Blaming KG

Back when Kevin Garnett was a fantastic player stuck in crappy teams in Minnesota, Bill Simmons was in the habit of blaming the Timberwolves' lack of success on Garnett, rather than on his bad teammates. Then Garnett got traded to Boston! And Boston became the best team in the NBA! And Simmons loved Garnett! But now Boston seems to be underperforming in the playoffs, so naturally Simmons blames KG. But in truth, Garnett's playing almost exactly the same -- a few more minutes, leading to more points but with a slightly lower FG% (though a slightly higher FT%) and rebounds and he's managed to turn the ball over slightly less often. Consider instead blaming Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Leon Powe who are actually playing substantially worse than they did during the regular season leading, naturally enough, to worse outcomes for Boston.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/05/blaming-kg/45008/