McHale feeling the heat

August 7, 2007

Though Wednesday's bridge collapse put things in Minneapolis in perspective, Kevin McHale is being pilloried for sending Garnett to Boston for Jefferson, Telfair, Ratliff, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green and two first-round picks. Both metropolitan newspapers have called for McHale's ouster. St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Tom Powers put it this way: ``Settle down. Put away the torches and pitchforks. The sun will come up tomorrow. Unless, of course, Kevin McHale is somehow put in charge of the solar system. In which case the sun will implode and we all will die.''

McHale has officially reached pinata status. Marbury, who believes the GM maligned him after trading him to Phoenix by claiming the guard was jealous of Garnett, sent out a warning to his cousin, Telfair, via the New York Post: ``I'll wish him good luck and tell him to be careful around Kevin McHale. I wouldn't want to play for Kevin McHale. When I left, all of a sudden I became a bad person from his standpoint. I became selfish and jealous of Kevin.''

As for the Celtics-T'wolves trade from a Knicks perspective, Marbury said: ``I'm not thinking about Boston. I'm only thinking about the New York Knicks. Our nickname is Nice and Nasty. That's how we're coming.''

Nice N' Nasty? So he's looking for improvement. The Knicks have been neither since Marcus Camby mistakenly slugged Jeff Van Gundy.