Kevin Garnett on Doc Rivers, mentoring Giannis, Hoop It Up 3×3 & Uncut Gems (Hear District Ep. 75)

Kevin Garnett on Doc Rivers, mentoring Giannis, Hoop It Up 3×3 & Uncut Gems (Hear District Ep. 75)

I think we had a preseason game against Milwaukee and I could tell just off he looked like Bruce Lee. That was my first interaction with him. My first impressions of him is that he was very respectful and he was very um timid. And then as I started working with him a little more, I noticed that he had a fire that he wanted to he wanted to let out. Five time allstar Marcus Johnson alongside Marcus Johnson. What’s up everybody? Hey, this is the here district captain of this vessel and I got my first mate, my number one son, Christian Johnson. What up? Talk to me. Let it rain, man. Let it rain. I guess I go back to break. Go fight. Welcome everybody to the here district. Marcus Johnson. You’re listening to a Bucks Plus audio production on the Bucks Plus Network. Your weekly pulse on the Milwaukee Bucks straight from a Bucks legend. This is Here District with Marcus Johnson alongside his son and 1995 NCAA champion Chris. Here’s MJ. All right, welcome everybody to Here District. And I’m laughing because you know just just before this intro, man, we had some some great observations by our next guest. Uh, first of all, here district Chris Johnson, Marcus Johnson, only father and son tandem in the history of NCAA basketball to win a national championship at the same school and I believe the highest father and son scoring point duo in in NCAA tournament history. So, that’s our claim to fame. But we got a guy with his own accolades. Uh uh KG big ticket Kevin Garnett 15 time all-star MVP in 2004 NBA champion for own Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics back in ’08 Olympic gold medalist a hall of famer man we are so privileged to have you join us here in here KT Kevin Garnett hey man what were you saying about my I told you I had my papership man trying to trying to make it look like I was busy man you got to get all that out of me I’m going see you some more I got some for you I’m Put a little bottle of whiskey over there. I’m going to put some golf balls up there. Couple basketballs. You said you and son just y’all the y’all got the ta tanm going. So you got to put all them awards and achievements up there. We don’t want to see the paperwork to the house and the bills and all that, man. Get that off the desk, man. The mortgage payment. They want to see the You got bill. Look, these are all the kids bills right here. Right here. Look. Hey, show his ass. This all y’all. These are all the kids right here. Look. I got a kind of legal papers for the divorce laws right there. I know what that pile look like. I got a pile look, man. I got to remind myself. No, constantly. No. Um but but but man, listen, you first came on my radar. Um back in what was that Chris? 90 93. Beach ball. Beach ball classic. 93 94. Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach, bro. Myrtle Beach. You’re going to high school in South Carolina. Um, and and and so our our our greatest athlete out of LA at that time was a young man by the name of Toby Bailey. And I was there in Myrtle Beach to watch Krenshaw play. My son Chris was there. He was a senior. And word got around, man, that this young this young spinly athletic freak of nature had we had never seen in basketball. Had had blocked Toby’s dunk had blocked Toby Bailey’s dunk in in a game in Myrtle Beach. I don’t know if you remember that, but that was the first time I’d heard your name, man. And and that’s when I paid close attention to you ever since. I just wanted to let you know when you first came on my radar. I remember that, man. I looked at it like uh we got these California teams coming down to the South. We the home team and uh we I heard of Toby Bailey. I I kept track of a lot of players. Uh Ricky Price, J.R. Henderson. Uh these are the some of the players that just stood out to me. Had un unlevel different levels of skill. Um, then when I had a chance to come out here, I got to play against the Terminators of Inglewood. I got to play with obviously Paul Pierce. I got the um Oh, man. The Cshaw Boys. I’m going blank on this thing. Tmaine. Tmaine folks. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah. Uh, Super Crib. Uh, I can I can It was just a bunch of LA uh fanatics and and and just different athletes being different basketball players, different IQs, different styles of game. Yeah. So yeah, I had a little bit of knowledge of who Toby was. Uh but yeah, I went in there. I was so naive and bliss and just full of, you know, seeing it how I saw it and playing the way I wanted to play. I wanted to really be impactful and, you know, have everybody in there, you know, remember me from my play. So I played like it was a big it was a big deal to play in the baseball class. Yeah. No, it was indeed. And and you’re doing something to to to keep the the the the hopes and dreams of young people alive, man. is sponsoring this Hoop It Up threeon-ree tournament. Uh, Big Ticket Sports, your company acquired it back in 2019. Can you tell us a little bit about that? It’s coming to Milwaukee uh August 15th through the 17th. So, talk a little bit little bit about Hoop It Up and what that means to you and how that that that that that uh came about in terms of your connection with them. Yeah, I quite hoop it up from a from a from a fans perspective, being able to follow it, seeing how the NBA had actually created this as a community outlet, being able to bridge the gap between players and community. Um, being able to inspire and encourage people to be outside and play on the black tops and be outside and be be an athlete, you know, just being active. Yeah. And um I saw um I saw a product that didn’t make the wave. I saw where the league didn’t put uh as much interest into it as it was pushing other things. Uh you got to also remember around the early 90s you had early 92 and everybody and anybody was talking about the dream team and yeah some of these other properties and assets just fell to the side. So you know my my partner and I uh thought it was be a good chance to be able to revive it, have something to where we can go into the community, have a voice, create a platform for those out in the community to be able to be heard. uh you know, you know how many dunkers and real good three-point shooters and just players overall that are in the neighborhoods that y probably don’t come outside or just everyday working men and women. You know what I’m saying? So, it was more uh to keep the spirit of of influence of young people and people that love playing outside, being outside. I was a real kid. I was outside on my bike all the time. So just trying to, you know, if I’m saying uh refurbish that energy into today’s youths and to today’s generation and um yeah, because I’m a big advocate on activity. I’m a big advocate on being active. I’m a big advocate for kids being outside and understanding and learning. And I really feel like that’s a source of uh how we all, you know, was able to download and take in things around us. Um, I see a distance from kids not