Kevin Garnett Slapped Jordan Crawford In The Head During a Pickup Game Two Years Ago

Posted by Brian Robb on Feb 22, 2013 354160 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2013%2F02%2F22%2Fkevin-garnett-slapped-jordan-crawford-in-the-head-in-a-pickup-game-two-years-ago%2FKevin+Garnett+Slapped+Jordan+Crawford+In+The+Head+During+a+Pickup+Game+Two+Years+Ago2013-02-22+17%3A49%3A52Brian+Robbhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D35416

Jordan Crawford should be joining his new Celtic teammates sometime on their Western road trip today or tomorrow once all the paperwork is ironed out. He arrives in town with a lot of “baggage” and some fun stories as well, such as the one from Michael Lee of the Washington Post a couple years ago when Crawford said he wanted to be better than Michael Jordan. Here’s Lee’s report:

“I don’t tell nobody, but I feel like I can be better than Michael Jordan,” Crawford said, without the slightest hint of sarcasm. “When I’m done playing, I don’t want people to say, Michael Jordan is the best player. I want that to be me. That’s how I am. That’s how I was built.”

Um, what? You realize people will look at you sideways and think you’re crazy for saying that, right?

“Yeah, I know that, I definitely know that. But I’m not settling for anything less,” Crawford said. “I feel like I’m better than him, anyway. My mom is going to say I’m better than him.”

As Doc Rivers said yesterday to reporters, “the good and bad thing is his confidence.” However, when it comes to Crawford stories, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Remember that time KG slapped Crawford in the back of the head back in 2011 during a pickup game? Yes, that really happened.

As Boston Herald sports reporter and all-around good guy Dan Duggan pointed out today on Twitter, back in 2011 during the lockout KG and Crawford had a bit of a run-in on the court in which Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports covered during a feature focused on Ricky Rubio in November 2011.

On this day, everyone was still buzzing over Washington Wizards guard Jordan Crawford’s mistake of talking too much to Garnett a day earlier. When Boston Celtics teammate Paul Pierce tried to do Crawford a favor and push him away, Crawford urged Pierce to let K.G. go.

“I thought they were just kidding,” Rubio says, and maybe Crawford did too.

There are hard lessons to be learned in this league, lockout or not lockout. Eventually, Garnett reminded Crawford about that with a smack upside his head, a reminder to Crawford, Rubio and the rest of them: Elders will be respected.

Garnett has a history of initiating European players in the NBA, and one witness in the gym had recently watched him respond to a Rubio move with the ball by barking, “That’s a traveling here. We don’t do that [expletive] here.” And on and on.

God bless KG. In all seriousness though, the fact he’s familiar with him as well as Pierce in these pickup games, means they were undoubtedly consulted about such a move at the deadline. They think Crawford can help them. We’ll find out soon if they are right on that.