“What if Magic Johnson came from the hood? What if he had a DMX attitude?”: The two questions that made Kevin Garnett an unstoppable force

The Boston Celtics legend Kevin Garnett has a documentary coming up, giving us an insight into his Hall of Fame career.

Earlier this year, Kevin Garnett got inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame along with Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, probably forming the best class of inductees. Then named among the top 75 players of all time, on the 75th Anniversary of the NBA. What a year this has been for the former Timberwolves legend.

Kevin’s 21-year old career has been one of the best journeys in the league. He has won anything and everything of slight importance in the NBA other than the Finals MVP.

Also read: Kevin Garnett sings the Lakers stars’ praises for carrying the NBA in the post-Michael Jordan Era

Coming directly out of High School in 1995, Garnett was the fifth overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Although he couldn’t bring them a championship, he turned out to be their best player ever.

In his 12 years in Minnesota, Kevin led them to 8 Playoffs and a conference finals. It took a very hungry KG at the peak of his game to drag them to the Western Conference Finals, the only Conference Finals the Minnesota Timberwolves have ever been in, to date. He won the MVP that year averaging 24.3 points, 14.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 2.3 blocks, and 1.3 steals.

Kevin Garnett was scary to play against

If you were in the NBA when he was playing, you would always want to be on the side Kevin Garnett was playing for. Otherwise, you will be bullied by him on all ends of the floor. He destroyed every defender in the game by dropping unguardable mid-range bombs or a soul-crushing dunk and then on the other end he would stop the best scorer of the opposition.

Alongside the Spurs legend Tim Duncan, Kevin changed the game for big men in the NBA for good. His touches were too good for a big man and his defense on even the smallest of guards was unreal to watch. Watch all of it in his upcoming documentary Anything is Possible.

Unbelievably athletic, the 6″11′ forward could lock up all five positions. His 9 All-Defensive First team selections are the most in the NBA. “The Big Ticket” also won a Defensive Player of the Year award and is one of only 5 players who have won both MVP and DPOY awards.

Where did Kevin Garnett’s mentality come from?

His kind of hustle and mentality by a big man was never seen in the NBA before and might not be seen again. The 15-time All-Star structured that mentality through the two questions written in his memoir “KG A to Z”,

“What if Magic Johnson came from the hood? What if Magic had a DMX attitude?”

Those two questions created the beast, Kevin Garnett. These questions always made him think of who the greatest player would have been if Magic Johnson had the killer mentality like Jordan. This made KG a phenom with the basketball that he was and that is why he tried to do everything on the court that Magic did not do, including trash talking. 

Although he never had the success Magic Johnson had because he did not inherit a team like Magic after coming into the league, he surely got his hands on the Larry O’Brien when he was traded to the Boston Celtics in 2007.

The Big Ticket led the Cs to the Championship against a title-hungry Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. And according to him, he could do it because of his childhood in the hood and the lessons he learned during that struggling, which built up his never-backing-down attitude.

Also read: Kevin Garnett revels in TNT analyst’s amazing ability to play mind games with his words

Only a few people have his kind of mentality, Michael Jordan and late Kobe Bryant come to mind when thinking of it.