A Stupid Argument: Brodeur vs. Garnett

I don’t even remember how it started, but in defending the good name of our great sport, I said that Martin Brodeur has better name recognition than Kevin Garnett. This kind of asinine arguing should seriously be confined to college dining halls. But that aside, part of me actually thinks Pete was right. These heartland morons who think hockey is played by Eskimos and Swedes would probably kill Brodeur in a survey simply because his name “sounds Chinese or something.” That would mean a good player in the NBA who hasn’t won anything is more popular than a three-time Stanley cup winning goalie who’s changed the sport and will go out as possibly the greatest goaltender in the history of the game. Good god, is hockey THAT unpopular?

The truth is, it’s probably a good thing. The more corporate sponsors get their greedy little endorsements into our game, the uglier it will be. They promote individual accomplishment at the expense of team achievement which is rotting other pro sports from the inside. Imagine Vinny Lecavalier running off to the Bahamas with Britney Spears the weekend before the playoffs start. Picture Rick Nash choking Ken Hitchcock and Malkin carrying around a midget claiming that it’s “just Evgeni being Evgeni.” And envision Sean Avery getting busted for having a chicken fighting ring in his basement… Actually, that probably will happen.

Luckily, the NHL's athletes still seem to be sound, humble people. Plus, we've got the NHL network so we can listen to competent announcers (Gary Green I am NOT looking in your direction) discuss each game in depth. I no longer have to pray that a Ranger fan calls into Steve Summers' show on 660 WFAN so that he’ll talk about hockey instead of the Mets' bullpen for the seventh straight month. Ticket prices have remained close to reasonable and everyone I play pickup hockey with is cool. Popularity be damned, it won’t do anything for me. So suck on that, canuck, as you buy a scalped ticket to watch the 14^th place Leafs. All that popularity ain’t bringing home the silverware. Where was I? Oh yeah, Garnett’s more popular. I lose.

Vinny Lecavalier (the one on the bottom)