Paul Pierce: Kevin Garnett 'crushed' Joakim Noah with trash talk

By Mike Cole

There’s no denying Kevin Garnett’s place among sports’ greatest trash-talkers. There’s also no denying his rivalry with Joakim Noah.

Garnett and Noah have done battle numerous times over the years, and according to Paul Pierce, the disdain began very early. Pierce told Bleacher Report in a must-read oral history of Garnett’s career that KG first got under Noah’s skin when the Chicago Bulls big man was a rookie during the 2007-08 season, Garnett’s first with the Celtics.

“One time, he asked Noah if he could rub through his hair, like a female or something … And I know that kind of made(Noah) hot,” Pierce recalled.  “And this was when Noah was a rookie, too. I remember Noah looked up to KG. He was like, ‘Man, KG, I had your poster on my wall, I looked up to you, man.’ And then (Garnett) just said something like that, and was like ‘F— you, Noah.’

“I was like, ‘Whoa.’ This kid fresh out of college, looks up to KG, just said he had his poster on the wall, and he tells him that! It crushed him. It crushed Noah.”

Noah’s not the only player Garnett’s been able to throw off with trash talk. At times, Garnett dominated Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh when the Heat and Celtics squared off. Apparently some of that stemmed from Garnett’s constant yapping.

“Usually I don’t talk back, but if he said something to me, I said something back,” Bosh told Bleacher Report. “I had just a terrible game for me (against the Celtics in the 2011 playoffs). He got me all off my game. He scored, like, four times in a row on me in the crunch. And I was so embarrassed and so upset, and he got in my head. Ever since that day, I never said anything else.”

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