wanting to go outside now or being on video games or being locked into more technical things that you know are more uh popular these days. So, yeah, it’s just a it’s just an energy that you came on here and you said um uh something about uh I think your words were uh uh sponsored, whatever. I’m here to revive the spirit of young kids to go out and play. So, you know, Milwaukee is a great basketball town. Yeah, you guys have a great basketball team with great players on it. And uh I hope that encourages all the basketball hoopers in Milwaukee to come out, show their talent. We got a dunk contest. We got some festivities. It’s a good time. It’s it’s three great days uh of of of just interaction and stuff. So yeah, I I hope I hope the I hope the Bucks fans and all basketball fans come out and support ticket. What about the three on three format is it makes it more attractive than say a five on five format? So, as we go into basketball into later years, um I love this part of it because I think um y’all y’all know this from experience. The uh harder the the the more you take guys off the court, the harder the game gets individually for you. And when you go into any professional team, I don’t know what collegiate is like, you guys can add on, but I know when you go into any professional team, before the coach puts a play in defensively or offensively, you have to go through the play in the 303 strategy because the three is kind of the length and then it’s the hardest. Obviously, when you go to oneonone, that is the pinnacle of those three. Five, three, and one. When you got five out there, you can probably relax more. You can probably rejuvenate. we got three that all gets cut down there and obviously when you one-on-one. So, I think the most difficult of all levels is obviously one-on-one, but it’s next in line with three on three. And I think it’s when you sit back and watch the potential just with not just men, but in women’s, it’s man, three on three is so fastpaced. Facts. And if if you got a quick trigger and you get it off and if you not listen, man, listen. It it is it is becoming with shooting being the way that it is. I can’t believe now uh we got Jerry West, we got the great Rick Barry, we got great shooters I could sit here and just keep going through. I can just rip him off, right? I don’t know if I’ve seen this type of shooting in the world. Have you seen the Serbian three on three? Have you seen some of these countries three on Have you seen the German like Holland? It’s it is some really really really good threeon-ree basketball, not just uh here in the States, but I think worldwide. And yeah, I’m just trying to capsulate and to have a format that I can actually have it, you know, all be somewhere. So, you know, you got to understand three on three is universal. It’s in Serbia, it’s in Japan. It’s in China. It’s it’s it’s Australia. It’s everywhere. So, I’m just trying to encapsulate what the NBA started from a great spirit and integrated in today’s generation. All right, man. Talk about that spirit. I mean, that’s one of the things I’ve always appreciated about you, just your spirit for the game. And so for me as as as as an actor like like yourself, but a writer and all that good stuff, it’s about the backstory. So just kind of researching your backstory. Um Malden Malden, am I pronouncing that correctly? Malden, South Carolina. Molden, South Carolina. You did not play organized basketball till high school. I imagine you played a lot of threeonree that you spent a lot of time on the on the black top. You just don’t fall out of bed being as good as you were without a whole lot of a whole lot of uh whole lot of work. Whole lot of work. A whole lot of work put in. Whole lot of Yeah. Whole lot of whole lot. How did that How did that happen? No organized. No organized. But you know, and you can attest to this, but you know, back in them days, you grew up in a neighborhood full of boys, full of girls. And and my neighborhood was no no less than that. I had a bunch of boys in the neighborhood that we not only, you know, played basketball, but we played football, we slapbox, we wrestled, you know, it was it was trash talking. It was the block. You know what I’m saying? And then I moved into a nicer neighborhood. Um, and that was the suburb called Malden. And these guys were a little more preppy and they didn’t they weren’t so aggressive. They was more on basketball. They didn’t want to get dirty. They wasn’t they weren’t really hood guys. They was more cleaner guys, which I could appreciate. But, you know, once we started playing, um, yeah, I started growing a grow a desire to be better than everybody that I was around and learned the game and enjoyed going to the park and, you know, playing different characters there every day, having a different experience at the park every day, growing my skills, getting up in the morning, really growing my dribbling and my, you know, just sitting here, you know, Derek Coleman used to be my favorite player, him and Kenny Anderson. It was more Yes, sir. And it was more because they was left-handers and yeah man I just I don’t know for some reason I gravitated to them too. So everything I did was like Derek Coleman or Kenny Anderson. Why why the left-handed? Why the left hand? Were you left-handed though? Were you I wasn’t I wasn’t but the way Kenn Kier moved when I started watching him in high school when I when I got like a little couple bits of film of however I got it or where I saw it at on Scholastic Sports or ESPN wherever I saw it. I remember taping it and then just watching it, watching it and Derek Coleman and Kenny Anderson along with a host of other players I can sit here and time out, you know, because when I seen Magic, Magic kind of resonated me to this is what I want to be, right? I want to be different. I want to be tall, but I want to be skillful. So all that is where all that was curated from. Springfield Park is my park. Shout out to Malden, Malden Well, and everybody in it. So yeah, that’s where my first that’s where all my first love got curated at and my desires and all that. And um yeah, I I always have to put a flag in the ground for Malden for that because those are my foundations. Yeah, I was curious uh ticket about just that moment as a hooper when you realized that I’m not going to college. I’m good enough to be, you know, a top three pick or top five pick in the NBA draft. When was that moment? And how old were you and when did when did it sort of click in? I was actually uh had moved from South Carolina to Chicago and it was traumatizing to me uh the difference in and just to change. I’m not a person of change but I’ve learned to adapt to change and that was probably the biggest change for me as far as adolescent. I can I can remember when I got to Chicago or how much of a responsibility for the first time in life I felt not just to me but to my little sister and our well-being up there. So when the day I touched Chicago, my whole mentality changed. I wasn’t the same kid that I was in South Carolina. So, when I would go into these rough neighborhoods or these your dismal places to play, which was very intimidating, uh