The Brooklyn Nets officially met the media for the first of the 2014-2015 season today. Though all players had at least some contact with reporters throughout the offseason, there was one extremely notable exception: Kevin Garnett. The Big Ticket’s future was in limbo for the majority of the summer, a reality owed as much to his silence as Brooklyn’s collective insistence that it was unaware of his plans for 2014-2015.
We now know Garnett’s immediate future includes another year with the Nets, of course. What still remains ambiguous in the aftermath of KG’s session with the press, however, is whether or not this season will definitively be his last.
Conventional wisdom of the summer said that 2014-2015 would surely be Garnett’s NBA swan song if he elected to lace them up for another season at all. Always true to form, though, he refused to confirm if that notion is accurate earlier today.
Kevin Garnett said he thought about retiring before this season but now he's all-in
— Stefan Bondy (@SbondyNBA) September 26, 2014
Garnett won't commit to this being his last season: "I'm very much motivated."
— Stefan Bondy (@SbondyNBA) September 26, 2014
Now that sounds like a player whose playing career is far from over. But reading between the lines of Garnett’s complete interview led some to believe he’ll indeed retire after this season.
The way Kevin Garnett talked in that press conference, he sounded like someone preparing for a final season, whether he'll admit it or not.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) September 26, 2014
He mentioned that he wants to "enjoy" this season several times. Struck me as something someone like Garnett wouldn't typically say.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) September 26, 2014
Perhaps trying to glean any meaningful insight from Garnett’s word on his eventually imminent retirement is futile. But that won’t stop his legion of fans – ahem, us included – from doing so. For now, it appears we’ll have to be satisfied knowing we’ll have at least this season with KG. And while that’s hardly ideal, it’s definitely preferable to the alternative that seemed possible the past few months.
Will this be KG’s last season?
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