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.

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.