Twenty years ago today, Kevin Garnett made his NBA debut for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Together with Kobe Bryant, they comprise two of the five players ever to play 20 or more seasons in the league. In other words, KG is old. He’s so old that current coach Sam Mitchell was actually still playing for the T-Wolves during Garnett’s rookie season. He’s so old that two of his current rookie teammates — Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyus Jones — weren’t even born yet when he came into the league.
In fact, there are a total of 14 current NBA players who had not yet come into the world when KG was a precocious young rookie straight out of high school. Via Marc Stein of ESPN.com:
- Phoenix’s Devin Booker – Oct. 30, 1996
- Milwaukee’s Rashad Vaughn – Aug. 16, 1996
- Detroit’s Stanley Johnson – May 29, 1996
- Minnesota’s Tyus Jones – May 10, 1996
- Miami’s Justise Winslow – March 26, 1996
- Indiana’s Myles Turner – March 24, 1996
- Denver’s Emmanuel Mudiay – March 3, 1996
- Los Angeles Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell – Feb. 23, 1996
- Golden State’s Kevon Looney – Feb. 6, 1996
- Philadelphia’s Jahlil Okafor – Dec. 15, 1995
- Washington’s Kelly Oubre Jr. – Dec. 9, 1995
- Portland’s Cliff Alexander – Nov. 16, 1995
- Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns – Nov. 15, 1995
- Utah’s Trey Lyles – Nov. 5, 1995
And it gets even better. In a rather odd bit of serendipity, Garnett would get his first double-digit scoring game the same day that No. 1 pick Towns was born. Coincidence? I think not.
(Via ESPN.com)
