I had big plans for this column. It was all mapped out. I was going to write a diatribe against the San Antonio Spurs and their mind-numbingly efficient brand of basketball.
But that article will have to wait another week. Wednesday night I attended the Celtics-Nuggets game, and I absolutely, positively had to write about Kevin Garnett.
Yes, I devoted a paragraph to him in last week's column, but that just doesn't do the Big Ticket justice. He is, simply put, everything that is right with the game of basketball. I'll go as far as to say that he is the epitome of taking pride in your profession.
KG dominated every aspect of the game even before the opening tip. The pre-game highlight reel on the Jumbotron culminated in a close-up of Garnett's face, which intensely glared into the camera, paused for a moment and then let out a massive roar. Predictably, the Boston faithful went absolutely nuts.
This intensity was contagious. It rubbed off on the bench, who erupted after every made basket; on the other starters, who were playing defense as if their family honor depended on it; and on the crowd, which was as raucous as it was in the days of the old Boston Garden.
Obviously, Garnett's thunderous dunks, skyscraping rebounds, pinpoint passes, and lockdown defense are enough to make any basketball fan blush. But it's his heart and soul that separate him from the rest of the league.
Scratch that. I don't think he has a heart; I think he has a Hemi V12 engine. The man just doesn't stop. He was incessantly pressing the Nuggets even though the Cs led by 40 points in the second half. Some would say that that is unsportsmanlike, but I think he was just working on his conditioning. He is perpetually thinking about the next game.
That brings me to another aspect of KG's mastery of the game: his professionalism. He is always there to offer a conciliatory head rub to a younger teammate who has made a mistake, but careful to let him know what the right play was. He is the older brother who will always be one step ahead of you, but will always treat you like an equal. When in Minnesota, he bought three new suits and an Xbox for each rookie on the team.
Garnett takes a team and single-handedly turns it into a family. The camaraderie between the Celtics was visible on Wednesday night. Especially when the bench players finished the game out with the Celtics up by 35 with a minute to play, and Garnett was kneeling on the floor beside the bench, slapping the floor and imploring his young teammates to play defense.
This is quintessential KG - never satisfied with himself or his teammates, always looking for a way to improve, searching for a new edge. Even after he had poured in 23 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two filthy alley-oops, Garnett walked off the court with a look of disdain after throwing two meaningless bad passes.
I guarantee he forgets his monster game and focuses on those passes, and that he works his ass off in practice the next day so he won't do it again.
I've always thought that in another life, Garnett must have been some sort of feared warrior, or maybe a king. One play on Wednesday night made me think differently, however. After he threw down his second alley-oop, seemingly retrieving the ball from the heavens, he pounded his chest and let out his signature roar. It made me realize that in another life, he was King Kong - to blatantly steal from Nike - a beautiful monster.
Danny Joseph is a sophomore majoring in English. He can be reached at Daniel.Joseph@tufts.edu.
