Richard Jefferson Comes Back At Kevin Garnett For Kyrie Irving Comments

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) — A former Celtic who’s now a Net stepped on the Celtics’ logo, which prompted a different former Celtic to chime in. Now a former Net is coming out to be critical of that former Celtic who criticized the current Net.

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Got all that?

In more plain terms, Richard Jefferson saw what Kevin Garnett said about Kyrie Irving, and Jefferson didn’t like it. So Jefferson called out Garnett for doing “FAR more disrespectful things on the court than what Kyrie did.”

“He’s crossed that line plenty of times…… plenty of times,” Jefferson tweeted.

While Jefferson’s comments create a fun war of words between two retired players, they are also … kind of off the mark?

While Garnett obviously uttered some truly heinous things during his Hall of Fame career to get under his opponent’s skin, his criticism of Kyrie had to do with … stepping on the face of a cartoon leprechaun? And how the Celtics probably shouldn’t let that happen? And surely, for all of the venom that spewed from Garnett’s mouth toward opponents, he was also there to back it up and battle on the court. Right?

Who knows, really. It seemed like, as a former Celtics player, Garnett didn’t appreciate seeing Irving disrespect the Celtics organization in that manner. Considering the Celtics traded for Irving, then tried to sign him, only for him to leave on his own volition as a free agent, perhaps Garnett doesn’t understand why Irving has that level of distaste with the Boston organization.

Dikembe Mutombo steps between Richard Jefferson and Kevin Garnett as they argue after Jefferson missed a free throw in in 2002. (Photo by Linda Cataffo/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

Garnett, you’ll remember, is the same person who refused to acknowledge Ray Allen’s existence after he left the Celtics for the Heat. And he’s casually held a grudge for the past decade. So he’s obviously going to have some issue with what Irving did, even if it’s trivial in the grand scheme of life.

This is all a lot of words about grown men reacting to another grown man stepping on a logo. Such is the way of things, sometimes.

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The only way to solve this, of course, is to have Garnett and Jefferson play one-on-one before the Celtics and Nets tip off on Tuesday night. That might be more entertaining than the actual game.