Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury were one of the more tantalizing up-and-coming duos of the late 90’s.
The two rising stars helped lead the woeful Timberwolves to their franchise’s first playoff appearance in ‘97, and the team’s first winning record (45-37) in ‘98. In an era where many teams only had one star, it appeared Minnesota was developing two to lead them into the future.
Following the ‘98 season, the T-wolves and Garnett agreed to the largest contract in NBA history at the time (Six-years, $126 million); which actually took up about 44% of Minnesota’s salary cap.
But all wasn’t well in Minnesota. Marbury had eyes on something bigger. He wanted to be ‘the guy’ on his own team. He wanted to play in a big market and earn big market endorsements. Marbury knew he couldn’t get that treatment in Minnesota. Seeing KG get paid like this, he knew never be the number one guy, or get paid like the number one guy for that matter.
Marbury forced an in-season trade to the Nets the following season, and the Garnett-Marbury era was over before it ever really got going.