For sometime now mainstream sports media (haha I sound like Fox News) has had a love affair with Kevin Garnett and frankly I am not sure why. Granted Kevin Garnett is a terrific basketball player. Garnett gives 100% every time he steps on the floor and his defensive abilities helped lead the Celtics to banner No. 17 but in my opinion Garnett is not who everyone thinks he is.

This inexplicable love for Garnett runs very deep, all the way back to Garnett's high school days. Garnett was a McDonald's All-American and there was a lot of hype surrounding Garnett because he was contemplating skipping college and heading straight to the NBA. Garnett's decision of whether to attend college or was not based on him feeling that he was a superior talent and that college couldn't pose a challenge, nor was it because his family was in dire need of money, Garnett was sure to cash in on upon turning pro, no Garnett’s decision was based on his inability to score the minimum score on the SAT that would qualify him to attend a division 1 school.

The 1996 McDonalds All American game was another inexplicable event for me growing up; the announcers were gushing over Garnett abilities. The McDonald's All-American game is an all-star game where 99 out of 100 times the leading scorer wins the MVP despite 28 from both Paul Pierce and Ron Mercer; Garnett with 21 points won the MVP.

Garnett's professional basketball career has been very impressive, he has had more 20-10-5 seasons then Larry Bird and he has been a notable player but Garnett is given too much credit. He shouts, screams and yells for three quarters only to disappear in the fourth quarter. He is often in the middle of a fracas that he started with his lame attempts to intimidate his opponents but yet he is often praised as a leader when in my opinion he is nothing more then a jerk and not a Steve Martin jerk more like a Cartman from south park jerk. You don't have to play in the NBA to know the Kevin Garnett type. Garnett is the guy in the rec league threatening people with violence, the guy talking trash after his team won the game despite his teammate making the winning shot, he is the jerk yelling and screaming for making a lay-up that he should have made. He is a grand stander a front runner. Below is a you tube clip of a calculated cowardly move by Garnett. Striking Tim Duncan knowing Duncan wouldn't retaliate.

My anger and frustration reached an all time high a few weeks ago when Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don't Lie put together a list of the best players of the decade and ranked Garnett second best player of the decade behind Tim Duncan and ahead of Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Lebron James, etc. I was shocked, Garnett has one championship and Shaq and Kobe each have four rings. Not only that but prior to arriving in Boston, Garnett missed three consecutive playoffs. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley the real greats never ever missed three consecutive playoffs. As a matter of fact Garnett has only been past the first round three times in his career and I am being generous, I am including last year where he didn't even play a single game of the playoffs. There were other significant problems with Kelly Dwyer's list but Garnett being ranked second was the biggest in my opinion.

Its like the mainstream media doesn't want to admit that Garnett wasn't all he was made out to be. Even as I did research for this blog there were a number of other blogs comparing Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. What is there to compare? Duncan has four championships and three finals MVP's to Garnett's one championship and no finals MVP, case closed. Garnett's antics, the chest pounding, the cursing, the yelling, constant delivering of cheap shots draws attention to himself. Garnett's contribution to the Celtics championships can't be denied he anchored the Celtics defense but Paul Pierce made the shots and wanted the ball in the pressure situations. Paul Pierce is the one who denied Lebron James an eastern conference finals appearance matching Lebron shot for shot but the last memory of the 2008 Finals is again Kevin Garnett screaming "anything is possible".

With all that said the Boston Celtics will need every bit of Kevin Garnett's shenanigans to hoist Banner No. 18. The chest pounding, the cursing, undoubtedly gets the crowd and his teammates going and provides an additional challenge for the opposing team. If Garnett were not injured last season Rashard Lewis would have been rendered useless in the playoffs and the Celtics surely would have made a return trip to the Finals. Garnett is a guy you hate when he is on the opposing team but love him when he is on your side.