Kevin Garnett

To mark the 35th anniversary of the McDonald's All-American High School Boys Basketball Game, Garnett was honored as one of 35 Greatest McDonald's All-Americans.

Garnett's decision not to play college basketball was influenced in part by his failure to score well enough on the ACT to meet NCAA requirements for freshman eligibility.

Kevin Maurice Garnett (born May 19, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player who played for 21 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Nicknamed "Big Ticket", Garnett is considered one of the greatest power forwards of all time, being known for his intensity, defensive ability, and versatility.

Garnett was born on May 19, 1976, in Greenville, South Carolina, to Shirley Garnett.

He was the second of his mother's three children.

Garnett's mother never married his father, O'Lewis McCullough, with their relationship ending shortly after his birth.

Garnett grew up with his mother and stepfather, Ernest Irby, with whom he did not get along, and two sisters.

Garnett fell in love with the sport of basketball while attending Hillcrest Middle School, although he did not play organized basketball until high school.

In his first three years of high school, Garnett attended Mauldin High School in Mauldin, South Carolina, and played on the school's basketball team.

However, during the summer before his senior year of high school, Garnett was in the general vicinity of a fight between black and white students.

Although not directly involved, Garnett was one of three students arrested for second-degree lynching, a charge that was expunged through a pre-trial intervention.

Due to the racially charged incident and fearful of being a target, Garnett decided to leave Mauldin High and transferred to Farragut Career Academy in Chicago's West Side, for his senior year of high school.

Living with his sister in Chicago, Garnett led Farragut to a 28–2 record and was named National High School Player of the Year by USA Today.

He was also named Mr. Basketball for the state of Illinois after averaging 25.2 points, 17.9 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 6.5 blocks while shooting 66.8% from the field.

In four years of high school, Garnett posted an impressive 2,553 points, 1,809 rebounds and 737 blocked shots.

In high school, Garnett played alongside Ronnie Fields, who also became a professional basketball player.

In high school, Garnett was a 1995 McDonald's All-American at Farragut Career Academy and won a national player of the year award.

He entered the 1995 NBA draft, where he was selected with the fifth overall pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves and became the first NBA player drafted directly out of high school in 20 years.

Garnett made an immediate impact with the Minnesota Timberwolves, leading them to eight consecutive playoff appearances.

Garnett was named the Most Outstanding Player at the McDonald's All-American Game after registering 18 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocked shots, and then declared himself eligible for the 1995 NBA draft.

Garnett told Student Sports Magazine in 1995 that if he went to college, he would have played college basketball for the University of Maryland, a moderate surprise at the time considering, while Maryland and North Carolina were contenders, the University of Michigan were viewed as front-runners in Garnett's recruitment.

However, in the years since his recruitment, several figures close to the recruitment, including former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, as well as Garnett himself, have stated that he would have likely attended Michigan, influenced an appreciation of the Fab Five and Chris Webber, in particular.

A Chicago area high school coach referred Garnett to Eric Fleisher, then agent for 18 NBA players and son of first National Basketball Players Association head Larry Fleisher, to discuss the possibility of going to the NBA straight out of high school.

Two weeks later at the Lakeshore Athletic Club, Fleisher ran a small tryout where Garnett dominated against older, more experienced competition.

Fleisher then set Detroit Pistons assistant John Hammond to run the drills at another workout at the University of Illinois-Chicago to gauge NBA interest.

Representatives from the 13 teams with lottery picks, with Kevin McHale, Elgin Baylor, Flip Saunders, and Kevin Loughery among them, were in the workout that was scheduled around the same time as a pre-draft tryout camp.

During his NBA career, Garnett was named to 15 All-Star Games, winning the All-Star MVP award in 2003.

He was named to the All-NBA Team nine times and to the NBA All-Defensive Team 12 times.

Garnett also holds several Timberwolves franchise records.

In 2004, he led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals and won the NBA MVP Award.

He was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2007–08.

In 2007, after 12 seasons with the Timberwolves, Garnett joined the Boston Celtics in a blockbuster trade.

In his first year with the Celtics, he helped lead them to the 2008 NBA Finals, beating the Los Angeles Lakers, while also finishing in third place for the MVP award.

In 2013, Garnett was included in a second headline trade that sent him to the Brooklyn Nets with longtime Celtic Paul Pierce.

In 2015, Garnett was traded back to Minnesota.

He announced his retirement from professional basketball in September 2016.

Garnett made his feature film debut, playing a fictionalized version of himself, in the 2019 film Uncut Gems.

As of 2020, he is one of five NBA players to have won both the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.