With your second paragraph below, I don't see how anyone can hate KG as a person either. He was on a losing franchise for several years but played his heart out every single game which is why Minnesota fans loved watching him play. I am surprised many people would hate the guy even opposing teams fans'. I hate him when he plays the Rockets but I guess 80% on here don't hate him either.
Sorry for that triple post, I am surprised my account is unbanned. KG was just sticking it to his old team that traded him away. What player doesn't want to do that to his old team? His new team won the game, so he is glorifying the fact that they traded him away to the Celtics, so they can expect to lose to them twice a season until he retires. The media has its way of spinning things. "The best team beat the worst team."
Good Post. I don't agree with everything you said, but unlike the other poster it is well reasoned. People love to rag on Kobe, but he is just as responsible for the Laker dynasty as Shaq was. Kobe is not a Scottie Pippen. If you put a another player of similar talents the Bulls would have still dominated. I dont think putting a Tmac, Gilbert Arenas or Allen Iverson would have been as dominant a duo as Shaq and Kobe. Shaq is one of the all time greats but all of his titles were won with either Dwayne Wade or Kobe by his side. Who i really respect is Tim Duncan. He's won his last three titles with no legit 2nd superstar. Manu and Tony Parker are very good players but they are not superstars. Dirk is on a deep team, but like the Spurs, the rest of his teamates are essentially role players. Some of you guys mightily overate some of the Mavs players.
How can you hate a guy that gives 100% of the time no matter what? All them years with the T' wolves KG went out every game and play hard and he knew that they wouldn't win anything, but he still came to play. For all the people on this board that hate KG just think about something for a second. When you watch him play you can't tell if his team is winning or losing by the way that he play. His team can be down by 20 or up by 20 in the 4th KG will still be playing hard, and thats something you can't say about most players in the NBA today.
I argee with you that they would have won them all too maybe even one more. Becasue I think they would have beating Dallas with KG the one year they loss with Duncan. And for the record I think KG is better than Duncan. He won't go down in history as being better becasue of the rings, but its not his fault he never plaed with great players but one season and this year.
How do you explain the fact he played with the same great players the next season(2004-05) and they failed to make the playoffs?
What other player was like Pippen in the league at that time? I can’t recall too many SF’s that could defend like him (from PG’s to some PF’s), score and set up the offense. Even though Wade won with a lesser version, and made another ECF trip? Shaq, like Dirk, has been blessed to always have quality talent around him. Finley and Nash are not role players. Neither is Josh Howard, A.Jamison, etc. FYI, I am still waiting on you to respond as to how Dirk willed his team to victory in game 7 over Utah with 18 pts on 4-12 shooting and 4 boards while the “scrub” Finley had 33 pts and 12 boards….
Cassell only played 59 games that season. They missed the playoffs by 1 game. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIN/2005.html Do you even look this stuff up before you post? How do you explain blowing a 2-0 lead in the Finals (with homecourt, losing ON your homecourt), or losing to a #8 seed when you have the best record in all of basketball and the same team that went to the Finals in the previous season? How do you explain your coach telling the media you need to grow a pair?
I don't need to look it up. The same group of great teamates that Kevin Garnett had in 03-04 were somehow not great the next season. Sam Cassell is a good player but teams lose players to injury all the time. IF KG was a "Superstar" he should be good enough to carry his team to at least one of the top 8 spots in the conference even with Cassell missing 20 games. What did i tell you....Icehouse would the first to have an EXCUSE ready and lined up on of KG's failures. This time KG didn't make the playoffs because Sam Cassell missed 20 games. For Christ sakes....Steve Nash lost Amare Stoudamire for an entire season and he led the Suns to a Division title and the Western Conference Finals. Icehouse, Im done with this debate. This isn't even fun anymore. I post stats, you post opinions and excuses. I have continually owned you.
You mean the same group of teammates that had their PG miss 1/4 of the season? The play of Cassell & Sprewell were one of the main reasons MN made it to the WCF. It was the lone season KG actually had help. You asked what was different about the team in the following year and I gave you your answer. You just choose to ignore ie. I would think if you miss the playoffs by 1 game then your starting PG missing 20 games may have some kind of impact. He still had Marion and they also acquired Tim Thomas, Raja Bell and Diaw (didn’t he win MIP that year)? Again, do you look any of this stuff up before you post? LOL, of you say so man. I don’t think anyone on here is agreeing with your takes. And I’m still waiting for clarification on how Dirk willed his team to victory in the game 7 (probably the 3rd or 4th time I have asked). “Own” me by not dodging questions.
He HAD to play 100% if he was paid the HIGHEST salary in the NBA. Not just him, but all NBA players HAVE to give it their BEST every game because they are PAID. It's not like they volunteered. Despite their extremely high salaries, they are still EMPLOYEES.
I think since KG was the franchise player for T'Wolves, he probably had a STRONG voice in requesting the right players around him all those years. And if he wasn't happy playing with anyone, he should have asked for that person to be traded or something to get the team going. And all these years the T'Wolves didn't have enough talent to make any good trades? Billups? Wally? Sprewell? Hudson? If he didn't ask for any trades, then he must have been happy with the guys. If he's happy playing with them, then they must not have "sucked" according to him. The point is, I doubt the team trades guys without asking for his opinions and I'm sure his opinions matter most on the team. If Detroit could pull it off with a bunch of above average, non superstar calibur players, why couldn't T'Wolves do it with a superstar and a bunch of above average players also? If Iverson could lead his team to the Finals, then why couldn't KG? Yes, the West was tougher, but still, Iverson was really playing with scrubs if you want to make a case for KG on a scrub team.
See thats my point. Its a lot of players in the NBA today that are getting payed 10-15 mil. a year that doen't give they all.
Becasue that year Sam and Sprewell was playing like trash. Sam wasn't 100% healthy and Sprewell remember he didn't won't to play becasue they wasn't paying him enough to feed his kids....lol
I still stand by the comment that every Rocket fan here would love to have Garnett on their team; however, my feelings about him have changed immensely (thanks to his gutless move in Game 7 against the Hawks against that scrub eastern European dude). He's haughty and annoying; glad he was able to ride Paul Pierce and Ray Allen's coattails to a championship - congrats to you, Mr. "ANYYYYYYYYYYYYYTHING ISSSSSSSSSS POSSSSSSSSSSIBLE!!!"
He's still a really good player. I don't think anybody ever questioned that and for that reason I would definitely love to have him on the Rockets. I've always been a huge critic of his but I officially tip my hat. He's "certified" now. He's officially got the monkey off his back. Congrats to him since i'm sure its the greatest feeling in the world.
i'd kick him in the nuts and run. and then when i looked over my shoulder and saw him on the floor, i'd run back and spit on him and run away again.
