Kevin Garnett still feels the Knicks were the move for Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Not because of the team as much as its following.
For someone who played in Brooklyn and, at least publicly, has no issue with the Nets organization, while also claiming he isn’t a New York Knicks fan, Kevin Garnett has a funny way of showing it all.
Garnett is still in the midst of his publicity tour with Adam Sandler for their new movie “Uncut Gems.” Throughout it, Garnett has spoken about the NBA a fair amount. At one point early on, he expressed how he felt Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant should have signed with the Knicks instead of the Nets.
During the future Hall of Famer’s appearance on The Athletic’s “Back 2 Back” podcast, Garnett stood by his opinion:
[Durant and Irving] did the Nets, I thought they shoulda did the Knicks yo, if I’m being honest. I’m not a Knicks fan by far. But you come into a city man and dominate, and be the first superstar to hit New York, your vibe is going to be bigger than life.
.@KevinGarnett5KG thinks the Knicks should’ve been the landing spot for Kevin Durant & Kyrie Irving to return the Knicks back to success
He fielded question on the NBA, playing in Boston and his role in ‘Uncut Gems’ in a recent roundtable
While Garnett has a point about the aura of the Knicks, the franchise’s inability to find direction under owner James Dolan is reason enough to pick Brooklyn instead. If nothing else, Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson developed a plan and continue to stick to it and execute it — while still being in New York, no less.
Rajon Rondo is a member of Kevin Garnett’s Boston Celtics teams but he’s definitely a Los Angeles Lakers now and a fan of LeBron James.
Rajon Rondo is caught between a rhetorical battle being waged by his former Boston Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett against LeBron James from their battles together from earlier in the decade.
Garnett didn’t want to entertain discussions during a recent episode of the Bill Simmons podcast about LeBron’s heroic Game 6 win at Boston in 2012 and instead focused on how the Celtics “broke” LeBron when he was with the Cavaliers in 2010. Garnett’s comments have been making the rounds and bringing back all of those old battles to light.
Rondo was the starting point guard for the Celtics teams that won the 2008 Championship and went to the 2010 NBA Finals, but he’s a Laker now. In addition to that, he and LeBron have talked about sharing a high-level basketball IQ. So when he was asked about LeBron, Rondo said that he “loves” being his teammate.
I thought it was important to clarify whether Rondo does, in fact, like LeBron. He said, "I love LeBron. He’s one of my favorite teammates i’ve ever played for. He’s a very unselfish person."
Now that Garnett is out of the league, he has more time to dwell on the opportunities that the Celtics missed on. Garnett is one of the few people that know what it feels like to beat LeBron James in a playoff series in the 2010s, so it’s understandable that he wouldn’t be peachy about it all these years later. Rondo knows that too but as his career has evolved, he may help LeBron cement his legacy even more.
Kevin Garnett was nominated for the Hall of Fame on Thursday, giving fans a chance to think back on his successful time as a Celtic.
As the 2019-20 Boston Celtics continue work on their regular season campaign in a hotly-contested Eastern Conference, Thursday provided an opportunity for Celtics fans to do a little reminiscing. That opportunity came courtesy of the announcement that former Celtic Kevin Garnett was officially nominated for the 2020 Hall of Fame class.
Garnett spent six seasons in Boston, averaging 15.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals, and one block. He was an All-Star in five of those six seasons, adding a Defensive Player of the Year award, a First Team All-NBA selection, and four All-Defensive team honors (three first-teams, one second-team). Most importantly, he helped lead the Celtics to the NBA title in 2007-08.
During that championship run, Garnett averaged a double-double with 20.4 points and 10.5 rebounds, helping the Celtics take down the rival Lakers.
All told, Garnett piled up 15 All-Star selections, nine All-NBA teams and 12 All-Defensive teams. He won Rookie of the Year honors as well as an MVP, an All-Star Game MVP and the aforementioned Defensive Player of the Year, making him a shoo-in for the Hall.
