Wemby’s out there collecting legendary mentors like Pokémon. But it would be a whole other story if Pokémon trainers could zap others with electricity. After Jamal Crawford, Melvin Sanders, and Shaolin monks, Victor Wembanyama was seen training with Kevin Garnett. The Big Ticket was a defensive juggernaut with a killer offense. In short, an insane mentor to have. But what about KG’s unrivalled intensity, mind games, and infamous competitive spirit? His best friend believes that it is not something one can learn.

Paul Pierce knows Kevin Garnett’s mindset the best. Ticket’s defensive skills perfectly matched the Truth’s scoring prowess. Their combination led the Celtics to the 2008 championship and carried forward for the rest of their careers. Today, they’re a better podcasting duo with some wild stories. While on Julian Edelman’s podcast, Games with Names, Pierce casually dropped that even outside the Ticket & The Truth pod, they regularly text and hang out once a week. Yet he had no idea that KG was kicking it back with Victor Wembanyama.

When Pierce brought it up, he said, “I don’t know. I saw that. I saw that on Instagram. I don’t know if he trained Wemby. Maybe he had a couple [of] sessions with him. Maybe it looked like it.” If he had opened X, he’d have probably seen KG’s post about it.

When the Super Bowl MVP suggested Wemby’s trying to get that Big Ticket mentality, Pierce had his doubts. “See, the thing is you could train with, he could train with Wemby, but like you ain’t gonna, you ain’t gonna get a KG personality in you. You don’t just… you can’t just get that.”

Pierce wasn’t specific about what ‘that’ is. Defense skills? KG was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2008. Before the blood clot diagnosis, Wemby was the frontrunner for the 2025 DPOY title. KG is the benchmark for versatility on the court as a forward. The 22-year-old is the non-traditional center who takes threes (which the conventional big guys hate). There are a lot of similarities, and Wemby is sharpening his skills, including practicing crossovers and ball-handling from Jamal Crawford.

Truth is a huge Wemby bandwagoner. He was thoroughly impressed with his Shaolin retreat. Yet he doesn’t see him becoming the second coming of Big Ticket.

Paul Pierce has a thorough lesson in Kevin Garnett

Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce had more than on-court chemistry. They met in high school at the AAU. Both bonded over the loss of their respective dads. KG used to bunk at Pierce’s house after practices. Pierce went to college, KG to the NBA straight out of the McDonald’s All American game they both played at. And finally, they’d reunite in the NBA with the Celtics. Ticket had a reputation then for breaking his opponents with trash-talk and double-digit scores. How do you embody that?

Last year, Pierce recommended Wemby should take lessons from a different Kevin. Yep, whose surname is Durant. Or even LeBron James. Pierce had a lot of jokes about the viral Shaolin adventure, but somewhere in there, he claimed that Wemby was serious about developing his skills to go that far. But Garnett, “It’s hard to copy,” Pierce felt. Edelman somewhat agreed, coining the word “mutant-ize” from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. “You can’t mutant-nize KG’s personality into somebody,” The NFL legend said.

Pierce had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Yet he agreed enough to put this on a t-shirt. You can’t convince The Truth his best friend is imitable. The question is, does KG agree?