they’re not like the most friendliest, they’re not the cleanest, but some of the best basketball comes in those dismal places. I played in alleys, I played in warehouses, I played in lumber yards, I played in the backyard, I played in a in a in an abandoned building. I played in where only you got to know somebody to be in here. You got to be in this game to be in here. and I played against the man I played in every place that you can play and they not gave me respect to come in there and play and yeah I’ve been fortunate to take my friends in there and play and um so coming out of that man playing so many different guys in Chicago you know you’re going to run into some pros and I think my first interaction with a pro was um Band-Aid man uh Derek Chas that went to Missouri for sure was playing with Yeah my first interaction with somebody that had that level of scoring and I had never been around that and he was my first kind of introduction to next level play and it was Derek Chas and then I got to play the great Rashad Griffin and then I played big Tommy Hamilton. Yeah. And then I just started playing a bunch of different Chicago what I considered, you know, legends, the Toron Walkers, the the Nick the the the Nick uh Nick Irvings and the Irvin families. Yeah. So I got to a point where I was having a bad day and my friend recommended us to go downtown and play with Jordan and Oprah’s husband and all the Steman and all them play. That’s kind of a bougie play, but we went down there just to, you know, see if we can get in, but end up, you know, they weren’t letting nobody in. So we end up just watching and Mike let me in. He let me play and I got I probably got like a good game of to seven or to seven. Matter of fact, we went to 11 doing twos and I got to guard Scotty for a whole game. And that interaction right there gave me some confidence to say, not that I was ready, but it was like, man, I got confidence that I can be out here with this. I just say this, this ain’t this ain’t, you know, you know how it is when you on outside looking in, it looks crazy. Once you get in there and you get the, you know, you get your first elbow or m, you know what I’m saying? Somebody wake you up with something, that that’s all you need. And if you about it and you you you know I’ve been in some rough areas to play. So I didn’t see this being like a rough area. I didn’t look at this like it was like the darkest place I’ve ever been. Right. Right. No. When I locked in and I actually looked at like oh no this just basketball right? Oh no. If it’s just basketball I can win this you know. Yeah. And then I talked to Isaiah Thomas which is probably the pivotal point for me. And uh with Isaiah Thomas um conversation man I had enough confidence that I I was like you know what I’mma bet on myself here. And it wasn’t about a top pick. It was just about getting picked. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, man. Uh, and I want to go back to Malden before you went to Chicago and I and I didn’t know this until I doing some prep research for this interview. You had to go through some adversity. You know, you had some some legal stuff going on down there that was expuned and all that stuff. But but my question, KG, is is is there a point where your basketball life flashed before your eyes that you thought there was a chance that this game that you love could be taken away at that moment that things were at their worst? Could you just walk us through if if you don’t mind just what that felt like? If you don’t want to get specific, that’s fine. But just just in terms of of of where that where that put you mentally and how that impacted you as like a 17 18 year old young man. It kind of woke me up, man. Cuz at that point, you know, you go from a a known seventh, eighth grader, eighth uh eighth grader to a known ninth grader, 10th grade, you get even more known. 11th grade, everybody knows you. You can’t go nowhere. You you know, you know what I mean? Yes. But you’re still living in a real human being life and having real life, everyday, normal life things. You’re just a little more recognizable. So, you know, um when real things happen in life, you you know, you you’re no exception to that. But what what what what would it actually help me actually see for myself was people that actually was for me and there wasn’t a lot of people right there and it was family and everybody that was in there. It was kind of disheartening. I’ve learned that when you get um saw illustration of a mom dropping a kid off in the woods and she see the wolf and she walks in the opposite direction to leave him there and and within the week the kid comes back to the village wearing the wolf on his back as a protection to the snow and to the elements that she left them in. And when I saw that, that resonated midweek. It re really did resonate with me to the point where you don’t know who you are until you are subjected to be something. Yeah. And have to stand up and have to have a certain presence about a situation that is dark and dismal. And what I’ve learned is that when you have a dream, not everybody’s going to see your dream. Not everybody’s going to understand how you thinking. You going to come off weird. You’re going to come off different. For sure. But I started to embrace that different going through that dark stuff. I was like, you know what? When I come out of this, because my mom taught me that things go in cycles. You look at banking systems, women, oceans, waves, all of it. Cycles. And she said, in cycles, you going to have some good times and you going to have some bad times. She said, man, the best times to see who with you is when you on the down there on the cycle. And I can’t, you know, say how she spoke that into existence, but it hit hard when it hit. So, I believed in that. And yeah, I had a teacher that believed in me. She continued to bring me school work and stuff. And I continue to keep my some of my uh my responsibilities academically up so that when I got, you know, out of this situation um academically, I could still be on the same um it’s really for that. And um when I got out of this, I I wanted a clean slate. I didn’t want to be in South Carolina. I thought I had outgrew it. I thought everybody that I was around wasn’t thinking on the same plateau that I that I was. Everybody was very generic and, you know, really following what, you know, what people had done before them. Go to college four years, come back home, get a job, marry your high school sweetheart. Like, I I I didn’t see none of that. I didn’t want to do none of that. That wasn’t none. You know what I’m saying? Then it make me even, you know, growing up, I had a job when since I was 13, so I had, you know, responsibilities. I worked. I wasn’t afraid of work. So when I went to go visit these colleges and then these kids had to go ask the assistant coach to go do something to open the door or go who or we can’t just go do nothing by oursel. We got to go ask somebody man. I was like nah man. Hell no. Man, man I not took a night job. I work with grown men on the assembly line. I got a real graveyard shift. I got I work I work 12 to 12, bro. I