The human brain’s prefrontal cortex is the slowest developing and latest maturing organ in the body.
Other organs like the heart, lungs, intestines, kidneys, and anus already start developing in the mother’s womb, just not completely.
However, the prefrontal cortex doesn’t start growing until after birth, reaching maturity around the age of 20.
This organ determines a person’s emotional control and abstract thinking capabilities.
Therefore, during adolescence, when the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, emotions can easily get out of control.
At the same time, their thinking tends to be more concrete rather than abstract.
Not until it is fully developed do an individual’s emotions and thoughts gradually become mature and more complete.
At this point, when they view or think about issues, they’ll gradually have moments of clarity, and reflect on their younger selves with thoughts like "How was I so dumb back then, why did I do that, really embarrassing."
Because the brain’s way of viewing the world changes, becoming clearer and able to abstract the essence of events.
Some late bloomers may not have their prefrontal cortex fully developed until the age of 25, becoming a person truly responsible for their words and actions.
Most NBA players have abundant hormone secretion, and many have poor emotional control. It’s normal for their prefrontal cortex development to be a bit slow or late.
Kevin Garnett just turned 20 this year, yet a few years ago, during his junior year in high school, he got involved in an injury case.
At that time, the basketball team of Garnett’s high school lost the state basketball championship, and feeling upset, they surrounded and verbally threatened and insulted a white person who usually showed racist tendencies.
This person later called the police, claiming his foot was injured and identified Kevin Garnett among his bullies, pointing him out because of his very noticeable height.
Garnett was taken to the police station for investigation, and it was found that he didn’t do anything, just stood by watching.
The person’s injured foot wasn’t Garnett’s doing either; he had kicked a locker in anger after being insulted and hurt his own foot.
In the end, after paying over ten thousand US dollars in bail, Garnett was released from the police station, but his reputation was tarnished, and he was no longer trusted at school and in the community.
Garnett’s mother decided to protect her son by leaving South Carolina, transferring to another school in Chicago to finish his senior year.
This incident shows that Garnett isn’t a violent or harmful person. If he were violent, he would have rushed in for a fight much earlier.
But at the same time, Garnett is not one to enjoy silence. If there’s a fight, he’ll join in the fun and watch from the sidelines, but he won’t actually get involved when it comes down to it. Unfortunately, due to his height, he was an easy target.
Simply put, he’s just an ordinary teenage boy who likes to follow the crowd, go where others go, and act without considering the consequences. However, when on the verge of making a serious mistake, there’s still a subconscious line holding him back, preventing him from going astray.
In just two short years, Garnett has gone through a lot and matured a bit more than before.
He is able to take care of himself, learned to manage his own life, train hard, and take NBA as a job to work hard at.
Yet, he is still that high school boy during his teenage years, clueless about money, never checks his contracts and bank accounts but leaves it all to his agent.
In the training and on the court, he makes a lot of noise, bares his teeth, shouts loudly to appear imposing, even seems aggressive, but in reality, he can’t fight at all.
In his entire rookie season, Kevin Garnett pounded his chest 35 times, bared his teeth 80 times, yelled 63 times, banged his head on the ball 15 times, and participated in fights: 0 times.
He has great basketball potential, but he’s not truly a tough guy. What defines a real tough guy?
Like Gan Guoyang and Olajuwon, they are real tough guys, each being the dominant fighters in the league during their rookie seasons.
They would fight in every game, taking on all the notorious thugs in the league, getting into fights whenever possible, never hesitating to throw down.
Up until 30, the two have already made their names in the league, gained a foothold, started families, and gradually stopped getting into fights.
But as soon as they put on a cold face, glare, or clench their fists, everyone who knows better knows not to mess with those who can truly fight and are good at it.
So, when in the third quarter Garnett faced Ah Gan’s relentless aggressive plays, he knew he couldn’t hold up.
As for trying dirty moves to retaliate against the opponent, he neither had the courage nor the habit.
Garnett has always played cleanly and straightforwardly, never the type to play dirty or foul intentionally.
Watching himself about to get smashed, his mind couldn’t help but recall what Kobe had told him about "tomatoes."
If he were an adult, experience would tell him this was definitely unreliable. How could there be a safe word in an NBA arena?
Moreover, Ah Gan is your opponent; if you really can’t handle him, just don’t defend him.
Or, at worst, find an opportunity to beg him; during regular season, he’ll definitely let you off once.
Saying "tomato," what’s that supposed to accomplish? Are you guys playing SM with a safe word or something?
Yet, at just 20, Garnett, a big boy, with an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, his mind sometimes got foggy.
He didn’t expect his best buddy Kobe to set him up with a trap like that.
And as for Gan Guoyang, at first, he also didn’t think anything was off because even as a mature adult, he couldn’t imagine any American suddenly shouting "tomato!" on the court.