Sam Mitchell believes his firing as Timberwolves coach might lead to Kevin Garnett retiring

Many have been waiting for an announcement from Kevin Garnett on whether or not he decides to play out the final year of his contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2016-17 season. If he indeed comes back for his 22nd year, it will make him the longest-tenured player in NBA history.

However, his former teammate and coach believes otherwise. Sam Mitchell thinks KG will retire as a result of him being sacked as the team's interim head coach. The Timberwolves have already moved on and quickly found his replacement as they hired Tom Thibodeau as their president and head coach.

In a recent interview on Sirius XM NBA Radio, Mitchell spoke about Garnett's feelings and how things played out towards the end of last season leading to his firing:

“I just think KG was just so hurt by the way things happened, for people to send you messages as if you were gonna be back and your staff was gonna be back and we had everything going in the right direction, and to get a phone call two hours before your last game basically saying, ‘I changed my mind and I'm going in a different direction,' it just kind of knocks it all for a loop.

“We've all recovered from it and moved on, but if you know Kevin, Kevin's very sensitive and he's very loyal. It was a lot of people in that organization that were let go, and the way it was done just left a bad taste on a lot of people's mouths, especially his. And, to be honest with you, I don't know how he's gonna deal with that because Kevin takes that stuff personal, and it's gonna be interesting to see what he ultimately decides to do, and it's a shame that if he doesn't come back and play, that his last year in Minnesota ended the way it did.”

Mitchell had been part of the Timberwolves organization for the majority of his career as a player and coach and even mentored Garnett during the start of his career – a very similar situation to what Garnett is doing right now with the team's younger players.

Given all the changes within the organization, it will be something worth monitoring on how this will affect The Big Ticket's decision.