KG is Beginning to Irritate People (And That’s a Good Thing)

Posted by Zach Lowe on Oct 11, 2009 355716 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2009%2F10%2F11%2Fkg-is-beginning-to-irritate-people-and-thats-a-good-thing%2FKG+is+Beginning+to+Irritate+People+%28And+That%27s+a+Good+Thing%292009-10-11+23%3A52%3A47Zach+Lowehttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D3557

Poor Yi. I didn’t see today’s game against the Nets (it wasn’t on the TeeVee here in NYC as far as I could tell), so until a YouTube clip appears, I must rely on Chris Sheridan’s florid prose to tell me about KG’s bullying of Yi Jianlian today: 

After toying with the Chinese 7-footer in the first quarter both inside and outside, Garnett demonstrably shoved Yi’s arms aside and began bodying him up during a dead ball. The replacement refs quickly separated them, but as soon as they cleared away, Garnett immediately went back at Yi and bodied him up some more, raising his hands high in the air while pushing him from behind with his body — the sort of flashpoint moment that would have earned Garnett a technical foul from a more seasoned official.

“I don’t know him, he don’t know me. It wasn’t nothing personal,” Garnett explained, comparing the incident to an episode he had with Luis Scola of Houston in Boston’s first preseason game last Wednesday.

There are those that have argued KG’s Celtic-era bullying is a sign of insecurity. (Not surprisingly, “those” = Lakers fans). Here’s an excerpt from a post written during the middle of last season on the TrueHoop Lakers blog, Forum Blue and Gold:

For such a successful team, whence this strange insecurity? I believe it springs from the players’ and team’s roots with failure. First Garnett, the spiritual leader of the team and the prototype for insecure athletes. From off the court beginnings to his decade of failed championship questing in Minnesota, KG lived in the shadow of failure for a long time – always labeled as that star who couldn’t get out of the first round, and always afraid of the big shot. We all know people like him – the alpha male who has to be in charge, picks on the little guy, works like a demon, seems haunted by lingering self doubt, and is wildly successful.

KG’s bullying of a vastly inferior player today will only inspire more such talk. But this could be just a case of an elite player trying to rediscover the intensity with which he played before suffering the most serious injury of his career. KG won’t feel comfortable until he tests his body. One way of testing your body is to gear your mind up to peak intensity and just see what the hell happens. In that sense, the faux-intensity is a positive sign. KG is re-training his mind to he can re-train his body, too.

Speaking of KG’s knee, today seems like it was the biggest step in the right direction yet, according to Sheridan’s piece. 

KG: “I thought today I got up and down, I tried to put the pressure on their defense. Aggressive, as far as being aggressive, this is probably the most aggressive I’ve been since I’ve come back and played. My reaction time was a lot better, a lot faster.”

And: “Afternoon games are not my forte, but for the most part, yeah, sprinting, my gait is getting better and better, I’m getting stronger, I can see it, feel it,” Garnett said. “My confidence is growing every time I step on the floor, and that includes practice.”

Question: Has the word “gait” ever been used more often to describe a non-equine athlete as it has been used in relation to KG?