NBA Playoffs 2012: Kevin Garnett's Comments About 76er Fans Apply to Both Sides

This second-round series between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers just got personal.

Following the Celtics' Game 5 win on Monday night, Boston forward Kevin Garnett couldn't resist taking a shot at Philadelphia fans.

When asked to compare the crowds in Boston and Philly, Garnett replied that they weren't "even close," according to the Boston Globe.

"You got fans and then you got fair-weather fans," Garnett said. "Take that how you want."

As you might expect, Philly fans haven't taken too kindly to Garnett calling them front-runners.

The only problem is, it's 100 percent true.

Take a look at home attendance numbers since the Allen Iverson era (Round 1, anyway), and you'll quickly see that the Sixers haven't exactly been the talk of the town.

Ever since the 2005 season, where the Sixers ranked 10th in terms of average number of tickets sold per home game, they've ranked in the bottom 10 in terms of attendance per game up until this year.

In 2007, the Sixers trailed only the Grizzlies in terms of lowest home attendance with 14,843 fans per game, according to ESPN.com. Besides a spike in the 2008-09 season, when they averaged nearly 16,000 fans per game, the Sixers have hovered in the 14,000- to 15,000-fan range on a nightly basis at home.

This past year, on the other hand, the Sixers ranked 14th in attendance with an average of just over 17,500 fans per night, by far the most since the 2004-05 season.

Was it a coincidence that the Sixers' highest attendance in nearly a decade coincided with their most successful season? Perhaps. But it's difficult to believe the Sixers' hot start out of the gate this season (a 20-9 record in their first 29 games) didn't play a role in the attendance boost.

Bottom line: Sixers fans are front-runners, and won't show up in droves to support a team with middling playoff chances. The ticket sales pretty clearly indicate that.

Instead, Garnett's mistaken for two other reasons.

First, while Sixers fans may be "fair-weather," they know how to go wild when their team's actually performing well.

Garnett said this about the Celtics fans at TD Garden, via the Globe:

"Speaking about this crowd, it’s like plugging in. I feel like every minute I look up, I see my family, I see people yelling, I see the drunk, fat guy. I can't decipher one from the other. This crowd is ridiculous. I love it."

Mr. Garnett, may I introduce you to Big Daddy, the biggest, baddest Sixers fan in the land? I know you were too busy shooting free throws the other day to notice his belly dancing, but I'd say he's a pretty  passionate fan.

I won't pretend like I've been able to attend a Sixers' playoff game this year, but from what I've seen second hand, the crowds in Philly have been equally electric. Just look at how Sixers fans flippped out at the end of the Chicago Bulls series.

To put it honestly, Celtics fans are just as much of fair-weather fans as Sixers fans.

In the season before their Big Three of Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce united, the Celtics ranked 20th in the NBA in terms of attendance, averaging 16,843 fans per game, according to ESPN. Boston couldn't crack an average of 17,000 fans from the 2003-04 season until the 2007-09 season.

Suddenly, the Big Three come together, and Boston sells out every seat for three of the next four years.

That's not front-running?

It's simple, really. People aren't going to venture out to an NBA arena in droves to watch a sub-.500 basketball team. They can do that from the comfort of their own living rooms and not spend half their paycheck doing so.

Until then, Sixers fans will just have to pray that their whole-is-better-than-the-parts team can keep overachieving, giving them a reason to keep coming to the games and screaming their lungs out.

Get ready for 48 minutes of Big Daddy's stomach, K.G. Something tells me you'll be seeing plenty of it tomorrow night.