Nick Daley | Managing Editor

The Boston Celtics have the best record in the NBA. God that feels good to say. Aas the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics are well on their way towards hanging up banner number 17. That, I never thought I’d get to say. And one thing’s for sure, the Celtics have made Boston a basketball town again.

Sure the Red Sox won the World Series, the Patriots had an undefeated season, the Bruins actually made the playoffs (taking the top-seeded Canadiens seven games), Boston College football had one of its best seasons in history, and UMass made it to the college basketball NIT championship…but the Celtics’ season eclipses all of that. And none of it would have been possible without Kevin Garnett.

KG came to Boston from Minnesota this year in exchange for SEVEN players, but it was all worth it. The trade perfectly complimented the earlier acquisition of eight-time all-star and three-point specialist Ray Allen and helped make Boston a legitimate championship contender again. KG and Allen joined forces with Paul Pierce and have led the Celtics to an already unforgettable season. The question is can KG become the first Celtic since Larry Bird in 1986 to bring home the MVP hardware?

In my mind, there is no other choice. Sure you can make cases for Lebron James, Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant. But the Most VALUABLE Player has to be KG. What player has meant more to his team than him? I can accept that if you base your vote on the obvious numbers, then KG is not going to be the frontrunner. Lebron, Kobe, and Paul all have a statistical edge over him.

Lebron averaged 30 points, 8 boards, and 7 dimes a game. Kobe probably is the best all-around player in the NBA, even though the Celts won 10 more games and beat the Lakers twice this year. Paul is the only other logical selection as he had one of the best seasons a point guard has ever recorded; averaging over 21 point and almost 12 assists a game.

But let me throw some other numbers at you:

18 – Number of games the Celtics lost in a row last season.
24 – Number of Celtics wins last season.
21 – Number of years since the Celtics won 60 games in a season.
66 – Number of Celtics wins THIS season.
41 – Number of home games the Celtics sold out (FYI, that’s all of them)
1,080 – Number of days since the Celtics last played a home playoff game, before their Sunday, April 20 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
1 – Number of players in the Celtics 61-year history that have won the Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Guess who? Kevin Garnett in 2008.

MVP stands for Most Valuable Player – the award is about more than just personal statistics. You can argue all you want in favor of the other guys, but nobody was more valuable to their team than Kevin Garnett. I often think that this season was his destiny. After spending his entire 12-year career in Minnesota without a ring, Garnett was meant to revive the city of Boston and return the Celtics to glory. It’s as if the Celtics had flat-lined and Garnett grabbed George Clooney’s ER paddles yelling, “CLEAR!”

And forget about what he’s done for Celtics fans, because it doesn’t stop there. Somehow Garnett has managed to take the sting away from the Patriots colossal, letdown of all letdowns, felt like a little part of you died inside, Super Bowl defeat to the Giants. But I must say…if this was the Sport God’s divine plan for the city of Boston: for the Celtics to triumph in the wake of the city’s biggest disappointment since Bill Buckner – then thank you Sports God.

You see what KG has done to us all? This season the Boston Celtics are having is bigger than any individual accomplishment, and Garnett would be the first to agree. But it’s been because of KG that Boston can once again take pride in having one of the most historic sports teams there ever was. That’s why KG deserves
the MVP – not because of his 19 points and 9 rebounds a game – but because of what he’s done for the team and its city. There’s nothing more valuable than that.

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