Hawks Too Preoccupied With Kevin Garnett’s ‘Dirty’ Play, Drawing Focus Away From Games at Hand

A person associated with the Atlanta Hawks walks in front of a microphone and calls Kevin Garnett a dirty player.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

The Hawks have a kinda, sorta big game on Thursday night. They need to win in Boston to stave off elimination and force a Game 7 back in Atlanta, and they are 0-for-the-series at the TD Garden. They are finally enjoying some semblance of health with center Al Horford playing his way back into shape, and the pressure is on the Celtics to finish the series at home.

Yet, the Hawks seem preoccupied with other things. For the second time in the series, a member of the organization complained that Garnett is a dirty player, and this time it went right to the top.

Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. spoke at a luncheon on Wednesday, and the topic naturally turned toward his team's playoff series. Channeling his inner Ivan Johnson, Gearon offered his take on Garnett's playing style. 

"We don't get any calls, which I know everybody always hears," Gearson was quoted as saying by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "But I'll give you a stat. [Tuesday] night, we are playing this old, physical team. They are old. I know what happens when you play basketball. Old guys foul. Garnett is the dirtiest player in the league. We are playing Boston [Tuesday] night and they had two fouls [actually, three] the whole first half. We had five times that and we're athletic."

This is not the first time Garnett has been accused of being a dirty player, and not all of those accusers have been representatives for the Hawks. Garnett is unquestionably physical beyond the level of a typical player and he can been seen muttering things to opposing players throughout every game.

The premise of Gearson's comment — that young, athletic guys do not foul — is curious, though. The Celtics players with the two highest rates of fouls per 36 minutes are 26-year-old Greg Stiemsma and 27-year-old Ryan Hollins. The Hawks' most aggressive fouler, if that is a word, is the 27-year-old Johnson, at 4.5 fouls per 36 minutes. If anything, young players who have played fewer minutes and do not have a full understanding of how NBA officials call games are more prone to fouls than veterans.

Fouls are obviously not the only measure of whether a player is dirty. We only use that as a basis of comparison because it was the statistic Gearson pointed to. The bigger issue, though, is that the Hawks seem overly concerned with Garnett's extracurricular activities and their perceived lack of respect by the officials. This is not merely annoying for fans to listen to. It can also be harmful for a team. The Los Angeles Clippers illustrated Wednesday how a team can let a game get out of reach when the players turn their ire toward the refs and away from the other team.

The Hawks and Celtics have a game to play, or two games to play if the Hawks get their way. The Hawks are not going to change Garnett's approach in the next three days, but they can change the way they have gone into lulls in certain stretches of this series. As players love to say, they can only control what they can control. It is time for Game 6. It is time to focus on what matters.

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