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The Golden State Warriors added another All-Star to their quartet of lauded starters this offseason in DeMarcus Cousins, but according to Kevin Garnett, a player who once joined a superteam back in 2007, integrating him will take some sacrifice.
“You have to give a little bit,” said Garnett, comparing this team to the Boston Celtics team he played with, according to Logan Murdock of the San Jose Mercury News. “The one thing that Ray (Allen), Paul (Pierce), and I all had in common is that we were hungry, and hungry for the same thing. We had all three [players] aligned with the same agenda. It wasn’t about all-stars anymore, it wasn’t about money, it wasn’t about fame, it wasn’t about notoriety. It was strictly to be remembered as a champion and how many times we can do this. It was nothing more, nothing less than that.
“We didn’t give a crap about anything else other than winning a championship and how many could we win? That’s the one thing we all shared. But you have to sacrifice and that’s the first thing. And if a guy can’t sacrifice it’s going to be very difficult to be able to get to the other things. You know chemistry, and understanding, and patience. You have to start somewhere and usually that’s with sacrifice.”
The Warriors were the fastest avenue for Cousins to be able to recover from his season-ending Achilles injury and be able to showcase his skills in the playoffs for the first time of his career, as he was only able to be a spectator for his New Orleans Pelicans earlier this year, still sidelined with the injury.
Yet the All-Star quartet of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green face the hardest transition of all, forced to play part of the season with their recently sown chemistry from last season and re-tether it again once Cousins makes his return — a daunting process at best.
Garnett — who won it all for the first and only time in 2008 — sees this roster as able to handle that massive task, noting Cousins will have a large part in making it easier for this team to weave him into the fold.
“Absolutely. I see one thing with Golden State that everybody’s not giving enough attention to is that they are professionals. And when you are champions on top of being professionals, you have a way and a system which works,” said Garnett. “DeMarcus Cousins is coming into a championship system that works. Anything he’s done up until this point is useless in a new system; he’s in something totally new. Not just about himself, but how to be a better teammate. Everything he will do in the course of this year will be better, not only for him, but his game and everything else that comes with it. I think overall it’s going to make him a better person and a better player.”
If the Warriors can indeed put it together, they can be the unstoppable force the entire NBA is expecting them to be once Cousins returns from injury. However, they could also be a thread away from imploding, which makes walking that fine line of respect and pursuit of a common goal more important than any other.
