Gatorade's 'League of Clutch' & Kevin Garnett are not a good fit

Like any die-hard sports fans, I have been closely following the NBA Playoffs and watching ESPN highlights in the past few weeks. During that time I noticed a new Gatorade commercial featuring the Boston Celtics and Kevin Garnett. Because I often skip through commercials thanks to my TiVo or simply ignore them in favor of my computer, it took several days before the commercial sunk in. From their advertising campaign series entitled "League of Clutch," Gatorade chose to feature Kevin Garnett, one of the NBA's top players, but hardly a player who has been known as "clutch" over the course of his career.

Look, I do not have a problem with Kevin Garnett. Like many ringless superstars, I rooted for the Timberwolves in the playoffs in past years just to see the guy get a ring of his own, but for whatever reason Garnett was not able to lead his team to playoff success.

My question in all of this is how the heck does Kevin Garnett get labeled as the poster-child for the "league of clutch?" Did the David Stern already hand the Boston Celtic the NBA Championship for 2008 or did I miss something? I know that the fact that former Boston great Kevin McHale traded Garnett to Boston for a bag of chips and a couple of young players is fishy and all, but did Boston already have a title handed to them along with their superstar? The last time I checked, Kevin Garnet has led his team out of the 1st Round of the NBA Playoffs just once in his entire career. Yes, just once in eight playoff appearances. If my math is correct Garnett's teams went 17-27 in those eight playoff appearances with a 10-8 record in 2003-2004 with the Timberwolves. That means Garnett's teams were 7-19 in the playoffs in the seven years prior to the 2004-2004 season. Clutch indeed.

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Okay, so I will have to agree with the argument that Garnett defenders are going to obviously comeback with. I realize that Garnett's supporting cast has not been spectacular throughout the years. And now he is with Boston alongside superstars with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Things will change you say. Well Garnett and Boston fans, meet the Atlanta Hawks. After watching the Garnett commercial earlier today it was the Atlanta Hawks that inspired me to write as Atlanta just evened the series with Boston at 2-2 thanks to their 97-92 upset of the Celtics tonight. The Celtics entered the 2008 NBA Playoffs with the league's best record in easily the weaker conference with a much weaker bottom in the East, yet the almighty Celtics (and the Pistons) are struggling with both series tied at 2-2.

So in the end, I think Gatorade got it wrong. I understand that in marketing you have to have the name athlete signed to do the commercial, so Kobe, LeBron, Duncan and others who have tasted playoff success are not always readily available. But for any true NBA fan, Gatorade's depiction of Kevin Garnett as the leader of the "League of Clutch" is actually just an insult of our intelligence as sports fans. Maybe Gatorade should rethink their marketing and commercials to make sure that they are depicting things accurately instead of making up what they want to happen.

by Michael Shull
Pro Basketball Fans Guest Writer

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