Kevin Garnett's unique career proves anything is possible

Kevin McHale walked off the court overcome with emotion. After a 101-89 victory over the Boston Celtics, Kevin Garnett walked over to McHale and embraced him for 18 seconds, unloading what can only be assumed was an avalanche of impassioned support for a man who just lost his daughter to lupus a month earlier. After his embrace with Garnett, McHale received a few more short hugs from the rest of the Celtics roster and walked off the court with tears welling up in his eyes, apparently overwhelmed by the intensity of Garnett’s love.

Garnett is among the greatest basketball players to ever lace up a pair of sneakers. He belongs in the pantheon of esteemed power forwards and during his 21-year career, he transformed two NBA franchises, bringing relevance to one and bringing excellence back to another. There isn’t a big man with a more gorgeous baseline jumper. He wasn’t always the greatest passer, but few were more willing, especially with the scoring ability that Garnett possessed. His 2004 MVP season still stands out as one of the most career-defining single-seasons we’ve had the honor to follow. With everything he’s done on the floor, it’s the emotion he displayed during every waking moment that made Garnett the progressive power forward we’ll never forget.

I’ve written about a lot of retirements in 2016, and an underlining theme in all of them is this idea that these men are no longer who they are because their public-facing life is changing. I don’t know why it took Garnett for me to realize that superstars leaving a sport isn’t as grim as we make it out to be — or at least as grim as I’ve made it seem all year. Garnett isn’t defined by what he did as a basketball player, it’s just essential to his identity, or the identity that we’ve assigned to him. Garnett is gone as an NBA player, but his presence will last forever. The most definitive feature of nostalgia is the absence of potential to recreate memories similar to those that fashioned the emotions that brought us here — but the most definitive feature of Kevin Garnett’s career was emotion.

He matured as a man before any of us really want to, and because of this, KG quite literally wore his heart on his sleeve. The night of his 24th birthday party, his good friend Malik Sealy was killed by a drunk driver on his way home from Garnett’s birthday party. Before that, the Timberwolves lost five draft picks because of a sneaky under the table deal with Joe Smith. And before that, Minnesota was forced to trade Stephon Marbury because the point guard was upset for not receiving the money Garnett received. Garnett was betrayed by a friend and on-court running mate, screwed over by his franchise and lost a good friend in a three-year span from ages 22-24.

The weight of a franchise was forced onto his shoulders, and he converted that pressure into an emerald-cut diamond of emotion, intensity and love for those who stood by his side. Garnett continuously worked to lift those around him up knowing the strength of a unified team would only make him better. When head coach Doc Rivers introduced the ubuntu ethos to the 2008 Celtics, it gave Garnett the spirit to challenge every individual in the name of the team while challenging the team to lift up individuals. Point guard Rajon Rondo and center Kendrick Perkins thrived under Garnett’s constant enforcing of ubuntu, and their growth as players over the year was instrumental in the Celtics title run.

History is going to shine kindly on Garnett because passion and remembrance hold history between them like a limbo stick and Garnett was flexible enough as a player to slink his 6-foot-11 frame under any level that bar dropped to. He was an asshole to any and every opponent, but that kind of tenacity leads to stories that we revere athletes for down the line.

It’s going to be easy to miss Garnett the basketball player, but he’s never going to be gone from basketball. His final three seasons saw sharp declines in mobility with coaches subbing him out late in games for defensive matchups. Time erodes away at athleticism like waves splashing against the North Shore in Boston — but time cannot erode the details of a 21-year career that very few felt was possible. McHale did, though. He drafted Garnett and mentored him through the early years of his career — a time when athletes need mentorship the most. And when McHale needed Garnett, KG was there proving that time can change what the man is physically capable of, but it can’t change who he is, and that’s why we shouldn’t think of Garnett as gone, just taking his unbridled emotional nature to another phase of his life.