After Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett comes to our mind for trash-talking. His brutal skills are on a whole other level and have even led to quite a few infamous altercations. One such incident had Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony waiting for him outside the arena for a confrontation. If not more, an equally intense wrangle was seen between The Big Ticket and Dwight Howard. While an explanation still awaits in Melo’s case, Garnett has come forward to clarify things with DH12.

After a slight brawl during the matchup between the Houston Rockets and Brooklyn Nets in 2015, Howard recalled that he appeared to have a beef with Garnett during games, even though he admired him. Howard decided to take the first step and initiate a conversation with KG, and that gesture helped change the ex-Minnesota Timberwolves star’s mind. The Rockets won 113-99 over the Nets. Years later, Garnett admitted the reason behind it was his fierce competitiveness. 

“I haven’t wanted to smoke in a very long time. I wanted so much smoke that I got dressed early because people don’t know that when we left the court, we were still in the back trying to…Man, I looked up, and I saw my wife and my kid walk out. And then I snapped out of it like ‘What are you doing?’” Garnett recalled.

Here is a brief about what happened. After The Big Ticket fouled Howard, DH12 shoved him. Infuriated at the moment, Garnett threw a bottle at Howard and head-butted him. As the fight escalated, teammates and security had to intervene to separate the two. The two were always said to have a rivalry. It was quite a serious beef, but only when they were in the game. 

Both learned something from that day. While Howard learned the strict competitiveness required on the court, Garnett also gained insight from the experience. That fight only bridged the gap between them. Recounting Howard’s gesture, Garnett said, “I ain’t never had a player talk or initiate conversation like that so yeah it made me come off the throttle.”

While Garnett praised Howard and squashed every beef right away, this hasn’t been the case with Anthony. He is still waiting for an answer.

What happened between Kevin Garnett and Carmelo Anthony?

Garnett’s trash-talking comes out of nowhere. It used to be so brutal it could make players cry, and rookies stopped idealizing him. In one of the matchups between the Knicks and Celtics, Garnett was playing against Melo. With just nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, Garnett said something that disappointed Melo so much that the altercation ended with both getting a technical foul. 

After the game, he was even waiting near the bus to confront Garnett. But the New York Knicks legend has never revealed what was said by Garnett. And well, while all parties have been tight-lipped about it, rumors flew high. One such rumor is that the Celtics legend insulted Melo’s ex-wife, La La Anthony, involving Honey Nut Cheerios. Odd, right? 

That’s what La La Anthony, Melo, and Garnett have said, explaining the whole thing was a lie. La La also claimed that both Garnett and Melo don’t have any beef now. “Kevin Garnett in fact had never said that I tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios,” La La said in her book, The Love Playbook. However, there was something that Garnett had said to make him upset.

After all these years, Melo once again narrated the entire incident on the latest episode of 7 PM in Brooklyn. He revealed that the two indeed never spoke about it—not even when they teamed up for an All-Star event. While Garnett is yet to share his side of the story, Melo seems to be interested now in exploring it further.