Induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is the result of years, if not decades, of astonishing performances in the NBA. So, when Boston Celtics’ power forward Kevin Garnett made it to the mountaintop in 2024, nobody was surprised. Since then, more than a few stories from his 21 seasons with the NBA have come to light, with the latest being his penchant for spinning yarns, according to former teammate Paul Pierce.
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Appearing on Podcast P with Paul George, Pierce talked about what a stunningly dedicated player The Big Ticket was. “Look. He doesn’t turn off … It’s just, it’s intense. Like, he’s got the sweating while we are doing our podcast. You know, you have got to give him some napkins. Like, Lord, shut down,” Pierce joked.
Pierce, who played with KG for 5 years and has known him since high school, described Garnett as an enigma. “That’s just him. You know what I am saying. Then people look like he’s like that off the court, with the kids. Like ‘Come on! Get in the car!'” But when he was not being intense, Garnett was busy entertaining the rookies.
“[Garnett] actually does have a switch because, dawg, being around him is like gravitating because he’s got the best stories. He’s got an aura about him, like, he’s hella funny. You see him on, but I just remember, sometimes on the plane … This is hilarious,” Pierce began.
“We’ll be on a plane in the league and [KG] will tell a story to this year’s team. So next year, we have a couple of new rookies or free agents … You know, I am over here. You know, I know all his stories. I heard these stories a million times,“ he continued and couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
“So I am here like, ‘This n***** just done added some sh*t to this story.’ So like, every year, he added something to the story … and he’s going to add something extra to the story every year. No, that used to be so funny. It went from a lion to a dragon … It’s just extra.”
Pierce said rookies would be so taken in by Garnett’s charisma that the locker room felt like a campfire with everybody leaning in with interest, trying to soak up whatever wisdom the old hermit was trying to dispense.
Pierce then circled back to remind everyone that whenever Garnett was not telling tall tales, he was the most bullheaded person anyone ever met. Apparently, before a game, KG’s senses would be dialed to 11, so he would simply act like he wasn’t all there. He would be in full sweat and hitting his head against a post!
“Before the game, you can’t really say anything to KG, like, he’s not talking to you. He’s so locked in, you can’t even tell. So we will be in the locker room, and he’ll get his tape. He’s got his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And then man, he’s just going to be in a zone, you can’t even … He could be here like, ‘Hey Tick.’ He’s going to act like he feels nothing,” Pierce added.
As inspiring as that was, if you were a rookie, it didn’t bode well if you made the mistake of very literally trying to walk a mile in Garnett’s shoes.
“Check this out. We are playing pick-up. We are there in September. We had a rookie come in. This is like 2010 or something or whatever. KG … got there on the third day of the week. It was early September. So the rookie was like, he didn’t have any shoes. So, out of all the people that wore 15s, he grabbed KG’s. That was a mistake,” Pierce chuckled.
“So, now we are on the court, and KG looked down like, ‘Yo, WTF are you doing with my shoes?’ Man, I think he f*cking ripped them off his feet! And from that point on, it was all bad for the rookie. The whole year. I think his name was J.R. Giddens,” he reminisced.
Well, whatever he did and however he did it, Garnett certainly made it all work out. Before he called it a day in 2016, he was a 15-time NBA All-Star, a 2008 NBA Champion and the 2004 NBA MVP.