work with your dad and your uncle up here. So I was seeing life so different, man. I was living growing up fast. And yeah, my mom dropped us off in the airport, told me figure it out and went back in the airport. Wow. Yeah, I figured it out. But yeah, I say that to say that uh it grew thicker skin. And yeah, to everybody that’s out there that’s looking like you got a dead end. If you continue to go, man, it’s in cycles. Yeah. You know what I’m saying? That’s all you need sometimes is just a little damn light to get you to where you’re going. But yeah, I like to think that that helped me for the league. Yeah. Cuz the league is tough and it ain’t nothing like getting your ass kicked or getting your ass busting. you got to come back in that locker room and sit in that seat and wonder how you know this happened and you feel embarrassed and yeah so I can say that it can be times where I was sitting in that locker room that reminded me of some of those dark times to where I was able to have strength to pull myself up out of it because I was I recognized it early. I had been here before and I got through it and this is how I got through it type. Well, and that and that that that relates to Chris and I. I mean we both walk through adversity and my mother used to say KG it can make you bitter or better. You it can make you bitter or better. You can you can walk around and stay in that dark place, be angry, be resentful, be nonproductive, or you can you can do something, emerge out of that dark space and use it to your benefit in terms of learning a life’s lesson. So, man, that that that’s some good stuff. Go ahead. And the other and the other thing my grandmother used to say is that it’s always darkest before dawn. And and I just want to tell you, KG, because I came up in that era, you know, I’m class of 94 hooked. I was at Cshaw. We were, you know, we we’re I was all into it. I’m street smiths. I’m seeing you. I’m seeing AI. The thing is you and AI like y’all was serious inspirations for all of us on a national level because of the drama that got publicized because it was during an era where coming on the heels of Rodney King and OJ the mid early 90s they was trying to crucify guys. People don’t remember the Allen Iverson stuff and that Atlantic coast KG the south/Atlantic coast moves a lot different than the rest of the country. So, I just want to tell you, brother, brother, I just want to tell you back then, it was like y’all carry this weight for us coming up in that generation as like probably the two most iconic guys because of the trials and tribulations that y’all went through and how y’all came out on the other side, bro. I just want to tell you that. Respect, man. No doubt. No, ain’t nothing like when you go through something and you can speak on it because you survived it. You know what I’m saying? I like to think that. Yes, sir. We went through that so that other people can actually wake up and you know think about your choice. Think about you know you show you know how it go bro you built you built to to have your man’s back. You built to have your home boys back at all times like he got you. So when you get in put situations where your men and you know y’all threatening you know you know any man put his hands on you got to you know defend yourself. Natural reaction. It’s a natural reaction bro. and and and it’s the south so you know a lot of lot you know a lot of where I went to school it was a bunch of uh football players a bunch of baseball players bunch of soccer players that was just you know egotistical and they was you know the families had money and they felt a certain way and they said it with their chest. Yeah. You know what I’m saying? And yeah I come from when white boys can actually fight and you know and that’s all they love to do and they from the other side of the tracks and you got to speak a certain language. So it was all good. It was all part of growing up, man. You learn to, you know, when you mess up something, man. My mom said, “You going to mess it up before you get it right. But it actually learn It actually taught me how to actually communicate with the other side and other people and other races and other nationalities and to be patient with people and not to adopt on other people’s ignorance and and actually be better and take the higher road and teach them a lesson and be able to be, you know, you know what we don’t talk about a lot? You know, everybody talks about fighting and being quick to, you know, slap somebody and be rude and be disrespectful. Man, you never hear about composure. You know how hard it is to keep your goddamn composure, right? You know what I’m saying? God just cracked you and you got to Yeah. You know, I I get it. You know, your ego and all this, but bro, composure is one of the hardest things that you can ever have. People say it’s patient. I actually think it’s composure. Yeah. you know, takes a takes a real man to be able to get slapped and then be able to take the slap and and explain what just happened and then you you know what I’m saying? Like you gota you got that’s another level that’s another level of everything. So yeah. Yeah. Well, listen man, let’s let’s go from that to like hopefully one of the highlights of your career playing for Doc Rivers, winning that championship in Boston. And I reached out to Doc, man. And Doc said this about you. He said KG’s the best man. What made him special was he was a superstar that gave himself completely to the team. He would literally sacrifice anything for the team to win. His leadership and will to win and compete is unmatched the best. What also made him special was his basketball IQ. And he was a straight baller, MJ. He could lit literally do anything offensively or defensively, man. That’s that’s that’s Doc Rivers. Let me hear you give Doc some of his flowers. That’s your flowers from Doc. Give Doc a couple of flowers here. Yeah. First off, man, I want to say probably one of the, if not the best inspirational coaches I’ve ever been around. And what I love is that he is from he is from it and he hasn’t forgotten where he’s from. Uh if anybody know uh Maywood and what the west side Yeah. and parts of that is like his dad was a cop. He was true to who he was. He never been, you know. Yeah, man. Doc is probably one of the more intelligent people I’ve ever met. Always coming up with quotes, always having quotes, always having things in the chamber that he hits you with. He’s definitely a chess player. He was one of the stimulants, one true stimulants in our league that I actually value. When we actually talk basketball, he was able to be on another elite of X’s and those. But Doc also, man, he is a special type of coach. If you don’t have any type of real passion and and real understanding and if you want to talk Jedi with him, then you have to actually be a doer. You can’t just sit in his office and talk about what you want to do. at some point he’s going to put, you know, pin the pad and expect you to actually perform and actually see some of these things that you aspire. And I like to think that he pushed me, pushed me every day. He pushed me every day. Every day that I thought