KG sorry for war remarks

Kevin Garnett apologized for making references to guns and saying he was “ready for war” in Game 7 between Minnesota and Sacramento.

“Sincerely, I apologize for my comments earlier,” the Timberwolves forward told reporters after practice. “I didn’t mean to offend anybody.”

The Wolves and Kings play tonight (5:30 p.m., TNT) in Minneapolis for the right to face the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. On Monday, the league’s Most Valuable Player was asked about the magnitude of a game that will decide a series marked by trash talking and hard fouls.

“This is it,” he responded. “It’s for all the marbles. I’m sitting in the house loading up the pump, I’m loading up the Uzis, I’ve got a couple of M-16s, couple of nines, couple of joints with some silencers on them, couple of grenades, got a missile launcher. I’m ready for war.”

Afterward, Garnett said he met with the team’s public relations staff and discussed his remarks.

“It was one-sided thinking on my part, but I’m man enough to admit it,” he said Tuesday. Garnett specifically mentioned veterans and families with loved ones serving in Iraq in his apology.

“I’m a young man and I understand when I’m appropriate, and this is totally inappropriate. I was totally thinking about basketball, not reality.”

League spokesman Tim Frank said the NBA wouldn’t discipline Garnett.

“Kevin understood he shouldn’t have said some of things he said,” Frank said. “We’re just glad he set the record straight today.”

West wins Executive of Year award

Memphis Grizzlies president Jerry West was selected NBA executive of the year by the Sporting News after turning a struggling franchise into a playoff team.

But West said the Grizzlies’ makeover is far from finished.

“We had a magical year this year. OK, but does that qualify as a success in my eyes? No. We need to get better,” he said.

West got 16 1/2 of the 35 votes cast by fellow league executives.

He finished ahead of Minnesota general manager Kevin McHale, who had five votes, and Utah senior VP of basketball operations Kevin O’Connor, who had three.

The Grizzlies went 50-32 this season but were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. The Grizzlies’ best previous season was 28 wins.

• Utah’s Jerry Sloan was named as the Sporting News coach of the year after guiding the Jazz to a 42-40 finish in what was expected to be a rebuilding season.

Sloan, runner-up in the NBA coach of the year balloting to Memphis’ Hubie Brown, received 12 1/2 of the 24 votes cast by fellow NBA coaches. Brown was second at 9 1/2 votes, followed by Denver’s Jeff Bzdelik and Stan Van Gundy of Miami with one vote each.

Kidd ailing heading into Game 7

His left knee has been aching for more than a month, his back is reportedly acting up and his shooting touch has been almost completely AWOL.

Jason Kidd, the point guard who turned the Nets from an also-ran into a perennial NBA contender, is a mess as New Jersey prepares for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night in Michigan.

“Is he 100 percent? I don’t think so,” Nets forward Richard Jefferson said of Kidd. “Does that matter? No!

“This is not about being 100 percent. This is about finding a way.”

The New York Post reported that Kidd wore heating pads on his sore back after the triple-overtime Game 5. Kidd denied his back was bothering him.