Kevin Garnett reacts to his suspension

Kevin Garnett says that he was not surprised by the league’s decision to suspend him for one game due to the elbow Garnett threw during a game one altercation with members of the Miami Heat.

Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston reports that Garnett said the following regarding his suspension:

“No, I wasn’t surprised at all, to be honest,” said Garnett. “I told my man, [Celtics vice president of media relations] Jeff Twiss, when we were talking that I just want my message to be done, and all of this to be over with. My message here is: Whoever it is, my teammates, [Celtics coach] Doc Rivers, or anyone in the organization, I want them to know I got their back.

“The elbow wasn’t deliberate. The league does what it has to do to set the tone. I respect that. It’s time to move on and get back to a wonderful series.”

Celtics coach Doc Rivers had this to say about the league’s decision to suspend his starting power forward for game two:

“My only statement on the whole thing, I accept Kevin being suspended, if you go by the letter of the law, you kinda knew it was going to go that way. But if you really want to stop the fights, you gotta suspend the agitator, too. I think right now, the agitator gets fined, the retaliator gets suspend in all these things. Until they stop the agitator, and fine them, and suspend them both, then you’ll have these things.”

Garnett also took a backhanded swipe at Quentin Richardson for his role in the altercation, saying that “the one that usually instigates something is not the one that usually gets the penalty. But it’s over. It is what it is. We’ve both been dealt with.”It’s a half-apology from both parties. It’s a “I was so wrong to do that, and people have every right to be mad. But seriously, maybe he shouldn’t have made me do that.” Richardson may have instigated Garnett, but Garnett’s elbow was the action that crossed the line and caused him to get suspended. And even if Richardson was suspended, Garnett has to know that he’s much more valuable to his team than Richardson is to his. Hopefully Garnett will show his contrition once he returns by keeping his on-court actions relatively above-board for the remainder of the playoffs.