milkyway21
06-13-2008, 02:52 AM
Buck Harvey: Never Duncan, KG closer now to another
Web Posted: 06/13/2008 12:48 AM CDT
Buck Harvey
[email protected]
LOS ANGELES — Kevin Garnett changed uniform numbers this season, but it wasn’t a statement. It was necessary.
He wore No. 21 in Minnesota, and No. 21 wasn’t available in Boston. Bill Sharman once wore it, and the Celtics later retired it.
But the switch is nonetheless symbolic. Garnett was never like San Antonio’s No. 21, as often as they were compared over a decade. With a thin waist and freakish athletic ability for someone his height, Garnett was always closer to being David Robinson.
Now Garnett wears No. 5, and that’s appropriate, too.
Now he’s one win from becoming No. 50.
Thursday all the numbers were skewed. The same Lakers who overcame a 20-point deficit against the Spurs blew a historic 24-point lead. The same Kobe Bryant who said during the Spurs series that he could “get off” whenever he wanted to couldn’t, and Paul Pierce’s physical defense had a lot to do with that.
Then there was the clinching two. Ray Allen went past Sasha Vujacic, and Pau Gasol didn’t come over to help. Had Gregg Popovich been coaching Gasol, he might have lit Gasol’s beard on fire.
But through it all, playing a role he’s always been more suited for, was Garnett. He defended and helped as Gasol didn’t, and he rebounded, and he made a play that mattered.
Then, with just over two minutes left, Garnett drove hard on Gasol, then stopped and extended for a short jumper. The basketball hit the rim about four times before dropping, and the Celtics had a five-point lead.
“Huge shot,” Doc Rivers said afterward. “Maybe the single-biggest basket of the game.”
But everyone has always wanted more of Garnett. He’s an 11-time All-Star with a $23 million salary, and he comes with street coolness and appropriate histrionics. He has a face and a stature made for commercials, as well as expectations.
So when success hasn’t followed, questions have. When a Boston Globe columnist wrote earlier in the postseason that he wanted to see Garnett take over a game or even just a quarter, the writer said this happened: Flip Saunders pulled him to the side and said, “They wrote that story about him in Minnesota every year.”
These are the kinds of stories Robinson heard, too. But at least Robinson got out of the first round.
Garnett, except for one season, couldn’t in Minnesota.
He was on his way to a sad place in history — as the greatest player never to get to a Finals. Then everything changed this season with the trade. With all expectations back in place, the playoffs arrived.
He’s disappointed, and along the way he reinforced what everyone in San Antonio has known: He is not and never has been Tim Duncan.
Duncan has always been steadier and more poised, and he reacted to game situations by going to the low block. There he repeated the most effective play in basketball, grinding his way to four titles.
As it was with Robinson, Garnett’s body is both his strength and his weakness. He showed that again Thursday, when he drifted outside. Robinson, too, was less of a classic post-up player.
Garnett opened the second half with an 18 footer to cut the Lakers’ lead to 14. He followed with a drive, and this is what Rivers meant the other day when he said, “We’ve got to get Kevin going. Clearly.”
Just as clearly, Garnett isn’t built to carry a championship team. Just as Robinson prospered next to Duncan, Garnett prospers now with Pierce and Allen. Now he has closers, and he can be what he is, which is a marvelously complete player.
An example: Pierce defended Bryant well, but Garnett was also behind him, as Robinson always was for his teammates, defending the rim like the reigning defensive player of the year he is.
Afterward Garnett was measured and calm. “The job isn’t finished,” he said, but he added something else. “I can taste it.”
He sounded like another former MVP who once got this close at about the same age. And now Garnett faces a career-changing moment — just as it was for Robinson once before.
Web Posted: 06/13/2008 12:48 AM CDT
Buck Harvey
[email protected]
LOS ANGELES — Kevin Garnett changed uniform numbers this season, but it wasn’t a statement. It was necessary.
He wore No. 21 in Minnesota, and No. 21 wasn’t available in Boston. Bill Sharman once wore it, and the Celtics later retired it.
But the switch is nonetheless symbolic. Garnett was never like San Antonio’s No. 21, as often as they were compared over a decade. With a thin waist and freakish athletic ability for someone his height, Garnett was always closer to being David Robinson.
Now Garnett wears No. 5, and that’s appropriate, too.
Now he’s one win from becoming No. 50.
Thursday all the numbers were skewed. The same Lakers who overcame a 20-point deficit against the Spurs blew a historic 24-point lead. The same Kobe Bryant who said during the Spurs series that he could “get off” whenever he wanted to couldn’t, and Paul Pierce’s physical defense had a lot to do with that.
Then there was the clinching two. Ray Allen went past Sasha Vujacic, and Pau Gasol didn’t come over to help. Had Gregg Popovich been coaching Gasol, he might have lit Gasol’s beard on fire.
But through it all, playing a role he’s always been more suited for, was Garnett. He defended and helped as Gasol didn’t, and he rebounded, and he made a play that mattered.
Then, with just over two minutes left, Garnett drove hard on Gasol, then stopped and extended for a short jumper. The basketball hit the rim about four times before dropping, and the Celtics had a five-point lead.
“Huge shot,” Doc Rivers said afterward. “Maybe the single-biggest basket of the game.”
But everyone has always wanted more of Garnett. He’s an 11-time All-Star with a $23 million salary, and he comes with street coolness and appropriate histrionics. He has a face and a stature made for commercials, as well as expectations.
So when success hasn’t followed, questions have. When a Boston Globe columnist wrote earlier in the postseason that he wanted to see Garnett take over a game or even just a quarter, the writer said this happened: Flip Saunders pulled him to the side and said, “They wrote that story about him in Minnesota every year.”
These are the kinds of stories Robinson heard, too. But at least Robinson got out of the first round.
Garnett, except for one season, couldn’t in Minnesota.
He was on his way to a sad place in history — as the greatest player never to get to a Finals. Then everything changed this season with the trade. With all expectations back in place, the playoffs arrived.
He’s disappointed, and along the way he reinforced what everyone in San Antonio has known: He is not and never has been Tim Duncan.
Duncan has always been steadier and more poised, and he reacted to game situations by going to the low block. There he repeated the most effective play in basketball, grinding his way to four titles.
As it was with Robinson, Garnett’s body is both his strength and his weakness. He showed that again Thursday, when he drifted outside. Robinson, too, was less of a classic post-up player.
Garnett opened the second half with an 18 footer to cut the Lakers’ lead to 14. He followed with a drive, and this is what Rivers meant the other day when he said, “We’ve got to get Kevin going. Clearly.”
Just as clearly, Garnett isn’t built to carry a championship team. Just as Robinson prospered next to Duncan, Garnett prospers now with Pierce and Allen. Now he has closers, and he can be what he is, which is a marvelously complete player.
An example: Pierce defended Bryant well, but Garnett was also behind him, as Robinson always was for his teammates, defending the rim like the reigning defensive player of the year he is.
Afterward Garnett was measured and calm. “The job isn’t finished,” he said, but he added something else. “I can taste it.”
He sounded like another former MVP who once got this close at about the same age. And now Garnett faces a career-changing moment — just as it was for Robinson once before.