For a moment, let’s move past the Big C, because that part of this Kevin Garnett debate is reprehensible, if uttered in any context.
Instead consider something a bit more germane to these sports pages.
And that’s Part B.
Charlie Villanueva violated a prime tenet of the game and well could find himself receiving a shunning of a different type than Kevin Garnett certainly now faces from the public at large.
As a rule, what is said on the court stays on the court, accepted in a heat-of-the-moment context. It is similar to the what-happens-in-the-locker-room-stays-in-the-locker-room tenet that is at the core of the fraternity of pro sports, a covenant more sacred than any Vegas commercial.
Think you’ve heard it all from Gary Payton over the years? You haven’t heard the half of it. Ditto with Garnett. Until now.
That is what made Villanueva’s moment so rare, his tweets so surprising.
This wasn’t an opponent planning to carry out a threat, break a body part, meet someone in the parking lot.
It was Kevin Garnett raging, because that is his fuel, no matter how crude, no matter how inappropriate.
Michael Beasley got his earful during last season’s playoffs.
“He misses a shot, he makes a shot, he misses a rebound, blocks a shot, everything he does, he just talks to himself,” Beasley said, “whether he’s congratulating himself or he’s hollering at himself. He really stays on top of himself.”
During that opening round series, after teammate Dwyane Wade had dunked on Garnett, Beasley tried to turn the conversation. Bad idea.
“I told him what just happened,” Beasley said, “and he was mad. You could really see the fire in his eyes, you could hear him talking to himself.”
Because that’s all it is, mindless babble, in this case truly mindless, no matter which version of the story is to be believed.
Better a million stupid thoughts there than an act that injures.
But now we’ve been provided entrée into the on-court blather.
The curtain has been drawn open.
Now, what happens on the court has entered into the public forum.
Whether it’s a place we want to be or not.
Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat.
