A Celebration Of Kevin Garnett
“This is how I’m built. This is me”
If the time has finally come for Kevin Garnett to hang it up after 22 seasons, basketball from this moment forward will never be the same. To understand what Kevin Garnett did not only for the NBA but for the game of basketball you first need to understand who Garnett was as a player, and as a person. That’s why I’d like to ask you to come with me on a journey to celebrate one of history’s most polarizing talents.
In Bill Simmons’ “Book of Basketball” he ranked Kevin Garnett as the 22nd best player in the history of the NBA. This put KG ahead of guys like Isiah Thomas, Scottie Pippen, Bill Walton, Dwayne Wade, Dave Cowens, David Robinson etc. Pretty elite company. It’s almost hard to imagine this would be Garnett’s resting place in NBA history, given that there almost wasn’t a history at all.
If you don’t know, Garnett’s basketball future was in jeopardy when in high school he was around a fight that broke out between white and black people, and despite not being in the fight, was charged with second degree lynching. Yikes. Eerily similar to what Allen Iverson went through which is crazy. The charge would later be dropped, but Garnett changed high schools prior to his senior year when he moved to Chicago. Remember, this is in like 1994-1995, there wasn’t exactly the same “prep school” system that there is today. Fortunately for Garnett he dominated while at Farragut, earning National High School Player of the Year and Mr Basketball Honors. You could say that Kevin Garnett was unlike any other high school player the world had seen. His athleticism hadn’t existed before. He not only broke the mold, he became the new one. See players at Kevin’s size weren’t supposed to be able to move the way he moved. They weren’t supposed to have the sort of range Kevin showed. His passing ability was guard-like, and his intensity clearly visible even from a young age. Young KG was everything we would come to love in a basketball player, we just had no idea what was coming.
When Garnett was drafted with the 5th pick of the 1995 Draft, he became the first player since Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby in 1975 to make the jump right from high school to the NBA. Basketball in the mid 90s looked much different than it does today, for any readers out there who weren’t alive or don’t remember seeing it. Unlike later high school to NBA players like Amare, and Lebron, and Dwight, Garnett had to earn his time. His rookie year didn’t blow you away, but it was solid. Despite being the youngest player in NBA history at the time, what you saw from Garnett in high school, you saw in the NBA. His length was a serious problem because you could play him anywhere from 3-5. While the defense wasn’t quite there, you saw flashes of what was down the road and it was freaky. It’s almost funny to say “wasn’t quite there” when he averaged 1.1 steals and 1.6 blocks a game as a rookie, but it was by far his worst defensive year of his career, and it was still good.
Nobody got a better look at the future than you guessed it, the Boston Celtics. See we were always tied to each other. Garnett’s best performance during his rookie year came against Boston when he threw up a 33/8/3/1/3 and when you watch this, you see things that even as a rookie looked almost identical to what he would do as a seasoned vet.
Garnett’s time in Minnesota had it’s ups and downs, no doubt about it. Unfortunately for them, as Garnett blossomed, no one really around him did. He would never even come close to saying it at the time, but it was a classic example of a superstar player with absolutely no help, who had to go up against teams like the Lakers, Spurs, and Kings that all had multiple players. But here’s the thing, Garnett never left, never even considered it. What makes KG such a lunatic is if he can breathe, he’s playing. That isn’t some sort of hyperbole, it’s the truth. For the first 12 years of his career or in other words the first half, he played essentially every single game. Over this span he would lead the league in games played four times.
It was these 12 years where the basketball world would fall in love with Garnett. Not only was he one of the few players who you saw give everything he had at every possible opportunity, but we saw him lead the league in rebounding four straight years, we saw him win an MVP, make 10 consecutive All Star teams, eight All NBA Teams (three 1sts, three 2nd, two 3rd), second team All Rookie, and an All Star MVP.
Despite all that, he never truly won. Few, if any players of his caliber stick around in the situation he had in Minnesota. Why would you? Go somewhere warm, make a lot of money, and win. Garnett was never about that life, not even for a second. He wanted to win, but he wanted it to be where he was, with the people of Minnesota. This was never more evident than in what is perhaps my favorite Kevin Garnett moment of all time. To this day this interview still gives me chills, but it was a fantastic look into who Kevin Garnett the person was.
Little did Garnett know, but in just two short years, the losing would end.
July 31, 2007. Do you remember where you were? I was in the kitchen of my college girlfriend probably getting yelled at for something when I heard the TV say something that would change my life forever. Kevin Garnett was a Boston Celtic. Just thinking about it as I write this makes me feel all sorts of things. After trading for Ray Allen at the Draft, and Garnett finally agreeing to part ways with the only home he knew, it didn’t seem possible. How could this actually happen? Would this work? Am I dead? I think that’s where all of Celtics Nation was. In other words…
This stage of Garnett’s career was now something completely new to him. Now there were expectations. No longer can he say he didn’t have help, or a good situation in terms of a coach and management. In the most important stage of his career, he was asked to changed his game. He’s no longer the top dog, in fact some nights he may end up being a third option. Could he handle that? Remember what he said in that interview with John Thompson a few years prior.
