Monday, November 26, 2007

More on State of Sports: KG and Brett Farve

KG and Brett Farve are two of my favorite athletes of all-time that have never played for a team of mine. I'm sure that I'm not the only sports fan out there that can say that. Both of them play with such passion and heart, care so much about winning, and have had a resurgence in their careers this year.

Let's start with Farve. After the two worst seasons of his career, with everyone calling for his retirement, the ageless Farve is on his way to having his best year in 2007. With five games left, Farve has already thrown for 3,356 yards and 22 TD's. He has completed 68.4% of his passes, and has a 101.5 passer rating, both of which will be the highest he has recorded during a season. He has set numerous career passing records this year, and he has done all this with a running game that was essentially non-existent until the last two week. The Packers are currently sitting at 10-1, tied for the NFC lead with the Cowboys (whom they play Thursday) which means we will get to see Brett Farve playing in the playoffs again, and if it wasn't for Tom Brady, he would probably be a favorite for the MVP award.

At 38 years old, Farve still plays like he's a 25. The emotion is still there. The youthful exuberance is still there. That cannon arm is still there, slinging the ball all over the field. But the best part about watching him play is just seeing how much he loves being on a football field. He is always smiling, always looks like he's having the time of his life. It's great seeing Farve back on top.

KG is just as good of a story. After toiling in Minnesota for 12 years and never receiving the help he needed, KG got traded to the Celtics and teamed with two perennial all-stars in Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, making Boston the immediate favorite to win the East. KG is just like Farve in that all he cares about is winning. Night in and night out he leaves everything he has on the floor. If you watched any of his first 12 games this season, it looked like he was playing in game 7 of the NBA finals. I remember watching them play Denver during the third of the season where Boston scored 77 points in the first half and had the game won by midway through the second quarter. But with three minutes left, up by 30, they showed Garnett on the bench, waving a towel, yelling after some Boston scrub got an and-1 with his trademark scowl. Even at the end of last season, where Minnesota clearly was not going to make the playoffs and knowing that Kevin Durant and Greg Oden were going to be available in the draft, KG still played to win every time he stepped n the floor. How can you not love watching a guy like that play? How can you not root for a guy like that to succeed, especially after such a horrible situation he was in with the T-wolves? If your his teammate, how can you not match that effort and intensity every night?

The NBA has suffered from the image that noone plays hard until the playoffs. They need more players like Kevin Garnett.

1 comment:

Andy McKenzie said...

good post. i agree about kg, but i can't help but feeling that qbs in general get too much emphasis in football when there's so many other guys out there on the field. lets hear about the linemen or the defensive backs for once, you know?