Well, it’s not exactly a local rivalry but if nothing else, this season’s series between the Celtics and Suns has been interesting to say the least. In their first meeting, Kevin Garnett deliberately tapped Channing Frye in the groin as Frye was airborne for a jumpshot, and questions about him being a dirty player ensued. I wondered myself. These two teams met again a few days ago and it’s clear that there was still some carry over from the first meeting.
After the first game, when tempers were still flaring over Garnett’s inexcusable act, Suns head coach, Alvin Gentry was a guest on sport radio in Arizona and said that he lost respect for KG as a result of not only tapping Frye’s groin, but for getting his Bruce Bowen on and sliding his foot underneath Frye when he was in the air.
“I used to be a big fan of [Kevin Garnett]. Some of the antics he’s pulled lately, you don’t need to do that as a star player. I’ve never seen Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or even Dwyane Wade do that.
You can compete and play hard, that doesn’t need to be a part of it. It really doesn’t. To do that to someone you can seriously hurt him. You know the fact that all of a sudden Channing comes down on his foot twice on jump shots that’s a very dangerous play.
If you’re asking me, yeah, I lost a little respect for him. I love his competitive nature but there is no place for what he was doing in our game.”
The rematch in Boston early last week was intense. You could tell that nobody on either side forgot about what transpired in the first game. KG and Frye were guarding one another for a good portion of the game and after just about every bucket Garnett scored, he would stare down Frye (as if Frye did something to him).
Then with the game well in hand in the final seconds with the Cs up by double digits, Rajon Rondo decided to attempt a shot at the buzzer. This happened right in front of the Suns bench and Jared Dudley, who was guarding Rondo on the play, frustrated with the fact that Rondo was shooting the ball, ended up fouling him and sent Rondo to the line for meaningless free throws.
Apparently, the Phoenix bench was trash talking when Rondo was in the vicinity, which is why he decided to silence them by taking that last shot with the game already in hand. Boston head coach, Doc Rivers didn’t have a problem with Rondo taking that shot because he believed the Suns were in Rondo’s ear. In response to that, Rivers said,
“I thought their bench, their coaches were talking, which I don’t think you should ever [do] if you have a suit and tie on and actually can’t play. I don’t think you should be doing a lot of talking to the players on the floor.”
During that final sequence, KG and Gentry exchanged words as well and when asked afterwards what was said between the two, KG said “Alvin Gentry was asking me for tickets for the first round of the playoffs. I told him I’ll hook him up, so that’s what that was.”
This type of stuff makes me wish these two teams were in the same division so that we could see another matchup. The only other way they could meet this year would be in the Finals, which certainly won’t happen. When these two teams meet next year, all will probably be forgotten…unless Garnett has something else up his sleeve.
If you’re looking for your everyday, predictable basketball talk, then go somewhere else, because Kevin Burke of The Kevin Burke Project brings provocative, thought provoking content about basketball as only he can. Kevin also hosts The Hoop Doctors weekly podcast show, which you can subscribe to for free on iTunes. Follow Kevin on Twitter and Facebook
