Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck has compiled an oral history of Kevin Garnett as told by former teammates and coaches, as well as his agent and some writers. These first-hand accounts have been woven into some of the most spectacular stories you’re ever going to read about KG, and they provide a lot more insight than many of us have ever had into perhaps the most intense athlete in the history of sports.
It’s broken up in to two parts… You can read part one here, and part two here.
I cannot overstate how great this is. I’m going to highlight some great stuff from his time in Boston to give you a taste, but take the time to read it all because it’s very worth your time.
Paul Pierce: One time, he asked [Joakim] Noah if he could rub through his hair, like a female or something.…And I know that kind of made [Noah] hot. And this was when Noah was a rookie, too. I remember Noah looked up to KG. He was like, ‘Man, KG, I had your poster on my wall, I looked up to you, man.’ And then [Garnett] just said something like that, and was like ‘F— you, Noah.’ I was like, ‘Whoa.’ This kid fresh out of college, looks up to KG, just said he had his poster on the wall, and he tells him that! It crushed him. It crushed Noah.
That’s just amazing to me. Noah idolized KG and Garnett just lays waste to the kid’s dreams in an instant because he plays for the other team.
Doc Rivers: Before Game 6 in the (2008) Finals when we beat the Lakers, I walked in the locker room, and Kevin gets [hyped] up to where sometimes he goes over the line. You could see it. I had him come in my office and sit. He’s sitting there five, 10, 15 minutes. I don’t say a word. I just go back to work. He’s moving around and finally he says, ‘I’m in a timeout. I’m in timeout.’ I didn’t even respond. You could hear him: ‘Phew’ (exhaling). But you think about a guy who has been in the league that long and is still that jacked up for a game that you literally have to calm him down. That’s my favorite story.
I would offer a significant amount of money for video evidence of KG realizing he’s “in a time out.” That’s hilarious to me.
Brian Scalabrine, Celtics forward, 2005-10: Over the course of 82 games, or 110-some games like we played, a lot of guys can get real loose. He never allowed that. One day Leon Powe and I were cracking up on Eddie House’s tattoo.…[Garnett] was like, ‘C’mon, Scal, it’s time to rock! What the ‘F’ are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right. It is time to rock.’ We’re about to play the Dallas Mavericks and we’re over here messing around. It was 55 (minutes) on the clock or something like that. He was locked in and focused. That’s how it is with him. If you want to be on the team, that’s how it is going to be.
The stuff about Garnett completely changing the attitude of the entire Celtics organization is fantastic. He changed the entire culture of the team.
Again, go check it out. There are some amazing stories from every aspect of his career.
