Kevin Garnett is certified/certifiable

For those of us who saw Kevin Garnett's post-game interview with Michelle Tafoya, we can agree he definitely went a little bit nuts.  There are plenty of players who are emotional and "wear there heart on their sleeves."  Paul Pierce is an emotional player.  In fact, many professional athletes can be like that.  However, Kevin Garnett may go down as the most emotional player in NBA, if not general sports, history.  Garnett plays with pure, raw emotion unlike anything I've ever seen.  I bring this up because of a highly entertaining article over at slate.com that does a play-by-play of KG postgame.

"I'm certified! I'm certified!" Garnett bellows. This may be the first time you could mistake a newly minted NBA champion for a raving lunatic on the subway . . .

The interview concludes, but the camera stays with Garnett as he turns to find Bill Russell waiting to greet him with a benevolent grin and a bear hug . . .

Now, even the stiffest upper lip in Boston has to be quivering as Garnett and his forebear embrace. "I got one of my own," says Garnett. "I got my own." He steps back, looks at Russell, and says "I hope we made you proud." . . .

A less weird individual might have left it at that, but Garnett has one more line for his mentor: "Now you got to tell me where to go tonight." Russell last won a championship for Boston in 1969. Unless the Celtics always celebrate their championships at the Warren Tavern (est. 1780), the old man's advice isn't going to be that useful. But this is at once a great statement of Garnett's respect for Celtic tradition and of how dedicated he's been to returning the franchise to its former glory—the man doesn't even know a good local bar for celebrating. Have a couple on us tonight, KG. You deserve it.

Plenty of athletes break down and cry when they win their first title.  However, with Garnett, it seemed more real.  He's a guy that pretty much everybody likes and he's always been a guy who played all out every single play of every single game.  It only makes sense that he would go all out crazy once he'd reached his goal.

One thing that will be interesting next season (and this will be something worth exploring in much more depth), is how winning it all will affect the Celtics.  More importantly, how will it affect Kevin Garnett.  I'd imagine the drive and passion will still be there.  Maybe without this King Kong-sized monkey on his back, Garnett will step up to an even greater level?  I can't imagine he's a guy who's competitiveness will simply switch off because he won a single title.  Either way that is definitely one of the more intriguing issues heading into the 2008-2009 season.