It’s probably safe to say that even with his faux attempts at claiming respect that former NBAer Richard Jefferson still harbors no love for Hall of Fame Boston Celtics forwards Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. In a recent interview on the “Ryan Russillo” podcast, Jefferson didn’t mince words when discussing Pierce and Garnett. “Paul Pierce and KG were two of the worst human beings of all time,” said Jefferson with a boatload of hyperbole via the Basketball Network’s Yakshpat Bhargava.
Suggesting that in the NBA’s tougher, more physical 1990s that “those two would have been in a hundred fights,” the former journeyman shared what he claimed other peers in the league had told him about the pair.
“They got rid of the goons, but they didn’t get rid of the bullies,” said Jefferson, seeming to still have some strong feelings about Pierce and Garnett that have yet to fade with time.
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“Tremendous respect for them,” he added, “but the things that they have said on and off the court or will say in the middle of the heat of battle if you were to say those things in a club street, one-on-one, those are without a doubt fighting words.”
Whatever words passed between them, it’s worth remembering that they didn’t take place in a club or on a street, and the subtext of such a frame hardly plays as less testosterone-driven than the trash talk still haunting the former Cleveland Cavaliers wing to this day.
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