Feb 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA: Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce talk during halftime during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images David Richard-Imagn Images

Surprise Celtics Star Named One of Best Players Ever By Longtime Rival

Originally posted on Boston Celtics on SI
By Alex Kirschenbaum | Last updated Aug 17, 2025 4:02 PM ET

A Boston Celtics legend has been hailed as one of the league's best players in history by a surprise rival.

Per Legion Hoops, 13-time All-Star shooting guard Dwyane Wade (disregard Legion Hoops' inaccurate spelling of his first name) recently broke down the seven-best players he has ever witnessed suit up.

Dwayne Wade listed the top seven players he’s ever seen play (in no particular order):

• MJ
• LeBron
• Kobe
• Shaq
• Allen Iverson
• Steph Curry
• Kevin Garnett pic.twitter.com/q2p9HYHdL3
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) July 31, 2025

Former 2008 Celtics Defensive Player of the Year and champion power forward Kevin Garnett has been ranked among his fellow Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and ex-Wade Heat teammates LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal.

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Garnett and Wade suited up for several hotly contested playoff series against one another when both were competing for titles in the East. Garnett's Celtics ultimately went 1-3 in those encounters.

Kevin Garnett Deserves His Flowers

For his career, the 6-foot-11 big man was a 15-time All-Star, a 12-time All-Defensive Team honoree, a nine-time All-NBA Teamer, the 2008 DPOY, the 2004 MVP, and a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team in 2022. Garnett also helped take Boston to a pair of Finals in 2008 and '10, winning the aforementioned '08 series against Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers.

Across an epic 21-year run that began in 1995 with Garnett being a lottery pick straight out of high school, the superstar plied his trade for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets.

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Wade, too, was no slouch. Also a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team, the 6-foot-4 Marquette product was himself a 13-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA honoree, and a three-time champ across a 16-year career with the Heat, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers. Wade was the 2006 Finals MVP, on a talented Heat team that also boasted future Hall of Famers O'Neal and the very past-their-primes Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton.

Although there was no love lost between Garnett and Wade on the court, both players clearly had plenty of respect for each other's game. Garnett was a jump-shooting big man who innovated frontcourt play on both sides of the hardwood, while Wade emerged as probably the best-ever NBA shooting guard not named Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Players like Jerry West and Walt "Clyde" Frazier, who could reasonably lay claim to that honor, too, were ultimately combo guards who could be slotted into either position.