Kevin Garnett spent 21 seasons in the league, making 15 All-Star teams, four All-NBA First Teams, three All-NBA Second Teams, and achieving numerous more accolades. Garnett was an instant difference-maker for the Minnesota Timberwolves right from the start. Coming straight out of high school, not many believed that KG would be able to make it to the league. One of which was his own mother back in the day.
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Recently, Kevin Garnett went on his podcast KG Certified, to talk about his first Sports Illustrated cover and how that ended up convincing his mother that he had actually made it in the NBA.
Garnett started narrating the story of his first photo shoot with Sports Illustrated. He mentioned how the photographers ended up being mugged and robbed in the streets of Chicago the first time around.
“A couple of the photographers got mugged, got their cameras took, got beat up.”
KG then went on to reveal how they finally got the photo shoot done for the Sports Illustrated cover. He also shared the conversation he had with his high school coach and how he reacted when Garnett told him that he was going to the NBA instead of college.
“Coach was like, ‘Boy, you ain’t going to college? What?’ Imagine coming in and telling your high school coach, ‘We ain’t going to college, we going to the league.’ N***a looked at me like, ‘What?’”
Kevin Garnett’s mother did not believe that her son was going to be drafted by an NBA franchise right out of high school. But the stars had aligned for KG as he was the fifth overall pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1995 draft. After he got drafted and made it on the Sports Illustrated cover, that is when his mother believed him.
“When I hit the cover, like my mom looked at me like, ‘Oh, you for real.’ ‘I been telling you. I’m finna do this sh*t.’ ‘Okay, I’m with you, I’m with you, boy, let’s do it.’ ‘I ain’t f***in around, Ma.’”
.@KevinGarnett5KG tells a CRAZY story about his first Sports Illustrated photoshoot.
Should the league change back the prep to pros rule?
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The last time a player was drafted right out of high school was back in the 1975 NBA draft. It wasn’t until 20 years later that Kevin Garnett ended that streak by getting selected as a top-five pick in the NBA draft.
Not only did Garnett get drafted, he had one of the most successful careers in the NBA. He finished his tenure with a championship, an MVP, a Defensive Player of the Year honors, and etched his name in multiple stats, breaking old records and setting new ones. Suffice it to say, Garnett’s seemingly audacious gamble was a very profitable one.
Kevin Garnett’s journey to the NBA
Kevin Garnett once shared the story of his high school workout before the NBA draft. He mentioned that Pat Riley was in attendance as well and how his words managed to fire him up for the rest of the workout.
After Kevin Garnett made it to the NBA right out of high school, many other players followed the trend, despite players like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal, who attended three years of college.
But not KG, as he sparked the trend to leap to the NBA right out of high school. Players like Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard are just some of the names that followed in Garnett’s footsteps. And by the looks of it they made the right choice as all these players went on to have decorated NBA careers.
