Kevin Garnett Doesn’t Believe His Generation Could Play in Today’s NBA

Former Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett was a young kid when he entered the NBA. He was drafted straight out of high school, and he immediately made an impact.  He played with fire, and his tenacity was unmatched. He later joined the Celtics and cemented his career with an NBA Championship. Now that he’s been out of the league for quite some time, he’s reflecting on today’s NBA players, and some of the rules in place to make things a little bit easier for players on the offensive side.

Garnett spoke with the New York Times about the difference between when he played,  and how things today work.

“I didn’t want to be something cool. I didn’t want to be calm. I wanted to be a player that made you say, ‘Did you see that?’ ”

We interviewed Kevin Garnett. https://t.co/sLmbet42qC

— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) February 8, 2021

Some excerpts below:

Pretty surprised, and impressed, that Kevin Garnett was willing to admit this:https://t.co/2z9HnVXNL2 pic.twitter.com/PnGWKTUuoU

— Adam Fusfeld (@afusfeld) February 8, 2021

it would be quite wonderful if every former player was as cheery about the state of the NBA today as KG is here
https://t.co/W2Xw8H0MbA pic.twitter.com/NysRUeLU8d

— Mark Berman (@markberman) February 8, 2021

"I don’t know if even the guards from 20 or 30 years ago could play in this time right here. It’s creative. It’s competitive. It’s saucy. You’ll get dropped!" This week, @NYTMag interviews Kevin Garnett, who changed how professional basketball was played.https://t.co/Ay7yxujFSp

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 8, 2021

https://twitter.com/SilvermanJacob/status/1358739297243914245

This is so good. So many former players think they’re protecting their legacies by acting like their style was superior. That KG and Iverson go out of their way to praise the current game is a far superior legacy move to me. https://t.co/EM44GZwGGh

— Benjamin Hoffman (@BenHoffmanNYT) February 8, 2021

"They didn’t call me the Freebie. They called me the Ticket." https://t.co/K59vJB4txf

— Adam Knight (@adamknightnyc) February 8, 2021

"You would come into a room for a meeting, and you would have a stage with tables and chairs there. And David Stern and all the owners would sit in those chairs, and the players had to look up at them. So I used to stand up. I didn’t want to sit." 1/3 https://t.co/HkqnZYU9IX

— David Drolet 🇺🇦 (@DaveDrolet) February 8, 2021

"Veterans sit around during dinners and plane rides and talk about people who have come before you: players that fought for 
midlevel exceptions and Bird rights.The franchise is not going to teach the players this." @KevinGarnett5KGhttps://t.co/dQM2Zsc90H

— Vincent Minjares, Ph.D (@PlayerLearning) February 8, 2021

Every generation always believes they had it harder. In KD’s case, he’s probably right. The hand checking rules make it almost impossible to play defense.

If Michael Jordan played with today’s rules, he’d easily average 40 a game.

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