Mary Lucia joins Jill Riley to talk about Anything Is Possible, a new documentary on Showtime about former Minnesota Timberwolves player Kevin Garnett.

Listen to the conversation above and read a transcript below.

Transcript

Edited for clarity.

Jill Riley: Well, it's Friday morning and on Friday morning, we talk movies. We talk about TV shows we're into, we're talking about streaming series, all of it. I'm Jill Riley along with afternoon drive host Mary Lucia. Word, girl, what is up?

Mary Lucia: Okay, so I watched an amazing documentary about Kevin Garnett.

Jill Riley: Yes, this is perfect timing because the Timberwolves are just on this hot streak right now. They played the magic in Orlando tonight. There's this renewed sort of excitement for the Timberwolves. So this is great because he is such a big part of the legacy.

Mary Lucia: Huge!

Jill Riley: Yeah.

Mary Lucia: The documentary itself is called Anything Is Possible. It's streaming on Showtime. It follows his career from when he was a high school player in Chicago, and just happened to go to a gym in Chicago where there was a pickup game with the Bulls and other NBA players. They were just like on an off day, and he was a high schooler and I think it was Allen Iverson who said, "Hey, you, get in here." So his first pickup game was with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. And Allen Iverson was the one who actually said — because KG was sweating, getting into college, he couldn't get his SAT scores right — so technically, it was Allen Iverson's insistence, "Just go pro, skip college." He's only like one of two people that were ever drafted right out of high school. Since then, a lot of people have been, so that was pretty groundbreaking at the time. And so he was a fifth draft pick for Minnesota. And at that time, too, if you remember the team, it was like, you know, he was called "The Franchise," "the Big Ticket." He had Stephon Marbury, who I always loved as a player. Those two together were a great unit. But then do you remember the sad, sad, tragic accident of Malik Sealy?

Jill Riley: Yes, I do. Because I remember his jersey hanging up at the Target Center.

Mary Lucia: Yes, he was killed in a drunk driving head-on collision. And they kind of say nothing was ever really the same, the team was never really the same after he passed away.

But the thing about Kevin Garnett's salary, and calling him the Franchise, the Big Ticket, it kind of put a bit of rancor amongst the players because literally, they couldn't afford anyone else. It was just his salary. So then he had all the extra pressure if he wasn't performing up to that salary. And, you know, the Wolves got close a couple of times, and then he just wanted, he was so hungry for that championship ring, that when they traded him to Boston, I mean, that hurt my heart. Did it hurt you?

Jill Riley: It was hard to see him in green. It was. Because when I started watching the Timberwolves, it was that 2003-2004 season and so it was KG, Sam Casell, Latrell Sprewell, Wally Szczerbiak, Fred Hoiberg, Mark Madsen, and that was the last time that the Timberwolves ever won a playoff series.

Mary Lucia: Right.

Jill Riley: So that was an incredible time to come in. So they hooked me as a fan. So yes, it did break my heart to see him in green.

Mary Lucia: You know, and obviously he flourished. And he found friends that he had played with in high school that had finally come up through the ranks and were playing on the Celtics. And so clearly, he obviously went on to win a championship, and that was really all he wanted. But there's a really interesting part in this documentary where he's sitting with Snoop in his studio, and KG is comparing basketball to hip hop and vice versa. And the both of that every hip hop dude wanted to be a basketball player, and every basketball player wanted to be hip hop dude, but they kind of make this really interesting kind of argument as to why the two are so intertwined. There's also a really, really just touching scene of KG at George Floyd Square. And, you know, he hasn't lived here, I don't think he lives here just based on his backyard landscaping — I don't think that's in, you know, Edina. It looked like there was palm trees, so...

Jill Riley: Right — no palm trees on Lake Minnetonka!

Mary Lucia: That I've seen, yeah! And he, you know, he finally, when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, but it was during COVID in lockdown, so it wasn't quite the the grand thing it could have been, but, you know, he was a player with a lot of passion. And I guess his big thing was — I never sat close enough to hear him — but I guess he was constantly yelling, constantly talking you-know-what all the time on the floor, and it became something he was really known for. Every time he did a dunk, he made a scream. And it just, he said it helped him because he said, "I'm a really angry person. And when I'm playing basketball, I am angry at whoever I'm playing."

Jill Riley: Kevin Garnett. The documentary is called Anything Is Possible. Looks like it's streaming on Showtime. Did I know that we were both such big Timberwolves fans?

Mary Lucia: Well, when you mentioned that season, that was the season I also was completely hip to them. I remember laying on my brother's floor in his living room watching them lose that playoffs, and I was so sad. I may have cried.

Jill Riley: I think my husband cried. We had just started dating, and I think that's the first time I saw him cry. All right Mary, take care!

Mary Lucia: Yeah!

External Links

Kevin Garnett: Anything Is Possible - official SHOWTIME site

Minnesota Timberwolves - official site