Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is one of the greatest basketball players ever. Meanwhile, NBA icon Paul Pierce is a clear-cut Hall of Famer. Despite their various accolades and overall importance to the league, however, the two players cultivated a relationship of disdain during the course of their careers.

Their beef has has continued despite Pierce retiring in 2017, and it made headlines once again when Pierce claimed that James is not a top-five player all-time.

Luckily for fans, Kendrick Perkins — who played with both Pierce and James during his 14-year NBA career — revealed the real reason why there's so much animosity between the two. Apparently, the Pierce-James beef stemmed from a preseason game all the way back in 2004 when Paul spit in James’s direction on the Cleveland bench.

“Paul is talking noise to the bench, right?” Perkins told ESPN's Cassidy Hubbarth and Amin Elhassan, via Bleacher Report. “He's talking big noise to the Cavs bench, and they're sitting over there, Bron and them, they're all sitting over there. … Paul actually spits over there at the bench, right? The ultimate disrespect.”

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Though Pierce was fined $15,000 for his actions, the disrespectful nature of his attacks on James – which were likely fueled by jealousy and envy – led to multiple other public spats between the two NBA stars.

“Ever since that moment,” Perkins continued, “LeBron James and Paul Pierce hate each other. They don't speak to each other. Even now, today.”

While Pierce certainly had some highlights in his career, they pale in comparison to James, who will likely be remembered as one of the best in the history of the game – no matter how much the Celtics legend spits in his direction.