Kevin Garnett is Heading Back to Minnesota After Waiving No-Trade Clause

Kevin Garnett’s NBA career is about to come full circle.

The 38-year-old power forward has elected to waive his no-trade clause on Thursday, allowing the Brooklyn Nets to trade him back to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team that first drafted back in 1995. Minnesota will be sending power forward Thaddeus Young to the Nets to complete the swap. David Aldridge of NBA.com was first to report the deal, which was also confirmed by Garnett’s agent on Twitter.

Garnett played the first 12 seasons of his career with the Wolves before the franchise elected to trade him to the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2007 and go into rebuilding mode.

Minnesota has remained stuck in the rebuilding process since Garnett first departed, but hope he will be a positive veteran influence on the team’s young core for the remainder of the season and perhaps beyond.

AP Source: The Timberwolves are not bringing KG back for just this year. They want to do a 2-year extension with him.

— Jon Krawczynski (@APkrawczynski) February 19, 2015

KG is aware the Wolves want to do the extension. No doubt that factored into his decision to waive no trade

— Jon Krawczynski (@APkrawczynski) February 19, 2015

Garnett is earning $12 million in the final year of a three-year contract. He also spoke of interest in buying the Timberwolves franchise to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports earlier this year. An extension could allow him to finish out his career gracefully in Minnesota, before heading into the owner’s box.

No matter what happens after this season, Garnett’s unexpected return will give Wolves fans at least one thing to look forward to during the team’s final 29 games, in the midst of an otherwise disappointing 11-42 season.