I don't get what he had to work something out with Minnesota. If you retire you retire. No need for buyouts. Did he want them to renounce his rights in case he comes back?
lmao. The Kobe hatred is real on this site. Neither one of those guys are better than Kobe, and I love KG too.
My favorite memory of KG's long and illustrious career was Chuck Hayes owning and frustrating him in this game
What's the beef again? The owner gave him the largest contract available then and traded him to a superteam. Owner probaby did Milkhair and Flip dirty but it wasn't like they brought out great rosters year after year.
From Sham's Q&A with him: https://theathletic.com/1729284/202...ne-on-one-with-kevin-garnett-after-hall-call/ The Celtics announced in February that they will retire your No. 5 jersey during the 2020-21 season — but your jersey still isn’t hanging in the rafters in Minnesota. How soon will we see that take place and where do you stand on it? (When Garnett returned to Minnesota in 2015, a move brokered by Saunders, he had discussed his desire to one day join the ownership group succeeding Taylor and/or being a key decision-maker in the franchise. When Saunders passed away, Taylor charted a course forward and hired Tom Thibodeau to take over the franchise, which Garnett felt was going back on the plans he and Saunders had discussed. League rules prevented Taylor from having ownership discussions with Garnett while he was a player.) Glen knows where I’m at, I’m not entertaining it. First of all, it’s not genuine. Two, he’s getting pressure from a lot of fans and, I guess, the community there. Glen and I had an understanding before Flip died, and when Flip died, that understanding went with Flip. For that, I won’t forgive Glen. I won’t forgive him for that. I thought he was a straight up person, straight up business man, and when Flip died, everything went with him. There’s no reason to complain. Just continue to move on. My years in Minnesota and in that community, I cherish. At this point, I don’t want any dealings with Glen Taylor or Taylor Corp. or anything that has to do with him. I love my Timberwolves, I’ll always love my guys, I’ll always love the people who **** with me there. I’ll always have a special place for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota in my heart. But I don’t do business with snakes. I don’t do business with snake mu’****as. I try not to do business with openly snakes or people who are snake-like.
And a longer story from February (2020): Courting KG: Why Garnett’s jersey will be hanging in Boston before Minnesota Spoiler Timberwolves lore is filled with disappointment and dysfunction, misfortune and mess. Of all the ways to quantify just how tragic this franchise’s history has been, the most telling is to crane your neck to the rafters at Target Center. That’s where organizations celebrate. That’s where they honor. In Minnesota, that is where they mourn, both those who are up there and, in a way, the one who isn’t. Two banners hang high above the tunnel where the Timberwolves enter the arena to play every night. One is for Malik Sealy, a forward who was killed in a car accident in 2000. One is for Flip Saunders, the coach and executive who died from complications from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015. There is one other banner that needs to be up there with them. It would be fitting if Kevin Garnett’s No. 21 was placed right between his close friend Sealy and his longtime coach Saunders. But for reasons that are both complicated and unfortunate, Garnett’s jersey is not up there, and there is no telling when that will be remedied. The Boston Celtics announced on Thursday that they will retire Garnett’s No. 5 next season. Garnett was an integral part of the team’s renaissance in the mid-2000s. He won a championship there in 2008, played in another NBA Finals there and injected a dormant franchise with ferocity and fire the way only he knows how. That his jersey will be up in Boston with greats such as Larry Bird, John Havlicek, Kevin McHale (the man who drafted Garnett out of high school in 1995) and KG’s friend Paul Pierce is fitting. That it is happening before 21 goes up in Minnesota illustrates just how strained the relationship is between the team that featured him for 13-plus seasons and the best player the franchise has ever had. The Timberwolves would retire Garnett’s jersey tomorrow if they could. He is far and away the most accomplished and most popular player to ever suit up here. The lone stretch of modest success enjoyed by the team was in KG’s prime. There appeared at one point to be a possible thawing of the iciness as recently as last season. But Garnett remains upset at owner Glen Taylor for the way things ended and a promise that he believes was broken. Through that lens, it is hard not to view Garnett’s willingness to be honored in Boston first as an affront