Wake up with the Celtics and your daily dose of Irish Coffee …

If you weren’t on the players’ side of the NBA lockout before, it’s getting harder and harder not to be.

Despite the fact that they are inching closer and closer to losing paychecks, and despite the fact that the league’s top players are finding it more and more difficult to seek employment overseas — an issue we’ll get to in a moment — NBA superstars are holding firm against owners.

Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski called Kevin Garnett‘s “apoplectic” plea to his fellow players not to drop lower than a 52-48 split on behalf of the league’s next generation — even in the face of losing his $21 million salary and perhaps his last best chance at a second NBA title to a lost season — “one of the most unselfish acts in these labor talks.” Here’s what one young mid-level salary player told Wojnarowski:

“What he’s doing now, to me, it says a lot about K.G. He’s willing to sit out the year, and give up [$21 million] at the end of his last big contract, and probably his last really good chance to win another ring. For him, this is about the principle.

“I don’t want to hear this stuff from our guys saying, ‘Oh, he can afford to sit out. He’s made a lot of money.’ I respect the [expletive] out of those guys standing up for us right now, him, Kobe, all of them.”

If owners and players don’t reach an agreement by Monday, the NBA will cancel the first two weeks of the regular season. If the lockout lingers any further, the players will indeed lose paychecks beginning on Nov. 15.

The four most prominent players at the most recent collective bargaining session in New York City — Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and Amare Stoudemire — stand to lose a combined $219,000 per day if the NBA does not return by mid-November. I’m not sure, but I think that’s a lot of money.

“It’s very, very easy to jump ship when things get hard,” Garnett told Yahoo! Sports. “It’s very, very easy to start thinking differently. I’m not that type of person.”

NBA owners are in this for the long haul, as those who own profitable franchises will be able to make up for lost revenue fairly quickly over the course of the collective bargaining agreement and those who (claim they) don’t profit will actually save money each day the lockout continues.

That’s not the case for aging superstars like Bryant and Garnett, who have 1,401 combined hours of NBA basketball on their aching knees. And it’s not as easy as they might have once thought to make that money back overseas, as Bucks center Andrew Bogut‘s agent David Bauman noted to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce joined union president Derek Fisher in labor negotiations. (AP)

High-paid players — especially injury risks like Bogut, Bryant and Garnett — can’t find affordable insurance deals to cover the wages they would lose if they suffered serious injury abroad and their team terminated their contract under a new deal. Bogut’s insurance coverage for the three years and $39.5 million remaining on his contract would have cost him $1 million. Imagine what it would cost for the three years and $83.6 million left on Bryant’s deal. Too much to make signing in Italy for a couple million worth the hassle.

“It’s just too big of a nut,” Bauman told the Journal Sentinel. “That’s why you won’t see Kobe [Bryant] or LeBron [James] or K.G. playing overseas. This is the undercurrent of the business we do.”

So, the fact that these players — the ones who stand to lose the most and gain the least in a lost season — is something the owners simply can’t help but acknowledge. And their fellow players can’t help but respect. It’s ironic that Garnett is lobbying so ardently on behalf of the same nobodies he dismisses regularly in season.

I think we can all agree on this much: Garnett doesn’t like to lose. In a recent interview with Complex magazine, he said he once threw a video game controller through a TV when someone threw a Hail Mary on the final play to beat him in game of Madden ’97.

“It fuels the fire, but you know, at the same time when you’re winning it’s great; when you’re losing it’s encouraging,” Garnett told Complex. “When you’re winning you’re also encouraged to continue to win and to stay on top, but when you lose it is unlike anything else. It is truly fuel for the warrior’s spirit.”

Whenever someone takes a jab at Garnett, Celtics coach Doc Rivers responds the same way: Say all you want about him, but you’d take Garnett on your team in a second. The rest of the NBA is just starting to figure that out.

RAJON RONDO: CHICAGO FANS ARE THE WORST

As you know, Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo recently hosted the Red Bull King of the Rock 1-on-1 tournament on Alcatraz. During the event, Red Bull conducted an interview with Rondo for its website. The highlights:

• On his elbow injury: “Pop! It was loud. I was in shock, more than anything. It wasn’t a lot of pain, it was shock.”
• On his youth football career: “People said they thought I was better in football than in basketball, but who knows? I’ll never know.”
• On the Knicks sweep: “There were some intense games, and it could have gone a different way if our guys didn’t make shots for us. It was a fun series, though, being that the Knicks hadn’t made the playoffs in so long — and the Celtics going against the Knicks is a good rivalry.”
• On the most obnoxious crowd: “I’d say Chicago. Ever since a couple years back in the playoffs, me and Kirk [Hinrich] got into it and they’ve been booing me and heckling me ever since.”
• On the Boston Garden crowd: “It’s very intense, even on Sunday games. Sunday afternoon, it’s still alive in the Garden.”

