Kevin Garnett Once Tied Up Nets Teammate Tyshawn Taylor With Rope and Tossed Him Into the Shower

Crazy KG!

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Complex Original

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Kevin Garnettis crazy. If you somehow don’t know that already, then you’ll most definitely know it after reading Jackie MacMullan’s excellent new ESPN The Magazine feature on KG called “The Cruel Tutelage of the Wolves’ Kevin Garnett.” It focuses on some of the insane tactics that KG has used to light a fire up under his teammates in the past.

Here are just a few of the best stories from the piece:

  • KG refused to sit out of a Celtics practice in 2009 after Doc Rivers asked him to and, instead, stood on the sidelines mimicking all of the movements that were made by his replacement Leon Powe during the practice. Rivers was eventually forced to cancel the practice and yelled, “I hope you’re happy,” at KG as everyone walked off the floor.
  • KG once called Wally Szczerbiak out during a practice because he didn’t feel his Timberwolves teammate was playing good enough defense—and then got into a fistfight with him over it.
  • KG spent the early part of the 2008-09 season beating up on his Boston teammate Patrick O’Bryant to try and get a reaction out of him. He would routinely berate him for missing shots and, eventually, the Celtics were forced to trade him to the Raptors. “Kevin destroyed him,” Rivers told MacMullan. “It was mean-spirited.”
  • KG yelled at Andrew Wiggins, Shabazz Muhammad, and Gorgui Dieng during a workout back in July after they arrived at a gym on time only to find that Garnett had arrived two hours early to put in work.
  • KG made Glen “Big Baby” Davis cry in the middle of a game in 2008 (technically, we already knew that story, but isn’t it worth repeating?).

But the best story of all may have come as a result of all the stories that MacMullan shared with the world in her KG feature. A short time after the story went live, New York Daily News reporter Stefan Bondy shared a gem about KG’s time with the Nets. According to him, KG once tied his teammate Tyshawn Taylor up with rope and threw him into the shower:

It’s a story that somehow slipped under the radar earlier this year when former Nets player Mason Plumlee talked about it during an interview with the Daily News:

“(Garnett) was our leader, vocally, by example, just every day,” said Plumlee, who recounted a story about Garnett assuming the role of unforgiving veteran to the younger players.

If anyone has any other crazy KG stories that they want to share, we would love to hear them! These will never get old.

Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.

[via ESPN]

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