Kevin Garnett shares what motivated him to give 100 percent in every game he played for the Celtics

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/03/sports/kevin-garnett-shares-what-motivated-him-give-100-percent-every-game-he-played-celtics/



Kevin Garnett shares what motivated him to give 100 percent in every game he played for the Celtics



By Adam Himmelsbach Globe Staff,Updated February 3, 2022, 4:00 p.m.




Kevin Garnett played for the Celtics from 2007 to 2012.Kevin Garnett played for the Celtics from 2007 to 2012.JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF



Celtics legend Kevin Garnett’s No. 5 will be retired when the Mavericks visit TD Garden on March 13. On Thursday, Garnett took part in a Zoom call in which he discussed that honor as well as other memories from his time in Boston. Here are some of the highlights:

Even though Garnett spent just six seasons with the Celtics, he had the impact of a player who was with the franchise for longer. In addition to leading Boston to one championship and to the brink of another, Garnett thinks his general approach to the game endeared him to the fans here.

“I’m a historian of basketball and I have never ever in my life cheated the game,” he said. “I have never went at the game with nothing less than 100 percent. I heard Larry Bird say one time in his early years in Boston that the reason why he loved playing in front of the fans in Boston is because you couldn’t fake them. You couldn’t fool the fans. They knew when you were playing hard. They knew when you were giving your all. They have a sense of basketball history and they have high basketball IQs. They cared, and I never forgot that.”


Kevin Garnett spent six seasons with the Celtics.Kevin Garnett spent six seasons with the Celtics.WINSLOW TOWNSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Garnett said that when he beat his chest before tipoff it was to let Boston’s fans know that his heart was in the game. And when he banged his head against the basket stanchion it was to let them know that he would do whatever it took to win.

Garnett said he took pride in being a leader. But he added it was important to also step back and listen to his teammates, and to always practice what he preached, regardless of his stature.

“I would dive on floors. I would do dirty stuff,” he said. “I would do stuff that you wouldn’t anticipate a superstar or a big or someone of status to do.”

Garnett said that when he arrived in Boston in 2007 after being traded by the Timberwolves, he was confident after blossoming into a star, and he knew he would have individual success. But he did have some worries about how he would fit in with the others, and whether the chemistry would develop quickly.

But as he asked around the league and then spent time with his new teammates, he realized he was surrounded by players with similar work ethics.

“Coming in, I was probably more concerned with the continuity and how I would get along with guys and how guys would respond to me more than anything,” Garnett said. “Once we came together and I saw how we all worked, and I saw how everybody in their own right had their own ways of how they did stuff, the connection was there Day One. We were just a bunch of guys who had similar backgrounds, but we were all workers, so that was our connection.”


Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce were being called the Big Three even before playing their first game together.Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce helped carry the Celtics to the 2008 title.NATHANIEL S. BUTLER/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES


Garnett said whenever he arrived at practice at the team’s Waltham training facility in 2007-08, he would gaze up at the championship banners that hanged from the ceiling there and count off the years one by one. Coach Doc Rivers even had a spotlight set on an empty banner, a reminder of what was expected next.

“I used to stare at that,” Garnett said. “I can say that retired numbers on top and the banners was my driving force, even when I didn’t play with Boston. When I played with Minnesota, if you go back and look at the video, I would stare at the numbers up there. I can say that it was there, and it was a driving motivational force for me. It’s one that I didn’t voice, and it was one that I kept to myself, and it was one that was constant.”

Garnett has mellowed in retirement. At least a bit.

“I’m a lot older,” he said. “I like to be a lot more chill these days. I’m a little more patient. All the things I didn’t have when I was younger.”


Bob


.