Garnett Opens Up About Knee Injury

(DGA Productions)


By: Greg Payne

Finally, he speaks. After many months of speculation, questions and assumptions, Kevin Garnett, the one man we wanted to hear from, finally opened up about his knee injury:

"No surprises other than the severeness of it -- I didn't know it was that bad," Garnett said. "They evaluate you from A to Z, but until they actually get in there and see what the problem really is, then you know a 1-to-10 on how severe it was. It was pretty severe, but the best thing about is that I got it out of the way, and my leg is almost 100 percent going forward. Better than anything I'm playing without any pain, which is something I really haven't had for some time now."

Asked to elaborate on what he meant by "severeness," Garnett looked down at the interview table in front of him and drew an analogy, saying the bone spurs were expected to be the size of a tape recorder but ended up being more like a microphone.

While the severity of the injury appeared to be real, Garnett is finally back scrimmaging with his teammates. The best news of all? He was going full bore:

"It's up and down, man. There ain't no standing around in 5-on-5," Garnett said.

However, Gary Tanguay did post this on his Twitter page:

KG told me knee still gets sore.

While Tanguay's comment puts a slight cloud over this, the rest of it is fantastic news. This is basically what we all wanted to hear. Sure, the knee clearly was an issue and it might have been more serious than most of us thought, but the fact that he's seemingly back is pretty much all we can ask for. And as long as KG's in the hands of Ed Lacerte and Brian McKeon, I can rest easy.

All signs point to this NBA season coming down to the health of Kevin Garnett's knee. Sure, the Lakers, Cavaliers, Magic and Spurs all made additions, but so did the Celtics. On top of Rasheed Wallace, Marquis Daniels, Shelden Williams and Glen Davis, Garnett is something of an acquisition in himself, seeing as he hasn't suited up for the team for so long.

But if this knee can stay healthy, then the Celtics have the talent, the poise and the veterans needed to make a substantial run at another championship. Doc Rivers aims to keep these guys fresh, as he's only hosting one-a-day practices throughout training camp. In the end, KG's knee might very well be the most important part of this entire team.