![]() When Garnett's Timberwolves had their finest hour, in 2003-04, Szczerbiak was at best the team's fifth-best player to these eyes, as injuries limited him to just 28 games and consistently step-slow defense.Īnd in an MVP year, Garnett's Timberwolves fell against the Los Angeles Lakers in the third round of the playoffs, with most NBA fans forgetting that the team's second-best player (Sam Cassell, in the middle of a career year) was hurt, with Fred Hoiberg and even Garnett forced to bring the ball over half-court after Darrick Martin was found to be a poor replacement for Cassell's brilliance.Ī fitful relationship, to be sure, with plenty of blame to go around on both sides.īut for Szczerbiak to pull this? Cherry-picking after Boston and Garnett's most heartbreaking loss of the season? Falling back on the tired "clutch" arguments that most of us have long since yawned our way away from? And while Garnett got to rule the roost both on the Timberwolves and in strutting around Minnesota, Szczerbiak had to deal with accusations relayed by the press about stealing passes (in Flip Saunders' mid-range based offense) from teammates and overall selfish play, accusations that Garnett never did much to dissuade. Shockingly, Garnett (never the easiest person to deal with) never got on well with Wally. Which was of absolutely no interest or impact to anyone besides Wally Szczerbiak. Tellingly, but not weirdly, on several occasions Szczerbiak reminded reporters that despite Garnett's NBA veteran status, Wally was just 10 months younger than his new teammate. The two met up that summer while taking part in that year's Tournament of the Americas, which Team USA had to play because the lockout decimated its pro-based roster during the 1998 World Championships. Szczerbiak, the son of a former pro and European league scout and executive, decided to stay the big man on campus at Miami of Ohio, and come out for the draft in 1999, only to be picked up by KG's Timberwolves. Garnett could make whatever the Timberwolves decided to pay him, and did - to the tune of six years and over $120 million in 1997. The first preps-to-pro player drafted into the NBA in nearly 20 years, he not only worked that angle to much influence but was also the first to take advantage of the NBA's short-sighted three-year rookie contract rule, one that allowed youngsters to hold leverage following a player's second season (in Garnett's case, his first All-Star season) in order to take in a huge contract in an NBA that didn't yet have maximum contract limits. KG, from the outset of his career, was an anomaly that few knew what to do with. And why Garnett can't stand him, as well. ![]() With all this nonsense in place, we can understand where Szczerbiak's ire comes from. We'd slough that off as more Twitter silliness, but this was coming from an NBA All-Star who has both played with Garnett in Minnesota and James in Cleveland, but also the Boston Celtics for a spell from 2005 to 2007, with his massive contract helping land the C's Ray Allen in a draft-day trade. Wally has him at nine out of 10.Īgain, we're not arguing the pointless argument that any player is better in the final seconds in the modern NBA than any other, but the idea of anyone (LeBron, Kobe, and even Michael Jordan) making any more than two out of 10 contested, fadeaway 22-footers falling to their right? Ugh. A shot that, as a Cavalier, he made probably 30 percent of the time both at the buzzer (if half that, actually) or in typical play. This is in reference to LeBron's long fadeaway miss at the end of regulation in Game 2.
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