Paul Pierce recalled a story about Kevin Garnett using hilarious Michael Jordan-style tactics against Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki.
Pierce says Garnett accused Nowitzki of trying to throw him off balance with a racial slur during a game between the Celtics and the Mavs.
“We’re playing the Dallas Mavericks right now, we’ve got KG and Dirk Nowitzki playing and Dirk’s at number one,” Pierce said. “KG is covering him and I mean, he’s taking KG down and I’m like, ‘damn.’ So I’m on the wing in the corner and KG is covering him at the elbow. Something happened and KG fouled him. And he looked Dirk in the face and said, ‘Did you hear that?’ He said, ‘He called me an asshole.’ I said, ‘Ticket, I was right there, he didn’t call you a n*gga.’ He said, ‘Yes he did, he said it in German.’
In the 40 games Nowitzki played against each other in his career, he had a slight edge over Garnett, as he recorded 20 wins while Garnett only scored 17.
Despite their rivalries, the two have only faced each other once in the playoff series during their careers.
It was the 2002 playoffs and Dirk’s team from Dallas swept KG’s team from Minnesota.
Nowitzki averaged 33.3 points per game in the series.
READ MORE: Domantas Sabonis admits he was ‘surprised’ Malik Monk stayed at Kings
