Kevin Garnett was so determined to have someone posterize 7-foot-6 Yao Ming during the 2000 Summer Olympics that he put a bounty on the big man.
A dunk bounty, that is.
The former Boston Celtics star was part of Team USA while Ming was on the Chinese national team, and Ming’s height made for a million-dollar bet.
“The whole USA team had a bet,” Garnett told Yahoo! Sports. “We had a million dollar bet on who was going to be the first person to dunk on Yao Ming.”
The U.S. won the game by 47 points, but were held dunk-less because of Ming, who played 16 minutes and had five points, three rebounds and two blocks. He also picked up five personal fouls, according to Boston.com.
“We all tried to dunk on Yao,” Garnett said, “but he would block it or we would miss.”
So it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort, but no one on Team USA walked away $1 million richer.
