SAN JUAN – The NBA is peering into a telescope, searching not for stars but supernovas.
The league needs new points of light, players who possess a brilliance and magnetism that conjure up memories of legends whose mere presence sent currents of electricity through an arena. Where have you gone Michael Jordan? Magic Johnson? Larry Bird?
Grant Hill’s got game but he’s too vanilla.
Latrell Sprewell and Allen Iverson have – fair or not – image problems.
Alonzo Mourning and Patrick Ewing need to smile more and negotiate less.
Any show of emotion from Tim Duncan would be welcome.
Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Scottie Pippen are in the twilight of their careers.
Reggie Miller can’t even kill the Knicks anymore.
The NBA needs someone whose got flame to go with his game. Which brings us to Kevin Garnett, the 23-year-old, 6-foot-11, 220-pound freak from another galaxy.
There may never have been a player quite like Garnett, who can play any front court position, as he did last night in the U.S. team’s 94-60 dismantling of Canada in a first-round game of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament of the Americas.
After tying Gary Payton for scoring honors with 20 points in the team’s 118-72 opening night win over Uruguay, Garnett was the one player Canada couldn’t match up with. He was too quick for their centers; too tall for their power forwards and too strong for their small forwards.
Payton against had 20, to lead the U.S. which improved to 2-0. Garnett finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, five assists, three blocked shots, and two assists in 30 minutes, not to mention the number of times he brought the crowd at Roberto Clemente Coliseum to its feet with mammoth slam dunks and monstrous rejections.
“I don’t know if the people get a buzz but I hope they feel me,” Garnett told The Post. “Basketball is about fun and taking advantage of opportunities. It’s a feel-good game. I hope the people feel me. I’m trying to bring it.”
Garnett brings it like a bolt of lightning. His very appearance creates a buzz. He is 6-feet-11 of black lacquered skin that highlights the three – count ’em, three – one carat diamond studs he wears in each ear.
After Garnett spiked a Shawn Swords shot off the glass, he bellowed at the Canadian, “Get that bull[bleep] out of here!”
“It was the same way in Orlando,” Knicks guard Allan Houston said of Garnett’s presence in Orlando last week, where the U.S. team played an exhibition game. “There are some players, in every sport, when they touch the ball, people anticipate they can see something special. He’s so young and so good, it’s scary.”
Like many newly discovered lights in the sky, Garnett seemingly came out of nowhere. He didn’t go to college. In 1995 he went straight from Farragut Academy prep school in Illinois to the NBA.
This is not how the NBA wants to find its next wave of superstars but at this point the league can’t ignore that Garnett is a gem. He has a respect for the game that is missing in so many young stars.
“I don’t think it’s fair to guys who are in the Hall of Fame to be compared to them,” said Garnett. “I don’t it’s fair to Michael and Magic and Larry. We’re just a different breed, man. We’re so-called new school.”
Again, this is what sets Garnett apart. His soon-to-be teammate on the Minnesota Timberwolves, Long Island’s Wally Szczerbiak, marvels at Garnett’s work ethic. And Garnett has a physical competitiveness that belies the 220 pounds of muscle that rope his frame together. When the going got tough, Jordan, Johnson and Bird, would get downright ornery.
When Canada’s Richard Anderson, a 6-6, 245-pound forward, tried throwing his weight around, Garnett elbowed and hip-checked him out of the lane. No wonder Garnett says the song that best exemplifies the new stars of the game is DMX’s Roughrider’s Anthem.
“When the league had a ton of great players, no one player stood out,” said Garnett. “I think that’s what we’re going back to. Night in and night out, you’re going to find a great matchup. I think that’s where the so-called Hip Hop generation is going.”
If the NBA is to go back to the future, it will have to do so with players like Garnett.