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The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.



Loyalty does not exist.

Not in sports. Not between an organization and a player. It can't. It has no place in the relationship.

That relationship, between the organization and the player, is 100% business. It's an exchange of services for cash. A general manager who counts loyalty as a factor when giving out contracts is a bad general manager. Keep a guy around too long because you like him, because of his past performance, because he's such a nice guy ... and you will, in the long run, pay for it.

Loyalty going the other direction, from a player towards an organization, is just as misguided. Kevin Garnett, for 12 years, has damaged his career by believing in something that doesn't exist.

(Also at the bottom: A Mets fan does something unspeakably horrific, and the Mets respond by trading for a so-so second baseman ... Daunte Culpepper talks to [of course] the Raiders ... and Ricky Davis should make sure his home security system is working ... )

You'll see an example every now and then of a guy who played his entire career with one team, but even that, more often than not, is comfort and convenience masquerading as loyalty. Add a dispute over cash, a slight to an ego in the media, any sign of disrespect ... and that "loyalty" always disappears quickly.

The same reason that Kevin Garnett can't, despite what he tells you, be truly loyal to the Minnesota Timberwolves is the same reason that I can't let a prostitute kiss me on the mouth. It brings an emotional connection into an area where there shouldn't be one. I put down my money, she fulfills her end of a transaction, we go our separate ways.

If she allows a kiss, though ... that little something that shows genuine affection ... the business relationship becomes clouded. I start thinking I'm Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, she starts thinking of giving me a discounted rate, we both start wasting time and money on something that shouldn't be happening, and her pimp decides he's going to beat me with a lead pipe twice a week until this nonsense stops.

No one wins. She could have spent that time expanding her list of clientèle, and I could've spent that time better learning to tell the difference between a female prostitute and a really convincing transvestite.

We both wasted our time and ultimately, damaged our own lives. And why? Because we allowed loyalty/mouth-kissing into the equation. Emotion that shouldn't have been there.

I don't know what it was that finally got Garnett to stop kissing Kevin McHale on the mouth and abandon the ridiculous "loyalty" that kept him in Minnesota for so long ... but he is, unquestionably, better off because of it. We're all better off because of it.

The Celtics go from a boring and sad team waiting in vain for youngsters to maybe the league's most interesting team in 2007-2008. The Wolves go from being the team that had Kevin Garnett and still couldn't come close to winning anything to a blank slate, ready to move on to another era with a collection of young talent and draft picks. They could go in any direction from here.

The NBA's 2007-2008 landscape is 30% more interesting the second this trade becomes official.

As for Garnett himself, it's like he's back from the dead. He's no longer a sidenote. He could've spent another year, or another five years, comfortably and conveniently refusing a new challenge, becoming less sympathetic with every day that passed in which he didn't demand a trade.

Watching him decompose under Kevin McHale's reign in Minnesota was like watching a 6th grader get punched in the head by the same bully every day. Your heart aches for the defenseless child, but after a while, you just want him to stand up for himself ... punch the big kid in the throat, put on a helmet, take a kung-fu class, pay a 9th grader to beat the hell out of him ... do something. It's maddening to watch someone refuse to help themselves. And rewarding to see it when it finally happens.

Garnett has finally taken a step towards bettering himself. Sure, he opens himself up to risks along the way ... he no longer has the low-pressure, we-don't-expect-much Minnesota environment to fall back on.

He is very much in the pressure cooker now. Boston is an intense media market, and they've got a general manager who's risked his own job to throw together three misfit All-Stars and hope they turn into something special.

Failure in Minnesota was expected, and no one was ever going to say it was Garnett's fault. Failure in Boston is not an option, and if it happens, Garnett's big chest is where the fingers are going to point.

It's beautiful. The most physically-gifted man in the NBA has finally accepted a new challenge. Danny Ainge is gambling on Kevin Garnett, and in the process, he just put the league's biggest spotlight right on him. He may have saved what's left of Garnett's career.

Just don't expect a kiss on the mouth.





Not a ton of great pictures from yesterday in the sports world ... but that wasn't Kay-Jay Harris's fault. The second-year running back, who has 3 career carries, apparently has time to work on his photography skills, and doesn't have to practice.

Your job isn't safe, Dilip Vishwanat. Kay-Jay Harris is going to take you down.







Altanta Braves. Well done, Bravos, picking up Mark Teixeira. They're 4½ back of the Mets, with the Phillies between them ... if they're going to make up that kind of ground, they've gotta make a move. And they did. If Andruw Jones can get it going (he does have 5 home rums and 14 RBIs over the last three weeks), that's all the sudden an extremely dangerous offensive line-up.

And then the Mets answered by acquiring ... Luis Castillo. Castillo's hitting .304 in Minnesota, and not bringing much else to the table. He's got no pop and has stolen just 9 bases. His OBP is .357.

Since Jose Valentin injured himelf, the Mets had been going with a platoon at second that included youngster Ruben Gotay ... and in 123 at bats this year, Gotay's hitting .350, has an OBP of .381, along with 4 homeruns. He's also younger much younger than Valentin and has more of a future.

The Mets lost considerable ground today. There's no other way to see it.



Michael Anthony, Mets Fan. When your favorite team loses, you don't take it out on your mother. I mean, maybe you give her the finger or scream at her. But stabbing her in the head and beating her to death with a barbell? That crosses the line.

Ugh. Just a sickening story, and I'm afraid that last part is true. A Mets fan in Queens was watching the Mets lose the back end of a doubleheader against the Nationals on Saturday ... and in frustration, this guy started pounding on the walls. His father told him to stop ... and for his trouble, his father was punched in the face. I wish the story ended there.

The mom, at the spry age of 61, tried to intervene ... and then yes, she was stabbed in the head and then beaten to death with a barbell.

I don't know what the appropriate legal punishment for something like that is. Life in prison doesn't seem harsh enough. I don't know. Maybe dress him in a pitbull costume and send him to Michael Vick's house.



Deserving Of Your Full Attention ...

10:00, ESPN. The Bronx is Burning. I didn't post any kind of a review about last week's episode, for a couple of reasons... I didn't watch it until two days after the fact, and also, nothing had changed. Turturro, still awesome. Platt, still terrible. Sunjata, sitll rather lifeless. Every non-baseball scene ... check that, every non-Turturro scene, still mind-numbingly useless.

Other Stuff ...

7:30, ESPNU. Basketball. 2007 AAU Boys National Championship, Second Semifinal.
8:00, ESPN2. WNBA. Detroit Shock @ San Antonio Silver Stars.
9:00, ABC. Shaq's Big Challenge.
9:00, FOX. House.
10:00, ESPN2. WNBA. Sacramento Monarchs @ Seattle Storm.