Good News: The head coach of Boston sent a harsh message to everyone after being named the best coach of the year
Boston (AP) In the last few years, Kevin Garnett has received an abundance of post-retirement honors.
The 15-time NBA All-Star was admitted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021. He was a key player on Boston’s 2007–2008 team that won the franchise’s 17th championship.
In addition to writing a personal memoir that became a national bestseller, he was recognized this year as a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.
Now that he is 45, KG will add another chapter to his legacy when, on Sunday, following the Celtics game against Dallas, he becomes the 24th member of the organization to have his jersey number retired in a ceremony. In the vacant space beside the TD Garden rafters, his No. 5 will be hoisted, and four years later, former teammate Paul Pierce had his No. 34 inducted into the Celtics canon.
After spending six seasons in Boston, the player who was the team’s unquestionable emotional focal point is at a loss for words.
“To be honest, I’m just trying to take it all in and try to be really humble. I’m not sure. I simply find it all shocking, if you understand what I mean. When children approach me and tell me how much they value various things, “I’m at a loss for words, but I just want to say thank you,” Garnett stated in a recent interview. “I simply remained loyal to who and what I was. It was the simplest course of action. I had no desire to be someone I wasn’t.
Even though he ended his NBA career in Minnesota after the 2015–16 season, his time with the Celtics changed the course of his career.
“I was always aware of the people who came before me and paved the way for me,” Garnett remarked.
A new era was started in a league that had never seen a 6-foot-11 player with Garnett’s skill set when he was selected by the Timberwolves with the fifth overall pick at the age of 19.
With his guard-like agility and ability to shoot from the outside, Garnett became the prototypical power forward who could penetrate defenses and expose gaps in defenses. It completely changed the league, to the point where today’s NBA rosters must include players with that skill.
Despite not being a true center, he made the jump straight to the pros out of high school and used his 240-pound frame to force his way into the paint on both ends of the court.
However, Garnett was unable to quite lift the Timberwolves past the halfway point despite steering them to eight postseason appearances in 12 seasons. After being selected for his tenth All-Star team in 2007, he was dealt to the Celtics as the last member of an offseason trade that included future Hall of Famers Ray Allen and Pierce.
This was the most recent iteration of the Big Three formula that NBA teams had used for years to win championships: the Celtics’ dominance in the 1960s, the Showtime Lakers’ success in the 1980s, and the Bulls’ six titles under Michael Jordan in the 1990s.
In retrospect, Garnett said he wasn’t sure their team could match the championship-or-bust pressure put on them in 2007.
“I was very confident in myself. I was quite confident in my skills. My main concern, I believe, was whether Paul and I would get along. How could Ray and I get along? How can I get along with some of these young guys? Garnett remembered. Danny Ainge, the former general manager, had a strategy. It turned out, though I’m not sure if that was the exact plan.
