Kevin Garnett's Decline Depressing for Those Who Know Him
I'm not.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for KG and his place on a contender. He's put in enough blood, sweat and tears for the chance at multiple titles.
This just isn't the Big Ticket we grew to love and admire, nor the KG other players feared.
Gone is the freakish athleticism once barely contained in his seven-foot frame.
Gone are his highlight reel dunks, his constant breakneck pace, and his overall domination in nearly every facet of the game.
What makes it so depressing is seeing Garnett's spirit trying to will him to former heights. The spirit can only take so many reality checks, however, and KG's body has been a continuous one over the last two years.
Now, even the spirit has trouble catching fire.
Maybe the over-competitiveness caught up with him, all those years of wanting and yearning so hard to the point where his body is breaking down and his once unparalleled hunger isn't far behind.
It's easy to forget how contagious his play was, the ferocity that made you nod your head and say, "That's how you play this game."
He used to be what Dwyane Wade is now—the lone star on a mediocre team. The team's mediocrity didn't matter. Both, Garnett then and Wade now, were/are a guarantee for at least one "Did you see that?!" moment a game.
Those moments weren't caused by talent, although Garnett practically oozed the stuff. They came from the peerless passion of the game which enhanced his talent to incredible heights.
A putback dunk. Running like a gazelle for the fastbreak finish. The clamp-down defense. The money turnaround jumper. One hundred percent all the time.
If you remember that Garnett, you can't help but wonder what his legacy would have been had his loyalty not stood so long with Minnesota and their pathetic management. Put his prime on a contender, not his twilight, and you'd mention him among the all-time greats, not just one of this generation.
KG was so good, so vibrant for so long, it seemed unfathomable he'd one day be trying to keep up with someone else.
But that's exactly what's been happening this series. Garnett is on fumes, trying to stay relevant so Rajon Rondo doesn't have to do it alone, so the Celtics don't live or die by Ray Allen's threes, so the Celtics don't have to pray Pierce can break through against Artest in a seven-game series.
It's disheartening, and it makes me hope that for at least one more game, we'll see the KG that left us happy, if only because he showed the way the game is supposed to be played from an emotional standpoint.
That's what made him the Big Ticket, the guy you wanted to watch because his combination of talent and desire was so rare.
The former is almost gone, and the latter is fading. For him and his fans' sake, let's hope he can turn back the clock on the big stage one last time.
