Kevin Garnett was one of the best players to play for the Boston Celtics, but he was the best player to ever play for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Anthony Edwards may overtake him someday, but he has a long mountain to climb to do that.
Amazingly, the Celtics retired Garnett's number after his retirement before the Timberwolves did, but as they say, better late than never. HoopsHype's Michael Scotto confirmed that Garnett's number will finally be retired by the team over a decade after his retirement.
Kevin Garnett will have his jersey retired by the Timberwolves sometime next season, per team. Garnett, Minnesota’s all-time leader in points, rebounds, steals, blocks, games played and minutes, will also make his first appearance at Target Center as a team ambassador on April 12 pic.twitter.com/wjWSbCnnWc
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) April 3, 2026
Making it even more flabbergasting that it took this long was that Garnett ended his career as a Timberwolf.
So why did it take this long for the Timberwolves to honor their most legendary player (who had no one close to an equal until Edwards stepped onto the scene)? Because of KG's tense relationship with Glen Taylor. This video summarizes it pretty well.
Garnett had more team success with the Celtics, but he played the majority of his prime with the Timberwolves, who infamously struggled to build a good team around him. They only traded him to the Celtics then because they were pretty much out of options (kinda like Giannis and the Bucks right now).
It should make the Celtics feel good that there's always love from KG
Throughout his entire tenure in Boston, there were never any actual problems with Garnett. Sure, there were questions about how he would hold up in a playoff series and he played one season clearly still recovering from major knee surgery, but it was a mutually beneficial partnership in which neither side had any regrets.
No one batted an eye when Boston retired his number in 2022 and for good reason. He brought the Celtics mystique back to the city after decades of irrelevance. He played for the team for six years and even then, everyone consensusly agreed that after one year, Garnett was a Celtics legend.
He also made it clear how much he loved Boston pretty quickly. So much so that even to this day, he will always shout them out whenever he gets the chance. He hasn't visited Boston as regularly as, say, Paul Pierce has since their respective retirements, but no one should read into or have a problem with that.
Boston has absolutely no regrets for how things played out with Garnett, even if they came away with one title, because he proved to them from Day One that they made the right decision to get him. All these years later, it still rings true, and pending any surprises, it still should for years to come!