CSN Rumor: Kevin Garnett would have played if the Celtics advanced

This story was updated at 12:30 pm Wednesday.

Yeah, Comcast Sports Net New England’s Gary Tanguay isn’t exactly known for being one of the most original or ground-breaking media members in Beantown, but he did drop an interesting note Tuesday night regarding injured Kevin Garnett and his availability if the Boston Celtics had advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Cleveland.

During the late edition of their Sports Tonight broadcast, Tanguay told co-host Michael Felger that he heard from sources that Garnett would have played against the Cavaliers if the Celtics had defeated the Magic in Sunday’s Game 7.

Obviously, Tanguay’s got some inside connections (CSN is the official broadcast partner of the team and he is the studio host for the broadcasts) and by leading off with this, he puts himself out there in case it’s not true.

But it does raise some questions if it is true:

– Just how bad is this knee anyway? KG is due to have surgery next week, but there sure is a Tom Brady-esque feeling of silence around the situation, eh?

– Assuming the above is true, if he could have played in Game 1, why didn’t he play in Game 7 against Orlando?

– Was GM Danny Ainge simply smoke-screening all this time? I guess the answer to this is obvious, but if Garnett had returned, it would have interesting to hear what he would have to say after he so vehemently denied Garnett would play in the postseason.

– What’s the benefit of breaking this info now? I don’t see much of a benefit to be gained for everyone and actually, I see more negatives that could come out of it.

– How much could we have expected out of him? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Celtics fans would probably say a 60% Garnett is better than no Garnett, but would he have been able to make any sizable impact?

There isn’t anything buzzing much yet on the interwebs about this, but I suspect we will hear more in the week ahead. It does twist the knife a bit to realize we could have been that close to an emotional Garnett comeback, but in the end, the Celtics got throttled in Game 7 and the Magic moved on.

Damn it.

Update: Tanguay uploaded the video of this announcement on the CSN site. I’m still surprised this isn’t more of a story yet.

Josh Nason – josh [at] smallwhiteball [dot-com] – is the publisher/main writer for New England sports and media blog Small White Ball.