Ex-Jazz All-Star Recalls His Trash Talking Moment Against Kevin Garnett: 'That Was a Moment I’ll Never Forget'

Former Utah Jazz star Gordon Hayward had one of the best moments early in his career when he got to exchange trash-talking with Kevin Garnett .

During Garnetts time in the NBA, he built a reputation as one of the leagues best smack talkers.

However, Hayward didnt back down during one encounter with The Big Ticket.

On Tuesday, Hayward appeared as a guest on Run It Back.

In his appearance, the one-time All-Star recalled a specific moment when he got the best of Garnett, which led him to talk trash to the legend.

With trash talking, KG is legendary for it, Hayward said.

It was like a proud moment for me.

I think it was my second year and we were in Boston and I was playing and he got switched out onto me.

The game kinda stops when you get a big on you and everyones looking at you to go.

Its just us in that moment and he starts clapping...

and I drive and he shut me down until I had to reverse pivot and now hes barking, Yeah, not today.

I went back at him again and I think I hit a jump shot and I started barking back.

Gordon Hayward is proud he returned some trash talk to Kevin Garnett, and honestly, who wouldnt be? pic.twitter.com/hs2RwEZW0q Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 21, 2025 Even early in his career, Hayward already had a memorable encounter with one of the leagues best players.

That was a moment Ill never forget.

Hayward was with the Jazz for seven years.

In his final year, he emerged as an All-Star, averaging 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists on 39.8% shooting from deep.

However, during the summer of 2017, he signed a four-year, $128 million contract to play for the Boston Celtics as an unrestricted free agent.

The former Jazz star had his best years playing for an Eastern Conference team After his stint with the Celtics, the former Jazz star moved on and joined the Charlotte Hornets.

With the Hornets, he served as the teams veteran leader and was even their second-leading scorer behind Terry Rozier III.

According to the former NBA star, he had some of the best years of his career with Charlotte.

Although he couldnt help the team make the postseason, Hayward believes he was given a chance to be a true leader and have bigger responsibilities.

I felt like choosing to go to Charlotte was an opportunity that I would have the ball, I would have much more of a responsibility, and it was a chance for me to help take a young team to the playoffs and try and get a team that was right there on the edge to the playoffs, he said.

He played four years with the Hornets, averaging 16.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists.

He also helped usher LaMelo Ball into the league.

This article first appeared on Hardwood Heroics and was syndicated with permission..

This article has been shared from the original article on yardbarker, here is the link to the original article:

https://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles/ex_jazz_all_star_recalls_his_trash_talking_moment_against_kevin_garnett_that_was_a_moment_ill_never_forget/s1_17382_41618321