After years of strain, Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves are back on good terms.
It took the exit of former owner Glen Taylor to get there.
Garnett, who played 14 seasons with the Timberwolves as the best player in franchise history, showed up to Target Center Sunday for Minnesota’s season finale against the New Orleans Pelicans.
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The appearance was the first for Garnett at a home game since 2018. He was greeted with a tribute on the video board and a raucous ovation from the Timberwolves faithful.
Garnett’s appearance marked the public start of a reconciliation with the Timberwolves after a long-term falling out.
Long-awaited jersey retirement is next
The Timberwolves previously announced that Garnett would return to the franchise in an official capacity as a team ambassador. Next season, they plan to retire and hang his No. 21 jersey in the rafters, an honor that’s long overdue for the Hall of Famer who retired from the NBA in 2016.
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The reconciliation is thanks in large part to the new ownership group led by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, who agreed to buy the team from Taylor in 2021. The process was drawn out and the sale wasn’t made official until after NBA owners approved it in June.
But now that Taylor’s gone, Garnett is back.
“I can’t wait to come home,” Garnett said via a Timberwolves news release on March 2. “Coming back for me is about what’s next. I’ve spent time with Marc and Alex, and you can feel the difference.”
Kevin Garnett smiles Sunday night during his return to the Timberwolves. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Garnett’s feud with Taylor’s Timberwolves
The relationship became strained when the Timberwolves traded Garnett to the Boston Celtics in 2007. Garnett made 10 All-Star teams and won an MVP with the Timberwolves as the face of a then nascent-franchise. But they failed to build a contender around him, ultimately leading to his trade to Boston, where Garnett helped lead the Celtics to the 2008 NBA championship.
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After his retirement, Garnett sought an ownership stake of the Timberwolves and a role in managing the franchise. He told Shams Charania in 2020 that he had a spoken agreement with Taylor to take on those roles that he says Taylor reneged on.
‘I don’t do business with snakes’
Because of that, Garnett told Charania that he wasn’t interested in having his jersey retired with the franchise.
“I’ll always have a special place for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota in my heart,” Garnett told Charania at the time. “But I don’t do business with snakes. I don’t do business with snake motherf***ers. I try not to do business with openly snakes or people who are snake-like.”
After Taylor announced he was selling the Timberwolves, Garnett joined a group that attempted to buy the franchise. That bid failed in 2021, and Garnett wrote this on Instagram:
“Sooo, just got the news that this process in trying to acquire the TWOLVES IS OVER for me n my group,” Garnett wrote. “Thx Glen for being yourself n what I Kno you to be!!
“Good Luck n aww the best with WHAT WE BUILT.”
Where his group’s bid failed, Lore’s and Rodriguez’s ultimately succeeded. And despite his disappointment in the failed bid, the fact that Taylor was gone was enough to start the healing process. And Garnett is now back, embracing his relationship with the Timberwolves.
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