The 50 greatest players in NBA history, ranked by win shares

Greatest NBA Player #10: Kevin Garnett-191.42

Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett’s career can primarily be broken down into two parts. Unfortunately for Garnett, the first part was him spending most of his prime toiling away in Minnesota. The Timberwolves mostly failed in their attempt to build around the Big Ticket, causing him to rank lower on the list than he should.

To his credit, Garnett was fantastic on both ends of the floor, but he could only do so much and had fewer wins to show for it. Win shares correspond to the amount of wins a team has and with the Wolves perennially winning in the low 40s, Garnett suffered until he was traded to the Boston Celtics.

There, Garnett had plenty of help and wasn’t tasked with carrying a team on both sides of the ball for 40 minutes a night which extended his career. He won a championship in 2008 and came within four minutes of winning another in 2010, helping secure his legacy.

Throughout his career, Garnett was often graded against contemporaries like Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki. While he proved to be much more versatile, particularly on the defensive end, he never quite reached their heights. Duncan was a dominant post scorer who was easier to build an offense around and a smothering rim protector.

Meanwhile, Dirk was the forerunner to the stretch four and five and proved to be a matchup nightmare that could score in the post and on the perimeter. Garnett could also do both but wasn’t as good on the block as Duncan and didn’t shoot threes like Dirk. As a result, he was slightly less efficient as a scorer though he was equally as talented. Finishing behind both players feels right, though being top 10 in win shares is definitely still an impressive feat.