BY: BRIAN WOLF
Kevin Garnett was one of those guys that you absolutely hated, but wanted on your team. “The Big Ticket” is considered one of the greatest power forwards of all time. He is just one five players to win a regular season MVP award, and Defensive POY award. McDonald’s All-American, National POY his senior season at Farragut Career Academy. KG was the first player in over 20 years to be drafted into the NBA right out of high school. The accolades speak for themselves. Kevin Garnett was a baller.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, KG touched on how the game has evolved, and whether or not, guys from his time could compete with the players of today.
“The game is at another level. I want you to get on a court, sprint corner to corner, stop on a dime and shoot a 3. I want you to do 10 of those. Then I want you to focus on how tired you are. Because these players do that for 48 minutes, I don’t think guys from 20 years ago could play in this game. Twenty years ago, guys used their hands to control players. Now you can’t use your hands. That makes defense damn near impossible. Can you imagine not hand-checking Michael Jordan? Naw. The fact that you can’t touch players gives the offensive player so much flexibility. Defensive players have to take angles away and stuff like that. But if you have any creativity and ambition, you can be a great offensive player in this league. The fadeaways, one-leg runners, the one-leg balance shots — that’s stuff that Dirk Nowitzki brought to our game. And now when I watch Joker play, it feels like he has taken that Dirkness and mixed it with his own talent. And Steph Curry revolutionized things with being able to shoot it from distance with such consistency. Klay Thompson. Dame Lillard. These guards changed the game. I don’t know if even the guards from 20 or 30 years ago could play in this time right here. It’s creative. It’s competitive. It’s saucy. You’ll get dropped! A [expletive] will cross you over and break your A.C.L. these days. The game is in a great place.”
Kevin Garnett to David Marchese of The New York Times
It takes a lot, especially from a Hall of Famer, to admit something like this. The game has changed drastically. He touched on how defensively the defender can’t use their hands and hand-check the player with the ball. Sure the game has become less physical, but the players are much more skilled and athletic in today’s game. Bigger. Faster. Stronger. It blows my mind when I check out a high schoolers Youtube clips and see them dunking with grown man authority or dropping 50 points against the likes of Montverde Academy, IMG Academy, and Oak Hill Academy. There weren’t many 7 footers shooting from beyond the arc. Now it seems like every franchise has at least one 7 footer that can make a three pointer. What I would pay, though, to watch Jordan’s Bulls compete against Kobe’s Lakers or even today’s Lakers with LeBron and AB.
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