Steven Adams Told Kevin Garnett He Didn’t Speak English To Avoid Getting Trash-Talked

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Kevin Garnett is notorious for being one of the most vicious trash-talkers to ever step foot on the basketball court, and Steven Adams came up with a hilarious strategy to avoid his wrath toward the start of his career.

Based on the many stories that have surfaced about Kevin Garnett and his ruthless approach to attempting to get into the heads of his opponents, he definitely belongs on the Mount Rushmore of NBA Trash-Talkers alongside the likes of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Gary Payton.

After all, we’re talking about a guy who once landed in hot water for comparing Charlie Villanueva to a cancer patient and found himself scuffling with Carmelo Anthony after allegedly telling him his wife tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios.

As a result, it’s easy to understand why NBA players would’ve wanted to avoid having to deal with K.G. in the first place, and Steven Adams apparently dreamed up an ingenious way to do exactly that by using his Maori heritage to his advantage.

As is the case with the vast majority of people who hail from New Zealand, English is Adams’ primary language (he was born to a Tongan mother but hasn’t come close to mastering the dialect). However, he was apparently able to pull the wool over Garnett’s eyes after he kicked off his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

During a recent appearance on The Morning Shift podcast, Adams recalled one of his first encounters with the legendary center who was playing for the Nets at the time while admitting he pretended he didn’t speak English to successfully diffuse a verbal attack.

Here’s what he had to say about what went down:

“My confidence wasn’t high, so I wasn’t trying to get torn down. 

Kendrick Perkins and K.G. played together, so they started mouthing off. Then I was coming in and [Garnett] was like, ‘Yo, look at this motherf—er,’ and I was like, ‘No English, bro. Sorry. No English.’ 

Then he just didn’t say anything. I was like, ‘Thank goodness.’ That would’ve ruined me, bro I would’ve cried.”

Well played.