Garnett: "If you don't like how I'm playing, get me the [bleep] out of here."

[Evilmav2]

I know that the fact that this column was written by Peter Vescey might make it appear uncredible, but this year Petey has been doing better work in his columns than I've ever seen him do, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if his account of McHale's and Garnett's locker room blowup is accurate. And considering that fact, I also wouldn't be at all surprised if Garnett ends this season playing in a New Jersey or Orlando uniform...


NO KEVINS HEAVEN

Peter Vescey
New York Post

January 27, 2006 -- Over the past few months, as it became increasingly evident the Timberwolves' imperfections were more than skin deep, numerous teams called to inquire about Kevin Garnett's availability.

All were told the same thing: We're not even going to discuss it at this time.

That suited Garnett just fine. In a recent public statement, he maintained his loyalty to the only NBA franchise he's ever carried (11th season, longest continuous service of any player in the wake of Reggie Miller's retirement) since transferring from high school to the pros, and resolved to remain a Wolf man for a life.

A noble stance considering his team's reduction in rank from perennial playoff participant (eliminated in the '03-04 Western Conference finals) to lottery level last season. Currently, the T'wolves are 19-21, tied with Golden State for ninth in the West.

Then again, that was before Sunday afternoon's postgame tongue-lashing by Kevin McHale. According to a source who got it straight from a Minnesota player, the Celtics' Hall of Famer and T'wolves VP of basketball operations barged into rookie coach Dwane Casey's locker room and barbecued the whole bunch for Heimliching a 19-point, late-third-quarter lead on national TV to the 76ers.

"McHale was real mad," said the hearing aide. "He jumped on the team for not finishing strong, for not being aggressive and for playing scared. He accused the team of playing not-to-lose instead of playing to win."

The wallop of McHale's expletive-deleted tirade was reserved for Garnett, at least that's the feeling he got. So he responded correspondingly. Already frazzled and frustrated by the ghastly loss and 13-point output on 5-for-15 inaccuracy (his lowest since New Year's night in Miami) and dismal production in the fourth quadrant, the last straw was a scolding.

"I ain't [bleeping] playin' scared," Garnett stormed. "I ain't [bleeping] playin' to lose. I ain't [bleeping] puttin' my head down. I'm [bleeping] tryin' as hard as I can every night."

Earlier this season, Garnett called out McHale on TNT for doing a poor reconstruction job of the roster - trading Sam Cassell to my Paper Clips for Marko Jaric really bugged him out. This time, Garnett reputedly called him out in front of the team, telling him coarsely what course of action he could take right then and there.

A T'wolves source denies this happened, or at least didn't hear it himself. He also denies that Garnett subsequently put an exclamation point on his defiance. The soul of his disputed message: "If you don't like how I'm playing, get me the [bleep] out of here, trade my [bleep]."

Emotional outbursts among teammates and coaches (not so much management) are commonplace behind closed doors in sports. For the most part, it's strictly temporary insanity. Not surprisingly, Garnett left the Off-Target Center that evening without talking to the media, an uncommon occurrence.

Yet team tension and futility have persisted. The T'wolves have lost two in a row since, a miserable 24-point defeat in Minnesota to the Flip Saunders-coached Pistons and a 20-point wipeout in Memphis.

Knowing something had to be done to stop the bleeding, McHale shook things up last night by swapping Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi and a No. 1 pick for long-coveted Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks and Justin Reed.

This just in: The ghost of Hubert Humphrey slunk into the T'Wolves' executive offices and lambasted McHale for dragging his pivot feet on Vietnam.

Influx of fresh talent aside, if things don't improve noticeably by the time the Feb. 23 trading deadline rolls around, Garnett may very well be next to go.

My father always said I was no ordinary idiot. While that's debatable, it seems to me, despite averaging 22.2 points (16th overall) and 11.5 rebounds (fifth), K.G. is not good enough in the heart of the matter to salvage McHale's sloping Navy.

In a week where the league should have been celebrating the second-greatest single-game performance in its history, Bryant Park winds up with the shelf life of left-out Limburger.

While Matt Winick, the little old schedule-maker, did his best to allow Kobe Bryant and the league to bask in his basket full of (81) points - the Lakers don't play again until tonight against the Warriors - other forces were at work holding down the hype.

First was the rerouting of Rorschach Artest, whose mood swings have worn out many a mood ring. After a couple days of hiding behind the inexperience and incompetence of his newest agent, Mark Stevens, who did his damnedest to sabotage a trade to the Kings for Peja Stojakovic, he finally consented.

