It's just so ridiculous that people are up in arms about this, that sports fans with no ties to either player and no knowledge of the incident get so up in arms, supposedly completely offended. To me, this shows one of the worst characteristics of human nature: that people act obnoxiously pious in cases where they are not actually personally offended, but rather because they either a) think they should be offended, b) are overly influenced by media over-saturation, c) seize any opportunity to hate on a guy vilified throughout his career despite no off the court issues, and/or d) can't pass up the chance to try and tell the world how a successful black guy should be acting.
I grew up being bad at basketball, playing against overly competitive kids, and let me tell you, this cancer comment is pretty vanilla for trash talk. If I were an NBA player, I might be out on the court telling Kobe I have one of his kids tied up in my basement, or yelling at Gilbert Arenas that he owes me money for that Tonk game from the other night. It's all about psychological distractions.
The most amusing thing to me is what Garnett said afterwards. I don't know what he said during the game, but he claimed the statement was that Villanueva is cancerous to his team and the league. It just seems hard to imagine, that in the heat of the moment amid the frenetic pace of professional basketball that Garnett would have the time and patience to articulate this statement, one which seems rather verbose for trash talk. Does Villanueva even have the time during the game to get offended at this? "Man I missed so many shots, can you believe Kevin Garnett thinks I'm detrimental to the Pistons and the NBA? That guy is totally in my head now. And at halftime he read me an insulting limerick and attacked me for my stance on unilateral trade agreements!"
What's even more hilarious is that Garnett din't apologize to Villanueva, or say something like "Yea it was a shallow joke in the heat of the moment, happens all the time." Rather he takes the time to explain the problems he sees in Villanueva, taking the line of a far more signficant, career-oriented insult, attacking characteristics Villanueva actually has under his control. It's like if I made fun of a guy with a stupid sweater to his face, then decided afterwards to write an op-ed for the whole country, explaining that the sweater isn't the issue, but rather a small symbol of the deluge of poor decisions and life mistakes that have befallen this dude, that he'd be better off not seen in society at all. But to everyone else, the cancer comment was more hurtful?
And here I am getting offended that breast cancer charities brand their products with slogans like "save the ta-tas". People should think more before having opinions; it's a lot more gratifying that way.
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