With the All-Star weekend around the corner, Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce sat down with their former teammate Tony Allen to discuss All-Star basketball on The Ticket and the Truth Show. They highlighted how the atmosphere in the All-Star locker rooms back then used to be much different than it is now. The trio spoke about the tense atmosphere in the Eastern Conference locker room when the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat were engaged in a power struggle in the early 2010s.
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Explaining how the players segregated themselves into smaller groups, Garnett said,
“Wherever the name tags were, we moved them… We’re sitting right here doing what we do. Bron, Chris Bosh, and D-Wade right here, they doing what they do. Jameer Nelson, Dwight [Howard], and Rashaad Lewis, they sitting right there… And then we looked up and everybody was like, ‘We was cool, but it wasn’t cool.'”
“It was just like some tension in the air,” Pierce added. While Garnett and Pierce tried to find the most apt way to describe the players’ feelings about stars from the other teams, Allen encapsulated it in one line, saying,
“I ain’t f**king with these dudes.”
Garnett explained that the players put their differences aside to play together on the court but couldn’t hide their hostility towards each other. He also claimed that he refused to sign jerseys that did not belong to his teammates. The animosity between these groups was palpable. They were all in a slugfest for control of the East and couldn’t keep their differences aside and fully immerse in the joy of the All-Star weekend.
Garnett, Pierce, and Allen are trying to explain the cultural shift in the NBA here. While modern players from rival teams hug it out and laugh with each other, and swap jerseys after the game, there was no friendly chitchat or endearment between All-Star teammates back in the day.
Kevin Garnett revealed how much the Celtics despised LeBron James
After LeBron James joined the Miami Heat in 2010, the battle for supremacy in the Eastern Conference commenced between the Big 3 in Miami and the Boston Celtics. The two teams combined to deliver one of the best seven-game series in the 2012 playoffs. With the series tied at 2-2, the Celtics won the crucial Game 5 and had the chance to close the series at home and head to the NBA Finals. During an appearance on the Bill Simmons podcast in 2019, Garnett credited the win in Miami to Boston mentally breaking James. He said,
“We broke LeBron. We didn’t give a f**k about LeBron. We didn’t fear LeBron and we didn’t think he could beat the all five of us. That’s how it felt.”
The Heat won Game 6 on the road, courtesy of James’ incredible 45-point outing. His incredible performance is often recognized as his best in the playoffs.
James’ 31-point performance in Game 7 helped the Heat beat the Celtics 101-88 and advance to the NBA Finals for the second year running. Garnett hinted that the officiating in Games 6 and 7 reeked of foul play and admits he’s still upset about that series loss.
The resentment that the Heat and the Celtics had towards each other was apparent. Neither team wanted the other to succeed, especially at the expense of their glory. While the teams acknowledged the talent of the other roster, they did not respect them and wanted to beat them badly.