I was better than yesterday. He would, you know, push me and every day um you know, he would go through this line of two weeks me, two weeks Ray, two weeks Paul, two weeks Rondo, two weeks baby, three weeks TA, three weeks Tony, uh Kendrick Perkins. that he would just have these things, but he was sharpening us, man. He was sharpening us. You know, a lot of us don’t have fathers or a lot of us didn’t have, you know, fathers or father figures in our lives, man. I like to think that not only was he my coach, but he was my big brother, but he served as a father figure to be able to sharpen and help me with things that I lack, not just in basketball, but in life. Helped me try to be a better husband, better father to my kids. When I say a mentor, nothing better to say that. not not just a friend but family. So yeah, when I watch him struggle in today’s NBA, I really truly think it’s just because of the players. He’s not an every player can’t play for him. Every player doesn’t fit his style. Doc really is a gruddy guy who wants to really defend you for 48 minutes and grind you into the ground and then we can score the ball. Cool. He’s he’s a real nononsense nose on the ball kind of guy and I love that kind of coach. I was I play with the same passionate energy that he saw the game. We saw the game very alike and very parallel and um yeah everything he does I always support um not always agree with some of the things that just human but man he’s family man and uh anytime he needs my support I’m always there no questions asked. You won your lone defensive player of the year under Doc if that’s right. That’s correct. Now, did this personality did you take on Well, it was Tibs was there too. Uh, Fibs was there too, right? So, it was like Doc and Fibs was there. Did you take on Doc’s personality defensively up until that point? Uh, you were very good defender, but you hadn’t won a defensive player of the year. You were one of the greatest sort of like middle linebackers. You used to remind me of like Mike Singleary out there on defense with those Celtics. Just the way you directed traffic, talked literally 48. If you played 48 minutes, KG, mouth was running on both sides of the basketball for 48, bro. There was never a moment of that. Was that Doc’s personality or was that a combination of your own personality and sort of how you adjusted to the coaching staff? So I like to explain uh Kevin in in 21 in Minnesota had to score the ball and defend. So inadvertently I would train to be able to do both. But in the realm of when I had to choose one obviously if I had to save a little energy to be able to get a stop and I I learned how to do that. But then I learned also how to uh conserve energy to be able to be for the fourth and score the ball. So yeah, when I got to Boston, my mentality was not so much of scoring the ball, but to be the leader of defending and be the charge of this side of the ball. I I really thought that we had so much scoring, not just with the three of us, but with Eddie House, uh Pose, uh Big Baby could score the ball. Like we had different pieces that weren’t even talked about that went into scoring. So, I just made it my admission. I’m five now and I’m on some defensive A, B, and C. This is what I’m on. I’m going to be the leader. You know what I’m saying? And then when the team needs me to be a post presence and score the ball, I can actually do that. But my first priority is is is this. And I actually led that with my meeting with when I first uh talked to Doc. I said, “Listen, um, and I did a bunch of things offensively. I’m probably going to end up 25,000 27. I care less about that. I’m here to get two to three rings while I’m here and I want to be the defensive charge. I got another level of defense that I don’t think you’ve seen. He was looking at me like, “What you talking about?” I said, “Man, I’m gonna show you.” And he he didn’t know about me jumping on the ball, doubling the guard after the, you know, the ball go out. He didn’t know about me zigzagging and playing like the what’s the little kid up in um what’s the kid name up in New Orleans that be uh uh called Grand Theft Auto? Alvarado Alvarado. Alvarado. I had a little album bottle with me where I would double the ball. I would just be I would just be everywhere. I’m in court. I’m guarding. My man, you don’t know what I’m doing. Rondo had never experienced anything like that. So, I was talking to Doc from a bigger concept of what I thought it could be if a guard was of his caliber and he he proceeded to tell me Rondo’s genetics and what he thought the two of us could be. But yeah, he wasn’t looking at like that. So, when we started doing it, he was like, “Oh my god, we’re going to kill the East. Nobody’s doing this.” We had like a collegiate amoeba kind of let’s jump on you and strangle you and by third quarter you on the plate kind of concept you know so him and Tibs were real diabolical. You know what Doc was he led that he was just dark in that we should beat this team by 30 and 40 like he put that in it so that when we was up 40 and man we beat New York on TV by like 50. It took Nate to hit a I think Nate hit a halfcourt shot to make it 15 even. Man, we was blowing New York out, man. We was talking about, man, where we going for dinner at third quarter, Keith? Like, man, we call call now, man. That’s what we like, man. Yeah, we was. Yeah, but the work we put in was giving us unbelievable results, man. Yeah. Yeah. And and and talking about mentors, uh you you’ve become a mentor around the league and I I crossed paths with you in 2017. I believe you you were working with Thon Maker, Giannis, and Chris Middleton. Now, we both kind of I think missed on Thon Maker. I thought he’d be better. I’ll say I missed on him. I thought he’d be much better than what he turned out to be. But but just talk about I want to focus on Giannis from 2017 to now. What do you remember about him back then and what have you seen in terms of the evolution of his game since then? Well, I had played against Giannis a couple times and I think the first couple times I played him, I didn’t I didn’t even remember. It wasn’t nothing that made me kind of, you know, stick out to remember the kid or nothing. Um I don’t even recall it. I don’t, you know, to the point where it wasn’t an impression. Um, it wasn’t until the third time or I think I was a little older. I think it was on I was in Minnesota. I think we had a um um a preseason game against Milwaukee and I could tell just how he looked like Bruce Lee. He looked he looked super ripped. He looked he looked different. He didn’t look like he wasn’t like his his posture was straight up. He looked super you know what I’m saying? So when I saw that we had like a inter that was my first interaction with him um in the uh in this um preseason game and then obviously the next year I retire and then I get a call from Jay Kid to ask me if I can actually uh come in and work with him because Giannis had requested to come in. He wanted to actually you know. Yeah. So then my first impressions of him is that he was very respectful and he was very um timid you know and you know when I would when I would you