to the organization he put on the map. The best way to describe the situation is wholly unfortunate. And for it to get to this place, it takes breakdowns, mistakes and hurt feelings … on both sides. So how did it get to this point? As any conflict that rises to this level, it is complicated and there is plenty of blame to spread around. Big Ticket burns The Wolves drafted Garnett straight out of high school in 1995, putting the Wolves on the cutting edge of basketball strategy for one of the few times in the team’s three-plus decades of existence. They called him “Da Kid” and his charisma and skill made him an instant sensation. He was an All-Star by his second season, but a franchise centerpiece from the moment he hit the court. He led the Wolves to eight straight playoff appearances, including a Western Conference finals run during his MVP season in 2003-04, the only time the franchise has been out of the first round. The people loved Garnett and Garnett loved them right back. A market that is sensitive to outside perceptions that the movie “Fargo” is what it’s like around here year-round rallied behind Garnett, who defended this place with the same kind of ferocity that he protected the rim. Good team or bad team, Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals in May or Game 42 against Charlotte in January, Wolves fans knew Garnett would give them their money’s worth. Every night. In the summer of 2007, the Wolves had finally come to the conclusion that after 12 years of building around Garnett, a new direction was required. Garnett was 31 at the time, and the Wolves were coming off of a 32-50 season — their third straight year without a playoff berth — and believed their window for building a champion around him was closing. Despite the Wolves’ inability to surround him with the team needed to compete in the West, he never wanted to go. He fought the trade to Boston right up until the final minute, when the Celtics acquired Ray Allen to pair with Garnett and Pierce in a new Big 3. In an era when stars agitated their ways out of town for more competitive teams or bigger markets, Garnett never wanted the bigger market or the super team. “I never requested a trade because I viewed ‘Sota as mine,” Garnett told The Athletic last season. “I built this house. I’m not leaving this god damn house. You can get the **** up out of here. You don’t like it, then leave.” The trade certainly rankled Garnett, perhaps a belief that the team was giving up on his ability to lead it to the heights everyone wanted but had not delivered. But the split grew wider late in the 2007-08 season, when Taylor was asked about the perception that the team had tanked in Garnett’s final year for a better draft pick. “I’d say KG tanked it,” Taylor said, referring to Garnett missing the final five games of the season with a knee injury. The suggestion infuriated Garnett and his representatives. There were plenty of nits to pick with Garnett — from the way the ultra-intense franchise player would occasionally conduct himself behind the scenes to his unwillingness to challenge Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell when they pouted through contract issues in 2005. But questioning his competitive juices? That was crossing a line in his mind. That led to a long, cold war between the icon and the franchise he essentially put on the map. He always spoke highly of the city and fans on his return trips with the Celtics and Nets, but it was clear there was no love lost for Taylor and the franchise. When Saunders returned to the organization as team president in 2014, a door opened. Saunders had a way of charming those around him, and the way he did not take his firing in 2005 personally and let bygones be bygones upon his return to the organization provided a road map for Garnett. Saunders knew of the tension between Taylor and Garnett, and he attempted to smooth things over between perhaps the two most important people in franchise history. When Saunders first set out to bring Garnett back in a trade with the Nets, the steadfastly loyal Garnett balked at the idea. He still harbored a grudge against Taylor, but Saunders’ unending optimism helped to soften that. Saunders knew Garnett was more interested in getting into the ownership and executive side of basketball after he retired rather than coaching and believed that, with Taylor exploring selling the franchise, there was a way to mend the rift and cement Garnett’s place in the franchise for the long term. “If you have a story, this is a fairy tale,” Garnett said when he returned to Minnesota. “This is a perfect ending to it. This is how you want to do it.” Saunders wanted Garnett to mentor Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Ricky Rubio on the court as he prepared to enter into the next phase of his basketball life. Then the Wolves won the lottery to secure