Kevin Garnett told a story from his time with the Boston Celtics during a recent appearance on the “Chris Vernon Show.”

Boston's coach at the time was Doc Rivers, whose son, Austin, was a teenager. The way Garnett tells it, Rivers tried to challenge him to a game of one-on-one, via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:

“I had my shoe laces untied and I’m coming out the weight room and he rolled the ball at me,” Garnett told the “Chris Vernon Show.” “And I looked at it, and it hit my toes, and I’m like, ‘What?’

“And (Rivers) said, ‘Check.’”

Garnett was taken aback by the audaciousness, but also wary of embarrassing the coach’s son.

“‘I’m a dragon, bro,’” Garnett told Rivers. “’I’m a dragon, but I know your dad’s the coach so I got to be real careful about how I let this dragon out.’

Garnett is one of the most notorious trash talkers in history, often engaging in psychological warfare with his opponents.

The legendary power forward was not afraid to invoke a certain intimidation factor, apparently not even against high schoolers seeking to challenge him.

Rivers, at the time, was one of the more decorated players at Winter Park High School, and also an individual who rarely backed down from opponents. His prep mixtape is full of trash-talking exploits. Then again, this is Kevin Garnett we are talking about.

Garnett will go into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this spring. Rivers, meanwhile, is thriving (13.3 points per game) in his first few appearances with the New York Knicks, including scoring 14 straight fourth-quarter points to give the ‘Bockers a comeback home victory over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday

Perhaps that “audaciousness” will serve Rivers well in his new chapter.