Brian Scalabrine had a pretty decent NBA career having played in the league for 11 seasons, suiting up for three championship contending teams.
The man fondly called as “White Mamba” has played with and against some of the most talented players of their respective generations like Jason Kidd in New Jersey, Derrick Rose in Chicago and the troika of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierece in Boston.
Scalabrine also faced legends in the NBA Finals like San Antonio’s Tim Duncan and David Robinson and Los Angeles’ Kobe Bryant.
Despite sharing the floor with several greats, Scalabrine managed to make a short list of transcendental talents in terms of ferocity and intensity.
And those two people are Garnett and Bryant.
“I’ve never met anybody more intense than Garnett, no disrespect to Kobe or anybody else and maybe if I played with Kobe I would’ve said Kobe but I just never met anybody like Kevin Garnett in my life,” said Scalabrine during his media availabity for the NBA 3X Philippines on Thursday at NBA Philippines headquarters in Bonifacio Global City.
“It’s amazing to be able to lock in for three straight hours and that’s what it would take him to come into a game and get out of a game. “He was not focused on anything but wining that game and, like I said, I’ve never seen anyone like that.”
Scalabrine’s first foray into the NBA Finals ended in disappointment when Duncan, Roninson, and the Spurs swept his Nets in 2003.
The now 40-year-old Scalabrine would eventually get his ring in 2008 when the Celtics dismantled the Lakers through six games culminating in a 39-point blowout, 131-92, in Game 6.
Disappointment, however, followed once more when the Lakers got their revenge on the Celtics after seven games.
And it was in 2008 that Scalabrine saw how Garnett blew off steam in the most memorable of ways when the Big Ticket shouted “anything’s possible” during the on-court post-game interview.
Garnett, though, followed up his shout with a slew of profanities just in time for the ESPN crew to take the microphone away.
“So 60 minutes before the game and around 50 minutes after the game he’s [Garnett] so hyper focused in winning the game and executing the game plan,” said Scalabrine.