The Basketball Hall of Fame officially announced over the weekend that Kevin Garnett will be part of a star-studded Hall of Fame class of 2020, joining former NBA legends Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan in a group that also features former head coach Rudy Tomjanovich, ex-WNBA star Tamika Catchings, and four others.
In a conversation with Shams Charania of The Athletic, Garnett spoke about his election into the Hall of Fame, referring to it as “the perfect way to end a dope story.”
The former Timberwolves and Celtics big man also offered some thoughts on what it means to be inducted alongside longtime rivals Bryant and Duncan, and weighed in on a few more topics. Here are some highlights from the discussion, which is worth checking out in full:
On going into the Hall of Fame with Bryant and Duncan:
“They both are unprecedented, not only athletes, but people. I feel more than honored to go in with these two, but Kobe not being there is going to be super emotional for everybody.
“The fact that the three of us actually pushed the other two… whether it was awards, All-Stars, battles, rings — we all three pushed the lines. To go in with these two guys, I couldn’t ask for two other people to go in with. And shout out to Tamika Catchings too. I’m a huge fan of Catch; Catch has put that grind in, she’s put that work in, and it’s dope to see all of us right here.”
On his NBA career:
“If I could actually go back and change anything, I would’ve left Minnesota a little earlier, knowing that the management wasn’t as committed as I was. Or wasn’t committed at all. I probably would’ve went to Boston or changed the situation earlier. I would’ve been a little younger and that means less wear and tear on the body. Teaming up with Paul (Pierce), I should’ve done that earlier. Who knows — I’m probably sitting here with another ring or two. But, yeah.”
On why his number is being retired in Boston, but not in Minnesota:
(Timberwolves owner) Glen (Taylor) knows where I’m at, I’m not entertaining it. First of all, it’s not genuine. Two, he’s getting pressure from a lot of fans and, I guess, the community there. Glen and I had an understanding before (former Wolves coach and executive) Flip (Saunders) died, and when Flip died, that understanding went with Flip. For that, I won’t forgive Glen. I won’t forgive him for that. I thought he was a straight up person, straight up business man, and when Flip died, everything went with him.
“There’s no reason to complain. Just continue to move on. My years in Minnesota and in that community, I cherish. At this point, I don’t want any dealings with Glen Taylor or Taylor Corp. or anything that has to do with him. I love my Timberwolves, I’ll always love my guys, I’ll always love the people who f–k with me there. I’ll always have a special place for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota in my heart. But I don’t do business with snakes.”
The KG situation makes me so damn sad. Not only should his jersey have been retired years ago, he should have a damn statue. We should have brought him in early on to mentor KAT.
This is a terrible look for us when we already have trouble keeping or at least attracting talent.
Glen Taylor has had some good moments, but not many. Screw you Glen.
It took the Bucks 25+ years to re-build bridges with Kareem. Have patience, Wolves fans.
Thank you. I needed this. Hopefully my children can live in a world where the team extends love to KG.
I do think it was a shame that he left the T-wolves, I do love nothing more than a one team man, I think achieving this is way more valuable than go to other teams to chase rings, sad that players don’t feel like that, but each one to his own. To me it did diminish KG when he went to BOS, meanwhile Kobe & TD did go all the way in the same team.
Have you worked at the same job your entire life? Does that diminish you? Tom Brady just signed with the Bucs. Joe Montana played for the Chiefs. Brett Favre played for the Vikings. Michael Jordan played for the Wizards. These things happen pretty commonly. It doesn’t diminish anything.
Yeah, compare NBA player career trajectories to normal people, that’s a good idea… Have you retired at 39 after making more than a quarter of a billion dollars?
Boy, they smooth played it here. Here’s more of the quotes (from another site): “Glen knows where I’m at, I’m not entertaining it,” Garnett said. “First of all, it’s not genuine. Two, he’s getting pressure from a lot of fans and, I guess, the community there. Glen and I had an understanding before Flip died, and when Flip died, that understanding went with Flip. For that, I won’t forgive Glen. I won’t forgive him for that. I thought he was a straight up person, straight up business man, and when Flip died, everything went with him.
“There’s no reason to complain. Just continue to move on. My years in Minnesota and in that community, I cherish. At this point, I don’t want any dealings with Glen Taylor or Taylor Corp. or anything that has to do with him. I love my Timberwolves, I’ll always love my guys, I’ll always love the people who [f—] with me there. I’ll always have a special place for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota in my heart. But I don’t do business with snakes. I don’t do business with snake mu'[f—]as. I try not to do business with openly snakes or people who are snake-like.”
All of those quotes are in the post except for the last two sentences, which are just different ways of repeating the third-last sentence (albeit admittedly in an entertaining way).
Snakes are underrated. (That doesn’t mean holding them captive is a good idea.)
I’ve always gotten the sense having followed this stuff from the start that KG thought he was going to get handed the keys to the franchise, and wasn’t. Nobody likes Glen Taylor, but I feel like the butthurtery from KG is a bit out of proportion with what probably really happened behind closed doors.