On July 31, 2007 the Minnesota Timberwolves sent superstar Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics in a trade that shook up the NBA. But, according to former NBA great Mitch Richmond, KG almost ended up with the Golden State Warriors.
Appearing on the latest edition of the ‘All The Smoke' podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Richmond explained how KG to the Warriors almost went down:
“It was so real. Let me say something to you man, I think that was the downfall of everything of because we had KG, and KG wanted to come [to the Warriors]. And we’re like man that's all we need. I mean we need KG. We're gonna keep the core of our guys and I can remember like we talked about it, and they said no we can't do it. This was draft day, and our pick was coming up, and I can remember it.
Man, it was like we had him in our hands, and I think at that time they were worried about a contract situation, or they have to put up like a little bit more money, but we're like listen, we can make that back. If we get KG, you can set ticket sales and say hey five years out, you know what I mean. Bro that was a hard one and that's when he went to Boston.”
The Warriors at the time were led by former players Chris Mullin and Richmond in the front office. Garnett would’ve joined a Warriors team in 2007 with Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, and Al Harrington.
Kevin Garnett joined the Celtics instead of Warriors
Instead of heading to the Warriors, Garnett ended up being moved to the 24-58 Celtics for five players and a pair of draft picks.
Three days earlier, the Celtics acquired All-Star guard Ray Allen in a trade with the Seattle Supersonics, giving the team a new superstar trio of Allen, Garnett and Boston’s incumbent All-Star, Paul Pierce.
Behind that group, the 2007-08 Celtics went an NBA-best 66-16 and reached their first Finals since 1987. En route to that NBA Finals, the Celtics survived a pair of Game 7s (in the first round and Eastern Conference semifinals) and knocked out the Detroit Pistons — the reigning best team in the Eastern Conference — in six games.
Garnett was the unquestioned leader of that team and its defensive anchor, winning Defensive Player of the Year honors in that season. The Celtics took care of the rival Los Angeles Lakers in six games in The Finals. Shortly after the game ended, Garnett delivered one of the delivered one of the most famous sports quotes ever, bellowing “anything is possible!” to a national TV audience as he basked in his first (and only) NBA championship.
There's no telling how it would have worked out if the Warriors had managed to acquire Garnett, but it certainly worked out well for KG.
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