Passion!

"I'm all in all of the time bruh!"

Kevin Garnett has been my favorite player in the league since the day he became a professional. Not because of his game or because of the team that he played for. It was simply his passion for the game and his passion for his team. KG for years has been the only player in the league that plays with a child’s enthusiasm every night. I don’t care if it’s the first game of the season or a Wednesday night in January, he’s going to leave it all on the court.

There are so many guys in the league that have dogged it until the playoffs start like Shaq, Barkley, Malone, Iverson, just to name a few, for so many years. How many times do you hear of guys not even playing on any given night? Remember Shaq was in the league and he would wait until the day before the season would start to have surgery and miss like the first 30 games? This cat would chill all summer then decide he needed to get cut so he didn't have to play the 82 games. I’ve been burned so many times trying to see cats play that just decided they're not playing tonight and won’t even make the trip.

My wife was a huge Iverson fan while he was in the league. So we would get tickets to see him whenever they would come to Indy to play the Pacers. I can’t even count the number of times that Iverson didn’t even make the trip with the team bruh or just stayed at the hotel. She would be all excited to see "The Answer" go to work and the team would come out for warm ups and no Iverson. Then they would have the nerve to announce, "Allen Iverson will not be performing tonight!" Like it was a concert or play or something.  So if you see that cat on the street tell him I'm looking for him because he owes me money too! 

Tickets aren’t free and I want to see guys give it all they’ve got every night. Garnett has been that guy since day one. My wife can’t stand him because she says that he’s animalistic because he beats on his chest and talks to himself all night long. I keep telling her that that is passion pure and simple.  He wants to win every night no matter who they're playing and he knows there are cats like me that don't like wasting money. Give me what I paid for bruh! If I order the filet don't bring out the chopped sirloin. If I pay for the flat screen plasma joint don't deliver the big back! 

Yeah, KG picks on guys smaller than him from time to time but you won’t find a player in the league that plays harder than he does every night. Even when he was playing for the Timberwolves and he had absolutely no help, he had played with the same unbridled passion. You've got to respect him for that. 

It’s only been recently that the guys in the NBA are playing hard during the regular season. There’s a new breed of player in the league now that we’ve never seen before. Guys like Lebron, D. Wade, Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin all play with the same passion. They’re only going to be on the sideline if they are truly hurt and they all want to win every game. They aren’t doing what the old school guys did by pacing themselves and taking nights off to make it to the playoffs. Now don't get me wrong, I completely understood what boyz were doing but my bread was on the table.

 Now if the games were free or discounted every time some cat decided he wasn't going to play I would be cool with that. You can't sell tickets to see Beyonce' and show up and her sister is on stage bruh. C'mon, I didn't pay to see Willie Lump Lump play. I want to see the superstar so unless he's really hurt he'd better be running up and down the floor. Let's keep it real, how would you feel if you waited all month to see Chris Brown and showed up and Chris Jones was on stage? You'd be ready to fight everybody in the joint and even spill it out into the parking lot. Have you ever been in a joint and a fight breaks out and then everybody starts fighting for no reason? That's how it should be if the superstar you came to see decides not to play. 

 Last year, D. Wade and LeBron got together in South Beach to win a title and are still on that mission today. They put ego’s aside and put a plan in place to win a championship and you have to appreciate the effort. It's not bad for ticket sales and ratings either bruh and I'm cool with that. Let's keep it real or all the 100, whichever comes 1st! It's all entertainment and folks want to see the product on the floor. If I wanted to see some cats goof around I could go to the rec center and watch boyz run up and down the floor for free.

 I’ve never been a fan of the NBA until just recently when these new cats have taken the floor. Back when Magic, Bird and Jordan were in the league the NBA was only interesting during the playoffs bruh. People would suffer through the season and get dialed in, in April. The only guy’s worth watching during the regular season was Jordan, Magic, Clyde and Dominque, in my opinion. They were so athletic that they would give you a reason to tune in.  As good as he was nobody cared about watching Bird until the playoffs. It wasn’t until the Lakers and Celtics took the floor that anybody really paid attention.

I just think that Kevin Garnett raises the level of play and passion of his teammates and we need more guys like him in the league. Before he hooked up with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen those guys didn’t play at a maximum level every night either.  Sure, they’ve always been good but they would take nights off too but not with KG on the floor or sideline. Even when he is hurt he’s going crazy on the bench and that is contagious and worth the price of admission. There is no substitute for passion and I'll buy that all day long!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves

Follow me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport