Boston Celtics

Kevin Garnett explains why he used to hit his head against the basket support before games

"I would do anything in this game."

Kevin Garnett
Kevin Garnett puts his hand on his heart during a speech during the 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony. Kathy Willens/AP Photo

By Tom Westerholm

2 minutes to read

Before every game he played for the Celtics, Kevin Garnett followed a routine.

First, he would slap his chest to the crowd.

“Let them know that my heart was in it,” Garnett told reporters on Thursday.

Then he would hit his head on the basket support.

“I would do anything in this game,” Garnett explained.

Then he would look up for inspiration. High above him in the TD Garden rafters, he could see all of the numbers retired by the Celtics, and all the banners earned by those players.

“That was my driving force,” Garnett said. “When I came to Boston, I wanted to be a player that was remembered for playing in Boston. And I went out every night that I suited up, and I played like that. But every night, every morning I would come into practice and I would look up at the banners and I would just look at them and I would go through each one.”

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At first, Garnett would also stare at a void illuminated by a spotlight. Doc Rivers wanted to emphasize that there was always room for another title, so he put a light in the place where another banner would go if the Celtics won their first championship since 1986.

Later this year, nearly 14 years after Garnett played an integral role in filling that void, the Celtics will honor him by retiring his number in a ceremony on March 13. Any player who stares up at the rafters after that day will see Garnett’s No. 5 — a monument to a player who achieved exactly what he set out to achieve. Garnett will be remembered for playing in Minnesota, certainly, but he helped win a title in Boston. He will be remembered at least in part as a Celtic.

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“I heard Larry Bird say one time in his early years in Boston that the reason why he loved playing in front of the fans in Boston is because you couldn’t fake them,” Garnett said. “You couldn’t fool the fans. They knew when you was playing hard. They knew when you were giving your all. …

“I never wanted to come in and be cool, I didn’t want to be calm. I wanted to be under control, but I wanted to be electric. I wanted to win every game and I wanted everybody who I was playing against to know that. I guess the fans resonated with that and to this day, fans come up to me, they dap me, they express their appreciation for hard work and passion. At the end of the day, man, that’s all you can ask for.”

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