Getting Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell to talk is not a difficult assignment. Getting Mitchell to talk about Kevin Garnett is an 85-mile-per-hour fastball right down the middle of the plate with the wind blowing out in the middle of an August heat wave.
And he knows of what he speaks.
Garnett and Mitchell were teammates for six seasons in Minnesota. When Garnett entered the league as a 19-year-old rookie fresh out of high school, it was the veteran Mitchell who mentored him. While Garnett went straight to the NBA, Mitchell had to go to Europe, the CBA, and the USBL before finally making it in the NBA at 26. He really worked at it. But he said he's never seen anyone work harder, longer, more consistently, or more ferociously than Garnett, who had 23 points in the Celtics' 112-84 win last night.
"He's the greatest player I ever played with," Mitchell said. "And he's the most intense player I ever stepped in a locker room with."
Mitchell likes to tell the story of seeing Garnett prepare for a game while in the Timberwolves' locker room, strapped with hot packs, stretching, building up a sweat, getting into the proverbial zone by pretending his opponent for the night thinks little to nothing of his game or his talent. "He plays these games in his mind," Mitchell said. "By the time you've finished talking to him, you would think whoever he's playing against thinks he's the worst player in the league.
"The thing he understood, and what I'm working with Chris [Bosh] on, is, the guy you're playing against? You're getting his best, every night," Mitchell added yesterday as the Raptors wrapped up their morning shootaround, one in which neither Bosh nor Andrea Bargnani was present. "That's what was amazing about Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kevin, all the great players, Kobe. You get a screw-up like Sam Mitchell guarding you, you're going to get my best. I'm scared to death. I'm going to play as hard as I can because I'm playing not to be embarrassed. I'm guarding Kevin Garnett? I'm playing not to get embarrassed. So you're going to get my best effort. And he gets that 82 nights a year. So how do you learn to bring it?"
Mitchell looks at the 2007-08 Celtics and while he sees some familiar faces, he sees some vastly different players. We're only now beginning to understand how Garnett has transformed this team, not only on the defensive end, but in so many ways that the box scores or television replays can't begin to capture. To Mitchell? Wake him when you've got some real news.
"Kevin has made Kendrick Perkins a better player, not skill-wise but in attitude," Mitchell said. "You watch his attitude. He has confidence. Everyone can play. But who can play with confidence? Now Kendrick Perkins has confidence. Now [James] Posey is better. Now all these other guys are better because they've got a guy in the locker room who gives them confidence. So what he does for your team, it's so many things that won't show up in a stats sheet. He makes everyone better."
And, Mitchell said, Garnett never, ever lets up. Not at practice. Not during games (which we know). When Doc Rivers and Mitchell chatted in Italy during the exhibition season, one of the first questions out of Rivers's mouth was, "Sam, does he ever shut it down? Does he every let up?"
And the answer? "Not in one practice, not ever. That, to me, is the greatness about him. He never takes a day off."
And we're not just talking during the season. Mitchell recalled a time during a Summer League session in Minnesota when he was first coaching the Raptors. When the doors opened at 11 a.m. for the games, there was Garnett, seated on the floor, across from the bench. When the games were over at 11 p.m., there was Garnett, seated in the same place.
Finally, a curious Mitchell got up and went over to chat up his former teammate.
"I said, 'What are you doing here?' He says, 'I've got to see. There may be somebody coming down the pike that thinks they can play me.' I say, 'Kevin, you're in the West. We're in the East. You're going to see us only two times.' He just loves being in the gym."
And, clearly, Garnett loves his new home and what appears to be his best chance at reaching the NBA Finals since 2004, when the Timberwolves went to the conference finals. Garnett hasn't seen a playoff game since, but, Mitchell said, that should not be held against the guy.
"The last time I checked, MJ [Jordan] didn't win a title until he got a better surrounding cast," Mitchell said. "Kobe Bryant hasn't won without Shaq [O'Neal]. D-Wade [Dwyane Wade hasn't] won [without] Shaq. Tim Duncan? He has [Manu] Ginobili and Tony Parker. The only time [Garnett] played with [Latrell] Sprewell and Sam [Cassell], who weren't All-Stars but a notch below, he got to the Western Conference finals. And people forget Sam got hurt in Game 4. That's the only chance he's had.
"You look at this [Celtics] team last year," Mitchell went on. "Paul [Pierce] didn't have the type of year he is having. Kendrick Perkins wasn't playing with the fire and the passion that he has now. You bring Kevin Garnett and put him on the team and all of a sudden everybody's confidence goes up, everybody plays with a little more pride. What he brings on the court is infectious. It just spreads through the locker room. And that's what people never give him credit for.
"He's one of three players in the history of the game to average over 20 points, double-figure rebounds, and five assists per game. He shoots it at 50 percent or better. I'm trying to figure out: What [else] is he supposed to do?"
Peter May can be reached at p_may@globe.com.