Thursday gave fans a great chance to think back on The Big Ticket’s illustrious career and his contributions to Celtics tradition as he awaits his official call to the Hall, which is nothing more than a formality at this point.
During an appearance on the Bill Simmons podcast, Kevin Garnett said the 2010 Celtics “broke” then Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James.
Just in case you were wondering, the Boston Celtics from the late 2000s and early 2010s are still salty about only getting one championship during a run when they believed they were the best team of the era.
The subject of those Celtics teams has come up more recently due to Adam Sandler’s new movie “Uncut Gems,” which stars the defensive and emotional leader of those Celtics teams, Kevin Garnett. Garnett joined Sandler in an interview with Bill Simmons on the Bill Simmons podcast, where they talked about the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals when LeBron finally got over the hump and beat the Celtics.
Garnett of course deflected talking about the 2012 Finals and instead went for one of the glory moments of his run in Boston, defeating LeBron in the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals that sent him on his way to Miami later that summer.
“We broke LeBron. So get your a** out of here with that.”
OK, so remember that, alright? Stop bringing it up. So they was talking (expletive) to him, the media. And the league knew that they had an agenda in which we wasn’t a part of the agenda. And that’s how they ended up winning that series. Yeah, I said it…. Man listen, let me tell something to you. The C’s, we didn’t give a (expletive) about LeBron. We didn’t fear LeBron, and we didn’t think that he could beat all five of us. And that’s how it felt. He was trying to consolidate because he didn’t want the pressure on him. You understand?”
Things are still sensitive for Garnett and they probably always will be, given the way that he talked about it. James, of course, overcame a 3-2 series deficit in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals by putting together one of the best performances in playoff history by scoring 45 points in Boston to force a Game 7.
James and his Heat team would eventually win Game 7 before going on to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games in the 2012 NBA Finals, earning LeBron his first NBA title. LeBron’s career narrative can never be told without Boston and Garnett’s attitude, to this day, is a big reason why.
“Uncut Gems” was never supposed to involve the Celtics — but somehow, Boston legend Kevin Garnett was precisely the right man for the job.
By now, most Boston Celtics fans have caught wind of the new Adam Sandler film Uncut Gems, and for good reason.
It happens to revolve around a certain familiar face and his real-life adventures trying to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers in 2012, at least as a backdrop to Sandler’s character, Howard Ratner — a gambling-addicted jeweler to the stars.
That familiar face is of course none other than Kevin Garnett, but it may come as a surprise that the future Hall-of-Famer wasn’t even the film’s second choice in the role.
That honor would fall to longtime Garnett nemesis Kobe Bryant, who turned down the role, the Los Angeles Laker luminary having a desire to direct films, out of the limelight for a change.
"Uncut Gems," the stressful (in the best sense) new @JOSH_BENNY movie with Adam Sandler and KG, is a lot of things — including a movie for NBA nerds. Inside KG's role and all the NBA references/connections/side plots: https://t.co/hIBosx8bpf
The player the film was initially written for was former New York Knick Amar’e Stoudemire, who happens to share an affinity for the Big Apple, it’s first NBA team, and the Jewish heritage of the film’s producers, Bennie and Josh Safdie.
In fact, it’s something of a miracle the film ever made it to the screen as a Celtics-oriented film at all, as the Safdies are die-hard Knicks fans, perhaps unsurprisingly.
Speaking on Bryant’s rejection (via ESPN’s Zach Lowe), Josh explained, ” I didn’t want to make a Laker movie. I definitely didn’t want to make a Celtic movie, either.”
Star Adam Sandler — born in Brooklyn — moved to New Hampshire while a child, but never abandoned his original fandom despite relocating to a more Celtics-oriented part of the U.S.
“I could have become a Celtic fan … But I rooted against Larry Bird very hard. I wanted Julius [Erving to win]. I wanted the Sixers. I don’t know what was with me. I made a mistake.”
