Despite playing in the same era as Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace, Kevin Garnett established himself as one of the best defensive players. However, even the greatest defenders struggle against a few players. For Garnett, the players who spent multiple years developing in the college circuit, especially Grant Hill and Jamal Mashburn, were a tough assignment.
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During a chat with Paul Pierce on their KG: Certified talk show, the “Big Ticket” spoke about the players who gave him the hardest time on the defensive end. According to the 6ft 11” power forward, Hill and Mashburn were getting the better of him. However, Pierce made sure to let the viewers know that KG was only unable to guard them while he was still a “kid”.
“Listen dog, he kicked my a**… Grant Hill, Jamal Mashburn was two of the hardest matchups for me, bro. Grant Hill was that deal.”
Coming into the NBA straight out of high school, it isn’t a surprise that the South Carolina-born star was unable to win matchups against players who spent multiple years in the college system. He even compared such “university guys” to the Navy SEAL members. Whereas, guys like himself and Tracy McGrady, who came directly out of high school, were like frogmen.
“The university guys was like… they was like SEALs. Then they had the special ops, them frogmen that come out from under the water. You just see their head and eyes. That’s them high school players.”
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Garnett joined the league while he was still a teenager, but he didn’t let his competitors or his idols intimidate him. While several analysts did expect Garnett to be a decent player over the years, he proved to be an asset to the Timberwolves from the first campaign itself. In his second season, KG established himself as one of the best players in the league and the rest has been history.
Despite his claims of the four-year college players “kicking his a**”, Garnett surprisingly didn’t name any of these players when talking about his “Welcome to the NBA” moment. Instead, he listed his battle with Glenn Robinson as the first incident that humbled him.
Garnett lauds Glenn Robinson when talking about his “Welcome to the League” moment
Garnett often lauds experienced players and claims that they are tougher to play against. However, it was a second-year player, who had also only spent two years in college, to hand KG his “Welcome to the NBA” moment.
Glenn Robinson, aka Big Dog, would “bust KG’s a**” in a preseason game. As the Wolves legend described the incident, Robinson showed off a deep offensive arsenal while Garnett couldn’t prevent him from scoring.
“First person to welcome me to the league, as I call it, to bust my a** was Big Dog. Preseason and he was just talking that sh*t… So I’m coming off screens, getting hit and he ain’t putting it down. He going up two dribble pull-ups like all that sh*t we ain’t used to.
“After it was over, I had like, like a little 10. And to me, that was a big deal… He was like ‘yeah, yeah. This is going to be every night. This is going to be every time you see me’,” Garnett recollected.
Known for having a similar trait as Michael Jordan of “taking this personally”, Garnett seemed to have used this as motivation. Ultimately, KG dominated their head-to-head matchups, made a career twice as long, and has a far more stacked trophy cabinet than the player who first “busts his a**”.
