The Washington Post's Michael Lee has followed up on a recent report by Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski that claimed Kevin Garnett and Wizards rookie Jordan Crawford went face-to-face during a recent pick-up game.
Here are some excerpts from the two reports:
On this day, everyone was still buzzing over Washington Wizards guard Jordan Crawford’s mistake of talking too much to [Kevin] Garnett a day earlier. When Boston Celtics teammate Paul Pierce tried to do Crawford a favor and push him away, Crawford urged Pierce to let K.G. go.
“I thought they were just kidding,” Rubio says, and maybe Crawford did too.
There are hard lessons to be learned in this league, lockout or not lockout. Eventually, Garnett reminded Crawford about that with a smack upside his head, a reminder to Crawford, Rubio and the rest of them: Elders will be respected.
A person who was at the gym in Reseda, Calif., that afternoon also played down the incident, explaining that neither side really wanted to fight but added that Crawford refused to back down to Garnett.
The person said Crawford started yapping because his team was winning handily. Garnett got upset and two players shoved each other before Pierce held back Crawford. When Pierce let go, Crawford squared up with Garnett, then turned and walked away. Garnett tapped Crawford in the back of the head and Crawford went back at Garnett before cooler heads prevailed.
“Jordan gained a lot of respect from people that were there,” the person said.
Jordan Crawford is a 6-4, 195 lb shooting guard. It takes balls to challenge a man 7 inches taller and 60 pounds heavier.
Notice the discrepancy in the reports. Wojo writes "smacked," while Lee says "tapped."
Keep this incident in mind when the Wizards play Boston. Oops. For a moment there, I actually forgot about the lockout.
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