Kevin Garnett cashes in on big chance

By John Tomase | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics

Photo by Matthew West
The bully is gone.

The bully had hounded Kevin Garnett since he entered the league as a high schooler back in 1995. The bully never let Garnett sniff a championship. Whenever Garnett got close, the bully slammed him in the jaw and left him whimpering. He’d have to wait another year.

But now?

“I knocked the bully’s (butt) out,” Garnett said last night. “I knocked his (butt) clean out.”

Few players are more emotional than Garnett on a normal day, but last night he was in a different stratosphere. After Garnett’s Celtics [team stats] annihilated the Lakers 131-92 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to claim the franchise’s 17th title and Garnett’s first, he was completely overcome.

He collapsed on the Celtics logo at center court and embraced the leprechaun. He couldn’t conduct his postgame interview with ABC, pulling a Celtics hat low over his eyes as the tears flowed. He eventually hugged Celts legend Bill Russell.

And when it came time to explain exactly what he was feeling to the assembled media, Garnett still needed to compose himself.

“Man, man, man,” he said, soaked in champagne and clutching a gold basketball inscribed with the championship trophy logo.

He paused to look heavenward.

“Thank you all for being patient.”

He then launched into an eloquent metaphor to describe how it felt to finally be a champion.

“You ever go to school and you have that bully mess with you every day?” he said. “You know when you get out of your mom or dad’s car that you’re going to have to see him as soon as you walk through the door and he’s going to be sitting there with his feet up waiting to pat your pockets.

“Then one day you say to yourself, ‘It’s going to stop tonight.’ You walk through there and as soon as he pats your pocket you lay his (butt) out. You see the expression on his face and you’re sort of kind of shook because you know what, you just knocked the bully out and you don’t know how he’s going to come back.

“So the next morning you come in and he’s not there, and it’s like a sigh of relief.”

Garnett played the role of tough guy last night. Coming off a disappointing Game 5 performance he characterized as “trash” - he missed three free throws down the stretch - Garnett came out like a man possessed.

The forward scored 17 of his game-high 26 points in the first half on 8-of-10 shooting. He added 14 rebounds and four assists.

Garnett also scored what may go down as the signature basket of the series when he took a pass in the lane from Paul Pierce [stats], hung in the air over Lamar Odom and banked home a floater before landing on his back and thrusting a fist to the sky.

The converted three-point play made it 58-35 in the C’s favor heading into halftime. Game over. Bully vanquished.

“I just want to say, other than my kid being born, this is the happiest day of my life right now,” Garnett said. “I don’t plan to sleep for weeks or months. If you’re looking for me, my personal number is about to change. Man, man, man.”