LOS ANGELES — Kevin Garnett has become one of the most celebrated leaders in the NBA over the past two decades as he's forged his Hall of Fame career with the Timberwolves, Celtics and Nets.
Though Garnett sat out of the Nets' 123-84 blowout to the Clippers and his old coach, Doc Rivers, he credited Rivers for being a big reason why he's been so successful.
"Doc was probably one of the closest influences I've had in this league, he and [former Timberwolves teammate] Sam Mitchell," Garnett said before the Nets played the Clippers at Staples Center. "They both played parts in my growth."
While Garnett has long credited Mitchell for his development as a young player learning the ropes in the NBA, he said the combination of getting another shot at contending by being traded to the Celtics in 2007, where he joined forces with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, as well as learning from Rivers was the main reason the Celtics were able to win the 2008 NBA title and nearly win a second one in 2010.
"I feel like it was a culmination of things coming together when I got with Doc," Garnett said. "He understood what kind of player I was, let me be myself, let me lead.
"I had great counterparts with Ray and with Paul, a great system, and Sam came in and helped with the leadership, him and P.J. Brown, so overall it gave me a great perspective of the league."
Garnett wasn't the only one who benefitted from the partnership. The season before he and Allen arrived, the Celtics had been one of the NBA's worst teams, bottoming out to land one of the top spots in the 2008 draft hoping to take either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.
But after their pick fell to fifth in the lottery, general manager Danny Ainge swung trades to bring Allen from Seattle and Garnett from Minnesota, pairing them with Pierce to form an instant contender and begin establishing Ainge, Rivers and the three stars as a group that is forever linked.
"At the time [Rivers] was beat up in Boston a little bit, and I think him and Danny were on their last legs, if you will, and we came in and rejuvenated that," Garnett said.
It almost didn't happen, though, as Garnett turned down the first trade that was agreed upon between Boston and Minnesota.
Rivers didn't want to contemplate what could have happened if it didn't go through.
"Why would I do that?," he asked. "That wouldn't have gone well for me."
But Rivers said the reason the Celtics put their championship team together in the first place was because Garnett made that initial veto.
"But that really was a strange time, because if you remember we had that deal done, and Kevin is the one who vetoed the deal … he just looked at our team that time and, with just Paul, he didn't think he could win it, and wanted to hold out for something else.
"So because of that, because he turned it down, that's what created that team … if he hadn't have turned it down, we never would have gotten Ray."
There was a long period of Garnett's career where it seemed he would toil in permanent obscurity with the Timberwolves, never truly getting a chance to maximize his incredible talent with a true championship contender outside of the run the Timberwolves made to the Western Conference Finals in 2004.
Though it initially took a couple of times around to get him to agree to leave to go to Boston, he said now he wishes it could have happened sooner.
"The only thing I hate, or that if I had any discounts, was that we did it too late," Garnett said. "I wish that we had done it a little sooner in our careers and who knows where we'd be.
"It was a great experience. It was probably the best experience since I've been in the league … one that's more monumental than anything."
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