Garnett came into the National Basketball Association as a high-schooler in 1995.
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The versatile big man retires as Minnesota’s all-time leading points scorer, having also won the 2004 Most Valuable Player award during his initial 12-year stint with the side. The 40-year-old appeared in 38 games for Minnesota last season, averaging 3 points and 3 rebounds.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Garnett, who was signed for $8 million this season, had reached a contract settlement with the Timberwolves earlier on Friday.
Garnett posted a farewell video on Friday, four days before the Minnesota Timberwolves are set to open training camp.
After his homecoming, Garnett largely served as a mentor to the Wolves’ young players.
Those three players will make for one of the best Hall of Fame classes in league history in five years because all of them made an incredible impact on the game of basketball.
“We’re just going to let the process work itself out”, Jackson said during a news conference at the team’s practice facility.
In total, Garnett played 970 of his career 1,462 games for Minnesota, logging a total of 36,189 minutes. Minnesota hired Sam Mitchell, another close Garnett ally, as the interim coach to replace Saunders. And while he didn’t mention the word “retirement” directly, he added that he “didn’t expect this to be easy, ‘ right before the video ended with the word “Farewell” in the middle of the screen”.
“Kevin Garnett is one of the fiercest competitors our league has ever seen”, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement released by the league.
The Timberwolves hired Tom Thibodeau as coach and president in the offseason as well as a new general manager in Scott Layden. But so far so good. I always think back to Garnett’s relationship with Malik Sealy, who Garnett grew up admiring while Sealy was playing at St John’s University. He appeared in 35 games previous year, largely serving as a veteran leader and mentor during the worst season in Lakers history.
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That said, Garnett provided many memorable moments as a member of the Nets, including one in which he gave Joe Johnson the nickname “Joe Jesus”. “Things have changed so much and does he still want to do that?”