While it’s unclear what got the actor and comedian into the Sixers as a child, the Safdies did attempt to cast Joel Embiid before realizing production would be a near-impossible task with the rigors of an NBA player’s schedule.
So, they started looking into recently-retired players such as former Miami Heatle Chris Bosh, before reluctantly settling on the Big Ticket.
Unlike Bryant, who claims he never even got wind of the script, evidently shot down by his representation, KG took to the role in a hurry, surprising Josh.
“I would always watch [Garnett] postgame because he was so entertaining,” explained Safdie. “But I realized after meeting him that I didn’t know his real voice. I had to learn that voice. He’s eloquent. He’s a great storyteller. I wrote for that voice.”
“And he worked really hard,” added Josh.
“You realize how hard he worked in acting—he must’ve worked three times as hard on the court,” producer Sebastian Bear-McClard recalled (via the Ringer’s Alan Siegel). “And that’s what’s really fucking special about him. He was on set sweating like it was the fourth quarter of a playoff game. Like profusely. Patrick Ewing levels of fuckin’ sweat.”
Though Garnett was effectively just playing himself, capturing the nuance required for a feature film is no easy task, a task the NBA champion rose to.
“Acting is preparation, just like anything else,” offered Garnett. “I didn’t want to fail them. They took a risk on me. When I showed up to set, I was ready. It took me back to, ‘OK, it’s Rasheed Wallace tonight. It’s Tim Duncan tonight’ — watching film.”
“I took those same things coming in here,” remarked the 15-time All-Star.
Celtics lead team governor Wyc Grousbeck approved of the casting, which features Garnett buying into the idea that one of Sandler’s character’s gems is imbued with unusual abilities.
“There is some supernatural power inside KG, and the idea it would come from a gem is perfect and believable,” insisted Grousbeck.
After countless takes and re-assessment of the importance of NBA fandom when making a basketball-oriented film, “Uncut Gems” somehow survived the quite real animus many other fanbases have towards the Boston franchise.
It was recently shown in screenings in which the resulting product unsettled audience members who were part of that 2012 Sixers-Celtics series, such as then-player, now-general manager Elton Brand, now at the helm of the team he played for that postseason.
Weaving together actual footage of the series, Brand recalled his emotions while watching, with a scene depicting Sandler’s character asking Garnett to “step on Elton Brand’s [expletive] neck”
My review of Uncut Gems without spoiling it…
1. I loved it 2. My fav Sandler performance since 2009 3. Julia Fox is a star 4. I love that 2 Knicks fans built their movie around celebrating the last great KG era Celtics postseason — thanks @JOSH_BENNY !!!!! pic.twitter.com/8oNIh3lwoZ
“I was rooting for myself the entire movie,” offered the former Philly big man.
“They were showing KG hitting all those midrange jumpers in my face, and I just kept hoping in the movie they would let us win. I was there. I know what happened. That’s when you know a movie is good — when it transports you.”
If it managed to convince the very people on the other side of the ball in the real-life aspects of the fictional production, it’s likely Brand’s assessment is a good one.
After today’s limited release, Celtics fans (and haters) will be able to catch the film in theaters across the U.S. and Canada on December 25th, Christmas Day.
NEW YORK — If you’re looking for a nice, comfortable, feel-good movie to watch this holiday season, Uncut Gems is not it.
It’s the unflinching tale of Howard Ratner (played to nebbishy, weasely perfection by Adam Sandler), a New York diamond district jewelry dealer who has made a mess of his life — his marriage is about to end, his life is threatened, he’s in debt to everyone and constantly being chased and shaken down — partially due to a sports gambling habit that has him scrambling to pay back what he owes.
But there’s a lingering question that stuck with me after watching the film written and directed by Benny and Josh Safdie: why did they need to cast Kevin Garnett in the role and base the events around the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers?
It was a query I didn’t get to ask during an early December roundtable at a midtown Manhattan hotel attended by Sandler, Garnett and the Safdies. But you don’t need them to tell you why. Just watch the film.
