Insanely competitive
Garnett's personal trainer Joe Abunassar recalled the time when Garnett forgot to wear his socks and played a pickup game with other NBA players for hours. By the end of it, parts of his feet and toes were bleeding.
Some competitors can't tolerate it when their teammates fail to measure up to their standard. For context about how livid Garnett would take it, take a look at him relaxing at his home and watching TV at home.
Tyronn Lue recalls being with Garnett at his home and watching the show Making the Band. On the show, a few newcomers came in and tried to compete. Garnett was none too pleased at what he saw as a lack of competitiveness.
What happened next seems too bizarre to be true. Garnett got all riled up, shouted, "Motherf----r, you've got to stand up for yours! You've got to fight! Motherf----r, you've got to come together!" Going on like that, he worked himself into a sweat and head butted a hole in a wall in his home.
Garnett wasn't a fluffy angel whom you'd idolise and lionise. He had a mean streak which cut deep and bordered on malicious. Garnett allegedly wished Tim Duncan Happy Mother's Day Mother****** on Mother's day because Duncan lost his mother when he was 14, resulting in an altercation. Duncan is a class act through and through, and Garnett has been taunting, hitting, and poking him for years.
He called Charlie Villanueva a Cancer, while the latter was suffering from a condition called alopecia unversalis, which rendered him unable to grow hair.
If an opponent came up to him with starry eyes saying he was an idol and an inspiration growing up, Garnett was quick to dispel the hero-worship. Joakim Noah is one such example. As a rookie, when Noah went up against KG, Garnett asked him if he could rub his hair. Noah told him "Man, KG, I had your poster on my wall, I looked up to you, man." Garnett's response was along the lines of "Procreate you" to Noah.
He provoked Carmelo Anthony so bad that Anthony even went to confront Garnett after a game in which the two players went at it hard.
Intensely scary defence
Garnett has a claim to be one of the greatest defensive players of all time. Garnett is one of the few players who has guarded every position, 1 through 5. He's matched up with Michael Jordan, Shaq, Karl Malone, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, and on occasion, he's guarded every position in one game.
He was strong enough to deal with players trying to back him down, agile enough to front players in the post, quick enough to stick with perimeter players, energetic enough to block or alter shots, and loud enough to rattle you if there's a tiny vulnerability in your makeup.
He would often block shots with vengeance hard on the floor. Some players knock balls into the stand when they go for blocks, with the side effect of hitting the ball out of bounds. Other players would keep the ball in possession by tapping it lightly. Garnett preferred to go hard, so he'd hit the ball on the floor to keep the possession alive.
Garnett could probably author several profanity-laced tomes as sequels to Art of War by Sun Tzu. Perhaps no other sport allows a player to be in the face of his opponent as much as basketball does, and Garnett made the most of it to mess with the heads of his opponents.
He'd point, glare, cackle, yell, scream, curse, spit, howl, growl, crawl, bark, taunt, hop-skip-and-jump, flex, meander menacingly, push, shove, punch, kick, wrestle, and do everything within the realm of possibility, rules and his vivid and twisted imagination to get an edge over his opponent.
Don't mean a thing without a ring
Garnett set the standard for competitiveness and effort for himself and dared his teammates to not live up to it. When Garnett joined the Boston Celtics, his new teammates didn't know what to make of him. They'd try to get him to calm down through various ways, before resigning to the fact that his motor is always cranked up to maximum be it a scrimmage or a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
While Garnett was a hostile pest to his opponents and a terror to teammates whose level of effort failed to match up to his high standards. Cue clip of Glenn Davis bawling on the bench after Garnett ripped into him. In a match against Portland, the Celtics had a 25 point lead over the Trail Blazers, which was cut down to 13, which in turn resulted in Garnett going off on Davis.
He set the tone for the team early, and the team responded. They stormed out of the gate with an 8-0 record, going on to put up two more nine game winning streaks which put their record at 29-3 before finishing the magical season with 66 wins. It is extremely rare to see a team welcoming two integral pieces to gel so well in the first season and go on to win a title.
The Celtics powered their way to the NBA Finals where they met the Los Angles Lakers in a historic showdown, reviving the Lakers-Celtics rivalry. Throughout the Finals, Garnett averaged 18.2 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, 1.7 steals and one block per game.
Even though Paul Pierce won the Finals MVP, the Celtics could not have made it without Garnett manning the fort on defense. Earlier in the season, Garnett took Kendrick Perkins under his wing and helped the surly bruiser be a terror on defense.
Coach Doc Rivers recalls that he didn't have to be the voice which got on the players to be on time or hold them accountable. Garnett made sure everyone toed the line.
Coming back full circle
Kevin Garnett retires from the NBA at the age of 40, having played 21 seasons in the league. He spent twelve years with the Timberwolves before being traded to Boston where he won a ring.
Garnett was traded to the Boston Celtics in 2007, with whom he forged the Celtics into a formidable power in the Eastern Conference, one which wrecked LeBron James' Finals aspirations time and time again. In 2013, he went to the Brooklyn Nets for another shot at terrorising the East. With the Brooklyn Nets, Garnett averaged just 6.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists over the course of two seasons.
In 2015, Garnett came back to Minnesota and played 43 games for the franchise which had drafted him. While he battled knee issues, his primary contribution lay towards establishing a winning culture for the younger Wolves.
The rapid ascent of Karl-Anthony Towns reflects the hard work put in by Towns himself, and there's a not insignificant contribution by Garnett in mentoring the young superstar.
Guess the Lakers players!
