“He Never Gave Me Problems”: Kevin Garnett ‘Noisy’ Attitude Gets the Nod Over Tim Duncan for Ex-NBA Star

Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Chris Webber—a hard choice to make if you were to trade one, bench one and pick one to start with. While Webber stands as the one with the highest scoring career average, Duncan stands with most NBA championships among the three. Meanwhile, Garnett boasts exceptional athletic abilities and an aggressive approach that could shatter the opponent’s mindset. Now imagine having to assign one option to each of these power forwards from the three options mentioned above.

And this is exactly what former NBA star Stromile Swift had to do in his recent appearance on the Knuckleheads Podcast. But not many would’ve expected Swift to pick Duncan as the player he’d trade. However, he had his reasons for doing that to Timmy. “Duncan never really gave me a whole lot of problems… It wasn’t like Duncan’s just gonna come out and just kill you. Like, he ain’t talking no noise. Like, he coming out. He getting his 20-12, and, like, whatever his number was. And it was like, it was so easy and effortless for Duncan,” he said.

Well, this was the only reason that would’ve made sense to trade arguably the greatest power forward ever. Someone who played his entire 19-season long career with a single team. It’s no secret that as great as Duncan was, he was time and again labeled as boring for his simple playing style. Not an exceptional athlete, but someone who’d find out the best moment for a shot and rely on his textbook techniques to do the rest of the work. Thus earning him the name of Mr. Fundamental.

Meanwhile, Kevin Garnett was a completely different breed as compared to Duncan. KG may lag behind a bit in statistical comparison with Timmy, but athletic, he was. And a brutal beast on the court who even made players cry with his trash talk. All the more reason that Stromile Swift wants Garnett on his side than to face him.

“… With KG, man… You knew he gonna put 25 on your head. Every time he scored, he talking noise to you… I think that was a little bit harder for me at that time,” said the former Grizzlies star. The fact that Steven Adams once initially pretended to not know English to escape KG’s trash talk shows the mental impact it had. But why not start with Chris Webber when he has a statistical edge over Garnett? Well, the said statistical edge, first of all, is marginal.

And yes, both players have an impressive presence on both ends of the court, but Garnett’s 2008 DPOY reflects he had a better impact on the team’s overall defense. No wonder Swift concluded his trade, bench, start verdict with — “I’m starring KG… I’m a bench C-Webb. And we got cut, Timmy.” However, he highlighted he intends no disrespect towards Timmy — “the greatest power forward ever.”

Tim Duncan vs Kevin Garnett: Head-to-head comparison

The two players played 52 games against each other throughout their NBA career, as per Land Of Basketball. This includes 44 regular season matchups and 8 clashes in the playoffs. And the San Antonio Spurs power forward had an edge in both scenarios.

Notably, Duncan won 27 games against KG in the regular season as compared to Garnett’s 17 wins. And he also won 6 of the 8 games they played in the playoffs. Despite the wide margin between the wins and losses, the stats are where it gets interesting. The two players could not have been more evenly matched in their battles against each other.

Kevin Garnett averaged 19.8 rebounds, 10.6 rebounds, 1.9 blocks per game through his match-ups against Duncan. Meanwhile, Timmy averaged 19.3 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game. It’s clear that the two players are well evenly matched. Yet two completely different personalities as a player. And that personality difference is why Swift picked KG over Timmy.

Stay tuned for more updates. Join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host, BG12, sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.