“This ain’t golf, this ain’t tennis. It ain’t about me. It’s about us”
A big part of that title team was the phrase “ubuntu”. The philosophy that considers the success of the group above that of the individual. Well, coming to Boston Garnett was a 20/10 player, who was called The Big Ticket for a reason. What we saw over the next 6 seasons was Garnett living up to what he says. His minutes went down from 37 to 31 a game. As a result of that, and playing with more talent, Garnett gave up shots dropping from 16 as a T’Wolve to 12.5 as a Celtic. As you can imagine with those two factors, his scoring obviously went down. Of course age had a lot to do with those Celtic numbers, but if you look at that first year, when things were at their most unknown, Garnett gave up almost four shots a game. Garnett was ubuntu in every facet of the word.
What makes KG so beloved around these parts, is when we were at our lowest, coming off the second worst season in franchise history – a 24 win season – the minute Garnett arrived, he brought with him a cosmic shift in culture. Over my lifetime there are a handful of players that truly understand what it means to be a Celtic, what that took and what that looked like. Garnett not only brought that commitment himself, he demanded it of everyone around him. Remember when this team was put together, the idea of a NBA trio like this was fairly new for that generation’s NBA. Sure there was Shaq and Wade, and the Spurs had their guys, but yet again, here was Garnett breaking the mold, and making a new one.
Watching him play at the Garden was almost an out of body experience. Witnessing his pre-tip routine of slamming his head against the basket, assume his place at the circle, get the attention of every ref around him, then give his wife and daughter a salute who were sitting courtside didn’t seem real. I feel like I’m not alone in that every time he took an elbow jumper I was convinced it was going in. The Celtics had never been blessed with a weapon like Garnett before, and it was fascinating to hear him communicate on the defensive end, barking out orders for his teammates on every play, always active, always engaged.
When you close your eyes and think about what you currently love about this year’s Celtics team, you have Kevin Garnett to thank for that. The intensity, the commitment to defense, the way they compete, that has KGs fingerprints written all over it. Once he put on that Celtics jersey things around here changed, and the fact that they remain pretty much how he left them speaks volumes.
Just when you thought Garnett couldn’t do anything else for this city, and this franchise, he did them another solid and waived his no trade clause to allow Danny to trade him to Brooklyn for all those picks. Or again, the team you are watching this season. Please thank Kevin for that privilege.
Once that trade happened, it was a dark time for both myself, and for the career of Kevin Garnett. Those years on the Nets were stupid and a waste, so let’s shift our focus to his return home to Minnesota.
At this point Garnett is 38 years old. Nobody honestly expected anything from him on the court, but that’s not why Minnesota did it. They did it to provide KG with one final challenge of his Hall Of Fame career. Teach. While Garnett may be old, the rest of the young pups on his roster are filled with potential and eager to learn. Show them what it takes to play at this level. Show them how to workout, how to eat, how to handle the media, how to handle the women, show them how to carry themselves in a way that will make them successful. What’s symbolic is Garnett had the opportunity to leave the team he never wanted to leave in the first place molding a player who maybe doesn’t exist if there is no Kevin Garnett, but could very well end up every bit as good if not better.
It’s there that I think we truly see the impact that Garnett had on the game, and the league. Players like Towns, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons are the most recent examples, but nowadays almost every PF is more like KG than Tim Duncan. What does that say? Everyone’s a stretch 4 now, they can handle the ball, they can pass, they can block shots and run the floor. Things that almost seem routine now, feel that way because Kevin Garnett has been doing them for over 20 years.
Now before we finish, we should address the fact that Garnett doesn’t have fans everywhere. A big knock on him will be that he’s a fake tough guy. All bark no bite. While there have been times where he may go over the line in the trash he talks, like when he said Charlie Villanueva had cancer, or wishing Tim Duncan a happy mothers day right after his mom died, that shit is fucked up. But he also gave us maybe the best shirt Barstool has ever made in the Honey Nut Cheerios fiasco, so there is some good with the bad. Personally, I have no problem with how much Garnett ran his mouth because A) His play always backed it up B) He knew he could break you mentally, and he was a master at getting in your head which caused you to make a mistake. That’s a weapon in my opinion.
A player who ranks 5th all time in career games played, 3rd in minutes played, 12th in FGMs, 1st in DREB and 9th in total rebounding, 47th in assists, 16th in steals, 17th in blocks, 17th in points, 26th in PER, 9th in win shares, and 100% HOF I’d say it was a pretty great run for the kid from Greenville, South Carolina and it saddens me to see him fade into the sunset. I guess there’s really only one last thing to say after all this…
Thank you Kevin.