KG loves Jared Sullinger's basketball IQ and shares that he is a very underrated passer. He also singles out Fab, Sully and Dionte for their work ethic but says they have all been working hard.

A Sherrod Blakely shared that KG is giving the rookies some experience with NBA trash talking and they couldn't get that lesson from a better trash talker.

At some point during the Boston Celtics' first practice in Turkey, Kevin Garnett and Dionte Christmas had some terse words for each other.

Christmas' play suffered afterward while Garnett stepped his game up.

On Thursday, another C's rookie, Jamar Smith, had a verbal spat with KG.

Smith's game got worse while Garnett once again, took over.

While some might view Garnett's treatment as picking on the young, he's actually preparing them for what's to come.

KG knows that when the games start for real, every team will be gunning for the Celtics and that he's not the only one who knows how to rattle a rookie with trash talk. Dionte Christmas, for one, learned the lesson.

"When he was talking smack to me, he came down and hit the game-winner," Christmas said. "Once somebody talks (back), that means they just pushed the button on him. And that got him going."

"Chalk that up as a lesson learned from the vets," Christmas said. "You don't talk, just play. Keep your mind on the task at hand."

Which Christmas has discovered, is a very Kevin Garnett-like way of doing things.

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