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Thursday, January 05, 2006 

Kevin Garnett

Posted by: Bradley McDonald

I've still got Hawaii details forthcoming and there are plenty of bowl games to talk about, but before I get into that I thought I would share with you an unbelievable act of kindness by a superstar. From Scoop Jackson, on espn.com:

KG and Oprah
How do you make Mother Moses cry? In a year when ball players were getting press for "str8 stupidness" it seemed strange that Kevin Garnett's written appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show went notice-free.

He wrote her a letter. They gave her the letter on-air as a surprise. In the letter, he said he wanted to donate something to her Angel Network, which was building houses for those who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. His pledge: To build one house per month for the next two years. That's 24 homes! Two seasons of "Extreme Makeover." Financially funded by one person … with no commercial return on his donation. A gesture that should have landed him on the cover of Time alongside Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono as Persons of The Year. A gesture that made Oprah -- read it again, Oprah -- break down.

But still, no member of the media wrote a story about it. USA Today scripted a blurb; ESPN.com made a mention. But overall -- nada.

Now, let Kevin Garnett or any other athlete run a stop light; let them miss a practice unexcused; let them miss a child support payment -- Bam! Lead story on "SportsCenter," forum discussion on "Rome Is Burning," breaking news on CNN.

In an era when it is too often publicly asked: "Where are our kids' role models?"; in a society that is starved for areas of positiveness to come from our professional athletes; in a world where we have been conditioned to believe that every one of these young superstars is unappreciative, ungrateful, undeserving and a void soul, a situation arose that could have shifted the entire perception of their existence. What Kevin Garnett did was just that big.

But guess who dropped the ball? Us. The media, for not saying anything about it, and the public, for not demanding that we do.

The moral of this story: How do you make the media not pay attention to you when you are a superstar athlete? Do something humane.

Isn't Kevin Garnett the guy who missed a big game (playoffs?) because he was graduating from college and wanted to be present to receive his diploma? I think it was him . . . not sure . .anyway, the only reason I ever heard the story is that it was mentioned critically by the sports announcer of the game. Whoever it was must have been playing the Bucks.

Yep, yet another good deed unnoticed by those who need role models.

What a crazy world we live in.

Thanks for sharing the GOOD news!

Good to hear from you, Kris.

I think that might've been Jerry Stackhouse that missed a game to get his diploma, but I'm not sure. Maybe someone else can help us out...?

That was Vince Carter. He did not miss a game, but he had to leave the team after game 6 of the playoffs and did not return 'til just before the start of the deciding game 7, which he did not perform well in and the Raptors lost.

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