After the first two rounds, the Minnesota Timberwolves looked like a squad deserving to win it all this season. Shockingly, they are just a game away from being swept in the conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Analysts have suggested that the Wolves look gassed after battling against the defending champions. Kevin Garnett took this theory up a notch and highlighted something called the ‘Michael Jordan’ effect as the reason the Wolves are struggling.
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The Timberwolves legend, on the All The Smoke podcast with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, explained two aspects of the MJ effect. Firstly, he stated that the Wolves are giving their best but their bodies have not been conditioned to play this far in the postseason,
“I’m watching the young Wolves play hard and I’m watching them give a solid effort but it made me think like this. Man, the young wolves ain’t never been here before, I mean their bodies, I mean their mental.”
KG brought up how Jordan would come into training camp ready to go, while other players used that time to get back in shape. He changed the league’s training norms and made the players put in the extra work. The 2003-04 NBA MVP added,
“So, the Michael Jordan effect is two things. Michael Jordan changed the way you came into training camp…Mike Jordan’s effect was you came into training camp, ready and it changed the whole mechanism of the league.”
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As per KG, another aspect of the Michael Jordan effect came to the fore when the Chicago Bulls legend came back from playing baseball. In order to catch up, MJ played against players who did not make the playoffs or just got knocked out and made them play till the NBA Finals were over.
Given that MJ was ready to play the full 48 minutes right from the training camp, his body was conditioned to play till the Finals. And if by any chance the Bulls did not make it to the finals, Jordan would still be playing against other NBA stars to keep his body in shape for when his team makes it to the NBA Finals. Garnett likened the Wolves’ struggle to his own and claimed they are going through a similar phase.
Kevin Garnett was conditioned by the time he reached Boston
Kevin Garnett also talked about how legends like Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James took some time to win their first championship. As per him, all players had to do their due diligence and condition their bodies to the point that they would not be tired by the time they made it to the Finals.
KG even brought up his struggles before winning his first title. He mentioned that even though he led the Wolves to a Western Conference Finals appearance, he did not have the right tools to get past the Kobe-Shaq Lakers.
Garnett carried the Wolves for multiple years but it wasn’t until he arrived in Boston that he had the right players who were also conditioned to play in stretch. And within his first year with the Celtics, he went on to win an NBA title. In the next five years, the Celtics made deep playoff runs, making it to the finals on multiple occasions.
