Kevin Garnett's #5 to be retired by the Celtics on March 13

[BudweiserCeltic]

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
Celtics will retire Kevin Garnett's #5 after the March 13 game against the Mavs.

[Jiri Welsch]

I hope I'm assigned that game with my half season tickets so I can recoup the cost of like 10 games.

Congrats KG! 

[Moranis]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

[SparzWizard]

Of course he deserves to be up in the rafters otherwise Banner 17 does not happen.

[Goldstar88]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

Agreed. I love KG, but he wasn’t in Boston long enough and the C’s only got one ring while he was here. Should Rondo and Perk get there numbers retired too? Wouldn’t have won banner 17 without them either.

[Celtics2021]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

Agreed. I love KG, but he wasn’t in Boston long enough and the C’s only got one ring while he was here. Should Rondo and Perk get there numbers retired too? Wouldn’t have one banner 17 without them either.

The quality of play of KG, and his importance to the team, dwarfs that of Perkins.  It's not close, and to suggest it's only about the number of years on a team and whether a ring was won is silly.  Being great actually matters.  Finishing top 3 in MVP award voting during a title season should, in fact, matter.   Setting the culture of the team matters.

An argument could be made for Rondo, and that may in fact happen once he's done playing, but while he had a couple of absolutely terrific seasons, he was a notch less than KG.  Obviously his last half-season in Boston was disappointing as well, and tarnished his legacy a bit.  Perhaps he comes back in a year and is a model vet PG off the bench while we win a title and his legacy is re-established.

But comparing KG to Perk is blasphemy.

[gouki88]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

We've also debated your irrational hatred of KG before

[elcotte]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

We've also debated your irrational hatred of KG before

His impact on the entire organization merits this honor.

[gift]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

We've also debated your irrational hatred of KG before

His impact on the entire organization merits this honor.

He transformed (resurrected) the franchise. He definitely belongs there.

[Goldstar88]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

Agreed. I love KG, but he wasn’t in Boston long enough and the C’s only got one ring while he was here. Should Rondo and Perk get there numbers retired too? Wouldn’t have one banner 17 without them either.

The quality of play of KG, and his importance to the team, dwarfs that of Perkins.  It's not close, and to suggest it's only about the number of years on a team and whether a ring was won is silly.  Being great actually matters.  Finishing top 3 in MVP award voting during a title season should, in fact, matter.   Setting the culture of the team matters.

An argument could be made for Rondo, and that may in fact happen once he's done playing, but while he had a couple of absolutely terrific seasons, he was a notch less than KG.  Obviously his last half-season in Boston was disappointing as well, and tarnished his legacy a bit.  Perhaps he comes back in a year and is a model vet PG off the bench while we win a title and his legacy is re-established.

But comparing KG to Perk is blasphemy.

Obviously KG was more important than Perk, but my point is that he didn’t singlehandedly deliver a championship to Boston. Rondo and Perk played a large role as well and they played in Boston longer. I feel like a player needs to be on the team for more than 5 or 6 years for their number to be retired or they need to have delivered several championships.

[gouki88]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

Agreed. I love KG, but he wasn’t in Boston long enough and the C’s only got one ring while he was here. Should Rondo and Perk get there numbers retired too? Wouldn’t have one banner 17 without them either.

The quality of play of KG, and his importance to the team, dwarfs that of Perkins.  It's not close, and to suggest it's only about the number of years on a team and whether a ring was won is silly.  Being great actually matters.  Finishing top 3 in MVP award voting during a title season should, in fact, matter.   Setting the culture of the team matters.

An argument could be made for Rondo, and that may in fact happen once he's done playing, but while he had a couple of absolutely terrific seasons, he was a notch less than KG.  Obviously his last half-season in Boston was disappointing as well, and tarnished his legacy a bit.  Perhaps he comes back in a year and is a model vet PG off the bench while we win a title and his legacy is re-established.

But comparing KG to Perk is blasphemy.

Obviously KG was more important than Perk, but my point is that he didn’t singlehandedly deliver a championship to Boston. Rondo and Perk played a large role as well and they played in Boston longer. I feel like a player needs to be on the team for more than 5 or 6 years for their number to be retired or they need to have delivered several championships.

I don't really agree with this. You could sub out Rondo and Perk for a dozen other similar level role players. You cannot sub out KG for anyone else and get the same culture transformation that occurred in Boston.