The Safdies’ style is gritty, made to feel more like a documentary. In Uncut Gems, the camera constantly shakes. The sound is a near-constant, with characters talking over each other. Although Sandler’s Ratner is fictional, he’s meant to feel as real as possible.
“We had nights where I met a lot of guys who gambled and whose lives got ruined because of gambling and got to know their stories,” Sandler said earlier this month at the aforementioned roundtable. “We were very informed about the jewelry world and gambling world and looked at a lot of footage, documentaries on people, men who lost their families and everything and went to jail.”
That tells you a lot about the feel the Safdies were going for. Instead of casting an actor as a basketball player who comes into Ratner’s shop and discovers an uncut opal from Ethiopia that he thinks gives him strength to play well during the series, they cast Garnett to play himself. Perhaps that attempt to be as real as possible also helped his performance.
“It took me back,” Garnett said. “I felt like I was actually in the past. I felt actually able to relate to the exchange between Adam and myself, I felt like I’m here talking to Jacob (editor’s note: I assume he’s talking about Jacob “the Jeweler” Arabo here) about how he can ‘knock some of these zeroes down.'”
There are also two scenes — and I’ll try really hard not to spoil too much — surrounding two of those contests in the seven-game series in which the stress the audience feels throughout the film gets ratcheted up fifty-fold. Will the 36-year-old Garnett deliver for the Celtics and, in turn, help Ratner win some crucial bets? And will that, in turn redeem a mostly nonredeemable character who we’re rooting for?
Singer The Weeknd appears in the film too, with seemingly the same goal in mind: making a fictional story seem all too real and pushing the stakes over the top. And speaking with the Safdies, you can tell that’s what excites them.
Josh Safdie explained that they needed to find a series of games in which Garnett would succeed with the opal and struggle without it. Garnett’s 2012 semifinals was perfect — he had two games where he looked human and the rest where he was his usual self. That was thrilling to the filmmakers.
“The reality dictated the bet, and the story,” Josh Safdie said. “It was kind of incredible to fit this fictional world around that real event.”
The writers and directors of “Uncut Gems,” brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, arranged a private showing of the movie for the Grizzlies.
With the nationwide release of the upcoming “Uncut Gems” movie set for Christmas Day, the basketball world finds itself at the center of Hollywood in the new drama starring Adam Sandler and Kevin Garnett.
Sandler plays a charismatic Manhattan jeweler that makes a series of high-stakes bets while Garnett plays himself during his time with the Boston Celtics. The film features several real-life snippets of the Celtics’ playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers in 2012.
As Zach Lowe of ESPN recently detailed, the writers and directors of the movie, brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, arranged a private showing for the Memphis Grizzlies as rookie Ja Morant later thanked them with an autographed jersey.
The Safdies organized a private screening for the Memphis Grizzlies. To their delight, Ja Morant later sent them an autographed jersey with a message, “To Josh and Benny, much love,” Josh Safdie said. “You know how cool that jersey is gonna be in 10 years?” Safdie added.
Morant isn’t the only rookie to have caught the upcoming flick, Celtics two-way rookie Tacko Fall attended a regional premiere in Boston with several other members of the organization. Fall even met Garnett, later posting a picture to his Instagram account of the two.
With plenty of basketball references throughout, “Uncut Gems” should be a must-watch for all fans as it is beginning to gain award buzz for the acting of Sandler, Garnett and others.
NEW YORK — Kevin Garnett’s Hall of Fame-level intensity is still so much a part of him, even though he’s in the middle of telling a story from his playing days and not staring down a defender on an NBA court.
He’s recounting a practice he had with former Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers in which the now-Los Angeles Clippers bench boss turned Garnett into a decoy who was asked to act like he was going to get the ball out of a timeout. Garnett wasn’t doing it exactly the way his persnickety coach wanted it and the practice of that play seemed endless.