Meanwhile, Rondo is confirmed for Saturday’s Dwyane Wade vs. LeBron James charity basketball game at Florida International University. It tips at 7:30 p.m. and airs on CBSMiami.com. Here are the rosters:

• TEAM WADE: Carmelo Anthony, Caron Butler, Mario Chalmers, Eddy Curry, Wesley Matthews, Chris Paul, Amare Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, John Wall and Dorell Wright.
• TEAM LEBRON: Chris Bosh, Jamal Crawford, Kevin Durant, Jonny Flynn, Rudy Gay, LeBron James, Damon Jones, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook and Lou Williams.

Who gets the start for Team LeBron: Rondo or Westbrook? I know who Kendrick Perkins would take.

Rondo still isn’t confirmed but is expected to participate in a charity game at the University of Kentucky between the Big Blue All-Stars and “The Villains,” coached of course by Christian Laettner. Here are those likely rosters:

• BIG BLUE ALL-STARS: Rajon Rondo, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Chuck Hayes, Jodie Meeks, Tayshaun Prince, Nazr Mohammed and Enes Kanter
• THE VILLAINS: Terrence Williams, Tyler Hansbrough, Nolan Smith, Eric Gordon, Zach Randolph and Rudy Gay

JERMAINE O’NEAL, BLACKJACK ACE

When I heard C’s center Jermaine O’Neal was participating in a charity event for the INDYCAR Series, I thought: Please tell me he’s not racing cars, please tell me he’s not racing cars, please tell me he’s not racing cars.

He’s not racing cars, thankfully. He’s playing blackjack alongside current and former NBA and NFL stars, including former Celtics point guard Marcus Banks, who I’m not sure you can call a current or former NBA star.

So, by my count Paul Pierce participated in the World Series of Poker, Garnett admitted to playing online poker in his Complex magazine interview and O’Neal is playing blackjack for charity. I’m not going to tell Comcast Sports Net New England how to run their business, but can we get all the Celtics at a poker table every week and film it?

(Have a question, concern or conception for tomorrow’s Irish Coffee? Send a message to @brohrbach on Twitter.)

5 Comments for “Irish Coffee: Kevin Garnett fights for the nobodies”

1. Mark Says:
   October 8th, 2011 at 7:59 am

   Hard not to be on the player’s side? You have to be kidding me. What exactly makes them think they deserve one penny over 50% of revenue. 20 owners in the league are losing money and staring down at a bench of 12 overpaid millionaires.

2. Ben Rohrbach Says:
   October 8th, 2011 at 10:05 am

   Who overpaid the millionaires?

3. mark Says:
   October 8th, 2011 at 4:20 pm

   True, the owners are responsible for a bad deal from the last lockout but that doesn’t mean every deal from now should be so absurdly beneficial to the players. A market correction is needed and if the players don’t recognize that they won’t have another paycheck for a long tome.

4. ben nh Says:
   October 12th, 2011 at 8:22 am

   its not 12 overpaid, most low bench players dont even make a million in a year which im not saying thats not enough money but its a problem of the top three players on the team making it impossible to spread the money around.
   there should be a set amount of lets say 30 million per team, use it how ever you want but you cant go over that not even lux tax. that would keep teams like miami from happening and the league would be more even all around and no one could spend more than the other and any extra revenue would be sent to charities… i know sounds like a pipe dream but it would keep players from making insane money for playing a game but they would still be well off and maybe they would get closer to curing cancer and diseases like that.. u may say im a dreamer

5. scott Says:
   October 14th, 2011 at 2:11 am

   ok so heres how it goes. the players are the attraction. they make it possible for the owners to make all that money. so they should get 52%. typical republican blames the owners problems on the union workers. if not for the unions in this country you wouldnt of had sick days or as much vacations or health care from your employers. oh ya the 40 hour week was from the unions. most people have no idea what the union has done for them. the republicans just want to paint them as the big bad unions cause they can never get enough. we need to stand up for this union and all unions in the future. its what made this country great.

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