[Moranis]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

We've also debated your irrational hatred of KG before

I don't have a hatred of KG and nothing I say is irrational.  KG played only 396 regular season games in Boston along with 84 playoff games.  That just isn't enough.  Ray Allen played in 358 regular season games and actually played in more playoff games at 91.  Should he be in the rafters?  We certainly don't win a title without Ray Allen.  The C's don't get KG without Allen, Allen was a monster in the Finals scoring 122 points on just 73 shots, and that season after Allen left Boston fell apart (showing his value in actual meaningful ways).  Allen's shooting was vital to the success of the team.  Why isn't he going in the rafters?

[Goldstar88]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

Agreed. I love KG, but he wasn’t in Boston long enough and the C’s only got one ring while he was here. Should Rondo and Perk get there numbers retired too? Wouldn’t have one banner 17 without them either.

The quality of play of KG, and his importance to the team, dwarfs that of Perkins.  It's not close, and to suggest it's only about the number of years on a team and whether a ring was won is silly.  Being great actually matters.  Finishing top 3 in MVP award voting during a title season should, in fact, matter.   Setting the culture of the team matters.

An argument could be made for Rondo, and that may in fact happen once he's done playing, but while he had a couple of absolutely terrific seasons, he was a notch less than KG.  Obviously his last half-season in Boston was disappointing as well, and tarnished his legacy a bit.  Perhaps he comes back in a year and is a model vet PG off the bench while we win a title and his legacy is re-established.

But comparing KG to Perk is blasphemy.

Obviously KG was more important than Perk, but my point is that he didn’t singlehandedly deliver a championship to Boston. Rondo and Perk played a large role as well and they played in Boston longer. I feel like a player needs to be on the team for more than 5 or 6 years for their number to be retired or they need to have delivered several championships.

I don't really agree with this. You could sub out Rondo and Perk for a dozen other similar level role players. You cannot sub out KG for anyone else and get the same culture transformation that occurred in Boston.

I don’t know about cultural transformation, but from a length of service and number of rings standpoint, he didn’t do enough for his number #5 to be retired, IMO.

[gouki88]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

Agreed. I love KG, but he wasn’t in Boston long enough and the C’s only got one ring while he was here. Should Rondo and Perk get there numbers retired too? Wouldn’t have one banner 17 without them either.

The quality of play of KG, and his importance to the team, dwarfs that of Perkins.  It's not close, and to suggest it's only about the number of years on a team and whether a ring was won is silly.  Being great actually matters.  Finishing top 3 in MVP award voting during a title season should, in fact, matter.   Setting the culture of the team matters.

An argument could be made for Rondo, and that may in fact happen once he's done playing, but while he had a couple of absolutely terrific seasons, he was a notch less than KG.  Obviously his last half-season in Boston was disappointing as well, and tarnished his legacy a bit.  Perhaps he comes back in a year and is a model vet PG off the bench while we win a title and his legacy is re-established.

But comparing KG to Perk is blasphemy.

Obviously KG was more important than Perk, but my point is that he didn’t singlehandedly deliver a championship to Boston. Rondo and Perk played a large role as well and they played in Boston longer. I feel like a player needs to be on the team for more than 5 or 6 years for their number to be retired or they need to have delivered several championships.

I don't really agree with this. You could sub out Rondo and Perk for a dozen other similar level role players. You cannot sub out KG for anyone else and get the same culture transformation that occurred in Boston.

I don’t know about cultural transformation, but from a length of service and number of rings standpoint, he didn’t do enough for his number #5 to be retired, IMO.

That's fair enough, but Doc Rivers and Paul Piece have both word-for-word said that Kevin Garnett changed the culture of the Boston Celtics. I feel like they're both pretty qualified to comment on such things.

[gouki88]

We've debated this before, but KG does not belong in the rafters.

We've also debated your irrational hatred of KG before

I don't have a hatred of KG and nothing I say is irrational.  KG played only 396 regular season games in Boston along with 84 playoff games.  That just isn't enough.  Ray Allen played in 358 regular season games and actually played in more playoff games at 91.  Should he be in the rafters?  We certainly don't win a title without Ray Allen.  The C's don't get KG without Allen, Allen was a monster in the Finals scoring 122 points on just 73 shots, and that season after Allen left Boston fell apart (showing his value in actual meaningful ways).  Allen's shooting was vital to the success of the team.  Why isn't he going in the rafters?

Because he wasn't the architect of a cultural transformation of a franchise desperately in need of one. It's a really simple thing that you ignore