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The Aging of Kevin Garnett

No, literally. It's the man's birthday.

By David Naylor
"I want a cake THIS big."
"I want a cake THIS big."
Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

If you came to this article expecting serious analysis of Kevin Garnett's playing ability for the upcoming year, I apologize. Today is KG's 39th birthday, setting him up for his 21st season in 2015-16. The man has already had an incredible career to date, and brought the Timberwolves their best seasons during his first stint in the Twin Cities. He's been in the NBA for literally more than half of his life.

This also gives us a great opportunity to recommend Howard Beck of Bleacher Report's oral history of Kevin Garnett's career, which is an incredible read, and appropriate for the day. KG was also drafted 5th overall, and the Wolves are guaranteed to pick higher than that this year, which means we get a better player, right? Right? Oh.

This also makes it both unbelievable and totally believable that KG isn't the Wolves' representative at the draft lottery tonight. It doesn't seem like the kind of event that he'd be totally interested in attending, and his hyper-competitive nature might make him throw some things if the Wolves end up fourth (also: with his free agency, he may not be able to represent the Wolves without a contract). But, he remains the heart and soul of this franchise. I feel like I would have felt a lot more comfortable with the numbers seeing KG up there instead of whichever member of the Taylor family it actually ends up being, which is completely nonsensical, but truth.

So, in addition to every other reason we want the Wolves to win the lottery tonight, add getting Kevin Garnett a pretty awesome birthday present to the list. Feel free to share your favorite KG memories (and/or terrible birthday photoshops) below the line.