Therefore, he didn’t even spare those who admired him. But KG’s approach also influenced other hoopers. Former New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert once revealed that he learned talking trash from Garnett. But he couldn’t go as far as him.
In a 2023 conversation with Gilbert Arenas on Uninterrupted, Shumpert recalled how Garnett used to talk smack even when someone was shooting a free-throw. He’d say things like “I’ll smell blood” while also calling nasty names to his opponents regardless of whether they were his primary assignments or not. His ear-piercing trash talk always commanded attention.
As KG’s former running mate Paul Pierce says, he has no off button. His energy was overwhelming to even his teammates. Not only was his trash talk a way to unsettle his opponents, it also acted as a fuel to rile him up.
