Chuck Hayes was in KG's head during the game that snapped the 22W streak

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/doc-rivers-garnett-overly-superstitious-254352364--nba.html

8 hours ago
AP - Sports

LOS ANGELES, California -- With one season as Clippers' head coach under his belt, Doc Rivers looks to further document his illustrious coaching experience with a sequel to his 1994 autobiography, Those Who Love the Game: Glenn "Doc" Rivers on Life in the NBA and Elsewhere. In his upcoming autobiography, Rivers told the Associated Press that his book, Clipboards and Sidelines: Orchestrating the Talent of the NBA, would mostly consist of his tenure as the Boston Celtics' head coach and managing the combined talents which came to be in the 2007-2008 season.

"It was an incredible season. It was incredible that we we're able to make things click and got it done on the first go," said Rivers.

One of the major topics Rivers was looking to cover was none other than Kevin Garnett. Garnett, one of the league's most dedicated players, was also infamous for his frequent spats with opposing players - including an incident that drove Carmelo Anthony over the edge. Rivers correlates that behavior to a particular trait about Garnett, superstition, in which he previews an excerpt from his book:

"Kevin as a person? I think at this point everyone knows he gives his matchups a lot of lip. When it got to their heads, it worked. I wasn't particularly fond of when he'd get T'd up, but I knew it was also a coping mechanism for him. He's a very sound player in terms of skills, but could easily lose composure as person. He had superstitions - a lot of superstitions. It would seem he had a problem or insecurity with any team we played against. The first time I was aware of this was in March of our first season when he played against Chuck Hayes, who was then with the streaking Houston Rockets.

They both played down low, and Kevin took exception when he noticed Hayes had this weird tendency to move his lips. I guessed it was a breathing mechanism or just an involuntary muscle activity, but Kevin whispered in my ear during a timeout, 'He's cursing me coach, he's not guarding me but he's cursing me'. I told Kevin to calm down, but he was twitching in the huddle. 'I swear to god he's trying to X me out. He's trying to take me, coach.'

I asked Leon (Powe) to block Hayes from Kevin's sight. We really wanted to snap Houston's streak, and last thing we needed was for Kevin to fall apart. Leon came through, and both he and Kevin had 20-point games. Kevin, quite frankly, was a player possessed. He was all over the boards too. That could've been aggression, or simply Leon's extra effort at boxing out Hayes. Unfortunately, Kevin didn't forget about Hayes after the game.

Now don't get me wrong, Kevin is a warm guy. His character is analogous to an M&M: hard on the outside, but a heart inside that would only melt in your mouth. He wanted Hayes gone - and I mean, gone. We knew Kevin was handling an interview right after the game, but about 10 minutes later we were concerned. I asked Scot (Pollard), who didn't have to shower because he was injured and didn't suit up, to go look for him. He found Kevin right outside the Rockets' locker room, and had to call court security to bring him back.

Kevin came back with one shoe and sock off. He was holding his shoe, which he had shoved into the sock. The sock was stretched like he was twirling a flail. I asked him, 'What were you planning to do with that Kevin?'

He said he was going to hurl it at Hayes' mouth, hoping to break it and 'end his curse'. All I could tell him was 'Kevin...'

We never confronted Hayes about this, and were fortunate this didn't erupt to the media. Armond Hill, Cliff Ray, and I had to put our heads together in rotating Kevin in and out of future Houston games."

 

KG is psycho basically