Kevin Garnett played the game with a lot of passion. His reputation was built on intensity, the ability to stay charged up throughout games, and work the same magic on his teammates as well. As a cut-throat competitor, KG made life miserable for his opponents and didn’t care who liked him. On his quest, he developed quite a few intense rivalries, including one against LeBron James.
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LeBron remained one of his strongest competitors throughout his NBA tenure. While King James understood the reason behind KG’s intensity, the Celtics legend was an eyesore for the fans.
Tyrese Haliburton fell squarely into that camp. A die-hard LeBron fan growing up, Haliburton, hated the sight of KG. Their competition was such that it impacted the lives of fans on a deep, personal level. When the 25-year-old got an opportunity to sit down with Garnett on All the Smoke, he talked about his disdain for the NBA legend.
He said, “I couldn’t stand you growing up. I’m like, man, Boston, I can’t stand them.” Needless to say, Garnett took it as a compliment. For a decade, LeBron, with the Cavaliers and the Heat, had to battle against KG’s Celtics in the Eastern Conference.
Tyrese Haliburton had some MAJOR disdain for KG and the Celtics 🤣 pic.twitter.com/TZTlBIVQLI
— All the Smoke Productions (@allthesmokeprod) April 9, 2025
The Celtics knocked out LeBron’s Cavs in the Conference Semifinals twice, in 2007-08 and 2009-10. Two years later, LeBron took his revenge by defeating the Celtics 4-3 in the Conference Finals.
Haliburton, despite the hatred he had for KG as a LeBron fan, now understands the beauty of the league. He said, “That’s the great part about the NBA, like, your idols turn to rivals.” The Pacers star now gets to go against the player he idolized growing up.
Garnett talked about the 2012 playoff series against LeBron James’ Heat
After a few years of losing in the postseason, LeBron went to Miami in 2010 in search of his first NBA Championship. He had a brilliant team around him with the likes of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. However, before they could make a trip to the Finals, they had to go through the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaking about the series, and particularly Game 5, KG said, “We broke LeBron…They was talking sh*t to him, the media. And the league knew that they had an agenda in which we weren’t part of the agenda, you understand? That’s how they ended up winning that series, yeah, I said it.”
LeBron averaged 33.6 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in that series while shooting over 52% from the field. Despite that, KG claimed that they “didn’t give a f**k” about him and weren’t worried about his individual presence at all.
