Stephon Marbury spent the first few years of his professional career playing alongside Kevin Garnett. During this stint, Marbury was so impressed by his teammate that none of Garnett’s future success ever surprised him.
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KG, who was drafted into the NBA straight out of high school, didn’t require much time to assert his dominance. He did so by making himself useful on both ends of the floor. Marbury highlighted this attribute of the Big Ticket by revealing the efforts the latter would give.
“Kev is like everywhere – talking, running, blocking shots, running the court, hitting the lane, throwing the ball to the guard, getting it back, getting the lob, dunking, getting back on defense, running back, then blocking the shot. That’s him. That’s his game. He don’t know nothing else,” Marbury told the hosts of the “Come And Talk 2 Me” podcast.
Due to his unmatched dedication to being an asset on both ends of the court, KG’s remarkable achievements come as no surprise to Marbury. In fact, ‘Starbury’ predicted this stellar career.
“Seeing him play the way how he play… Seeing him win an MVP, no shock. It’s like that’s easy. He should be doing that like that. Kev gonna be getting easy MVPs and Defensive Player of the Years and winning championships. That’s something that you kind of foresee for a guy like that because it’s rare to see guys that can do the things that he did at that size. You can’t teach that passion,” Marbury concluded.
Garnett retired with one MVP, a DPOY, and a championship. His resume is slightly underwhelming for a player to be considered as the GOAT for a particular position. But in Garnett’s case, intangibles such as his work ethic, leadership, and competitiveness contribute significantly to his case as one of the greatest power forwards of all time.
KG approached the game with a unique mentality
Kevin Garnett is often regarded as the first true unicorn in the league. Apart from his versatility, at his size, KG also set himself from the competition because of the intensity that he played the game with. This may come as a surprise to many, but KG’s inspirations for this high intensity were Bones Jones and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“You ever see ‘Bones’ Jones fight? Before Jones fights, he does this weird thing where he goes… (slaps his chest several times) That’s muscle activation.
“I would hear Arnold Schwarzenegger sometimes talk about having orgasms when he would lift… And I went, ‘F**k, what? F**k outta here.’ But then when I would run and I would work on these moves and I would actually see my sh*t working,” Garnett said.
A layman wouldn’t be wrong in terming this ideology as insanity. But then, such a deranged mindset is what sets apart good players from the all-time greats.