However, before the Brothers Maloof and Brothers Grimm agreed ,they demanded a personal pow-wow with Artest. How much would you pay for a printed transcript?

By my count, Artest became the first player in NBA history obliged to take a mental (I'm unsure he has to pass it) before joining a new team.

peter.vecsey@nypost.com

[Arne]

However, before the Brothers Maloof and Brothers Grimm agreed ,they demanded a personal pow-wow with Artest. How much would you pay for a printed transcript?

By my count, Artest became the first player in NBA history obliged to take a mental (I'm unsure he has to pass it) before joining a new team.

Funny lines.

[chumdawg]

I find this column painfully overwritten. Fourth "quadrant?" Please, Vescey. Please don't try to squeeze blood from a turnip. All you do is wear yourself out.

That said, McHale goes WAY before Garnett does. Whatever that team needs to do to get better, trading Garnett ain't part of it.

[Thespiralgoeson]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

I find this column painfully overwritten. Fourth "quadrant?" Please, Vescey. Please don't try to squeeze blood from a turnip. All you do is wear yourself out.

That said, McHale goes WAY before Garnett does. Whatever that team needs to do to get better, trading Garnett ain't part of it.

Personally, I think they should both go. McHale has obviously done a bad job,but Garnett's pushing 30. I think if KG were going to get them to the promised land, he would've done it by now. I honestly believe they might be better off if they trade him now, while his trade value is still incredibly high.

[Dirkenstien]

Originally Posted by Thespiralgoeson

Personally, I think they should both go. McHale has obviously done a bad job,but Garnett's pushing 30. I think if KG were going to get them to the promised land, he would've done it by now. I honestly believe they might be better off if they trade him now, while his trade value is still incredibly high.

I agree. As painful as it sounds, Minny needs to start looking at possible trades for Garnett. Their team is not going anywhere anytime soon. They need to trade while KG's value is still at its peak, and rebuild for the future.

[alby]

would you give up your entire present and future

for a dirk/garnett combo?

[V2M]

Originally Posted by alby

would you give up your entire present and future

for a dirk/garnett combo?

No.

[Thespiralgoeson]

Originally Posted by alby

would you give up your entire present and future

for a dirk/garnett combo?

No, because then you'd have to play one of them at 3, and both of them are 4's. Now a Dirk and Duncan combo, that would be unstoppable. Duncan's more a 5 anyway.

[Mavdog]

Wolves Insider: KG-Wally dynamics awkward to the end

HOUSTON - The seeds of the uneasy alliance between Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak were sown years ago. Back before this season's sputter down to and below .500. Back before Garnett punched an unsuspecting Szczerbiak in the Timberwolves' locker room following a practice in November 2000. Back all the way, perhaps, to the World Games team on which they played in the summer of 1999 after the Wolves drafted Szczerbiak, when teammate Gary Payton razzed Garnett about the cocky rookie his team had stuck him with.

But the seeds got watered again, perhaps needlessly, as recently as Sunday afternoon in the heat of a postgame locker room that might have fueled Szczerbiak's trade from Minnesota four days later.

After the Wolves' 86-84 loss at the buzzer to Philadelphia, Kevin McHale stormed into the locker room.

He challenged the players' character, pride and passion -- y'know, all the usual sports things.

The vice president of basketball operations was accompanied by Rex Chapman, who started his Wolves career as a "consultant" last spring heading toward the NBA draft and returned this fall as a scout.

Chapman chimed in his displeasure, too, and apparently called out both Garnett and Szczerbiak individually, specifically demanding to know why they didn't play together better. Each player was taken aback by Chapman's questions; Garnett left the building almost immediately, gone long before his usual postgame chinwag with reporters.

Contrary to one national report Friday, witnesses said it did not climax with Garnett profanely challenging McHale to trade him. But that report didn't note Chapman's involvement, which caught more than a few Wolves players by surprise.

"Since that point," one player said Friday, requesting anonymity, "it was like everyone was walking on eggshells."

Gee, ya think? That heartbreaker was followed quickly enough by blowouts against Detroit -- an emotional game, with fired Wolves coach Flip Saunders back at Target Center -- and at Memphis. Less than 24 hours after the Grizzlies game, Szczerbiak was gone. And a strange bit of friction that lingered on the fringes of the team for seven long years seemingly was over.

Even though, in the eyes of many people around the club, Garnett and Szczerbiak were co-existing better than ever.