No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns, a modern big who could learn so much from KG, and everything seemed to be falling in line. Then tragedy struck when Saunders died from complications with Hodgkins lymphoma. His death rocked the organization, gutted Garnett, and essentially scuttled any plans for Garnett’s easy transition from playing to the executive suite. When Taylor decided to move on from coach Sam Mitchell, a close friend of Garnett’s, after the 2015-16 season and hire Tom Thibodeau as president of basketball operations and coach, Garnett viewed it as the organization phasing him out as well. Throughout that previous season, KG had made it clear behind the scenes that he planned on taking over as a primary decision-maker in the franchise. He wanted to be an owner and implement his own vision for where this team could go. That he wasn’t consulted on the decision not to retain Mitchell and the implementation of a new front office felt like a betrayal to him. “I think if you put enough blood, sweat and tears into these organizations, you should have at least the option to be able to buy into or have a piece of it,” Garnett said during an All-Star weekend appearance with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their “All the Smoke” podcast. “Hell, you helped build it. “When I got to Minnesota that **** was worth like $89 million or something. … Ten years in, that **** was almost at a billion. You don’t get none of the appreciation for that. The culture that people know and why they coming to games, you built all that in sweat, blood and equity. You don’t get a choice to be in that. That has to change at some point.”
Spoiler Taylor couldn’t help that Saunders had died suddenly. He had to move forward, and a season or two spent in limbo while Garnett was still playing was not an option. With Thibodeau on board, Garnett no longer saw the opening to wield the influence that he envisioned having, and so he quietly retired and left Minnesota. In his early days of retirement, Garnett crisscrossed the country working with young players, either before the draft or in NBA training camps. He visited the Bucks, Clippers, Grizzlies and several other teams, but not the Wolves. “I love those young guys,” Garnett said back then, referring to the Wolves’ young core of Towns, Wiggins and LaVine. “I told Thibs I want to work with him, but obviously me and Glen don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things and that’s how it’s going to be.” Timberwolves’ lament Garnett often views things in absolutes. He has always been uncompromising, one of the traits that allowed him to rise from the streets of Mauldin, South Carolina, through Farragut Academy in Chicago and straight to the NBA lottery, the first player in two decades to bypass college. But the organization didn’t believe Garnett’s move from player to power broker within the franchise was as cut and dried as Garnett was making it out to be. League rules prevented Taylor from reaching any agreements with Garnett on a potential ownership stake while he was still an active player. Though it may seem naive to think that the owner and the icon wouldn’t have some sort of clandestine discussions as they hammered out a new contract, the bulk of Garnett’s interactions with the organization came through Saunders and not through Taylor. It is possible that Saunders’ discussions with Garnett were more affirmative than any that would have come from Taylor, who knew the value of the franchise was skyrocketing, which meant it would take a significant financial outlay to buy into a level that would earn KG a voice in major decisions. Garnett was in the middle of a lawsuit alleging that a former accountant, who also swindled Tim Duncan, had stolen some $77 million from him as well, leading to questions about the star’s financial wherewithal to buy into a billion-dollar franchise. Garnett and Saunders may have discussed a path to taking over the team. But the grim reality was that Saunders’ death had thrown the entire organization into chaos. The Wolves needed direction. So Taylor moved on, hiring Thibodeau and Scott Layden to run the basketball operations. And while Garnett was making it clear that he felt wronged by the organization, the Wolves paid him more than $200 million in contracts over the years and gave him a wide level of influence in roster construction during his first tour with the team. After he was acquired from the Nets, Taylor greenlit a new two-year, $16.5 million contract for a 39-year-old who played five games after the trade and appeared to be on his last legs. The Wolves also paid him his entire salary for the last year of that deal even after retirement, the same kind of courtesy the Spurs extended Duncan. Make no mistake, Garnett was worth every penny, for what he brought on the court and the butts he put in the seats. But the Wolves felt that they treated him with