Gerald Wallace‘s gift for Kevin Garnett this Christmas came in the form of a fistful of shorts — a present KG wasn’t too thrilled to receive.
Wallace and Garnett had a rather heated exchange during the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s matinee clash between the Nets and Celtics. Garnett tried to hold Wallace up after the Brooklyn forward was fouled in the paint, but instead of accepting KG’s move with open arms, Wallace opted to grab himself a big chunk of Garnett’s shorts.
It was a pretty strange move by Wallace, and one that didn’t please Garnett, who quickly took exception to the shorts pull. After the officials restored order, the two were slapped with technical fouls, as were Nets forward Andray Blatche and Celtics guard Courtney Lee.
A short time later, after the C’s put the finishing touches on their 93-76 victory, Garnett expressed some bewilderment in the locker room.
“He just grabbed my shorts. I tried to help him up, make sure he didn’t fall,” Garnett told reporters. “And he just kept grabbing my shorts. So I asked him what he was doing. He didn’t respond. And I looked at him, what you doing? And I tried to smack his hand away. It really wasn’t nothing. He just jacked my shorts.”
The exchange is just the latest incident in what is starting to become a rivalry between the Celtics and Nets this season. Earlier this year, Rajon Rondo was suspended two games for his role in a scuffle with Nets big man Kris Humphries, who had fouled Garnett hard under the basket.
Garnett wouldn’t say whether Tuesday’s dispute will carry over to the teams’ next meeting, perhaps because he was still trying to wrap his head around the situation.
“It’s like a movie. People get caught up in the shenanigans and all that [expletive],” Garnett said. “The play was over when [Wallace] started. I was just trying to make sure he was safe — that was it. I don’t know where in America where you can jack somebody’s pants off or shorts. … I don’t know what the hell was going on.”
In Garnett’s defense, he certainly wasn’t alone in that confusion.
Have a look at the play in question in the video below.
