I don't hate Kevin Garnet. I just don't have man love for him. I don't think he's Superman or the Chosen One or something.
This is my point about never having bought into him being an intense player.
I got very very used to this dynamic in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnet get ready to play a playoff game.
Kevin Garnet slaps some powder. Makes some faces.
Tim Duncan doesn't.
Kevin Garnet takes a jump shot. Duncan slams it in his face. Duncan outplays Garnet is every phase of the game. Everyone acts like Garnet has scrubs for teammates or something while Duncan is on Dream Team 2. I'm scratching my head.
The Spurs win easily.
Kevin Garnet cries or something.
Duncan acts like this is routine for him.
People say "Oh man isn't Garnet so intense?"
And I'm sitting here like "I'm not seeing it"
I guess that makes me a hater. I guess maybe it makes me hypocritical. I always thought of Karl Malone as intense. I don't know what to say.
I just place KG firmly in the Peyton Manning category. Yes. He was very good. But there were others clearly better or just as good so why do we always talk about him?
KG and TD played 8 playoff games against each other. KG scored a few more points than TD, had a few more assists than TD and had about the same number of rebounds. I guess that's pretty good for someone who's "outplayed in every phase of the game". I personally think it's pretty ridiculous to claim that an 8 time all-nba defensive 1st team player wasn't intense because he didn't dunk the ball enough. If you're looking at someone who's better or just as good, I wouldn't look towards Karl Malone.
What was the field goal and free throw percentage? What was the tos and fouls? Anyway this gets back to the whole thing about how Dan Marino was better than Joe Montana because he threw for more yards.
8 games over 2 playoffs
Garnett: 21.4 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast, 1.3 stl, 1.9 blk, 2.4 TO, 45% FG (17.1 FGA), 80% FT (7.4 FTA)
Duncan: 20.6 pts, 11.9 reb, 3.4 ast, .9 stl, 2.5 blk, 2.3 TO, 46% FG (17 FGA), 70% FT (7.0 FTA)
On the whole, Garnett and Duncan pretty much cancelled each other out. The difference in those 2 series was that David Robinson almost matched Duncan's production and was the other dominant player on the court. The Wolves lacked the firepower to compete with the other Spurs.