When all the dust settles, it's now No. 1 whom you see

Last update: February 7, 2008 - 9:33 PM

Kevin Garnett is gone -- well, except for a fleeting moment of both welcome and farewell before tonight's game -- but that swirling cloud of rosin dust hovering over a Target Center press table remains.

Rashad McCants has made sure of that this season.

Garnett left for Boston, but McCants carries on Garnett's intricate pregame ritual that includes purposeful tying of his shorts strings, a respectful bow and, of course, a clapped cloud of rosin rising toward the rafters just before he walks onto the court to start the game.

"Kind of like a tribute, to follow in the footsteps of a great player and somewhat of a mentor who I admire and try to model myself after," said McCants, who played his first two NBA seasons with Garnett. "Some things you have to let move on, but with that tribute to him I'll be able to say he's always there for the rest of my career."

McCants modifies the rosin thing by sometimes blowing it toward courtside observers -- "I watched him for two years so I pretty much know what he does, but I didn't want to take his whole ritual," he said -- and the bow, he said, was something Garnett added during McCants' rookie season.

"He started that by bowing to me and I bowed to him," he said, "like the sensei to the student."

JERRY ZGODA