The Kevin Garnett Dunk and Bad Memories

Let me start by recognizing how well Boston played defense last night. It was downright awesome to watch. And I'm definitely thinking about Kendrick Perkins when I praise the defensive effort. On the flip side the Celtics also dominated the offensive highlights. Check out the this YouTube clip.

Does anyone else think Ray Allen's layup, checking in at #2, was borderline Jordanesque? However, I'd like to focus on the play in the top spot - KG's thunderous dunk. And as much as I enjoyed Garnett throwing it down, I was more intrigued by Lindsey Hunter ducking out of the way. I've mentioned this in passing before but in the winter I coached a high school basketball team. We had a unique schedule in the sense that it was composed of teams drastically better, drastically worse and roughly the same as us. For example we didn't have a single guy that could dunk. We played one team where 8 guys threw it down in the layup line. Not that dunking is the be all end all of basketball skills. Yet in this case it did reveal a shocking athleticism gap between the two teams. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum we played a middle school team. And as I mentioned earlier I coached a high school team.

So one day in February we went to play a squad that was historically roughly the same as mine in terms of skill level. I was a little nervous during the JV game when the referees were fraternizing with the the players of the other team. Perhaps fraternizing is a bit harsh but over the course of the afternoon it became clear that one of the referees was an alumnus of the home team. We jumped out to a big lead and slowly lost it due to costly mistakes, sketchy coaching decisions (I'll admit it) and a shocking differential in foul shooting, with my squad on the short end of the stick. But the kicker occurred on a fast break, somewhat similar to the one that led to KG's dunk. As previously stated no one on my team could dunk. However, one of my guys took it to the hoop strong only to have one of the defenders pull a more pronounced Lindsey Hunter. My guy hit the layup only to see it disallowed due to an offensive foul. He said, and I quote, "Are you kidding me?" Granted I don't like my guys talking to the referees at all. But he did not use any profanity and even the opponent's fans were shocked by the call. It ended up being a 6 point swing after a free throw and a 3-pointer. We lost by 2. Where was I?