Kevin Garnett was loyal to Minnesota. Timberwolves fans may not see it that way now, but he could have left much earlier than he did. But he was loyal, he was going to bring a championship there. He wanted to play for just one team, to have that legacy as the ultimate face of a franchise. However, at every turn he felt management could not put the right pieces around him.
So he bolted, went to Boston, helped revitalize that franchise and won a title.
That history colors his advice to LeBron given after Game 6 (as reported here by Ken Berger of CBS):
“Loyalty is something that hurts you at times, because you can’t get youth back,” Garnett said.... “I can honestly say that if I could go back and do my situation over, knowing what I know now with this organization, I’d have done it a little sooner...”
“I don’t know what’s going through his mind,” Garnett said of LeBron. “He’s a different individual. I haven’t spoken to him or anything, but the world is his. Whatever he wants it to be, whatever decisions he makes are probably going to be best for him - not only him, but for him and his family.”
Translated: Get out while the getting is good.
This was going to be the Cavalier’s year. Shaq will be 39 next year, Antawn Jamison will turn 34 (and got thoroughly outplayed by Garnett). If he stays, who knows what moves the Cavs can and will make heading into next season. But as of right now, this is not a roster built for the long haul, it was built to win now. And it didn’t.
Garnett has been there. He wishes he had traded a little of that loyalty for youth. And nobody wants to see others make he same mistakes they did.