In her new book, LaLa Anthony, wife of Carmelo, takes aim at those who still believe Kevin Garnett told her husband she tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios during a Celtics-Knicks game last season.
Also known as LaLa Vazquez, Anthony’s celebrity wife had never denied the incident occurred in a Garden game last January.
“I wasn’t ever going to bring up the Honey Nut Cheerios incident again. But, since I’m writing this book, I might as well set the record straight for good,’’ LaLa wrote in her book “The Love Playbook’’ released Tuesday. “Kevin Garnett in fact had never said that I tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios. I tried to figure out how this big lie was turned into a media firestorm. I still can’t answer that one. … Melo and Kevin are cool today. And now it’s nothing but a faint memory.’’
That said, Garnett’s trashtalking was damaging. LaLa revealed Anthony had choice words for Garnett on the court and then afterward when Anthony confronted him near the locker room area and by the Celtics team bus. (Anthony was suspended one game for the off-court confrontations.)
LaLa had attended the game.
“I did notice during the game Melo and Kevin were jawing a lot at each other,’’ she wrote. “But that’s basketball, the heat of the game. I really didn’t think anything of it. But when Melo went to have words with him, I knew it had to be more than an in-game beef.
“I asked Melo about it and all he said was that Kevin said things you shouldn’t say to a person you have a friendship with or respect for. [Melo] told him, ‘I’m not some rookie. We’ve been in this league a while together so don’t treat me the way you’d treat a rookie.’ I’m sure the words were a little stronger than that but that was the gist of what Melo said back to Kevin.’’
Days after the incident, Vazquez sent out a coy tweet that read, in part: “We ALL deserve free cereal 4all the publicity we’ve given Honey Nut Cheerios, #cantbelieveeverything.’’
“At first I was embarrassed and angry but then I just had to laugh about it,’’ LaLa wrote. “I mean, that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard and if Kevin Garnett had actually said that about me, what exactly did it mean? Because he and I were never more than passing acquaintances. It was just dumb.’
“While people had a lot of fun with the whole Honey Nut Cheerios thing, the truth is they couldn’t really take it much further than that because of how I carry myself.”
The book is billed as her guide on love, sex and relationships and LaLa admits to “difficulties in our relationship in 2012,’’ but is not specific. There were reports last season Anthony and LaLa were separated for a short time, but that was denied at the time.
There’s very little in the book on Anthony’s transition from Denver to New York or his free-agent future. (LaLa did say in a TV interview Monday he “definitely thinks’’ he’ll re-sign with the Knicks.)
But in one potential foreshadow, LaLa reveals their first real date occurred in Southern California where she was filming.
The couple have a place in Los Angeles and reports have Anthony considering the Lakers or Clippers this summer.
“I also knew that if I ever bought a house, it would probably be in L.A.,’’ she wrote. “It’s so different from New York and Atlanta. L.A. is like my chill place. I can be laid-back and relaxed there. I also could see myself eventually settling there, like my retirement spot.’’
The book also revealed some intimate details of the couple’s private life. Their son, Kiyan, when he was 2, had an emergency six-hour surgery on an ailing kidney. According to the book, Kiyan, now 6, occasionally gets bothered at school for the Knicks’ poor play.
La La wrote: “[Kiyan] came home one afternoon and asked me, ‘Mom why do they hate Dad? Some Kids at school said, Your dad sucks.’ ”
The book details how they first met in a Manhattan club, introduced by MTV’s DJ Clue. They were engaged for six years before their 2010 New York wedding.
Anthony was a rookie with Denver and LaLa writes she wasn’t interested at first because her father told her never to date an NBA player. LaLa also admits in the book she never would have gotten involved had she known the truth — that Anthony was only 19 years old when they met. (She was 22.)
LaLa also took issue with the wife of Andrei Kirilenko, of the Nets, who once was quoted saying she “allows her husband one night a year to do whatever he wants with whomever he wants.’’
LaLa wrote in the book, “By letting your man have “a free pass,’’ you’re opening the floodgates.’’