The Minnesota Timberwolves had a really good thing going in the late 1990s with Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury leading the charge. So much so, that that team had championship aspirations led by two of the best young players in the NBA.

That all changed when Marbury was traded to the New Jersey Nets in the middle of the 1998-99 season. In his mind, Kevin Garnett believes that this move was fueled by Marbury's desire to get out of his shadow. KG is also adamant that Marbury's yearning was the reason why the TImberwolves never won a title:

“Steph is going to forever have to live in that,” Garnett said, via Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “He [expletive] up all our championship dreams. But I get it. If I’m being honest, every kid wants to be able to have his own team or be able to say he had his own team.

“I always say I can’t ever be mad at someone’s decision for what they want for themselves. It’s just so unfortunate that we didn’t align with the same vision and the same goal. So, yeah, I don’t even talk about that s— because it ain’t really nothing to talk about. It was out of my control. Nothing I could do about it.”

For his part, however, Marbury has a much different recollection of his decision to leave Garnett and Minnesota behind:

“It was solely I didn’t want to spend seven years of my life in Minnesota. People were like, ‘Oh, you jealous of Kevin Garnett because of the money he made.’ You guys don’t make no sense. The rule is the rule. I got the max contract. This has nothing to do with money. I didn’t want to spend seven years of my life there, period,” Marbury said.

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Marbury denied having any animosity against Garnett during their time together as teammates, but he did admit that he never really wanted to stay in Minnesota. Marbury went on to make a name for himself in the years to come, which included two All-Star nods, as well as a legendary post-NBA career in China.

Garnett, on the other hand, eventually took his talents to the Boston Celtics, which is where he finally won the championship he dreamt of for many years.