Kevin Garnett: “Kobe’s Death Made Me Clear Things Up with Allen”

Kevin Garnett is not known as someone who easily forgives. He has not allowed the Timberwolves to retire his jersey following a heated discussion with the owner, but his most famous feud is undoubtedly with Hall Of Famer Ray Allen.

Allen and Garnett spent five seasons together on the Boston Celtics and won the NBA Championship in 2008 in their first season as teammates. However, Allen left the Celtics in 2012 to sign with the Miami Heat, Boston’s main rival at the time. The Celtics had just lost to LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, so the wound was still fresh, and for a long time, the relationship between the two remained very cold if not non-existent.

For a long time, there were no interactions between the two, and this lasted until last season. In fact, during KG’s jersey retirement ceremony by the Celtics, Allen was present and hugged the power forward, who declared that Boston’s next retired jersey should be Allen’s #20 (the second best shooter in NBA history).

The reason that brought the two NBA legends back together? Garnett revealed on Kevin Hart’s show “Cold as Balls” that it was Kobe’s death that led him to try to resolve things with his former teammate.

The loss of Kobe and the fact that we’re all getting older helped me realize that life is not guaranteed for any of us. It would have driven me crazy if something happened to Ray, and I didn’t have the chance to fix it

Kevin Garnett