6.12.2008

Ode to the Chief

The Chief is one of the NBA’s Fifty Greatest players of all-time and he still doesn’t get sufficient respect in Boston or elsewhere. If Kevin Garnett comes up empty in the paint again tonight, Bob Ryan and Jackie Mac ought put pen to paper and pay homage to how a real Celtics big man rises to the occasion.

Robert Parish could do a lot of things on a basketball court, rebound, defend, throw touchdown passes, and knock the crap out of Bill Laimbeer. He’s probably most remembered, however, for that turn-around rainbow jumper, which was a thing of beauty.

What is often forgotten about the Chief is when he took those jumpers.

He took a memorable portion of them in the final 5 minutes of big games, and personally I don’t remember him missing one. He was the Dennis Johnson of the Celtics front court—money when it counted.

Whenever he got the ball in the paint, Celtic Nation would collectively begin muttering under it’s breath—no, no, no…and then as the shot left his finger tips, floated through the air and snapped through the bottom of the net everyone would stand up and shout YES!!! He was almost never the go-to guy in crunch time, but he could be counted on to take a good 2-3 shots down the stretch.

As Parish was preparing to enter the Hall of Fame, Bob Ryan recalled this playoff game against the Pistons:

Parish scored a team-high 23 points, 10 of which came in the sticky part of the fourth quarter. Two points came on a dunk, while the other eight were the result of his patented turnaround. The first bucket was from eight feet out and the last was from 16 feet. Take those shots away and the Celtics lose. Let no one think that Robert Parish is an afterthought in the Celtics offense.

Who knows what we’ll get out of KG tonight. But the dude’s face looks like he hasn’t slept since Game 2 of the Atlanta series. I won’t post the video again, but you compare his body language now to his body language in the 12/30 game at Staples. It’s like comparing Brad Pitt’s body language to that of a Guantanamo Bay detainee who has been subjected to water-boarding.

It’s hard to imagine how the Celtics brass and team doctors allow this to happen. Games are at night. Give the Big Fella some horse pills to get him to sleep, and then he has all day to wake up and prepare.

Allowing KG to play in what appears to be a manic state of sleep deprivation is crazy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Garnett needs to have a big game tonight in the biggest game of his career. I have no doubt the C's are gonna win this game before ending it in game 6 at home.

Lex said...

Whoa!

The kid has some confidence.

Myself?

I'm at 50-50...at best.

I hope you are right.

KMITB said...

I love the Chief! I remember when I used to watch Celtic games as a kid and my uncle would say..."Does that guy ever smile? He always looks pissed". Ahhh...if he would have only figured out his nickname!!!

Chiiiiiiiiief!

Anonymous said...

The Lakers haven't done anything to show me they are a better team than the C's. They should have won Game 3 in a blowout and they didn't, and that's with 2 of the big 3 playing terrible. Now if 2 of the big 3 had played well the C's would be up 3-0. The Lakers have to show me something to prove they are better than the C's and I would be surprised if they do tonight. Celtics 101 Lakers 97.

Lex said...

The kid,

my confidence is up a little bit. I'm emboldened by talk that KG is the main reason that odom and gasol have been marginalized.

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that PP has a big game.