One Final Game: The last great performance for NBA legends

One Final Game: Kevin Garnett

Date: February 10, 2013

Kevin Garnett is a prime example of a superstar player hanging on in the league well past the end of his prime. Garnett’s end came quickly, a couple of injuries and a lot of minutes taking their toll. Garnett’s last three seasons were all the product of a smart, hard-working role player who was a plus on defense but no longer able to create offense.

To find Garnett’s One Final Game, therefore, we have to go back to the 2012-13 season, well before his 2016 retirement date. In his final season with the Boston Celtics Garnett managed a small handful of games that stood out from the rest.

One of those was a tight 118-114 win over the Denver Nuggets, who were en route to a Top 3 seed in the Western Conference. Garnet played 47 of a possible 48 minutes, scoring 20 points, pulling down 18 rebounds and totaling six assists, two steals and three blocks. He was everywhere, willing the Celtics to victory in the midst of a difficult season.

Garnett would match those 20 points a couple more times that season, but would never again top it. He would never again have even 15 rebounds in a game. One of the most ferocious competitors to ever play basketball was robbed of the ability to make an elite impact by age and injury. For one last roar in 2013 he made sure the world knew he wasn’t going quietly into the night.