Glen Taylor became the majority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1994 and was there when Kevin Garnett became the first player since Moses Malone to be drafted out of high school. Over the following 12 seasons, Taylor watched Garnett evolve into Minnesota’s franchise player, as he represented the Wolves in 10 all-star games, won a league MVP on route to a trip the Western Conference Finals, and became one of league’s two or three best players, amongst numerous accolades. Simply put, Garnett was Timberwolves basketball and vice-versa. None of this history seems to matter to Taylor, who when asked about his team possibly tanking at the end of last season in order to acquire better draft picks, had this to say:
“It was more like, I’d say, K.G. tanked it,”
What Taylor is referring to here, is how Garnett sat out the final five games of the year with strained quadriceps, a claim Taylor clearly puts little faith in. What’s amazing to me is the balls it takes to simply and nonchalantly throw the only marquee player the franchise has ever seen under the bus for the sake of saving a little face. And while, yes, Garnett did sit out the final five games of the year, in the 14 games he did play in the final month he averaged 19.8 points, 14 rebounds and even threw in 3.5 assists for good measure. Even Vince Carter, who has exerting minimal effort down to a science, couldn’t tank that well.
