“Yo, what the fu– you doing with my shoes?” – Paul Pierce recalls how Kevin Garnett made life miserable for a Celtics rookie originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Kevin Garnett was always considered a handful as a teammate. He played with fire and intensity, and only a few could match, so it is no surprise that his teammates were sometimes on the receiving end of that drive.
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During his recent appearance on Paul George’s “Podcast P” show, Hall of Famer Paul Pierce told a funny story about how his buddy attacked one of the Boston Celtics’ rookies because he wore his shoe in practice.
According to Pierce, the incident happened in 2010 when the Celtics played pick-up games at their training facility in early September. Because this wasn’t the official training camp yet, players did not report at the same time. So KG did not join the group until Day 3, and by then, he was about to find out something he was never going to like.
“So the rookie was like, he didn’t have no shoes. So out of all the people that wore 15s, he grabbed KG’s. That was a mistake,” said Pierce. “So now we on the court, KG looked down like ‘Yo, what the fu– are you doing with my shoes?’ Man, I think he probably ripped it off his feet. And it was like…And from that point, it was all bad for the rookie the whole year. I think his name was J.R. Giddens. It was J.R. Giddens.”
J.R. never found footing in Boston
Giddens was the Celtics’ No.30 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. He was the 2008 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year while playing for New Mexico. J.R. averaged 16.3 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game as a senior for the Lobos.
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Celtics head coach Doc Rivers reportedly loved Giddens’ athleticism. They considered him a possible replacement for Tony Allen, who was then heading to restricted free agency. He also got the backing of Kendrick Perkins and Leon Powe, who played with him in the 2003 McDonald’s All-American game.
“Man, it was all bad for him because this is our first kind of introduction to like the new generation,” added Pierce. “So it’s around 2010, 2011. So this is the new generation. We not used to this. So he now coming to the bus, doing all these ( Paul re-enacts dancing) We like ‘We don’t do that, dog.’ We start seeing new stuff. Like, hold on, man. Chill, we ain’t feeling that. This was the new school for us. But we was still on our old-school tactics. So he was out there the next year.”
Giddens talked about a poor first encounter with KG
J.R. never panned out in the NBA. He played only 6 games as a rookie and another 21 games during his sophomore year before he was traded to the Knicks along with Bill Walker and Eddie House for Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry. He lasted only 11 games in New York and was out of the league after his second NBA season.
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During a 2022 interview with the “Celtics Lab” podcast on CLNS, he talked about his first meeting with Garnett:
“My first two KG conversations, you know, I’ll keep that story between us because I think there was a miscommunication. But I’ll say this. Whenever I tell people about KG, all I just say is greatness. Man, that dude is very intense. He’s a competitor,” said Giddens.
Giddens never revealed exactly what happened in those early run-ins with Garnett — but based on Pierce’s story, it’s not hard to connect the dots. Whatever it was, he learned fast what it meant to share a locker room with Big Ticket.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 2, 2025, where it first appeared.