Garnett imitates Rivers screaming at him, banging a table at which sits his Uncut Gems co-star Adam Sandler, the film’s co-directors Benny and Josh Safdie, and a mix of local and national reporters who have come to interview them at a midtown Manhattan hotel.
And, as always, he owns the room.
“I WANT YOU TO CLAP MORE THAN THAT!” he shouts, not quite nailing Rivers’ hoarse baritone, not that it matters.
It’s both that story and the way Garnett tells it that explains why he shines in the film, the gritty, realistic-but-fictional tale of jeweler Howard Ratner (Sandler), who spends the movie in way over his head because of his sports betting habit. The ex-NBA star plays himself in 2012, when he discovers a fictional uncut opal from Ethiopia provided to him by Ratner is actually the good-luck charm giving him the power to beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs. But Ratner needs it back to pay off his debts, which causes some friction between the two.
Benny Safdie actually worked with Rivers to get a voiceover for the film for a fictional locker room scene. He said he asked the now-Clippers bench boss if he knew Garnett was a talented actor.
“Of course I did,” Safdie remembers hearing. “I had a play designed that rested on his acting abilities. Coming out of the huddle he was supposed to act really cocky.”
That’s when Garnett the storyteller took over, becoming a one-man show.
The funny thing is, Garnett wasn’t the Safdies first choice for the role.
In 2010, Benny Safdie recalled, former Knick Amar’e Stoudemire was their preferred choice, partially because the movie starts with an Ethiopian Jewish tribe finding the opal, and they could see how that would connect with the man who converted to Judaism.
But the Safdies’ agents suggested they shoot for an even bigger name: Kobe Bryant. When they were informed the Los Angeles Lakers legend was more interested in directing, they moved on to Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid.
“Him being an African player from Cameroon,” Safdie says, “the ideas of reclamation were powerful and then we couldn’t shoot in the season.”
Initially, the lifelong diehard New York Knicks fans — and that might be an understatement, Benny said he once called out franchise legend John Starks on the street — hated the idea of casting a player they hated.
But once they met Garnett, they realized he was perfect.
“It was the moment I realized my Knicks fandom is actually a sickness,” Benny says. “It eclipsed my film intelligence so I actually wasn’t able to realize that he’s an incredible performer and goes out every night in front of 20,000 people and gets the audience to hate him. That’s what drives him.”
“The second we talked with him,” he adds, “he was the one guy we didn’t want to get off the phone with, and then we met up with him. He’s an incredible storyteller.”
It also helped that Garnett fit the narrative the Safdies were looking for — Josh explains they figured out they could base the entire plot of the movie around Garnett’s ups and downs in the 2012 Eastern Semifinals, giving the movie a high level of intensity that it might not have if it was about a fictional NBA player.
And is it ever intense. Garnett is at the center of some of the less heart-pounding scenes, but it’s hard to take your eyes off of him as he negotiates with Sandler and shows his desperation when he tries to hang on to the opal jewel at the center of the film’s title. In one memorable scene, you can see the wheels turning in Ratner’s head as he realizes he can let Garnett have the opal, but that he can then use that to his advantage at a sportsbook.
Garnett felt comfortable in his role, pointing out that his daily work before he went to set was the same as what he put in before NBA games watching film.
“Acting is preparation, just like anything else,” he says. “I didn’t want to fail them. They took a risk on me being in there, playing this part … at least you can come in and be professional.”
“Someone taught me (when I did) television: ‘Know where you’re going when you’re coming out of the driveway,'” he adds.
Benny Safdie praises Garnett for his ability to memorize lines, stay with scenes and improvise. And Sandler, who’s getting some Oscar buzz for his dark turn as Ratner, gave him the highest praise of all.
“You were incredible,” he says to his co-star. “He was so focused and on every moment.”
With Garnett set to appear in the upcoming “Uncut Gems” movie, the future Hall of Famer stopped by his former city for a premiere.
