BOSTON — Brad Stevens had a much different introduction to Kevin Garnett than most of his fellow NBA coaches did.
At 39 years old, Stevens not only is one of the league’s youngest bench bosses, but he’s also five months younger than Garnett, who is in the midst of his 21st NBA season.
With Garnett’s Minnesota Timberwolves in town Monday night, the Boston Celtics coach recalled getting his first glimpse at the surefire Hall of Famer two decades ago at an AAU basketball tournament — one in which Stevens also was playing.
“I’m the same age as Kevin, so I played in gyms when he was playing on the court next to me,” Stevens said before Monday night’s game at TD Garden. “And I would sneak a peek while I sat on the bench for our team and watch his game. He’s special.”
Stevens specifically remembered seeing Garnett at a tournament in Louisville when he was 17. The 6-foot-11 power forward was just 18 when the Timberwolves drafted him fifth overall in 1995, meaning he already was all over NBA scouts’ radars by that point.
“(If) he wasn’t highly touted when he walked in the gym, he was when we all saw him,” said Stevens, who went on to play college ball at DePauw after a successful high school career in Indiana. “He was long, agile, athletic and a heck of a player, and everybody knew him by then, even before the Internet.”
Stevens, who was hired less than a week after the Celtics traded Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets, went on to say he obviously would jump at the chance to coach a player of KG’s caliber.
“I think it would be great,” he said. “… Any time you get a chance to coach a great player that’s a great leader that will run through the wall for the team he’s playing for, who wouldn’t want that?”
Thumbnail photo via Brace Hemmelgarn/USA TODAY Sports Images
