Boston Celtics legend rages at former championship teammate for Joel Embiid-LeBron James take

Boston Celtics legend Kevin Garnett called out his former 2007-08 NBA Championship teammate Paul Pierce on the "Showtime Basketball" podcast for his take on where he sees LeBron James in the NBA's current hierarchy; aka not being a top-five player any longer.

"What? LeBron ain’t top five in the league? Name five other players better than LeBron right now," Garnett yelled at Pierce. When Pierce suggested Joel Embiid, Garnett had an animated clapback.

"Get your (expletive) outta here," Garnett said. "I saw Joel Embiid have 15 points in the final game. Get your garbage (expletive) outta here. (Expletive) is you talking about, bum? Mother(expletive) Embiid at 15 points in a Game 7 (in the 2023 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Celtics).

"You get your garbage (expletive) out of here. What the (expletive) is you talking about? You act like you don’t even know basketball."

Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce called LeBron James the G.O.A.T. after breaking scoring record

MassLive's Lauren Campbell dug up a great receipt of Pierce upon James breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record on February 7 in a 133-130 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder; one in which he showed respect for his career peer and the sport's G.O.A.T., at least in Pierce's words.

“Honor to say I had a chance to match up with The (Greatest of All Time) I’ve (always) never acknowledged (you) as King but (you) Truly the King,” Pierce wrote on social media. “... No player in NBA History had the pressure coming in the league to exceed expectations not only have u live up to it but u have surpassed it."

Pierce may simply take James' dominance of his Celtics in the playoffs after the latter formed the "Heatles" Big Three in South Beach -- one that followed years of Pierce's Cs eliminating the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Although he does at least offer an intriguing point. James no longer sits in the top five of any major statistical category, and there's a case that Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and perhaps Tyrese Haliburton and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander if their production continues at the current rates.

The timing is just off in the wake of James leading the Lakers to the first NBA In-Season Tournament crown.