From one big man to another, Tacko Fall recently met Kevin Garnett.
With Garnett set to appear in the upcoming “Uncut Gems” movie alongside Adam Sandler, the future Hall of Famer stopped by his former city for a regional premiere of the film.
The movie stars Sandler, who plays a charismatic Manhattan jeweler that makes a series of high-stakes bets, and Garnett, who plays himself as a basketball player.
Fall was among the members of the Celtics organization to attend the premiere and the 7-foot-5 center snapped a photo with Garnett and recently posted it to his Instagram account.
Fall has been back in Boston rehabbing with the Celtics after recently suffering a bone bruise on his right knee on Nov. 25 with the Maine Red Claws. The undrafted center was seen doing some on-court work on Sunday as he appears to be close to a return.
The Red Claws play next on Friday against the Iowa Wolves.
“Uncut Gems” hits theaters nationwide on Christmas Day.
There are plenty of parallels between the Boston Celtics championship team in 2008 and this iteration of the C’s.
With an 8-0 record at home to start the 2019-20 season, including wins over the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics now have their best record at home since 2007-08. A season notable because it ended in Boston hoisting up the Larry O’Brien trophy that summer after defeating Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
In 2007-08, however, the Celtics managed to start the season 12-0 at home. This season, Boston has just two-thirds of the wins that that team had, although the similarities extend far beyond the team records.
Like the 2008 champions, this season’s roster features a star player that was acquired over the summer and follows a theme of camaraderie that’s reminiscent of the Celtics’ championship team practicing the African philosophy of “Ubuntu.”
The Celtics improve to a perfect 8-0 at TD Garden, good for their longest home winning streak to open a season since starting 12-0 in 2007-08
In the summer of 2007, Celtics president and general manager Danny Ainge had managed to acquire two stars, to be specific: Seattle SuperSonics sharpshooter Ray Allen and Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Kevin Garnett.
The trades allowed Boston to form the first modern-day Big Three, with Allen and Garnett flanking team captain Paul Pierce. As a result, the Celtics has a myriad of takeover scorers who were complemented by defensive-minded role players like Tony Allen, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe and Rajon Rondo (not that the Big Three couldn’t hold their own defensively).
But the secret to the team’s success was their chemistry; they were genuinely happy for one another’s success and played for each other on the court, akin to how soldiers will tell you they’re a band of brothers.
This summer, the Celtics only had to make one blockbuster trade, which netted them former Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker.
However, they have flanked the quartet of Walker, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown with defensive-minded role players like they did in 2007. This time, with players like Grant Williams, Daniel Theis, Robert Williams III, Semi Ojeleye and Marcus Smart.
Further, like Boston’s last championship team, this iteration of the Celtics practice an altruism and have formed a camaraderie that fits well with the “Ubuntu” philosophy of interdependence. The team realizes that it’s only as strong as the sum of its part and recognizes the importance of every player, which can’t be said of Boston’s mindset last season.
That said, a strong start at home (or altogether) and improved chemistry won’t be why Boston wins a championship. Certainly, they’ll likely benefit from homecourt advantage in the playoffs and teams who make deep runs in the postseason are indeed those with the best chemistry but constant improvement will be the key to their ultimate success. Both as a team and individuals.
Tatum is arguably the most talented player on the team but has to overcome his slow starts. The Celtics need more from their bench and to shake up their defense. Everyone hopes that Brown and Hayward can keep up the it strong play.
But those concerns are far less of a hindrance to their potential than the issues they faced last season. From a fractured locker room to Hayward and Brown’s struggles to start the season to their inability to play well consistently enough.
That said, their 8-0 start at TD Garden is symbolic even if it’s not predictive. This isn’t only what’s arguably the most talented team Boston has had since 2007-08 but arguably their most unified group since then as well (the Celtics under Isaiah Thomas were pretty close-knit).
What it all means at the end of the season anybody’s guess but at this point, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Boston emerge from the East as NBA Finals contenders.
