March 31, 2012 –1:30am
Let me start bysaying, I really don’t have time for this.
I wish I did,but I don’t. See, a regular NBA season can get a little nutty, with the gamesand the travel and the laundry. But thisone of course has been more like Supermarket Sweep. Just racing through theaisles of the country cramming as many games as we can into a shopping cartuntil the four-month timer hits zero.
Now for me,throw in the Frozen Four next weekend in Tampa, my fantasy baseball draft(purposely scheduled I’m convinced now by my league in attempt to leave meunprepared and try to do something they haven’t been able to do with skill, andthat’s end my UConn Women/Jimmy Johnson/Undertaker-at-Wrestlemania-likedynasty) and, of course, Wrestlemania itself on Sunday.
So yeah, alittle over-scheduled right now.
And surprisingly,my five-month-old son and his sleep schedule seem to have no regard for thisfrenetic pace.
In any case, toomany things happened Friday night at Target Center to not get at least a few wordsdown on paper, or up on the screen as it were, and we fly a thousand miles eastin the middle of the night for, hey what do you know, another big game Sundayafternoon against the Heat.
Especially asdespite the fun and instant gratification of our favorite 140-characterobsession with the blue bird has become, Twitter is amazing and getting theword out, but there often just aren’t enough words to say it right.
So first, here’sthis. Kevin Love is special.
I’m not goingdown this road of the Love-Garnett thing that seemed to be the topic of the 36-hour stay in the Twin Cities. Wecovered it at length in the best pre-game guest segment we’ve had this year,with my former partner, and Max’s former teammate Jim Petersen. (Here's the link: http://audio.weei.com/a/53789535/grande-max-with-t-wolves-broadcaster-jim-petersen.htm) So let's just say this.
Kevin Love isone of the top 15 players in the NBA.
Kevin Garnett isone of the top 15 players in the history of the NBA.
That’s all weneed to cover for now.
And Friday night,if you have Kevin Love on your fantasy team you got some numbers, but that wasa Round One-UFC tap-out win for Minnesota’s original Kevin.
It was also hisbest game against his former team since the trade, and not the first time we’veused a sentence like that about Garnett in 2012, all part of one of the mostremarkable seasons in his hall-of-fame career with the position change and his36th birthday next month.
Now, let’s putit out there because this needs to be fixed. Not tonight, but over the next fewmonths and years because there is a latent, and mutual hostility that existsbetween Garnett and the franchise he carried for a dozen years. Not the fans,not the city, but with some key members of the Wolves’ front office.
And while we’llsave the reasons for now (check out that audio link if you want to hear some ofthem), the point is that in a few years, there simply must be a Kevin GarnettNight in that building. I don’t mean agame, with a five-minute halftime ceremony. I mean a night, a sold-put,stand-alone night that’s a celebration of a city’s team, and the 19-year-oldkid who lit it up and evolved into the player and the man that carried it onhis shoulders for twelve years.
A man who, bythe way, didn’t want to leave. A man,who when it was apparent the franchise couldn’t carry his weight and needed tomove on, didn’t rub anyone's face in it, didn’t get Jim Gray to show up at theYMCA to announce it, and didn’t dance with his new teammates after he made it.
It’s not hard tofind people KG made enemies of in Minnesota, or anywhere really, and a portionof the criticism and the vitriol can be easily justified. But it’s time now.
It’s time tomove on from it, on every level. Garnett got his ring, the Wolves have theirmojo back. Next year, with a healthy Rubio, Love, Derrick Williams and a fullyear for Rick Adelman, the Wolves are back in the NBA, they’re back from therelegation pool of teams that don’t get on ABC or TNT. And they’re probably back in theplayoffs. It was a cold five years, butthey’re over.
For two days we’vebeen listening to this Kevin Love-Kevin Garnett comparison debate, and forgetfor a minute what happened Friday night, here’s the thing. When you position comparisons that way, you’resetting it up to tear one or the other down. It’s unavoidable. Trust me, Skip Bayless makes a very good living doingit brilliantly.
