On Friday, it was unclear who had the bigger abdominal strain: Kevin Garnett, who suffered the injury in the first Boston-Minnesota matchup, or KG supporters, who suffered the stomach pain after hearing that Garnett would not be suiting up in green and white.

Garnett showed up when it mattered during a standing ovation lasting a good minute-and-a-half, although the former Wolves MVP didn’t give media members the time of day, nor did he sit on the Celtics bench. KG bowed, hit his chest a couple of times, and waved before departing into the frigid Minnesota night. Many, I’m sure, had goosebumps, including me, but the whole escapade reminded me of the passive-aggressive sports culture that Minnesota fans so voluntarily participate in.

When the trade rumors began, a common theme emerged: Inevitably, it must get done. Garnett was 31, and a player no longer regarded as one of the NBA’s 10 best players. Start over. Fresh legs. Hope. That was the theme.

No one suggested that Garnett showed up to work counting the days until Kevin McHale made his inevitable deal, one that looks decent on paper but not nearly as good on Randy Wittman’s chalkboard. The point is, fans were frustrated that Garnett failed to put up MVP-like numbers. Fans hated the idea of him leaving, too, because well, he was the Big Ticket in a town with very few big tickets.

Again, we’ve been hit by a bus on the two-way street of Minnesota sports. Traveling one way, we have the thousands of fans at Target Center and the thousands of others who wanted to be at Target Center reveling in the Kevin Garnett era. Traveling the other way, the same fans sing the praise of Al Jefferson, who certainly has the potential and talent that Garnett did in his 2004 MVP year. And by golly, how about the Jefferson-Garnett comparison? While any attempt at this justification in this regard is the sign of another downfall of this bandwagon culture, all you have to do is realize that Jefferson didn’t make it to midcourt in Friday’s buzzer-beater loss to Garnett’s current team.

Garnett came home, no question. Minnesota and its fans put Kevin Garnett on the map, and for that, the 6-11 forward out of Faragut Academy High School was thankful.

But the real issue, I suppose, is that Garnett put Minnesota on the map.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 7:43 pm and is filed under NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.