Celtics beat Sonics -- what a surprise!

Indy Cornrows was at the game last night, and so was I. I was born and raised in Minnesota, but the real reason I was a Timberwolf fan was Kevin Garnett.  Here's a guy who played the game the "right" way.  Hustles, gets teammates involved, scores, rebounds.  And, of course, the reward he got is oodles and oodles of disrespect and criticism.  Cornrows was very impressed at how intense KG is.  No one around the league seems to know this, unless you were a wolves fan.

He got criticized because he never "took over the game in the fourth quarter" and/or "carried his team".  I always hated this.  I remember a game we played in JV where we were down 10-0 after 2 minutes and lost by one point.  I missed a free throw with 20 seconds left and felt like I lost the game.  Coach told the team "Hey, you dug yourselves a ten-point hole.  Don't go raggin' on Minton for whiffing one free throw."  Didn't make me feel better, and it didn't stop anyone from hating me anyway, but whatever.  You've got some guy getting you 22/12/5 every night and your bitching that his points, rebounds and assists don't count unless they're in the fourth quarter then you just don't get it.

And let's talk about this for a minute.  How does Allen Iverson get the rep as a "competitor" and "tough" and all these other macho accolades, when all the Answer has ever really done on any team that did not include Dikembe Mutombo is lose or play .500 ball (The 76ers were 426-444 from 96-97 through 06-07 in the lowly Eastern conference, while Kevin "apparently I cannot carry my team" Garnett went 475-395 in the west, where he played vs. Duncan, Nowitzki, Shaq, and Karl Malone each 4 times a year)*?  This is a man who ridicules practice.  Yet the everyone thinks of him as being a "fiery, intense competitor".  Because he can "takeover a game"?  Because he can "carry his team"?  Oh, please.

And, please, don't get me started, again, on how KG wasn't lucky enough to play 2 seasons with David Robinson, and several seasons with Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker, and yet everybody gets to tell him that Tim Duncan would never have missed the playoffs in Minnesota, oh heavens, no.  Sam Cassell and Wally Szerbiak.  11 years in Minnesota, and those are his two all-star companions.  Who here wouldn't laugh in Kevin McHale's face if he went to San Antonio and said "I'll trade you BOTH Sam AND Wally for Manu?"

Hate to break it to the fan boys.  It wasn't KG's fault that Minny never left the first round.  Rather, KG was the reason that the wolves somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, made it to the playoffs at all.  Seriously, This guy carried guys like Anthony Peeler, Troy Hudson, Gary Trent, and Michael Olowakandi to the playoffs.  Didn't carry his team!?  Which team were YOU guys watching!?