KG the good guy of the NBA, humble, hardworking superstar

Written by

Jude Thaddeus L. Bautista

Before anything else, I’d like to start by writing that I have nothing against the Lakers. As I said very recently to a Laker fan, your team has everything; the best coach in Phil Jackson, arguably the most unstoppable and Finals savvy player in Kobe Bryant, the biggest and talented frontline in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Their point guard Derek Fisher also has far more championship rings than any other point guard and their 6^th man, Lamar Odom is a versatile seven foot tall SMALL forward. If all these guys weren’t enough early this season they acquired Ron Artest who has been an all star several times in his career. Nearly every player in the roster has had finals experience from Sasha Vujacic to Luke Walton. Kobe is gunning for his fifth NBA title. Everyone knows, the Lakers have the shrewdest front office. They  even have movie stars like Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, Jack Nicholson and so many more celebrities as fans.

At the beginning of the 2010 season clearly the L.A. Lakers were already projected to win it all. After the playoffs, Phil Jackson exceeded Red Auerbach’s 109 playoff victories with 112. And they have lived up to the expectations of their fans and basketball experts around the world. Contrast that to the regular season of the Celtics. After being eliminated from last year’s playoffs, they were ranked fourth by observers. And before the playoffs started, the ranking was accurate; the Cleveland Cavaliers had the best season record followed by Orlando and Atlanta.

The Celts were in a little bit of disarray with trade rumors concerning Ray Allen. While they were able to acquire Nate Robinson and Marquis Daniels, how they fit in the team wasn’t really a sure thing. The age of the Big Three: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were beginning to show. Charles Barkley predicted a win by Le Bron James’ Cavs over the Celts in the series. He was only echoing what other experts already thought based on the regular season AND the line ups. In spite of all that however, the Celtics were able to pull out gutsy wins, not just against Cleveland but also the Orlando Magic. So here they are now in the Finals with the Lakers. And after yesterday’s game they tied the series at 2-2.

Traditionally, the playoffs are always more exciting than the finals because one team is always obviously superior to the other. (Just like last year’s L.A., Orlando match up) But now it’s a real series and as a fan I’m almost satisfied that the Celts ALREADY won two games against the Lakers. There’s a certain amount of satisfaction because they weren’t supposed to be in the Finals in the first place.

But the more the drama unfolds the more I want Kevin Garnett and the Celts to win it all.  KG has always been perceived as a gentleman and a ‘good guy’ around the league. He stuck it out with Minnesota for years in spite of them being a weak team. Jeff Van Gundy  who was annotating game 4  made a great observation. When KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce were tapped to go to the scorer’s table to get into the game in the 4^th quarter, they had to be asked back to the bench by coach Doc Rivers. Rasheed Wallace sank a 3ptr and Rivers wanted to keep Rasheed in the game. Big Baby Davis and Nate Robinson were playing so well, it happened 3 times, going to the scorer’s table and being pulled back to the bench because the back up players were doing so well. Van Gundy said, “If it was any other superstar, they’d be pissed. But KG’s happy cheering his team mates on.”

I couldn’t forget the sight of KG and the Celtics going into Manny Pacquiao’s locker room in the David Diaz fight in 2008 after they won their first NBA Championship. They called Manny their champ. The window of opportunity for KG, Pierce and Allen to win another championship may not come again, especially because of their age. The Celtics represent the underdog and a selfless team. That’s why I want them to win the 2010 NBA championship