Posts tagged Kevingarnett at FanHouse

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Hipster Runoff, via T.K. When I think of hipsters, I most definitely think of the Spurs.

2. Blazer's Edge. Will Greg Oden win Rookie of the Year?

3. The Sporting Blog. Josh Smith: "You're nothing without a good point guard." Take that, Tyronn Lue!

4. Wages of Wins Journal. Minnesota could win 30 games without Kevin Garnett for the first time ever. Progress!

5. Ball Don't Lie. Actual North Dakotan press headline: "Wade Keeps Dwyaneing His Shots." Next up: "Michael Keeps Redding His Otis" and "Mike Keep Krzyzewskiing His Rotation."

6. Cuzoogle. The un-PC Spanish Basketball Federation sets its targets on Germany.

Starting you off on the long road to divorce and estrangement from your family is New Orleans at Orlando at noon. So after opening presents, enjoying your Christmas morning coffee, and inevitably calling your sister to ask why she hated you enough to buy your kid that obnoxious talking Monk doll or plotting to return the sweater that your grandmother got you for an iPod charger, you can sit back, relax, and watch Tyson Chandler and Dwight Howard beat the crap out of each other.

Then the blood rivalry resumes with San Antonio traveling to Phoenix at 2:30PM EST for what should be a warm and happy holiday greeting between the two teams as Amare Stoudemire tries to go Silent Night, Deadly Night on the team that's bounced him from the playoffs two years in a row, while Bruce Bowen attempts to give Steve Nash the gift he's never wanted, two severed Achilles' and a partridge in a pear tree.

So, I was totally kidding about Tyronn Lue understand his worth and probably signing with the Heat. Gotcha!

The next day, Lue skipped town, leaving Miami without undergoing the physical for the Heat. He's now reported to be in talks with the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics. Which is kind of an upgrade, and sticks more with the "ring-chaser" reputation he's been building.

According to the Arizona Republic, Lue thinks Phoenix is his landing spot, saying "I think we're going to get it done in Phoenix." Lue's been courted by friend Shaquille O'Neal, but is also getting significant interest from the Boston Celtics and good friend Kevin Garnett.

Lue's obviously hunting for the best situation that can bring him a championship at age 31. Apparently he sees that as Phoenix. Glad someone still does.

Hat tip to Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News with this outstandingly dumb quote from NBA agent.

Agent David Bauman was being interviewed by a reporter from Reuters and commented on Arizona recruit Brandon Jennings spending a year in Europe instead of college:

Agent David Bauman, who represents Peja Stojakovic and Andrew Bogut, got a writer from Reuters fired up by declaring that a string of American high school players following Jennings' lead would be disastrous for the NCAA.

"College would be a bunch of nobodies," Bauman told Reuters. "TV interest would drop and the overall product would suffer."

The first thing that hit my mind when I read this was the same thing DeCourcy thought: what a dumb quote. So, you are saying that the NCAA would suffer if these high school studs skip college and go over to Europe? Really?

Did the NCAA crumble when guys like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, Rashard Lewis, Korleone Young (remember him?), LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Monta Ellis and Kwame Brown decided to not go to college? Back then, they just went to the NBA. Would these same cats just go to Europe now?

It seems that the Celtics aren't ready to stop celebrating their NBA title just yet, as a group of them headed to Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao win the WBC lightweight title by knocking out David Diaz. Check out Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and bandwagon-jumping Sam Cassell whop it up with Pacquiao in the dressing room moments after his victory.



The Celtics just won the NBA title, and were given more than their fair share of attention, right? How about letting Pacquiao have some of the spotlight for himself for a bit, huh guys? He hadn't even put a shirt on yet, and these guys come barging in and steal the show. Seriously, I didn't see celebrities like Steven Tyler, Bill Belichik, Donnie Wahlberg, or Bill Simmons (really -- that's the best you can do, Boston?) in the locker room with Paul Pierce or the delusional Glen Davis sharing the champagne on the night the Celtics won it all.

Note to the Celtics: you won the basketball championship. That doesn't mean you have the right to show off at baseball games, boxing matches, or anywhere else. It's been less than two weeks since Boston won the title, and it's no wonder that everyone who isn't a Celtics' die hard is already sick of this team.

Honestly, it never occurred to me, while watching Kevin Garnett's insane post game interview with Michelle Tafoya, that he might be taking a whole slogan-savvy approach to the whole thing. But then I read Darren Rovell's article about the celebration, and I gotta admit, the idea that the Big Ticket was pimping out Adidas ("ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!") does hold a little water.

