It’s not uncommon for professional athletes to enter the league with a case of shell-shock. After all, they’re starting to compete against the same pros they grew up watching.
Former Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett fits into that category.
Garnett entered the NBA fresh out of high school and recently said on the “All The Smoke” podcast that former Sacramento Kings forward Chris Webber was one of the players he was a fan of — even when they were on the court together.
He quickly learned a lesson about that, however.
“I got a crazy story,” Garnett told the podcast, hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. “When I first got in the league, and I played against Webb, yo he caught it and I looked and he shot the jump hook and I looked and he shot the jump hook I looked at him.
“And (Minnesota Timberwolves teammate) Sam Mitchell right after he (Webber) did a jump hook on my head, he (Mitchell) take it out or whatever, and came up and slapped the (expletive) out of me,” Garnett said. “I was like ‘What the (expletive)?’
“‘You can’t do that out here,'” Garnett remembered Mitchell saying. “‘You can’t be a fan out here. I know you love him. You got to bust his ass, though.’
“And that was the last time that ever happened,” Garnett said. “Straight up. He (Mitchell) slapped dog s–t out of me in a game because my favorite player shot a jump hook on me and I was in awe of it. And I had lost all the fan, I had to actually put it to the side. He slapped the fan out me.”
Garnett, of course, was traded to Boston from Minnesota in 2007. He helped the Celtics win the franchise’s 17th NBA title and is a finalist for the 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame.