The tale ofMinnesota’s two Kevin’s is a win-win. You can celebrate the Garnett Era withoutcasting a shadow on Kevin Love. You can celebrate the present and future thatthe Wolves finally have, without tarnishing the legacy of their greatestplayer.
One day KevinLove may change the following sentence, but he hasn’t yet. There is no franchisein professional sports where the gap between the team’s best, and second-bestplayer is bigger than it is with the Timberwolves. Not after Sidney Crosby won a Cup inPittsburgh, not as long as the Colts had Unitas, the Oilers had Messier and theBulls had Pippen. Go on, try it inbaseball, can’t be done.
Let’s bury thebad feelings, and bury the comparisons the way Kevin Garnett buried his fourthquarter shots on Friday night. Maybe the best way to enjoy Kevin Love’s future,is by making peace with Kevin Garnett’s past.
OK, if you’llforgive me, the unforgiving to-do list beckons. I’m going to try multi-taskingby listening to Simmons’ fantasy baseball pod with Matthew Berry while watchingtape on the Frozen Four teams at the same time. Could be a brilliant use of limited time, or result in me trying todraft Edwin Encarnacion sometime during the second period of the nationalsemi-final on Thursday night, one of the two.
But first, somekind of wacky numbers from Friday…
- The Celtics are now 14-7 in 21 Target Centergames, easily best record in any building where they’ve played 15 or moregames. American Airlines Arena is Miami is next at 12-11 (not including 1-4 inthe playoffs)
- It was the first double-digit road win of theyear, the first since one year ago today (March 31, 2011) in San Antonio andthe biggest road win since a 22-point win at Golden State last February, which was(draw your own conclusions) Kendrick Perkins’ last game as a Celtic.
- * The Celtics were outscored Friday by 13 (21-8)from the free throw line, and still won by 21 on the road.
- Here’s the big one, let’s go boldface. The Celtics were out-rebounded by 151 in17 March games (8.9/game) and stillwent 12-5. I mean, really? That’s pretty hard to do.
- TheCeltics have now won 13 straightwin when not getting out-rebounded (16-2 on the year)
- KevinLove, who averages 14 a game, had only 11 rebounds against the NBA’s worstrebounding team, just the 32ndhighest total against the Celtics this year in 51 games. What were the odds of that? Some of theluminaries who’ve had more rebounds against Boston than Kevin Love thisyear? Nikola Vucevic, Amir Johnson,Trevor Booker and Jason Thompson, not to mention Samuel Dalembert’s 17.
- TheCeltics are now 9-1 without Ray Allen, 6-4 without Rondo. But 0-3 without PaulPierce and 0-3 without Kevin Garnett.
- The Celtics lost the first three games thisyear in which they scored 100 points (including the only meeting with Miami onDecember 27), they’ve now won 11 in a arrow.
And speaking ofMiami…
…since many ofyou have asked, my completely uninformed, off the top of my head picks forWrestlemania in Sunday…
A valiant effortby HHH falls short, and the Undertaker’s streak continues. The last time ShawnMichaels refereed a match this big, by the way, he was brilliant and nearlystole the show anyway (SummerSlam 1997 in Taker’s WWF Title loss to Bret Hart(the same night the business’ history almost changed forever on the late OwenHart’s missed tombstone piledriver that nearly ended the Stone Cold Era beforeit began).
Chris Jerichowins the WWE Title from CM Punk in a phenomenal match. We get a couple of monthsof tremendous rematches before the Best in the World gets the belt back late inthe spring.
Then John Cenaand Rock, after everyone is picking Punk-Jericho to steal the show, tear thehouse down in the match of the show, if not the match of the year. Both cement theirlegacy as Cena wins clean in the middle, prompting Rock to show up on RawMonday night and shake his hand…before delivering a rock bottom with the tagline; “See you next year…bitch.”
He won’t have towrite it on his wrist, that’s for sure. *
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