Charlie Villanueva: KG Called Me "Cancer Patient"

The Pistons' Charlie Villanueva is challenging the Celtics' Kevin Garnett to a fight, tweeting that Garnett's trash talking included calling Villanueva a cancer patient.

Villanueva suffers from alopecia universalis, a skin disease that would slowly render him hairless. Villanueva, who has worked with several foundations and youngsters with the ailment over the course of his career, has dealt with jokes about his appearance for years, as a 2006 SI.com article by Andrew Lawrence makes clear.

The Pistons played the Celtics on Tuesday night in Detroit, and Villaneuva and Garnett were both issued technical fouls during the third quarter.

Between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, multiple messages appeared on the Twitter feed of Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva, who goes by @CV31 on the social networking site. Villanueva is a regular Twitter user, but these messages were different, as they were extremely negative and directed anger and frustration Garnett, CBSSports.com notes.

A first message read, "KG talks alot of crap, he's prob never been in a fight, I would love to get in a ring with him, I will expose him." Shortly thereafter, two additional messages appeared on the account, "KG called me a cancer patient, I'm pissed because, u know how many people died from cancer, and he's tossing it like it's a joke ... I wouldn't even trip about that, but a cancer patient, I know way 2 many people who passed away from it, and I have a special place for those."