Garnett, Kevin 1976–

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Kevin Garnett 1976–

Professional basketball player

Kevin Garnett underwent a marked change in his image over the course of his first two years in the national spotlight. When most basketball fans first heard of Garnett, he was known as the high school basketball player who was going directly into the National Basketball Association (NBA) because he couldn’t qualify academically to play in college. Many NBA observers assumed he was a disaster waiting to happen, but by his second season in the league, Garnett had surprised many by becoming one of the NBA’s young crop of budding stars. At 6-foot-11 he has the power and size of a center, but he also has the speed and ball-handling skills of a guard. Possibly what surprised some critics the most about Garnett in his early days in the league was that, far from being too immature to handle the spotlight, he developed a reputation as one of the league’s classy young players.

Garnett was born May 19, 1976 in Mauldin, South Carolina. His mother, Shirley Irby, raised Kevin, an older sister, Sonya, and a younger sister, Ashley. The family lived in Mauldin, a quiet, middle-class bedroom community, for the first 18 years of Kevin’s life. Garnett showed promise as a basketball prospect early, and attracted considerable attention from college scouts. At the end of his junior year at Mauldin High School, Garnett was named Mr. Basketball for the state of South Carolina.

The first major changes in Garnett’s life came following his junior year in high school. He was involved in an incident in which I he and several of his friends were accused of assaulting a white student, a touchy accusation in the racially tense town. His record was cleared after he participated in a pre-trial program for first-time offenders, but staying in the area was problematic after that. Garnett met the coach from Chicago’s Farragut Academy High School at a basketball camp before his senior year, and he and his mother moved to that city so he could transfer to Farragut. The move was a dramatic one in most every way, particularly going from a quiet Southern community to a gang-infested urban environment. Garnett said he had to learn to survive in Chicago, telling Newsweek the city was “total hell—gangs, guns, crime. I had to deal with a gang leader named Seven-Gun Marcello. No fun.”

The move was a successful one from a basketball standpoint, though, as Garnett averaged 25.2 points-

At a Glance…

Born May 19, 1976 in Mauldin, South Carolina; son of Shirley Irby. Education: High school diploma, Chicago Farragut Academy, 1995.

Career: Professional basketball player, 1995-. Drafted fifth overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1995 NBA Entry Draft.

Selected awards: Named to NBA All-Star Team, 1997; voted NBA All-Rookie Second Team, 1996; named National High School Player of the Year by USA Today, 1995; named to Parade Magazine All-America First Team, 1995; Mr. Basketball for state of Illinois, 1995; Most Outstanding Player in 1995 McDonald’s All-America Game; Mr. Basketball for state of South Carolina, 1994.

Addresses: Office-Minnesota Timberwolves, 600 First Avenue North, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.

per-game, 17.9 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 6.5 blocks in his one year at Farragut. He was named Mr. Basketball in his second state in as many years, named the USA Today’s National High School Player of the Year, and was placed on the Parade Magazine All-America First Team. Following the season he played in the McDonald’s All-America Game, and grabbed 11 rebounds, scored 18 points and was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player. Scouts were unanimous in their opinion that Garnett was a top-notch basketball prospect.

There was one problem with the logical and traditional next step into college, however: Garnett was not a top-notch student. While several college programs wrestled with the question of whether to accept this marginal student with remarkable basketball skills, Garnett wrestled repeatedly with the ACT entrance exam. The question became moot when he failed for the fourth time to gain a score which would allow him to play basketball as a freshman, and he declared himself eligible for the NBA draft.

Garnett’s move from South Carolina to Chicago had generated a bit of controversy in the basketball world, but nothing compared to his decision to jump from high school to the pros. Everyone seemed to have an opinion as to whether Garnett was ready, physically or emotionally, to make the big step. Of the three players who had previously done so, Moses Malone had unqualified success, Darryl Dawkins had some success, and Bill Willoughby had limited success. The most recent of those players had entered the league 20 years before Garnett; another player, Shawn Kemp, skipped college basketball but did attend college for a year. Many basketball people questioned whether any 19-year old was mature enough to avoid the pitfalls of the NBA’s spotlight. They also thought that if he could handle the attention and forego the temptations, however, his physical assets would make him a potential superstar for years to come.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, a young franchise eager to improve their future, took the gamble and chose Garnett with the fifth pick overall in the 1995 NBA Entry Draft. They signed him to a contract for $5.6 million over three years. While it was thought Garnett had the potential to play any position, the Timberwolves decided his 6-foot-11, 220-pound frame was best suited to small forward until he filled out with a few more pounds. He took an apartment in Minnetonka, a suburb of Minneapolis, and shared it with a roommate, Bug Peters, an old friend from South Carolina. Garnett allayed fears of his getting into trouble, telling Newsweek he was basically a homebody. “I don’t drink or smoke or go out much at all,” he declared. “I’ve done all that, and it got me in trouble. I have an image to uphold. People are watching; kids are watching. I prefer staying home with Bug, playing CDs and Sega.” Garnett was also largely confined to his hotel room on road trips. As teammate Sam Mitchell attested in Newsweek, “The kid’s not old enough to get in anyplace where he can get into trouble.”

Another place Garnett avoided trouble was on the basketball court. Not surprisingly, he didn’t set the world on fire with his statistics immediately, but when his rookie season was over there was enough evidence to suggest that the Timberwolves’ gamble would probably pay off. He played in the Rookie Game at the All-Star break, finishing with eight points, four rebounds, and six assists. Midway through the season he cracked the Wolves’ starting lineup, and he led the squad with a 49.1 percent field goal percentage and broke a team record for blocked shots in a season with 131. He also led the team in rebounds in half the games after he became a starter, and had double digits in points and rebounds in 12 games.

As the season rolled on, Garnett attracted rave reviews from seasoned observers of the game. Atlanta Hawks general manager Pete Babcock told Sports Illustrated late in the season, “He’s a special player. Earlier in the year you saw flashes of it. But he has so much more confidence now. He extends so high on his turnaround jumper and shoots so soundly, he’s become very difficult to stop.” Timberwolves vice president Kevin McHale told Sports Illustrated at about the same time, “What this kid has accomplished is amazing. If you put him in a college situation right now, where it’s not as physical and there’s zone coverage, he’d be doing things that would have people in awe.”

Garnett’s strong play continued into his second professional season, and so did the growth in his reputation.

One national magazine included Garnett in an article about the young players in the league with strong character and respect for the game. When he was named to the NBA Western Conference All-Star Team as an injury replacement in February, he became the youngest player ever named to an all-star team. It was less than two years after he had graduated from high school, and Kevin Garnett was already a star in the NBA. People could only wonder how good he might be after his 21st birthday.