During his Hall of Fame playing career, Kevin Garnett had a reputation for being a passionate competitor on the court. He always wore his emotions on his sleeve and never backed down from an opponent. KG’s brash style has rubbed some players the wrong one, but one person came forward to say he’s been able to put his differences aside with the Boston Celtics legend.
On Thursday afternoon, longtime Miami Heat big man Udonis Haslem appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” to dive into various topics across the NBA. He even looked back on his career and things that caught him off guard upon entering the pros. One of the biggest things being the degree to which some players trash talk with their opponents.
While diving into the topic of trash talk, Haslem opened up on the rocky relationship he had with Garnett because of how he spoke on the court. Now that the two are a little distanced from their playing days, they’ve slowly begun mending things.
“KG talked a lot of s*** and that’s something I didn’t understand because I always had an ultimate respect for KG’s game,” Haslem said. “Me and KG finally, as I’m two, three years out of retirement, he’s in however many years of retirement, finally at a point where we can hash that s*** out and we cool now. The beef is cooked.”
“Kevin Garnett talked a lot of shit and we’re cool now..
The beef is cooked but it took a while”@ThisIsUD #PMSLive https://t.co/ZrQfjsH3tK pic.twitter.com/ma92nXcDlS
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 19, 2025
Garnett and Haslem had their fair share of battles during their playing days. During his years in Boston, the Heat were arguably the Celtics’ top competitor in the Eastern Conference. This resulted in countless battles in the postseason, primarily during LeBron James’ tenure in Miami.
Though it’s no longer as players, Garnett and Haslem still cross paths as they’ve remained close to the game of basketball. Haslem is regularly on TV with ESPN as an analyst, while KG has his hit podcast “Ticket & The Truth” podcast with fellow Celtics legend Paul Pierce.
