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Kevin Garnett: They saying this draft is considered like ’96. Would you say that? Paul Pierce: This is one of the deepest drafts, especially with this freshman cast class that we have seen in quite some time. As far as the talent is off the chain, I'm excited for it. I haven't seen a freshman class this good in so long cuz the top five picks maybe all freshman.
Q. What's the secret to dominating on the post? Shaquille O’Neal: I think it's my fault that the game is being played the way it's played now, because when I was dominating the post, they tried to bring in centers to bring me out from the post. ‘Okay, he's good offensively. Now, let's make him play defense and let’s pick and pop.’ And then we're all products of our generation. So, I grew up watching guys that dominated the post. But you look at Nikola Jokic, he watched Dirk Nowitzki and Dirk watched Kevin Garnett and they all watched Tim Duncan; a 6-11, 7-foot player that could pop out and shoot the jumper. So it's my fault that guys are playing soft, that’s what I call it. The key to dominating the post is just making your opponent quit, bringing the force like I used to, try to elbow you in your face on purpose to see if you can handle it. So now that I know I got you going like that I got the advantage.
Kevin Garnett: International guys have brought a bunch of flopping into the game. I can't fuck*ng stand … They are running up and down saying something to the ref. We got all this flopping and sh*t man. We weren't doing that sh*t before all that, bro. Like, I get it. It's been some greatness and it's been some weirdness that they that we've taken from that, bro. That I hate that. I hate that narrative. Like, since international players are starting younger, they So what? They're not putting out a better product. That's what I'm saying.
Paul Pierce: The two guys that should have been voted in for sure, 100%, should have been… Kevin Garnett: Jamal Murray. Pierce: LeBron James and Anthony Edwards should have been voted in. Q. Voting's only for the fans, only 50% now. Then it's 25% players, then 25% media. So, they changed the fan voting. Paul Pierce: We need to take the media out… Kevin Garnett: Take the media out of it, bro. Give it to the fans, this is a fan event… Q. But fans have like in years past like Zaza Pachulia, and Yao Ming, people were getting voted in like that. Pierce: But we running up. Hey, listen. If they got those people voting them in, right? That means more money coming in.
Tony Allen: Shout out Jaylen Brown, MVP candidate. Kevin Garnett: Put him on the list. Nobody had Boston in nothing. Paul Pierce: I got him number two in the East, I got him number two on the MVP list right now.
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Paul Pierce: Ray Allen was the first to go. That's when he went to Miami. Me and KG was a little older and we wasn't able to carry a team night in and night out anymore. We could have done some things a little differently to extend our run if we had have made the right trades or draft with some younger guys. But we saw the writing on the wall toward the end cuz I think we got we got handled by the Knicks. That was our last series together in the first round, we put up a little fight, but the writing was on the wall all year and we was dealing with injuries. Guys was getting older and Danny Ainge was very honest about the whole process with it. He was like, "If I got to make some moves, I will, but I won't just send you anywhere. It'll be something we'll talk about if there's this opportunity. So, we was just like, all right what's the deal after the season? We talked middle of the season. It's like, I got a deal, I can send y'all to Brooklyn. You got a young core over there with D-Will and Joe Johnson. I was like, man, that's man, K, we could probably win with that.
From the very first moments that Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez joined the Minnesota Timberwolves organization, they were deluged with pleas from a forlorn fan base. Their mentions on social media were flooded with them. Anytime they would run into a Timberwolves fan in public, they would hear the demands. The surveys they distributed to fans to understand what was most important to them were dominated by one subject. Bring KG home. Please.
Garnett felt so betrayed by the ordeal that he refused to even show his face at Target Center despite several overtures from the team hoping to host him for big moments in the playoffs. He also rebuffed multiple efforts to hang his No. 21 in the rafters, an embarrassment for the fans that cut deeper than any of the team’s many 60-loss seasons, the 14-year playoff drought or passing on Steph Curry (twice) in the 2009 NBA Draft. “It was crystal clear that was one of the most impactful things we could do as owners is retire KG’s jersey and bring him back to Minnesota,” Lore told The Athletic. “And mend the relationship because he meant so much to the fans, all the community.”
The unique structure of the agreement for Lore and Rodriguez to begin as limited partners and assume majority control over the course of several years took some of the pressure off the situation. They were in no position to make any sweeping changes or promises right away, and Garnett wasn’t in a hurry to engage while Taylor was still calling the shots. Rather than trying to rush the process, Lore and Rodriguez set about trying to earn Garnett’s trust over the long haul. “In many ways, he’s our Babe Ruth for the Yankees, right?” Rodriguez said. “So it was important to start kind of going down a path of mending a relationship.”
“We felt it from day one,” said Kelly Laferriere, a senior adviser to Lore and Rodriguez and the chief business officer of A-Rod Corp. “It was like this huge hole in the heart of the organization.” Rodriguez understands all too well the strains that can come between a superstar and a franchise. But even he was taken aback by the outcry. He would post pictures of a family vacation on his Instagram and see his comment section taken over by Wolves fans. It’s great that you’re in the south of France. When is KG coming back? “Everywhere we went around, not only Minnesota, but all around the country, all Minnesota Timberwolves fans wanted to know was, when is Kevin coming back into the organization?” Rodriguez said.
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"I think all the young stars of our league are starting to come into their own," Kevin Garnett told Paul Pierce on their podcast, "Ticket and The Truth with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce" on Tuesday. "I've said this countless times. I think that we're in the Curry era. He is the GOAT of this era. When we talk about the long ball and the 3 ball, you got to talk about the messiah of that long ball, you understand, and that's how I look at it.
NBA Courtside: Kevin Garnett says we are in the Curry era he is the GOAT of this era “Talking about the long ball and the three ball you got to talk about the messiah of that long ball” (Via @KevinGarnett5KG )
Kevin Garnett says we are in the Curry era he is the GOAT of this era
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) December 24, 2025
“Talking about the long ball and the three ball you got to talk about the messiah of that long ball”
(Via @KevinGarnett5KG) pic.twitter.com/Wr0P3BqyPY
Kevin Garnett felt so betrayed by the ordeal that he refused to even show his face at Target Center despite several overtures from the team hoping to host him for big moments in the playoffs. He also rebuffed multiple efforts to hang his No. 21 in the rafters, an embarrassment for the fans that cut deeper than any of the team’s many 60-loss seasons, the 14-year playoff drought or passing on Steph Curry (twice) in the 2009 NBA Draft. “It was crystal clear that was one of the most impactful things we could do as owners is retire KG’s jersey and bring him back to Minnesota,” Lore told The Athletic. “And mend the relationship because he meant so much to the fans, all the community.”
On the other end, there is only tragedy. Two names hang on the Wolves side — Saunders, the beloved coach and executive who died from Hodgkin lymphoma in 2015, and Sealy, Garnett’s close friend who was killed by a drunk driver in 2000. The absence of No. 21 was its own kind of heartbreak. “I’m so happy about it,” Rivers said. “He deserves to be here. When you think Minnesota basketball, that has to be the first name, right? You look up there, and you don’t see his jersey.”