Kevin Garnett is apparently in no rush to decide whether to retire.
We know this because he hasn’t yet told the Minnesota Timberwolves if he’ll be returning next season.
Here’s what team owner Glen Taylor told NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner:
“Kevin hasn’t told me or informed me yet if he’s coming back to play or if he isn’t coming back,” Wolves owner Glen Taylor told NBA.com Thursday. “I can only assume I’ll be hearing from him in the next three weeks.”
Training camp and preseason play are now less than a month away, so Garnett has to make his decision soon. And while that decision only figures to affect the Timberwolves’ bottom line, since Garnett won’t play much even if he does return, the team is better off with Garnett in the fold.
Minnesota needs a mentor for its kiddies. Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Zach Lavine, etc. are all still so young. The 40-year-old Garnett is an extension of the coaching staff at this point in his career, with the ability to offer advice as an active player.
Plus, if Garnett leaves now, basically without warning, it suggests that he and the Timberwolves aren’t on the best of terms after the way they ousted last year’s interim head coach, Sam Mitchell, and general manager Milt Newton. The team shouldn’t want those optics to exist. Garnett felt even closer to the organization before president Flip Saunders passed away; it seemed like he had a future with the franchise that would extend well past his playing career.
That may still be true, even now, as we wonder whether the relationship between player and team has been fractured in any way. But his return would be like a default admission that he still believes in the team and what they’re doing, and that the Timberwolves are, in fact, making their lone legend feel welcome.
And if nothing else, the game already lost Tim Duncan without a chance to say goodbye this summer. Fans shouldn’t want the same thing to happen with Garnett.
