Why Garnett is MVP

PARIS (The Monday International Show) - KG is undoubtedly,for me, the most valuable player to his team in the NBA this season.

As Doc Rivers says,look at the record! Boston has gone from second to last to first with the most fantastic turnaround in the history of the league along with the top defence.

All the team stats point towards Boston at the top of the heap led by the eternally intense and team-orientated Garnett who, as Paul Pierce stated ,has completely changed the culture(mentality) around Celtics-land from top to bottom.

For some time now, indidvidual stats are no longer king(thank goodness),otherwise the trophy goes to Lebron without discussion because he has the best stats since Oscar and Wilt in the sixties!

Chris Paul,another young but deserving candidate, shows a sweet mix of great stats and team success compared to Cleveland's mediocre results.

The deciding factor,now, is wins and losses-Boston has 8 more wins than New Orleans-as well as making your teammates better.

Garnett is a throwback MVP along the lines of Bill Russell and Wes Unseld but also reminds us of Magic and Bird for his all-around brillance and leadership.

More recently, Duncan and Nash, have proven that you don't have to be among the league's leading scorers to earn multiple MVP trophies!

Modern statistics are so much more refined and analytical these days-Dean Smith must be proud-that we can know a player's minute by minute efficiency and detailed impact on the team possession by possession to the point that even defence has become quantifiable well beyond just blocks and steals.

Seeing Garnett shut down, night after night, the opposing power forward while leading the likes of Perkins,Powe and Rondo to a confidence level never before imagined convinces me that he is more valuable to his team than Kobe,who wanted to jump ship before the season, don't forget!

Bryant is the US media favorite because he's a great talent who never won the award before and he is playing a more altruistic style since the arrival of Pau Gasol.

If Kobe is so far ahead of the pack let's reserve for him right now the NBA Finals MVP award!

For me, Bryant has more talent surrounding him than Garnett and despite this,Boston has NINE more wins than the Lakers and a fabulous win percentage vs. the powerful western conference teams with 25 wins and only 5 losses!!

Garnett has revived the careers of Rivers,Pierce and Ray Allen as well as his own while always saying the right things,for example he says Pierce is his MVP!

KG is big brother ,keeper of the collective flame at all times and I would go so far as to say that with Garnett,Team USA would have won the gold in Athens in 2004 and in Japan in 2006.

Remember how important he was to the team in Sydney in 2000!

When T-Mac says Boston plays the best defence he's ever seen, this is a direct tribute to Garnett(future defensive player of the year?) who DEMANDS the same investment from each teammate that he himself puts into every defensive possession.

Watching the Celtics belly-up on D out to midcourt,cut off the passing lanes and rotate with intensity is a beautiful thing to watch and KG is the foundation for it all!

As the old saying goes, defence-and ,I might add ,MVPs- win championships!

We'll never know if KG could have won 4 titles if he had had Duncan's supporting cast the last nine years but odds are he'll be caressing his first trophy in june!fin