Top 100 NBA Players: #19

Kevin Garnett

(Kalb: #40, Simmons: #22, BBR: #27)

Kevin Garnett is the first of five active players to appear among the top 20 players of all time, and even though he is built like a praying mantis, he has been a force in professional basketball for 16 seasons, and he is still playing well in his 17th season, even though there are just a handful of players more experienced remaining in the league.

Garnett was a major trail blazer for the current generation of NBA stars, jumping straight to the league from high school, the first player in 20 years to do so, but his success caused many to follow in his footsteps, from future stars like Kobe, LeBron, and Amare to busts like Korleone Young, DeSagana Diop, and Kwame Brown. Four of the 5 active players among my top 20 did not attend college, and who knows if that wouldn't have happened without Garnett taking a risk in 1995.

Garnett was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and it is because of him that the franchise even has any history to celebrate. They made the playoffs for the first time in Garnett's second year, which started a string of 8 consecutive playoff appearances, since which they have not returned to the postseason. Garnett was the team's best player every time they made the playoffs, and during that run he missed a total of 11 games, an incredible feat for a player who looks so fragile.

The eighth year of that run was a magical one for Garnett and the Timberwolves. It was the only time in franchise history that the Wolves won a playoff series, and they actually won two of them, advancing clear to the Western Conference Finals, where the Lakers dispatched them on their way to a three-peat. Garnett was named the MVP that season, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he deserved it. In my opinion, the only more dominant season in the last 20 years was Shaq's 2000 campaign. Here is a comparison of Garnett and Kobe Bryant, his nearest competitor, from that season:

Garnett - 24.2 pts, 13.9 reb, 5.0 ast, 1.5 stl, 2.2 blk, .499 FG%, .791 FT%
Bryant - 24.0 pts, 5.5 reb, 5.1 ast, 1.7 stl, 0.4 blk, .438 FG%, .852 FT%

I don't think I even need to do any explanation as to why Garnett was the MVP, because the numbers do the talking. In NBA history, there have only been six times that a player has bested Garnett's scoring, rebounding, and assists numbers from that season in any single year. It was done by Wilt three times, Kareem twice, and Elgin Baylor once. The most recent of those seasons was Kareem in 1976, and it hasn't been done by anyone but Garnett since.

After that season the Timberwolves sank back into mediocrity, with Garnett toiling away as a superstar on a bad team, until the summer of 2007, when he was rescued by the Boston Celtics, who had decided they wanted to pursue a championship, since it had been over a decade since they had really tried, and with Garnett leading the way, Boston won their first title in over two decades. Paul Pierce was named the Finals MVP, but I think the award should have gone to Garnett, and here are the stats from the playoffs to back up my point:

Garnett - 20.4 pts, 10.5 reb, 3.3 ast, 1.3 stl, 1.1 blk, .495 FG%, .810 FT%
Pierce - 19.7 pts, 5.0 reb, 4.6 ast, 1.1 stl, 0.3 blk, .441 FG%, .802 FT%

Okay, now I'm no expert (well, maybe I am), but when one player is better in 6 of 7 statistical categories, and the other is reasonably close, that player is better, especially since being teammates eliminates the pace factor from the argument. Garnett was the MVP of the 2008 Finals, but Celtics fans helped select Pierce because he stuck with the team through the tough times.

Two years later, Boston returned to the NBA Finals, but this time Garnett was no longer the star, his body having finally worn down after playing over 1100 games in the NBA, but he was still one of the team's leaders, and he earned that second trip to the Finals, something very few superstars have gone without. In his career, Garnett won a championship, an MVP, and a Defensive Player of the Year award. He's a great all-around player, and he finally got to prove he was a winner while he was still a relevant superstar.

Barkley had a bit of a faster start to his career than Garnett, but the big man had caught up by his prime, and each peaked at the same level in his ninth season in the NBA. Overall, the chart of the two players is incredibly similar, and both had 16 years (not including the current one) in which to earn their spot on this list. There's one thing that separates Garnett from Barkley: the ring on his finger.