<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">HOUSTON -- The first time Kevin Garnett walked through this room, he and the rest of the world were nine years younger and the room itself was in Cleveland. Two days before the 1997 NBA All-Star Game, the annual media session on Friday was as much about the past as the present and Garnett, merely a piece of the league's future, was lucky even to be invited. He had been named as an injury replacement to the West squad, an understudy for Shaquille O'Neal, and showed up at a hotel banquet hall that had been transformed, by the NBA's grasp of history, into a living, breathing Hall of Fame. Julius Erving to the right of him. Bill Russell to the left. John Havlicek, Bob Cousy, Moses Malone and Elgin Baylor, all part of the league's celebration of 50 years, a gathering of its 50 greatest players. Garnett, nearly swallowed up by his oversized sweater and baggy jeans, had a silly grin plastered on his face that wouldn't leave. At one point, he met and shook hands with Wilt Chamberlain. You'd swear there was a thunder clap. Fast-forward nine years and shift the room to Texas: Garnett shows up as one of the superheroes, one of the brand names. He is a picture of casual cool that falls well within the league's dress code. A few of the 2006 All-Stars, in fact, seek out Garnett before he settles in. Then, for the better part of an hour, an international array of reporters from Charlotte to China peppers him with questions about the weekend, LeBron James, the influx of overseas talent, Ron Artest, favorite sneakers, the Phoenix Suns, playing hurt and Oklahoma City. There are the expected zingers, too, about the Timberwolves' record, the spotlight this weekend on old pals Flip Saunders and Chauncey Billups, and two or three different versions on Garnett's frustration level, his impatience and his desire-maybe-even-desperation to win a championship. Comfortable in his ninth run through this, the Wolves star alternately stops them cold or deftly deflects them. As in: "I have a lot of friends in the league. Chauncey happens to be one of them. Flip. But I think it's great. I'm never jealous of anything." As in: "What's not frustrating? I'm frustrated when I've got to sit at a red light. ... It's a transition that, y'know what, next year [if] we're one of the top teams in the league, I've got a totally different set of questions coming from you guys. It's how you look at it. I'm not one to give up just 'cause times are rough. That's a coward." As in, with a laugh: "Sorry I didn't give you all what you wanted for your newspapers. I apologize for that. But that's what it is." What Kevin Garnett is these days is an NBA elder statesman. Only seven of the other 23 All-Stars are older and, by draft, only O'Neal has been in the NBA longer. So how does Garnett like being, as he would say, an "old head?" "It's cool," he said. "You know what, I can remember my first years when I'm sitting here and I look over and how the whole room, a Mike [Jordan] comes in and he sucks all the media [over]. I just watched Yao [Ming] come in, a couple guys who pulled me to the side, asked me some advice, stuff like that. "I'm an ambassador and I embrace it. I've been in both spots and I can understand. This is nine. Doing nine in anything is difficult." </div> Source