know talk to him and when I would say certain things to him he wouldn’t look me in the face he would he would look down he would you know he’d be listening you know how does somebody do this when they listening or whatever and then I start making them look at me hey hey you know obviously I’m putting something on hey look at me hey when you go over here. You and I’m and then I’m I’m giving it to him and then he’ll just nod his head and look and then as I started working with him a little more I noticed that he had a fire that he wanted to he wanted to let out and it was just when James Harden and the Euro was coming in and I actually thought that he was able to use the Euro better than anybody especially in transition and um he wanted something more of half court. He wanted more knowledge of traps and and options to the bag, one-on-one options, back to the basket, uh facing, uh moves that was in the paint, footwork. So, I would I showed him I I didn’t have time to show him all of it, but I showed him things that I thought that could absolutely help him day one and that he can do day one that would impact a lot. He later on goes and work out with Cove and some other people. But yeah, early early Giannis was timid until he actually dialed into the knowledge and then he applied the knowledge which is the difference in a lot of things. You know, people get knowledge but they don’t always apply it. And I can say that he applied it and then made a whole foundation of his game and who you know him to be today. So you know big up to Giannis man. Quick story on Giannis and Chris you can jump in but but quick story. So back in those days, KG playing for Jason K, he would write everything down in the composition notebook. He was constantly scribbling notes all the time, the composition notebook. And of course me, you know, my curiosity, what does he write? So one day during practice, he left the notebook out. So I kind of slide over to the notebook, you know, turn it over just to the middle of it just so I can read it. And it’s all in Greek, so I can’t read it anyway. I have but but I have no idea what he’s writing but it’s just a notebook full of just notes to himself and that gives you an idea as you’re talking about just applying the knowledge just how serious he was about who he wanted to be as a basketball player and I tell you the reason he didn’t look you in the eye is kind of like the feelings I used to get around Dr. Jay, as a young player, I mean, it’s just so much such a high degree of of respect for who you guys are, what you accomplished, how you played, how we wanted to kind of be like you in in a in in a certain kind of a way. So, I think it was more about that, man. But that that that that’s a great story about Giannis and and and uh his response to you when you came out to Milwaukee to work with. But I really think it helped him, too. But staying on It did, man. He p he picked up the energy, man. He picked up the energy and I unlocked the fire. I think Cole unlocked the fire. Yeah. Yeah. And then you see when when he goes baseline and give you the one step back and he fades. I feel so proud. I really wish he would face up. I really I tell him all the time when I seen him in Vegas. I said, “Man, why don’t you use the joint? Will you come middle? Come middle and dunk his He like go middle.” I said, “Go baseline and come back and dunk it.” He said, “I want you dunking left, though.” I said, “Okay, then go middle. Spin back.” So we was, you know, so it’s it’s I feel I feel proud, man. I feel like a father. You know what I’m saying? When I when I watch him when I watch him sometimes, man, I’m proud. I’m happy that he’s happy. We appreciate you, brother. We appreciate you. But standed on his shoulders. You’re one of the shoulders he standed on. Go ahead, Chris. La last thing and we’ll cap it on Giannis. We talked about sacrifice earlier. Ticket. Do you think that Giannis should make similar sacrifices to have more energy on the defensive end if the Bucks want to be a legitimate championship title contender? Well, unfortunately, I’ve been in this situation and Chris to answer your question honestly, and this is just my view. So, if Giannis takes a little more defensive stance and has better defensive numbers and the Bucks don’t win and he doesn’t average the points that you’re expecting to average, right? Because he’s putting a little more than on the defensive end, right? Yeah. Takes more than one person to play defense, by the way. Facts. It helps to have a great defensive player on your team, but if the other three, four guys, you got three guys that can’t play defense, the two of y’all off. You, you hear what I’m saying, too? So, yes, I do. So, you have to play as a unit and that’s why it’s a team sport. So, I can see him conserving himself to be more effective on the offensive end because you still got to put the ball in the basket. You still got to get to the foul line. Somebody has to take it to the basket. Who’s the best one-on-one player you got? I’m the best player, right? Y’all post me up. I I get it off the glass. uh you know in transition I try to playmate. So I think he’s trying to do everything within his scope of knowing what to do. You know what I’m saying? So I just think that he’s in a hard situation where in today’s generation everybody you look at these teams and there three or four superstars on the team or you got two superstars with a guy that’s developing at a high rate that you look up and you’re like wow. You know look at look at Houston. Houston obviously has Shanguini. Uh, I love the green kid, but now you got KD. No one was talking about men. No one was talking about the Thompson twins. Yeah. Look how fast they developing. So, I’m just I’m just watching how quick and how things can change with a with a trade or or acquiring a certain guy, how everything can change. And I just think that it’s an uphill battle um in the East when you have teams like Cleveland that has a super duper roster. I think it’s going to be very very good. I’m watching Orlando get better. You know what I’m saying? Um, you’re going to you’re going to need you’re going to need more than just Giannis. You’re going to need some pieces that’s that’s consistent with what the league is doing. And yeah, I think you need to put some help around him. And and so now, let’s talk about some of that help around Giannis. Bobby Porters has publicly stated that you’re his favorite player, man. You reached out to him when he was going through some things, man. and uh just talk about that that that interaction you’ve had with Bobby Portoris and what’s going on between you two. Well, I can remember playing Bobby Portoris for the first time in a preseason game and uh Randy Brown who is like a big bro to me. He watched me kind of Randy Brown is probably one of the closest street basketball guys I can ever think of to be him and Ken Norton. If you know Ken Norton, you know Snake Snake Norton, baby. You know what I’m saying? Those are real those are damn near street guys to me. But they’re great guys, man. Um uh what was I saying? I was saying um yeah, Bobby Porters. Uh so Randy Brown had told me say, “Look, man, young