If You’ve watched how Kevin Garnett reacted on his 2008 NBA Finals interview with Michelle Tafoya, I would assume that you probably thought that Garnett’s “inner child” showed itself too much.
For some people, the way he talked annoyed them. They can’t accept how this short-of-great NBA player can talk the way that he did. Even I didn’t think it fitted someone of his stature to act like that. And yet I seem to somehow felt that it was okay given the fact that all of his hardwork and years of frustrations and disappoints have already paid off. The bully that describes how he felt for the last decade of his career has long been gone. That’s how I see it. That was how overjoyed he was in that interview.
And yet even though he already had done that, I saw how he redeemed himself to me when he went and saw the Bill Russell, hugged him and talked to him. That “inner child” we heard and saw in the interview talked to his great mentor:
KG: I’ve got my own! I’ve got my own! I hope we made you proud!
BR: Yeah you did.
How many players can you still hear talk like that? How many multi-million dollar players can you hear talk with so much respect to tradition, excellence and honor?
I guess you will say a lot? But from someone who talked without any sense before and then all of a sudden talked like the way he did? I mean, that’s not just being educated… that’s being a gentleman, someone cultured. someone who knows more than being educated with words.
Behind the Kid Garnett, is someone can be more respected not just by his actions and words, but the way he really felt even at his most elated times.