It figures that following a day where Bryce Harper mentioned fans throwing batteries and the MLB.com Twitter account brought up throwing snowballs at Santa, Kevin Garnett would call out Philly fans for being fair-weather. 

Here’s what he told reporters after last night’s game:

“When speaking about this crowd, man, it’s like plugging in. They enthused for 48 minutes on. From the tip on. So I can’t see the difference between minute to minute. I feel like every minute I look up, I see my family, I see people yelling, I see the drunk fat guy. This crowd is ridiculous, man, I love it. It’s like taking a cold shower, steeping into a freezer that’s below 60. I wouldn’t recommended it, but if you want the feeling try it out come back let me know.”

Can you compare Boston fans to the fans in Philly?

“Not even close. You know, we got fans here, then you got fair-weather fans. Take it how you want.” 

 

Damn. See, I always liked Garnett. Now I’ll have to puke on a little girl while throwing batteries and tasing him. 

The comment was completely unnecessary, but certainly not unintentional. Garnett has been around long enough to know exactly what he’s saying. And he’s exactly the type of weirdo that, especially at this old age of 36, can use boos to fire himself up and elevate his game. In fact, part of me believes he said what he did on purpose, just so he can be showered with boos by 20,000 fair-weather fans on Wednesday night. 

But that still doesn’t mean his statement is accurate.

Garnett has only been with the Celtics since 2007, meaning most of his experience playing in Philadelphia has come since then, in the final years of a Sixers ownership group that seemingly cared little about winning, results, and fan interest. The Sixers have been laughable for much of the last decade until this season. Plus, Garnett’s experience in Philly is obviously limited to basketball. I’d entertain his argument when it comes to the Phillies (see 1994-2005), but good luck trying to tell anyone that Eagles and Flyers fans are fair-weather. Hell, Flyers fans are so fucking nuts that sometimes I think we enjoy the down times more than the good times, just so we can drink and bitch and drink and carry pitchforks and stuff… and drink.

CBSPhilly.com’s Spike Eskin, whose desk may or may not be adorned with Sixers pom poms, used some fuzzy math to disprove Garnett’s statement. He said, during down years in 2004 and 2005, Celtics percent capacity figures were similar to what the Sixers see now, around 85%. That’s true, but what he didn't mention is that, as recently as the 2009-2010 season, the Sixers’ lowest attended season since the mid-90s, the then Wachovia Center was only at 70% capacity. The Celtics never came close to that, even when they struggled between 2003-2007. 

Video via WEEI