fella eager to play against you now. He from Arkansas now. He’s strong now. He’s strong as I’m telling now. He going he he’ll knock the out too now. He’ll do what? Listen, this young boy over here, he Hey, listen. We going to put him in. you going to get some? And I was on some like, “What you been up to, Randy? You cooling?” He just bust out with, “Yeah, we got young fell over here. He going to put them on your head now.” Yeah, we uh Yeah, he’ll knock him. He’ll knock you out. And I was like, “Okay.” So, I’m already on 10 and we get in the game. And yeah, I just, you know, he was young. He supposed to be young and strong and all this. So, yeah, I shot some little slick stuff at him. Told him watch his head or something on a rebound or something and and kind of laughed at it. And then, yeah, I didn’t know none of this. So then I had a chance obviously I’m out the league. I seen him last year. He was obviously with the Bucks and uh he came up to said, “Man, you’re my favorite player, man.” And I was not expecting that. And uh yeah, it’s a camera on us. We talking. I’m miked up. It was a surreal moment. And uh you know since I’ve been retired I’ve been in this situation where I’m trying to be patient and you know kind of uh very humbled to take in uh compliments and be um uh yeah just have a better be in a better light of some of these younger players, man. But yeah, it was dope to hear. Um, we immediately start going through uh, you know, basketball and talking skills and all this and uh, I love that what he’s turned in his what he’s turned into, right? Um, because when he went through his little moment, I was just telling him to keep his head, you know, continue to work. You know, you know how you know how it go. You know, it’s up and down. It’s like the NASDAQ. You know what I’m saying? So, you just have to keep your jab going. So, just some words of encouragement. And I mess with Bobby, man. Bobby’s if Bobby was uh Bobb’s from the old country, man. I like his mentality. He’s totally totally respectful and all that he does, but he’s also a force and I love what he brings to the uh to the Bucks organization and I love what he does for the fans, too, man. Bob Bobby’s Bobby’s a dope um Yeah, he just a dope perspective, man. Dope’s all dope all around. Shout out to Bobby P. Our team our team hype man during the course of a game. I can only imagine, right? Then also Miles Turner. Miles Turner, I think you had some interaction with him. We picked up Miles Turner. First of all, how do you like the fit? Miles and Giannis. Where do you think that’s going to lead to? And any kind of background stuff on him and your interactions with him as a as a up andcoming player in this league. Me and Miles have a common friend in OT and OT is um a dear friend of me uh with me that grew up with me in Malden and I think he helps Miles with some of his business. and we got to meet him at one time. So I was just holling at him talking about the game and was expecting and you know as a you know you know you have a responsibility to not only your craft but to your family and to yourself as his opportunity. So just hollering at most OG’s you know uh I don’t bring too many people into my home so he got to come to my home in Minnesota and uh yeah he was a cool guy man. I think he’s going to be big for the um for the Bucks just because he’s a defensive presence and uh yeah he is who he is. You know I like Miles. I think he’s good for y’all team. I just think you got to put some other pieces around him. I think he needs more than just Miles. And um Yeah. Yeah. I see him being better though. I like Miles for y’all. But yeah, I want to see y’all add on to that team. Real talk. I had I I I cannot leave you without talking about the acting craft. It’s, you know, something that we share and I thought you did a tremendous job. I tell you, I watched Uncut Gems again last night. I saw it when it first came out and I liked it, but watched it again and it just it just blew me away. the the the messages between Adam Sandler’s character and and and and and and u this whole theme of the movie in terms of purity of intention but this one scene man that you do with him KG after you buy the opal for 165 and then you’re trying to ask him how much it really cost but you but you’re sitting down with him you’re saying man why you keep messing with you why you keep messing with me you’ve been messing with me the whole time did you I know you’re big into preparation but but did you work with an acting coach on that how much preparation for you went into that in that particular moment. That was your moment in that movie and I thought you knocked it out of the park. What was the preparation like for you for that scene with Adam Sandler? So, first off, man, it was a first off I I thought you killed you killed your part. You know, like that part to me is legendary in film. You know how we talk about the gunline ball? You know, tell about the gunline ball. You know how you hit oneliners? Yeah. You know what? I got something for all you. You know what I’m saying? So it’s classic lines in our culture that will go in our brain with us. So I want to say I want to give you your flowers for that, bro. Cuz everybody know what you mean. Yeah. It’s just like say I’m like the IRS. I’m like the IRS. Right. Right. Yeah. You know what I’m saying? So it’s classic lines in culture. If you know what you know. Yeah. It’s one of those. So I just wanted to say that to you, bro. You you ain’t man. You I was raised off you, bro. Real talk, bro. Appreciate that. To to hear you give me that is everything. I’m I’mma be honest with you, man. Can you mess up being yourself? Like, can you mess up being Chiefs? Can you mess up being you? Well, on camera. Well Well, I would answer that in a in a different way than you might expect. I think I think yes, if you aren’t in the moment, if if you’re if you’re tripping about being on camera and all these people in the room and all the lights and this and that, but but but to be able to lock in to a fictional character, Howard Ratner, Adam, you know, Adam Sandler, and and and to to to display the amount of emotion, I mean, you you were doing something inwardly. You know, we talk about in inhabiting a character. Not just being a character, but inhabiting a charact even even though it was, you know, was KG, but that’s kind of that’s kind of that’s kind of misleading because you had to play, you know, a character that’s going through some things. Maybe you’re not superstitious. Maybe you don’t believe in the power of an opal that’s going to help you play better. That could be the farthest thing from your truth, but you had to make it your truth in that movie in that moment. And that’s where you embrace that role, man, and did such a tremendous job with that. So, so to answer your question, yeah, you could you could totally f it up, man. You could totally f it up even just even if you’re just playing yourself. I understand that. I hear what you’re saying. So in that perspective, everything that he was talking about when it came to me, I couldn’t mess up. So when I went to the jewelry store, I’ve been in the jewelry store, had 