Living the Reality: Garnett is Gone
By NBA TV's Rick Kamla
Kevin Garnett is gone and there’s nothing a freaky Timberwolves fan can do about it.
As a dude who grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, I came up the ranks rooting on such studs as Fran Tarkenton, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett, and Kevin Garnett. To me, those four Hall of Famers ARE Minnesota sports.
(Yeah, Harmon Killebrew’s 573 homers were pretty sweet, but it’s just a record to me because I never saw the dude play live.)
Fran, Rod, and Kirby were awesome and unforgettable and accomplished and all that, but I didn’t connect with them as much as my boy KG. The main reason is simple: passion. I’m not saying Fran, Rod, and Kirby didn’t play with passion, but few players in the history of sport have played with as much passion as KG.
Fran and Rod have the records, and Kirby has the rings, but KG has the uncommon passion that’s far more relatable for this emotional, passionate Dead Head from the posh suburb of Edina.
Now he's gone, now he's gone Lord he's gone, he's gone.
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, gone, nothin's gonna bring him back...He's gone.
So now that The Big Ticket will be wowing them nightly at the TD Bank North Garden in Boston, there are several ways to analyze the aftermath.
First of all, the Celtics are the big winners in this whole thing—especially Paul Pierce, who asked Danny Ainge for veteran help and received two future Hall of Famers. (Has there ever, in the history of labor, been a situation where a boss hooked up an employee as much?)
With Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen wearing green and white, the Celtics now have the best Big Three in the East, trailing only San Antonio’s triumvirate of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili for NBA supremacy. And Boston’s Big Three should be able to contend for the Eastern Conference Championship as early as this year.
If you’re worried about chemistry, you haven’t been paying attention. Pierce remains the top dog, Allen plops threes all day long, and KG does a little bit of everything. I guarantee, without a doubt in my mind, that these unselfish superstars will find common ground very quickly. We will not be reading in December about someone pouting over decreased looks.
Pierce and Allen may drop from 25 ppg to the low 20s, and KG may land in the high teens, but all three will remain elite fantasy players.
The Celtics have to be considered the favorites to win a bolstered Atlantic, although it’s going to be a helluva three-way battle for the divisional crown with the rising Raptors and nasty Nets. (Sorry, Knicks fans, but you’re fourth in the div and probably staring at the lottery once again. Good thing Chicago doesn’t get next year’s pick. Congratulations on that.)
KG: The most passionate player I've witnessed.
(David Sherman/NBAE/Getty Images) |
We know the Celtics are now a playoff team, but how far they go in the playoffs depends on what seed they earn and which backups Ainge acquires on the open market.
At current, the Celtics do not have a backup center (Kendrick Perkins is slated to start) and unsigned second-round pick Gabe Pruitt is behind Rajon Rondo on the point guard hierarchy. Clearly, those positions need work and no one knows that better than Ainge, who is the front runner for Exec of the Year.
One man who won’t be in the running for Exec of the Year anytime soon is Kevin McHale. Although, I must admit he did his best to salvage what he could for the greatest player in franchise history. As trading partner, former teammate, and good friend Ainge said at Tuesday’s presser, “Minnesota got a good deal.”
You’re absolutely right, Danny. The Wolves did get a good deal—considering some of the utterly whack KG trade rumors that were all over the internet leading up to the draft.
I love Al Jefferson. At 22, he’s coming off a breakout year in which he averaged 16 points, 11 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and 51 percent shooting in just 33.6 minutes. It’ll be tough to make the All-Star team in the West, especially at the power forward position, but that won’t keep him from posting All-Star numbers.
When the Wolves drafted Rashad McCants over Gerald Green in June of 2005, I nearly vomited. (I actually got the same nauseas vibrations when watching Green in Vegas last month, but that’s a story for another day.) Jefferson looks like a 20-10 stud for years to come, so the success of this deal from the Wolves’ perspective may lie in the hands of the 2007 Slam Dunk Champion.
The hope is that Green’s career goes a little better than the franchise’s other dunk chump—J.R. Rider. (If there was a Knucklehead Hall of Fame, Rider would have been a charter member.)
If Green were 24, I’d be highly critical of the fact that he plays little defense and doesn’t really understand the game yet. However, the dude is 21, and had he gone to college, he’d be entering his junior year. I still view Green with the glass half-full.
Ryan Gomes is a nice player, but he can’t start at the four over Jefferson ... and he can’t start at the three over either Green or rookie Corey Brewer. Gomes feels like an intangible guy off the bench. Plus, Green and/or Brewer are the future, so you might as well start grooming them.
Sebastian Telfair figures to start his Wolves career as the third point guard behind Randy Foye and Marko Jaric, making him one of the best third points in the league. Before you stick a fork in the 22-year-old point guard out of Brooklyn, realize that he’d be entering his senior year of college had he chosen that path.
I don’t know if Telfair and Stephon Marbury are on speaking terms, but maybe the suddenly philanthropic Starbury could see fit to mail his warmest parkas to Timberwolves headquarters. Don’t hold your breath.
Theo Ratliff might not play a minute for the Wolves, but his expiring contract can not be underestimated. Depending on the rest of Minnesota’s salary cap scenario, they should be major players in next summer’s free agent market.
Oh yeah, and then you get a pair of future first-round picks. No, they won’t be high picks, but the Wolves have nailed the past two drafts with Foye (only a slight downgrade from Roy), Brewer, Craig Smith, and Chris Richard, so there’s hope for those picks as well.
Basically, it’s bittersweet from the Wolves’ standpoint. You lose the face of the franchise, a future HOF, and a classy human being. But you weren’t winning with him anyway, so the time had come to make a move and get what you could better it was too late.
Ultimately, McHale goes down as a loser in this high stakes poker game because—with the exception of the 2004 run with Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell—he failed in 12 years to surround KG with the pieces necessary to win it all. Yes, KG’s salary was a buzzkill and the weather (bleep) in Minnesota, but that’s why front office heads make seven-figure salaries.
Bottom line: If you love basketball, you love KG ... and if you love KG, you have to be happy for him that a ring is finally possible.
Garnett may not play for my beloved Wolves any longer, but I’ll be rooting on my second-favorite baller (In Magic We Trust) nevertheless.
On behalf of the great state of ‘Sota, I want to wish KG nothing but happiness and success in Boston, and I want to thank him for never taking a day off, always carrying himself with the utmost class, and delivering many of the greatest memories in Minnesota sports history.
Garnett is gone ... but he’ll never be forgotten.
During the regular season, NBA TV fantasy expert Rick Kamla writes a weekly column, Living the Fantasy, on NBA.com. E-mail him at fantasyhoops@nba.com
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