Garnett played for three teams in his 21-year career, a storied career that officially closed Friday night after he announced his retirement at the age of 40.
The Minnesota Timberwolves became a household name after his arrival in 1995. He became the first player to be drafted straight from high school since “Chocolate Thunder” Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby were both selected in 1975.
While Garnett would be the lone player from the 1995 draft class who is en route to Springfield, I still wait for David Stern to announce his name as Jack Torrence at the podium when I watch archived footage from that night. The Timberwolves took an axe to high school gyms, and opened the floodgates for prep stars to jump out of their gyms, and into multi-million dollar arenas.
Lebron, Kobe, McGrady, Howard, and Stoudamire all became multi-time All-Stars. A handful of others had marginal success (J.R. Smith, Andrew Bynum, Jermaine O’Neal, Tyson Chandler). However, for every KG, LBJ, and “Mamba,” you get a DeSagna Diop, Sebastian Telfair, and Ndudi Ebi.
Garnett was the league MVP in 2004, a 15-time All-Star selection (second most all-time to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 19), the 2008 Defensive Player-of-the-Year, and nine-time all-defensive first-team, and 2000 gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics. Many thought Garnett would join the elite company of Hall of Fame talent to never have won a title.
The Timberwolves did everything possible to put weapons around Garnett. Sam Cassell and Latrell Spreewell were supposed to get Minnesota past the Los Angeles Lakers. Instead Spreewell decided to choke head coach P.J. Carlesimo in practice, and the implosion began shortly thereafter.
The Boston Celtics were desperate to get back to their glory days when they traded for Garnett after the 2006-07 season. Growing up a Celtics fan during the era of the original Boston “Big Three” (Bird, McHale, and Parrish) my feelings were split. I knew my hometown Cavaliers were not built to challenge that level of talent, but would I want to savor the Celtics trying to buy a championship? Fast forward nine months, and the Celtics ousted the Lakers to win their first championship in 22 years, thus cementing the legacy of Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. The most ironic visual for me was Glen “Doc” Rivers celebrating in the middle of the parquet floor in Boston, where he was bit on the hand in the 1986 Eastern Conference Finals during a fight by his then-boss, General Manager Danny Ainge.
I remember several times leaving after my shift at Giant Eagle, and catching the train downtown to watch Garnett and the Wolves against the Cavaliers. The Cavs were a perennial first-round exit during those years, but do you really pass up the chance to see Kevin Garnett when tickets are just $10.00?!
His tenure with Brooklyn was as much a novelty as Jay-Z designing the simplistic and boring look of the franchise. Garnett played only 96 games in Brooklyn over his two years, yet the Nets made the playoffs both years.
After starting his career playing 927 games with them, the Timberwolves traded Thaddeus Young to the Nets a week prior the trading deadline (February 11, 2015) to bring Kevin Garnett back home. Garnett would be joining one of the league’s most promising young teams. The Wolves had recent top-five selections Ricky Rubio, Karl Anthony Towns, and Andrew Wiggins taking up three-fifths of their starting five. The reunion would not be as memorable as LeBron’s return to Cleveland, as injuries and age caught up with the then 39-year-old. Garnett played five games after the trade, and just 39 last season. His points-per-game average (3.2) was less than his rebounds-per-game average (3.9). We hate to see our heroes fall, especially when Garnett passed Karl Malone for the NBA record for defensive rebounds on December 11, 2015, when he grabbed number 11,407.
Fans talk about how the 2016 Hall of Fame class will go down as one of the greatest ever between Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, and Yao Ming as former players. I might suggest adding your name to the waiting list for tickets when Garnett will likely join Kobe and Tim Duncan at the 2021 ceremony.
-JC24