Last June, Kevin Garnett became a lot of things: a champion, a surefire Hall of Famer, a Boston hero. But in the months since, the feeling swirling around courts and the blogosphere is that he’s become something else, too: a bully. To some seasoned NBA watchers, this respected court leader is now an arrogant, trash-talking cheap-shot artist.

Kevin Garnett’s antics have given him the rep of a Boston bully.
The litany of offenses is long. He got down on all fours to bark at Blazers rookie Jerryd Bayless. He finger-wagged in the face of Raptor Jose Calderon. He dropped Warrior Marco Belinelli with an ill-intentioned pick. He aimed an elbow at Bobcat Adam Morrison during a break in play. He threw a subtle punch at Buck Andrew Bogut.

What’s the common denominator of these victims? Right: None is exactly an imposing foe. If this were boxing, most of them would be considered tomato cans. There’s not a Dwight Howard, Ron Artest or Amar’e Stoudemire in the bunch. “Does he handpick his battles, is that what you want to know?” Cleveland’s Ben Wallace says with a hearty laugh. “Well, that’s the word on the street. All I know is, he’s never said anything to me.”

Another Cav has a theory. “KG knows the Celtics have bull’s-eyes on their chests,” says Wally Szczerbiak, a former teammate of Garnett’s in Minnesota. “And if he feels he has to up the antics to combat that, then that’s what he’s going to do. But sometimes it’s not always in good sportsmanship.”

The perpetrator himself can’t figure out what all the fuss is about. He says he’s not doing anything today he hasn’t done in any of his previous 13 years in the league. “I think it’s a lot of whining,” Garnett says. And no, he doesn’t make a point of going after only nonthreatening types. “On the court, I don’t even know the names of half these cats,” he says.

That excuse can’t explain one recent situation. In a game in December, the Big Ticket supposedly made Big Baby, teammate Glen Davis, cry. For his part, Davis downplays the incident. “He was talking to the team, not to me,” he says. “He never said my name, never pointed at me. I was just mad at myself, and sometimes I cry when I’m mad.”

It is possible that Garnett is only as fiery as he’s ever been. In fact, maybe only the situation has changed. “I’m on a better team, and we’re winning,” KG explains. “But if you’re going to pick something to complain about, you can take that.”

And if you want to shut him up, you’ll just have to take him, and the Celtics, down.

Chris Broussard is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine