Just when you thought Minnesota Timberwolves All-Everything Kevin Garnett had finally escaped the shadows of his harshest critics, he finds himself having to prove the skeptics wrong yet again.

 For years, Garnett was regarded as one of the league?s classic underachievers, an extraordinary talent who was unable to lead Minnesota past the first round of the playoffs, let alone the Promised Land.  

 Garnett silenced his critics last season by not only capturing league MVP honors, but also leading Minnesota to a Western-best 58-24 record and a birth in the Conference finals, where the Wolves fell to the Lakers in six hard-fought games.  K.G. was vindicated and the Wolves appeared poised to reach the Finals this season.

 Or so we thought.

 With the All-Star break quickly approaching there is no greater disappointment at the halfway mark of the season than Garnett?s Timberwolves.  

 After Tuesday?s 108-96 loss in Memphis, Minnesota, losers of six straight, dropped beneath the .500 mark for the first time all season.  At 24-25, the Wolves currently sit 1.5 games out of a playoff spot and worst of all don?t appear to be playing with any sense of urgency whatsoever.

 On the court, you?d be hard pressed to blame Garnett for the team?s demise.  Once again, stat-wise, K.G. is carrying Minnesota, leading the team in scoring (22.4), rebounds (14.1), assists (5.9) and steals (1.5).

 But is K.G. doing enough off the court to ensure the Wolves find a way to get themselves out of a season-long rut?  Is Garnett, despite all his greatness on the court, the leader Minnesota needs him to be?

 Let?s face it:  Minnesota?s season started spiraling downward before it ever got off the ground, when veteran ?Twiddle Dee, Twiddle Dum? backcourt running mates Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell both started to whine publicly for new contracts back in the off-season.

 Sprewell, a free agent at season?s end, refused the team?s three-year, $21 million extension in October, citing he needed to feed his family (Sprewell may not receive a better offer now, from anyone, let alone the Wolves).  Cassell, 35, coming off his first-ever All-Star appearance last season, wanted to re-negotiate his deal despite having one year remaining, and when he wasn?t offered one by Wolves brass failed to show up to training camp on time.

 You have to wonder at that point just how focused the team - in particular Spree and Cassell - really was.  Here were the Wolves, coming off a franchise-best season, ready to embark on a potential championship journey and the starting backcourt was putting their self-interests ahead of the team.  You would think Cassell and Sprewell, two NBA veterans, would know better and understand the importance of bringing a championship to the Twin Cities.

 Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum.

 However, you also wonder where the internal leadership was.  Garnett, as the leader, as the face of the franchise, needed to assume the responsibility of getting everyone back on the same page and ensuring the team was truly focused to start the year.  It?s one thing to be bickering and pouting in the off-season; it?s another to allow those same personal squabbles to become a season-long distraction and have a perversely negative effect throughout the team.

 Yet that is exactly what has happened.  

 Last season?s drama queens, the Los Angeles Lakers, looked like saints compared to the Minnesota misfits of this season.  

 Sprewell?s play thus far has been atrocious for the most part, as the 34-year-old appears to have lost a step in addition to being a malcontent, and was even benched by head coach Flip Saunders earlier in the year for missing a team flight as well as suspended one game after shouting a sexual vulgarity towards a female spectator.  Cassell, when healthy - which hasn?t been often - is playing nowhere near an All-Star level.  Forwards Trenton Hassell and Wally Szczerbiak were at-odds earlier in the year over playing time, in particular Szczerbiak?s inclusion in the starting lineup over Hassell.  

 And then this past week, Cassell brought it upon himself to go out of his way, in the midst of a five-game losing streak, and rebut criticisms TNT analyst Charles Barkley made regarding Cassell and the Wolves.

 ?Charles was a helluva ballplayer when he played the game,? Cassell said.  ?But he is an ultimate winner?  No.  He didn?t win.  He won some games, but he didn?t win.?

 If only Cassell and his teammates could win ?some games,? Minnesota might get back in the playoff picture.  Just another example of where Cassell?s mindset has been all season long.

 At some point, in order to be regarded as one of the all-time greats, Garnett will need to assert himself as a true team leader, a player who has command of a locker-room and who teammates respect ? not necessarily like, but respect.  

 Arguably the greatest of all-time, 'His Airness' Michael Jordan, despite all his exploits on the court, may not have been liked necessarily by all of his teammates, but he was able to get the most out of them on a nightly basis.  Jordan was a leader who commanded respect.  Even eternal bad boy Dennis Rodman conformed enough while in Chicago to be a vital cog in three of the Bulls? six championships.

 Is that the case currently with Garnett in Minnesota?  Does not appear so, as the Wolves are made up of a bunch of individuals with self-serving agendas and not a team with a clear-cut direction.  And that rests squarely on the shoulders of Garnett, warranted or not.  K.G. is the one who is being paid $100 million to serve as the franchise?s poster boy, its? face.  As Garnett goes so do the Wolves.

However, in order for the Wolves to go anywhere, K.G. must answer the bell once more and evolve into a team leader.  

 Not only on the court, but more importantly off of it.