Michael Jordan despised opponents talking trash to him and adequately punished anyone who dared to irk him. Almost every player in the NBA got the memo about leaving the Bulls superstar alone, but it did not reach a rookie Kevin Garnett’s mailbox. The Hall of Famer talked smack about the six-time NBA champion during a game and paid a hefty price for it.
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During an appearance on the Club 520 Podcast, Garnett revealed that before a game against Jordan and the Bulls during his rookie season, he didn’t get enough sleep the night before as he was in a hospital, seeing a friend who met with an accident. Despite that, he was having a pretty good game and talked trash to Jordan without caring about the consequences. He would regret that decision. Garnett recalled,
“As soon as I started feeling good, man, I f**ked that up. It’s a lot of s**t I didn’t f**k up but I f**ked that up. Because we had a chance to win that game and I woke the beast up, dawg. I didn’t think that s**t was real till you see it.”
The 16-37 Timberwolves were putting up a great fight against the 49-6 Bulls and trailed by only six points heading into the fourth quarter. However, late in the third quarter, Jordan and guard Isaiah Rider got into a little skirmish. After the tussle, Garnett audibly told his teammate,
“Keep going at his a*s, he can’t guard you. Keep serving him. He can’t guard you.”
The Bulls superstar was nearby and heard the young forward talking smack about him. After the fourth quarter ensued, Rider tried to pacify Jordan and told him that Garnett made a rookie mistake and did not mean what he said. But it was too late.
The superstar guard played stifling defense and scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Bulls outscore the Timberwolves 38-23 and win the game by 21. Jordan finished the game with 35 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and two steals.
Ironically, the Bulls icon’s performance wasn’t even particularly noteworthy. It was only his joint-26th highest-scoring game of the season. However, it was enough for Garnett, who scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds, to learn that it was best to leave Jordan alone.
Trying to get under his skin with trash-talking often yielded horrific results for his opponents. The Timberwolves forward became one of the best trash-talkers in NBA history. However, he never built up the courage to antagonize Jordan after facing his wrath only once.
