Kevin Garnett has played through plenty of injuries over the course of his 19 years in the NBA, but this one is different.
The veteran never had to deal with back spasms — at least, not until three weeks ago, when he began to feel his back tighten up during the Nets’ blowout win in Denver.
Since then, Garnett — who has played in more than 1,500 combined regular season and playoff games and spent over 54,000 combined minutes on an NBA court — has been trying to get healthy again.
Because of that, he has developed a new level of appreciation for what his back does — and right now, doesn’t — let him do.
“The most frustrating part about this is that you just can’t push through this,” said Garnett, who spoke to reporters for the first time since his injury following Thursday’s practice at the team’s practice facility. “The back tends to obviously deals with the legs, the lower part of your body, the core, your hand movements, your breathing, a lot of it comes into play.
“So it’s not like an ankle where I can muscle through it, or a knee or an arm, neck, something. This is damn near your body, and I have a whole new respect for the body.”
Garnett said this is the first time he has had back spasms, and coming back from them hasn’t been easy. It appeared he would return on March 10, after sitting out the previous four games, when Nets coach Jason Kidd declared Garnett would be in the starting lineup for that night’s game against the Raptors.
But then, moments before the opening tip, Garnett felt his back tighten up again, and he was pulled from the lineup and forced to begin the recovery process all over again.
“Yes, I was actually trying to come back [against Toronto],” said Garnett, who credited Andrei Kirilenko — who missed almost all of training camp and virtually the entire first two months of the season because of his own bout with them — with helping him through the recovery process.
“I have a newfound respect for [the back],” Garnett said. “Through this whole thing I’ve been learning and learning, and it’s been helping my process and helping me not be so frustrated and I feel like I’m getting better and stronger.”
While Garnett has been out, perhaps the most surprising thing has been the way the Nets have gotten better and stronger as a whole, particularly defensively.
Though Garnett will sit out again Friday against Boston — the 11th game in a row he’ll miss — the Nets have gone 8-2 without him. They also have sported the fourth-best defense in the league (allowing 100.1 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com) over the 10 games he sat out.
That’s something that wasn’t the case earlier this season, as the Nets often struggled defensively whenever Garnett went to the bench during games he was playing in — let alone in games he missed entirely.
But Garnett said he wasn’t surprised his teammates have picked up their play in his absence.
“You have to understand,” he said. “As one of the leaders here I try to lead by example. One of the things we do every day is we talk about communication, we talk about having each other’s backs, being there for the next guy and that’s exactly what guys have been doing.
“Obviously we can get better at communicating, but for the most part, being there for each other, it’s been great.”
For as much as anything, Garnett is known for his ability to be that communicator on the court, and the one who makes sure everyone is where they are supposed to be. He said he’s been surprised by the improved communication in his absence, but that it goes back to his teammates filling in the gap his injury has made.
“I did not, but when you take something away, then something has to be replaced and if not you’re not going to replace it, then how about yourself?” Garnett asked. “I think me being out has kind of forced everybody to talk. It’s kind of forced everybody to be the responsible one to speak for whatever.”
Garnett’s status for the Nets’ upcoming three-game road trip is up in the air, with both he and Kidd saying that decision will come sometime over the next couple of days. But after sitting for the past three weeks, whenever he does make it back won’t be soon enough.
“Very [frustrating],” Garnett said of having to sit out. “But [this injury] is a world in which I haven’t been a part of. I’d like to think that I’ve been known for my strong back and shoulders, but it is what it is. I’m just trying to be a student of all of it, but at the same time being smart with everything, too.”