There have been very few players in the history of the NBA who have changed the identity of a team once they arrived there.
Shaq to the Lakers in 1996 comes to mind, Duncan in his rookie year to the Spurs and Nash to the Suns few years back, and now Garnett to Boston.
Every other team on the league loved the day they had to play Celtics last season. They were considered to be an easy team to beat, sort of like Miami Heat this year. Every team probably had those games marked on their calendar.
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This year, those same teams probably have it marked again on that calendar but for a very different reason. This year they don't want to play these Celtics. There is only one reason for that and one reason alone.
They have this guy named Garnett roaming under the basket now, whose intensity on the defensive side of the game has the changed the whole identity of this team.
They went from being one of the worst teams in the league defensively to being the very best, championship-caliber defensive team. No one deserves more credit for their transition on defense other than Garnett.
Boston hasn't had an intimidator roaming under their basket since the early 80's and I, for one, am glad to see Garnett receive the credit for transforming this team.
Congratulations Mr. Garnett from us, all of your fans, who saw you suffer in Minnesota for years. We are glad to see you receiving an award that you should have won at least three, four times already.
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4 months ago
No doubt that he deserves this one. That guy is great, and it's really sad that he spent so much time going nowhere in Minnesota. Hope to see him grab a few rings before he retires...
4 months ago
I said to all my friends here in MA that if they gave Garnett the defensive MVP, it was because they weren't going to give him the regular MVP. My vote goes to Chris Paul.
4 months ago
He really deserves this award because he helped that turnaround come and is a player that no should mess with. He is a good all around player but won't get the mvp. Maybe next year. Kobe is the mvp.
4 months ago
I agree with Rob! The only reason he was awarded with this award is the league wasn't going to give him the real MVP award, even though they know he deserves it! KG is the reason for their turnaround. He is the Most Valuable Player in the NBA because of how drastic the turnaround was and is!
4 months ago
I agree with you Tom. Even though I am think Kobe has this MVP in the bag already, if KG hadn't those games in mid season, there is no way anybody else's would have even came up like it was in the earlier half of the season. Garnett made his teammates so better that they won even when he was down. and in the end, him bringing out the best of his teammates is what costed him a mvp trophy. But anybody who has watched Garnett knows that he would give 10 mvps up for one larry o'brian's trophy.
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