the respect and deference he deserved. They also said they made it clear that when Garnett felt the time was right, the Wolves wanted to put 21 in the rafters. “We think that’s the appropriate thing to do,” Taylor said in 2018. “At this time he hasn’t commented on a timetable. We just have left it open.” Where things stand When the Celtics announced last week that Garnett would be going into the rafters, it did not take long for the Wolves to come under criticism for not doing it first. The reality is it is a delicate situation for them. They know that Garnett still holds a grudge against Taylor. They understand that there is a large gap to be bridged. They want things to be on good terms before such a festive event is planned. Wolves CEO Ethan Casson and COO Ryan Tanke, longtime franchise employees who have some rapport with Garnett, and Ryan Saunders, Flip’s son and the current head coach, have worked hard behind the scenes over the last several years to try to repair the organization’s relationship with its biggest star. Towns has tried to help as well, urging Garnett to return to Target Center for a game. Garnett came back to interview Towns, Wiggins and Saunders for his “Area 21” show on TNT in November of 2018 and then made a last-minute decision to attend the game in which the franchise honored Prince and played in its City Edition uniform inspired by the fallen music legend. Former equipment manager Clayton Wilson, a longtime Garnett confidante, had a special jersey made for him and the organization bent over backward to make him feel welcome in his first game back since he retired. It was then that there was a belief that progress was being made. As it stands today, the Wolves still hold out hope that they are headed in the right direction toward the essential re-establishment of a connection with the team’s North Star. The Wolves have a desire, and a plan, for 21 to be raised to the roof one day, to rest alongside Flip and Malik. And that may only be the start of what the organization wants to do to honor its best player. What remains unclear is when, not if, it will happen. Will Taylor have to sell the team first? Will the arrival of Gersson Rosas as a fresh face without the baggage of Timberwolves past and the presence of Ryan Saunders expedite the process? Will the appeal of home — and Garnett has always called Minnesota home — and the efforts of Casson and Tanke to remind Garnett of that connection eventually win out? Garnett has never been one for compromise. So the feeling is that when it does happen, it will be on his terms. One thing that everyone agrees on is that 21 belongs up high in Target Center. How it gets there … that’s the hard part. “That’s my home. Ain’t nothing going to change that,” Garnett said in 2018. “Just know that just because I ain’t in the rafters don’t mean I ain’t in that building every night. I left my spirit and my soul in there. You can’t ever replace that, you feel me? That will always be, forever, as long as they have the Timberwolves in Minnesota.”
^Sounds like an ego thing more than a "you promised me 6 million off the table thing" It is possible that Saunders’ discussions with Garnett were more affirmative than any that would have come from Taylor, who knew the value of the franchise was skyrocketing, which meant it would take a significant financial outlay to buy into a level that would earn KG a voice in major decisions. Garnett was in the middle of a lawsuit alleging that a former accountant, who also swindled Tim Duncan, had stolen some $77 million from him as well, leading to questions about the star’s financial wherewithal to buy into a billion-dollar franchise. Losing 77 million would make anyone cry, especially when the state/feds take half of what you earn in your contract... But is that the fault of Taylor, that he didn't have the funds to buy in, or is KG justified w/ this line: “When I got to Minnesota that **** was worth like $89 million or something. … Ten years in, that **** was almost at a billion. You don’t get none of the appreciation for that. The culture that people know and why they coming to games, you built all that in sweat, blood and equity. You don’t get a choice to be in that. That has to change at some point.” That fat 200+ million dollar contract is the "appreciation". Bringing him back for the last two years to collect checks is not? I consider Taylor being more mediocre, than cheap or a snake. His teams pre/post KG mostly float around in the first round like random bits inside an eco hippy's toilet. Harden has done more for Houston than KG has done for Minny. That's a fact. Let's not talk about Dream... KG thinks he due something that Duncan never asked for. Nor did Tim overload his team's salary cap to the point where Minny had to Murryball past due vets and gamble on picks. But KG is not a robot like Tim. He has "personality". He gets to be the Bigger Baby.
