Itās funny how drastically things can change in the blink of an eye. The decisions we make can have a toll on the way we think of or know about anything, and thatās what happened when Kevin Garnett shook the NBA by joining the Boston Celtics in 2007.
Garnett tried to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to an NBA championship but constantly fell short of the goal as the teamās management failed to surround him by elite talent. Then, it was clear that they had to hit the panic button and rebuild, while The Big Ticket could still join a contending team to fulfill his dream of winning a championship.
However, things could have been pretty different back then, as Ray Allen recently confessed in James Poseyās podcast that he was the one who convinced Garnett to join the Celtics, as he had actually agreed to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers to join forces with Kobe Bryant.
Ray Allen stopped Kevin Garnett from joining Kobe Bryant in 2007
āKevin Garnett had a no-trade clause and he was planning on going to the Lakers and teaming up with Kobe. But Danny Ainge came up to me later in the summer saying we might have something brewing with KG,ā Allen said. āSo I got on the phone with Kevin and I was like āwe would love you here, this is a great situation and Iām excitedā. It helped him because we knew each other growing up and he knew it was going to be a new situation for all of us,ā he added.
This move ended up altering the course of history as we know it. Garnett and the Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals to add to their league-leading 17 Larry OāBrien trophies.
Later on, they rematched in 2010, this time with the Lakers ending on top. But if Garnett had joined the Purple and Gold, itās likely that not only the Celtics hadnāt made it to the Finals in 2008 but also that Kobe would have won a second three-peat and tying Michael Jordan with 6. Perhaps, history would rank him even higher after that.