100 guys in there. We in here going and I’m in here trying to get something on and the gun I got and then the bill come out. So I’ve been in here. I’ve been in these situations. I’ve been we’ve been in the club. You know what I’m saying? You know, all this that we was doing. I felt like I was here. Yeah. I’m superstitious about stuff. I got the rubber band on. I’mma pop the rubber band. And so a lot of the stuff that was going on, at least for me, Yeah. was parallel to be able to meet the energy. When he came in here, he showed me the open. I was like, “Man, why would you show me something when you when you know that I couldn’t like so that was ri you know what I’m saying?” And then he was like, “Yo, KG Ben WA.” And I was like, “Don’t stop it, man. Ta.” You know what I’m saying? Like he was he he was witty. Yeah. But he was being witty within the whole thing. So what was bugging me out is that you know I’m structured so we going off script D and then he’ll just go off and just go into some something totally different and we’ll just be all right we’ll be all improvising and it’ll be a like a big freestyle and he and he’ll go off in this kind bro you think we prepare in the NBA yes bro this is the reason why you don’t see me in film I have so much respect for Hollywood and the film industry bro that the work and the time they put in, bro, is exhausting. Yeah. I I I was there for like a month and I was exhausted. Yeah. Like the time that you on set, the time you practice, the time you rehearsed, you rehearsed so much that it comes off like second nature. So when you see me and Adam going back and forth, we started with my book being like this. We rehearsed and then he start doing that freelance and just freestyling. Next thing I know, my my my pages got like this. Yo, he freestyle so much that they went back. Bro, I had like a whole and I was like, “Whoa, ho, whoa, whoa, ho, ho, ho, ho. I’m not an actor. I can’t remember all this.” And they was like, “No, what would you how would you say this in the conversation?” So, I was like, “Okay, if you let me do that then, okay, let’s do it.” So, I say, “Let me let me see if I could do it.” Like, so then when you say when you hear me say, “Oh, okay. So, you was going to give it to me for one five.” Man, Jav, you’re a piece of you know and I was just really really talking to cuz you know I met pieces of you know how so I was just really in like man you ain’t you know what somebody going to knock you and so I was in that in the moment being Kevin I didn’t think that I could mess my I could I couldn’t mess up Kevin it’s if there’s one person I can’t mess up that’s me so in the interim of doing and delivering and timing when I did enough interviews to where you know you know wait on the question the timing the talk the beat and then it’s it’s real parallel in that. So, yeah, man. Shout out to Southeast, too, man. They were super patient with me. They was able to let me be myself in a lot of things so I can curate that energy and bring off. But, man, it was that was magical, man. Yeah, man. And yeah, that’s how I want to end my my my Hollywood career. I want I want that. I want that acting right there to stay. I don’t think I can top that. I’m good. I went out being myself. So, I’m in the industry, too, man. I’m I’m I’m huge in content. I’m huge in obviously podcast and all this. platform building and monetizing. So yeah, you’ll see a couple projects come out. I got the summer league film festival with Albert and Warren out there in the summer in July. So yeah, shout out to Content Kings. Yeah. Well, a good buddy of mine who I play with Milwaukee, Lloyd Walton had a documentary, The Education of Lloyd Walton that that actually premiered at the Summer League Film Festival. Absolutely. He uh he talked about how you were just uh when he was doing his career development stuff as a player association rep that you were one of the veterans that made the young guys sit in the front, made them pay attention, made them listen. So man, we just uh we want to thank you, man, for all that all that you did as a player, but even more importantly, Kevin, everything you’re giving back in your post playing career and I think that’s even more important because that’s we want we want each generation to be better than the last. Each each each generation of players or or people or whatever it is. to evolve into something better than what was before. And you are doing your job in terms of making that happen, facilitating that, man. And we thank you for coming by here, district man, and continued success to you. Success to the threeon three in Milwaukee August 15th through the 17th. And this has been a real honor for Chris and I, man. You’ve always been one of our favorites, man. And thank you for spending some time with us. Appreciate, man. Y’all my favorites, man. Chris, you know what it is. Dad, you know what it is, man. It’s always pleasure. Whenever I see Chris, I always ask about you. You know what I’m saying? just in the time that we are, you know how I go. Yeah, man. Thank y’all for having me on here, man. Do you remember Do you remember Chris from the uh from the uh So, we were in training camp, man. So, so ticket when the lockout ended, I I was at I just finished at UCLA and then I came to camp with y’all. It was you, Steph, but then it was Sam Mitchell, it was AP, Anthony Peeler, Stephen. Hey, but Stephen Jackson, that was my roommate. You remember Jack was there? Steven Jackson, man. Me and Jack was there. Troy Hust man. That’s before they had that’s before they had the little the little cornrows in there. They they had they still had a fan. Yes, sir. It was that era. So, yeah, man. Always been a fan, bro. Always been a fan, bro. Always, man. It’s 96. I remember that. Yo, y’all remember that. That’s 96 right there. That’s some good years, man. It’s always great to see y’all. Okay, man. Appreciate you, man. Enjoy your day, man. Appreciate you stopping by, man. All right. This has been a Bucks Plus audio production.

MJ & Kris are joined by Hall of Famer, Kevin Garnett for an epic episode of Hear District spanning his legendary playing career; from humble beginnings through his NBA journey & life after basketball. Garnett discusses the profound impact Bucks coach Doc Rivers made on his life on and off the court, his early impressions of Giannis Antetokounmpo and their experience training together, plus KG’s newfound relationship with Bobby Portis, his impressions of the Bucks signing Myles Turner, and what it takes to be an all-time great. Garnett explains the personal meaning behind his involvement in the Hoop It Up 3×3 basketball tourney as it visits Deer District from August 15 to 17, 2025. KG also gives Marques his flowers as they discuss their iconic film roles in “Uncut Gems” and “White Men Can’t Jump” respectively, playing with Kris at Timberwolves training camp, how overcoming trouble in his youth led to KG to get drafted out of high school, and much more.

0:00 — Intro
4:56 — Hoop It Up 3×3
10:00 — KG’s Roots & Adversity
24:36 — Doc Rivers
31:31 — Mentoring Giannis
39:05 — Bobby Portis
43:20 — Uncut Gems

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