On March 13th, during a game against the Dallas Mavericks former NBA Champion and 2020 Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Garnett will have his No. 5 jersey retired by the Boston Celtics. Garnett will be the 23rd Celtic to have his jersey retired, joining other great players such as; Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, and Paul Pierce.
Garnett, also known as the Big Ticket, was traded to the Celtics in the 2007 off-season. He joined fellow Hall of Famers Ray Allen and Paul Pierce forming a big three in Boston. With the big three being formed in Boston, the narrative built around the team before they even played their first game together was “championship or bust.”
We’ve seen before how the pressure of a “championship or bust” mentality can weigh on an organization. it’s all the media wants to talk about. Every press conference, every newspaper article, and every sports talk show is about how a loss here, a bad game there, or how an injury will affect the teams’ chances of making it to or even winning an NBA championship. The Celtics are one of the few teams to not be affected by the narrative as they went on to finish the regular season with the best record in the league with 66 wins and 16 losses.
Garnett averaged 18 points, nine rebounds, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks a game that lead him to be lauded as the 2007-2008 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Garnett would go on to lead the team to a deep NBA playoff run capped off by defeating the LA Lakers in six games to be crowned as the NBA Champions.
Garnett would go on to play the next six seasons with the Celtics totaling 6,233 points, 394 blocks, 3,301 rebounds, and 460 steals, before moving on to play for the Brooklyn Nets, and then back to Minnesota before retiring.
The Big Ticket will be remembered for a lot of things, the hustle and energy he brought to every game, his declaration guaranteeing to have 20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks every game, or the saying “Anything is possible.” The one thing he will be remembered the most for is how he was able to take players out of their game through the way he would relentlessly talk trash from tip-off to the final buzzer. It didn’t matter who you were, if you weren’t wearing the same colors as Kevin Garnett he was gonna have something to say to you. Even if you were Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James, if it was one thing to be expected in a game against Kevin Garnet it’s that he will talk trash to you.
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