Kevin Garnett has never been one to shy away from speaking his mind on something. This is especially true if you ask him about his time as a member of the Boston Celtics and the franchise’s battles with LeBron James in the late-00’s an early-10’s.
Garnett thinks that nobody gave James a tougher challenge, and in many ways, he’s correct. Boston won a title in 2008 and very well could have won more. That’s in part due to the Los Angeles Lakers, but James also played a major role in this, especially once he joined the Heat and started his run of being on the team that won the Eastern Conference for eight straight years.
The future Hall of Fame inductee co-stars in the upcoming film Uncut Gems, which takes place during the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals between the Celtics and the Heat. That series is viewed by some as the one in which James became the undisputed best player on earth, but in Garnett’s estimation, at one point, Boston managed to break him before he got to that point.
I wish KG would come on the BS Podcast once a month.pic.twitter.com/Vfmf20ReZh
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) December 18, 2019
Garnett: We broke LeBron.
Simmons: In Game 5.
Garnett: So get your ass out of here with that. You understand how he got to Cleveland. How he got to Miami, Bill? You remember that?
Simmons: Oh that’s true. You broke him in 2010. Fair enough.
Garnett: So stop bringing it up.
Simmons: Fair enough.
Garnett: So they was talking sh*t to him – the media. And the league knew that they had an agenda in which we wasn’t part of the agenda. You understand? Right. And that’s how they ended up winning that series. Yeah. I said it.
Simmons: Do you think you pushed LeBron too far in Game 5? Because in Game 6, he’s unbelievable.
Garnett: What’re you talking about? Pushed him too far?
Simmons: Nothing?
Garnett: Man, listen. Let me tell you something. The C’s, we didn’t give a f*ck about LeBron. We didn’t fear LeBron. And we didn’t think he could beat all five of us. And that’s how it felt. He was trying to consolidate because he didn’t want the pressure on him. You understand?
It’s a bit hard to believe that the Celtics didn’t care about LeBron. He was their main foe for much of their prime, and when he passed them, it marked the end of their run. The team had beef for years with Ray Allen because he chose to join James and the Heat.
But of course, Kevin Garnett has never not been 100 percent himself. He does have a more lighthearted side, which he showed when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside his co-star from Uncut Gems, Adam Sandler.
