National Basketball Association

Timberwolves News: Kevin Garnett Buyout - Say it Ain't So

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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As if Wednesday wasn’t rough enough for Minnesota sports fans, sad news surrounding the Timberwolves buying out Kevin Garnett’s contract came down later in the day.

Wednesday morning, the Minnesota Vikings announced Adrian Peterson was undergoing surgery for a torn meniscus and would be out 3-4 months. On top of that, their starting left tackle Matt Kalil (who had been a flaming bag of hot garbage through their first two games) had been placed on injured reserve with a hip injury.

And by the evening, we had the news that Kevin Garnett is likely to be bought-out by the Timberwolves, ending his second stint with the organization that drafted him.

This Vikings-related news in the morning had already prompted me to turn my usual payday Friday Culver’s lunch into an emergency Wednesday sad-fest meal. Not only did I go to Culver’s to comfort myself with their delicious ButterBurger, but I also substituted in cheese curds and a strawberry malt for the extra support.

And not only did Culvers provide the short term comfort I needed, but I also checked my fantasy team (using their free wifi!) and was reminded that I drafted Jerick McKinnon. Everything’s gonna be alright, I told myself.

But then, Minnesota sports fans were dealt another blow.

As Marc Stein of ESPN first reported, Kevin Garnett is currently in buy-out negotiations with the Wolves and is likely to announce his retirement shortly thereafter.

Even though this scenario was becoming more and more likely as training camp approached and KG hadn’t announced his intentions, the finality of it was still a shock to me. I gotta admit, I was really bummed.

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For those of you thinking that it’s not a huge deal because KG couldn’t provide much productivity on the court anymore, check out my previous post on KG to see why his value to the team far exceeded his on court production.

Considering my body could not withstand the colon blow of two Culvers meals in one day, I had to consider other food options to deal with the KG news. My solution? Heat up some leftover homemade apple crisp (props to the girlfriend) and combine it with its typical teammate of vanilla ice cream.

As I perfectly combined the microwaved, scalding-hot apple crisp with the cold ice cream, I still found myself becoming even sadder. Even the season opener of Modern Family and another great episode of FX’s You’re the Worst didn’t help.

(Important note: if apple crisp and ice cream combined with fantastic comedic television don’t provide you comfort, you’re clearly dealing with some serious stuff.)

So serious, in fact, that I’d like to wait until the complete story unfolds before I lay out all my emotions and thoughts.

Was KG so pissed about the way Glen Taylor fired Sam Mitchell that it swayed him to retire? Or was it Tom Thibodeau who didn’t promise KG a starting position or considerable minutes?

Or were his knees just not capable of even attempting another season? Or will he instead sign with a contender for his swan song season? If so, all bets would be on Doc Rivers and the Clippers.

The next few weeks should bear out all those details. Until then, I’ll wait.

I will say now, however, that it’d be painfully ironic that Glen Taylor’s seeming abandonment of the ‘country club’ philosophy that kept the Kevin McHales and Randy Wittmans of the world around far too long would now push out the only real asset the Timberwolves need to keep at the franchise long-term: Kevin Garnett.

We shall see. For now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the Timberwolves didn’t completely blow this.

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