The topic, absolutely, came up again Friday in the wake of the trade.

"I want to clear this up," Garnett said. "With everything, I've never had a beef with 'World.' Personally, we were teammates. I understood that. As the primary on this team, man, I felt it was my responsibility to have the ball come through me, and consolidate it and distribute it to everybody. I don't know if 'World' was bothered by that. But I have no beef with 'World.' You'd see us on the plane, you'd see us out. We don't hang, but we're teammates. He was our family, that's how I viewed it."

So why the recurring rumblings? "We're two totally different people," Garnett said. "From two totally different parts of the Earth. I think people wanted it to be some more than what it was, like we hated each other. We spoke every day, had conversations, cracked jokes, just like every other teammate in here, y'know? Basketballwise, came in, whatever we had to do to get a win. Sometimes we didn't get it."

Szczerbiak often said similar things during his time in Minnesota. Mere hours after being dealt, er, not so much.

"There's always something that's bugging him," Szczerbiak said. "I just tried to come to work every day with a smile on my face. Play basketball. Sure, I took a few ill-advised shots. ... Maybe I didn't handle it the way he wanted, when he yelled at me.

"I just think we're polar opposites in a lot of things. I don't know what he wants."

Regardless of where the relationship stood this week, what happened Sunday was an awkward, emotional tactic at a particularly tense moment. Addressing Garnett's and Szczerbiak's alliance should have been done on a practice day. Or in training camp. Or over the summer. Or, better still, two or three years ago.

Then there's the bad form of a scout airing out players in Casey's locker room.

"It might not have been the best time or the best place," Chapman conceded Friday night in Houston. "But some things needed to be said.

"There was nothing malicious, nothing other than wanting the guys to close out ballgames."

Only problem was, in its timing and in its messenger, it didn't seem to come in the contest of an eager, ambitious team trying to get better. It came with nerves frayed, against a backdrop of anxiety and dysfunction, opening an old wound.

And possibly leading to a trade.

[sike]

only when I see it.

[MavKikiNYC]

Uhhh....what the hell is Rex Chapman doing in the Wolves lockerroom?

Another oganization out of control.

[4cwebb]

If you're Orlando, do you trade KG for Dwight Howard (ignoring salary cap considerations for the moment)?

[Thespiralgoeson]

Originally Posted by 4cwebb

If you're Orlando, do you trade KG for Dwight Howard (ignoring salary cap considerations for the moment)?

I wouldn't. Howard could be the next dominant bigman and he's what, 21?

[Five-ofan]

he turned 20 about a month ago. NO if you are orlando. Howard is one of 3 players i would consider trading dirk for.

[Usually Lurkin]

A T'wolves source denies this happened, or at least didn't hear it himself. He also denies that Garnett subsequently put an exclamation point on his defiance. The soul of his disputed message: "If you don't like how I'm playing, get me the [bleep] out of here, trade my [bleep]."

Is this the closest thing anyone has come to attributing this quote to an actual person? If so, Vecsey should be fired. Sued for slander, even. Kicked in the groin definitely. That's an ugly way to turn a denial into an accusation.

[sike]

Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin

Kicked in the groin definitely.

how about pistols at dawn?

[Dtownsfinest]

Garnett's not the reason why the T-Wolves haven't won a championship yet. Its easy to say should've and could've but how good would the T-Wolves be right now if they would've drafted Josh Howard instead of Edi? What about resigning Chauncey Billups? None of that is Garnett's fault. He's done nothing but be a great professional in Minnie.

[Five-ofan]

He isnt the reason they havent won one but he isnt the reason that they have ever been contenders either. (Cassel was the one year they were) I hate garnett but the guy is a stud though not to the extent his numbers make him look to be. All this does if true is mean the end of mchale as wolves gm.

[Drbio]

Originally Posted by Dtownsfinest

Garnett's not the reason why the T-Wolves haven't won a championship yet. Its easy to say should've and could've but how good would the T-Wolves be right now if they would've drafted Josh Howard instead of Edi? What about resigning Chauncey Billups? None of that is Garnett's fault. He's done nothing but be a great professional in Minnie.

Certainly not drafting Howard is outside of Ganrnett's blame, but not resigning Billups might be. His contract at the time had handcuffed the franchise and he was demanding more. I think it was about the same time. But your point is a pretty good one.

[Drbio]

Chum- that was a good read....thanks!!!

[alby]

dwight howard is the closest to untouchable you can get, this kid is a beast at 20.