For a second, I thought that is so great. How often, in the first interview after you win the championship, do you quote the slogan of your shoe sponsor (adidas pays Garnett for his endorsement)? And then I thought, wait, did he just say, "Anything is possible?" That's not adidas' slogan. Their slogan is "Impossible Is Nothing.

One of Rovell's readers points out that Li-Ning, a Chinese shoe company, already has "Anything Is Possible" pegged as their slogan, albeit in Chinese (yiqie jieyou keneng). So either Garnett messed up or he just didn't mean to do any advertising at all.

For the most part, the Lakers' resistance to Boston's overpowering second-half swag looked mild. Kobe Bryant stopped running, Pau Gasol refused to challenge anything, and the assorted garbage-timers just heaved bombs the entire fourth frame. When the game got out of reach, no Laker played to save face, no Laker seemed to take issue with the stylish exclamation marks fellows like Eddie House and Leon Powe offered.

No one but Lamar Odom, that is.

Odom continued to drive into the lane, earning eight free throws in 10 minutes in the fourth frame. And he took immense exception to a hard foul from Kevin Garnett with five minutes left, peeling himself off the floor to yap in The Ticket's face ... as the Celtics led by 36. Clearly, Odom thought the foul, at that point in the game, was dirty and insulting, and he wouldn't stand for it. (KG didn't really disagree; in his own universe, he just let his eyes dance, like there was a party in his head.)

But really, does Odom's irrelevant effort in solitude signify anything? Probably not -- an L.O. cynic would chalk it up to dude lacking any sort of context for any moment of the game (which, in theory, explains his all-too-frequent moments of unconsciousness in the closing seconds -- like that charge at the end of Game 4). But Odom's a proud fellow, and I think that's what came out as he fought fought fought against the overwhelming current of Celticdom.

I think it'd be valuable to keep this weird effort in mind this summer when trade rumors pop up. L.O. was basically the only Laker who wasn't OK with the Celtics winning by 40. It's a minor slice amid otherwise watery Finals production, but it means something.

In the long-form tradition of The Rotation, Tom Ziller considers the action the morning after each game of the NBA Finals.

Proper perspective for the absurdity of Game 6 does not exist. The NBA can call this one weird season on infinite counts, but the sum of all other nonsensical haps in the league really cannot compare to what the Celtics franchise provoked on its way to the championship.

Boston's series win isn't a surprise: as Brett Edwards wrote last night, everyone knew it was coming after that mystical Game 4 win in L.A. But this? A complete blowout from the start of the second quarter? Garbage time?! Eddie House alley-oops to a 180in' Tony Allen?!? GATORADE ON THE HARDWOOD!!!!

Simply and utterly absurd ... but just real enough to change the entire face of the league.

Considering Kevin Garnett once broke down in tears during an interview while talking about how much he hates to lose, it shouldn't have surprised anyone to see his reaction after finally winning a title last night. The "anything is possible!" scream seems a tiny bit contrived, but everything after is just raw emotion to the point that it's a little uncomfortable to watch.

Stick with it, though, because it gets a little funny right around the 1:39 mark when he compliments Michelle Tafoya (ahem, at least the second time he's done so on the air this playoffs). He may be borderline insane, but he's always the gentleman.

Boston wasted little time in flexing their muscle over the Lakers in Game 6, and turned the event into nothing more than a celebration for the Celtics and their fans. The home team absolutely destroyed the Lakers in their coronation game, leading by as many as 43 points in the fourth quarter before finishing the season off with a championship and winning by a score of 131-92.

Kobe tried to start things off like he did in Game 5, by hitting some long three pointers and getting himself 11 points in the first quarter. But his long shots, even though they went in, were more an indication of the bad Laker offense than they were of Kobe's desire to dominate early. Pau Gasol was completely worthless in the early going, missing shots and turning the ball over repeatedly while at the same time allowing Kevin Garnett to go off.

From the second quarter on, it was all Celtics. After back-to-back three-pointers from James Posey and Eddie House which extended the lead to nine, you could just tell that this game was completely out of reach for the Lakers. The lead reached 23 by halftime, and the Lakers never came close to threatening after that. The Celtics' defense was stifling, and none of the Lakers' role players were able to do anything, resulting in the Lakers getting run off the floor and extended garbage time in the season's final game. I'm sure that's just how the Celtics' fans wanted it.