|
If this is really it (and it's BEEN time,) happy trails to the best I've ever seen put on one of my team's uniforms and someone who absolutely revolutionized the game in more than one way.
http://www.startribune.com/kevin-garnett-will-not-play-for-wolves-this-season/394608981/
The Kevin Garnett era with the Timberwolves here has ended.
Again.
Garnett, the best player in franchise history, the player who led the team to eight straight playoff appearances starting in the spring of 1997, the leader of the 2003-04 team that reached the NBA's Western Conference finals, will not play for the Wolves this season. Garnett and the Timberwolves came to an agreement Friday and a retirement announcement from Garnett is expected shortly, according to league source.
The news comes with the Timberwolves first training camp under Tom Thibodeau set to begin Tuesday.
Garnett, who waived his no-trade clause in order to reunite with the Timberwolves in February of 2015 in a move orchestrated by the late president of basketball operations and coach Flip Saunders, will not play out the second year of his two-year, $16.5 million contract.
Thus ends the final chapter of Garnett's time in Minnesota, a two-part series that included myriad highs and a few lows, including some bruised feelings when he was traded to Boston in a blockbuster deal that sent a bundle of players and draft picks to Minnesota in the summer of 2007.
Garnett leaves Minnesota, for a second time, having played 970 of his career 1,462 games here, having scored 36,189 of his 50,418 points and grabbing 10,718 of his 14,662 rebounds in a Timberwolves uniform.
What remains to be seen is whether this chapter ends with the same bruised feelings as the last time.
Garnett, now 40, became the first player in 20 years to go directly from high school to the NBA when the Wolves drafted the 19-year-old out of Chicagos Farragut Academy.
He joined a team that had not made the playoffs in its first six seasons, losing 60 or more games in five of those six seasons.
By Garnett's second season the Wolves qualified for the playoffs for the first time, beginning a streak of eight straight postseason appearances. With Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell , the Wolves made it all the way to the Western Conference finals in the spring of 2004, losing in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Wolves never made the playoffs again.
Contract disputes involving Cassell and Sprewell disrupted the 2004-05 season. The Wolves, who won 58 games in 2003-04, dropped to 44 wins the following season, one which saw Saunders fired mid-season. The victory total then dropped to 33 and 32.
In the summer of 2007, with the Wolves feeling they needed to rebuild, Garnett agreed to a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Celtics in exchange for Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair and two first-round draft choices, which became Wayne Ellington and Jonny Flynn.
There were, apparently, bruised feelings in a trade that came after Garnett refused sign a contract for less than the maximum he could get.
"I guess at the end of the day, I'm loyal to a point where I feel, if someone's loyal to me, then I have no problem with that," Garnett said in his first press conference in Boston. "But when that changes, it's pretty easy to move on."
In the spring of 2008 Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said he felt Garnett had "tanked it," by not playing in the final five games the season before, to which Garnett responded, "I have nothing to do with the Minnesota Timberwolves. That's my past and I'm in a new chapter if my life."
Spring of 2008 was also when Garnett won his only NBA championship, with Boston defeating the Lakers in six games.
The Celtics returned to the championship series in 2010, losing to the Lakers in five games. After the 2012-13 season Garnett was traded to Brooklyn.
But, with Saunders back running the organization and the Wolves' prospects looking up, Saunders was able to mend fences and convince Garnett, then with the Nets, to agree to a trade that brought Garnett back to Minnesota in exchange for Thaddeus Young
Upon his return, Garnett made it clear in his returning press conference he was coming back with bigger goals than just wearing the uniform again. He talked about one day being part of a group that owned the Wolves, a prospect that now seems dim.
"I am," he said when asked about being in Minnesota for the long haul. "That is the goal. At some point, I want to understand ownership and try to get into that and bring a championship to this city. That has been my goal since I became a Wolf."
But, immediately, his goal was to act as a veteran mentor to a young team while playing for a franchise he appeared to have reconnected with. "It's perfect," Garnett said. "If you have a story, this is a fairy tale," he said. "This is a perfect ending to it. This is how you want to do it. I know these are the declining days of my playing days, but I think I have so much more to bring. This is the perfect situation. This is full-circle right here."
After returning to thunderous applause in his first game back at Target Center, Garnett played in only four more games, missing the team's final 15 with knee soreness.
Last season, with Sam Mitchell coaching the team after Saunders passed away from cancer, Garnett appeared in 38 games, last playing Jan. 23 vs. Memphis before knee soreness pushed him out of the lineup again.
So much has changed since. Taylor hired Thibodeau as president of basketball operations and coach and Scott Layden as general manager. Through the draft and free agency, Garnett's status remain unresolved, with Thibodeau and Taylor remaining mum on the subject. ------
12 play and 12 planets are enlighten for all the Aliens to Party and free those on the Sex Planet-maxxx
XBL: trkc21
Twitter: @tyrcasey
|
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
Okay Sports
#/media/File:Firefly.png)
