Kevin Garnett: One Last Journey For The Big Ticket
By Adam McGee
Kevin Garnett is a man of very high standards. You don’t become a key figure on a championship winning team, or win the MVP award, unless you’re the type of player and person who can consistently demand the best from themselves.
Garnett has nothing to prove, he’s a lock for the Hall of Fame, yet he’s still motivated to keep going, still trying to push himself to the limits to squeeze out his best possible performance.
Having spent much of his young career as a frustrated superstar in need of a supporting cast in Minnesota, and then the tail end of his prime as a perennial contender in Boston, last summer Garnett agreed to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets, a team where he’d be surrounded by the right mix of prime talent and veteran experience.
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Having
Paul Piercecome along with him to a team that already had
Deron Williams,
Joe Johnsonand
Brook Lopezin place instantly gave the Nets championship potential.
It didn’t play out quite how everyone planned though. The Nets started the season terribly, before eventually finding their feet and putting together a solid campaign that would eventually end with a second round playoff defeat to the Miami Heat.
The loss of Brook Lopez through injury was always going to be a major blow, but there was more than that that went wrong, and Garnett puts more than his fair share of blame upon himself for that.
The Nets slow start coincided with a three-month period where Garnett struggled from the field like never before. Almost as if he had lost the touch on his once automatic jump shot, Garnett only averaged 36.4 percent from the field through to the end of December.
Of course, from that point on, he picked things up to average 55.6 percent for the rest of the regular season, and for most players that would be enough to move on and forget about that slow start, but not Kevin Garnett.
In an interview with Tim Bontemps of the New York Daily News, Garnett indicated that he was really disappointed in himself for that start, and as he’s set to start a new campaign, it still seems to stick in his mind along with the team’s playoff defeat.
"“I have a little bit of an edge to me this year, I’ll say that. I didn’t like how I ended last year, or how I even started last year.”"
After the 38-year-old looked a shadow of himself in the post season last year, the retirement rumors started to swirl. The reality as it turns out, is that Kevin Garnett is far too proud to end his career on what he feels was a bum note. The big question that remains is whether any of this is truly in his control any more though.
At 38 years of age, and entering his 20th season in the NBA, no matter how strong his mind is, his body is bound to play the most significant part in his performance. Whether Garnett is capable of accepting it or not, he may no longer be physically able to do many of the things that made him one of the best in the league.
As one of the greatest competitors to ever play the sport, I have no doubt he’ll overcome that to a degree, but will he ever be able to perform to a level he’s happy with again?
If Brooklyn center Brook Lopez can stay fit, allowing Garnett to focus on playing his more natural power forward position, that would be a major strain taken off his body. Whether that alone would be enough for Garnett to regain some of his old form, well that’s a little bit harder to figure out.
No matter what happens in the next nine months, NBA fans will always recognize and remember Kevin Garnett’s great career, but with his endless desire to win, and work harder, he might just have one last surprise for all of us yet.