So did y'all see the game last night? The one where my Boston Celtics took apart the Los Angeles Lakers like they were made out of Legos and won their first NBA title since 1986? If you did, you might have caught an interview where my man Kevin Garnett talked about how he transferred (he actually said "transcended," which was awesome) his tradition of eating a whole mess of PB&Js before every game over to his Celtic teammates when he was traded there in the offseason.

Professional athletes? Eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches?

[Wait for it …]

WHERE DO THEY GET THEIR PROTEIN!?!?!?!?!?!?!?1/1/1

themikelee / CC
getwiththeprogram / CC

I found this fascinating. The reaction to the interview was pretty much: "Look at KG and his wholesome, nutritious pre-game snack. It's so wholesome! And nutritious!" But PB&J is as much of a vegetarian staple as the Boca burger—I think I ate it for lunch every day for my first eight years as a vegan. So why do I feel that if KG had said, "I eat a vegan meal before every big game," the reaction would have been … different? It's like everyone is cool with eating healthy, but for some reason, eating vegan has this whole different connotation for some people—even though it's exactly the same thing.

I read an article on ESPN.com yesterday (while I was, uh, totally working hard and not on the interwebs), where Prince Fielder, Tony Gonzalez, Mac Danzig, and a bunch of other vegetarian athletes were talking about how being vegetarian has affected their game. No surprises: Gonzalez talks about having more energy in the fourth quarter of games and being able to blow by tired, meat-eating defenders, and Danzig talks about recovering faster from workouts. You can't argue with results. I figure that if a vegetarian diet is good enough for some of the top athletes on the planet, it's good enough for everyone.

So, note to the Lakers: Maybe some PB&J will help next time. Although grabbing a few offensive boards wouldn't hurt either. Just sayin'.

—Dan

Posted by Dan Shannon