What NBA star duos can learn from Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury

By Matt Moore | NBA writer

December 29, 2015 4:31 pm ET

On Wednesday, ESPN published a phenomenal feature from legendary NBA scribe Jackie MacMullan that goes in-depth on the relationship between Kevin Garnett and his young protege, rookie Karl-Anthony Towns.
The wide-ranging feature showcases a lot of different elements in play with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but mostly it just perfectly crystalizes the utter insanity of Kevin Garnett.

Like, really nuts.

Like, "cries during games from intensity" crazy. Like "bullied poor Patty O'Bryant out of the league" crazy. Like, "mimicked Leon Powe's practice activity for a full session" completely wacko.

Yet within it was a particularly interesting section in which Garnett and those around at the time described the deteriorating relationship between Garnett and Stephon Marbury for the Timberwolves in the early 2000s. The two were an All-Star pairing, and in no time at all, Marbury was traded and Garnett and the Wolves sunk into irrelevance until his trade to the Celtics in 2008. From the ESPN piece:

At first, KG and Marbury became fast friends, inseparable, soaking in the adulation of a city hungry for success -- a two-man team, both on and off the floor, dual faces of a growing franchise. The force behind their undoing was the same force that ruined the Lakers in the early 2000s. It's what the Spurs, for two decades, have guarded against. Their undoing, Garnett says, was ego.

In 1997, Garnett signed a historic $126 million contract, which helped lead to an NBA lockout and restrictions on player salaries the following season. When it became Marbury's turn for a new deal, he was limited to a $71 million payday. Marbury's camp viewed it as an injustice, one Marbury couldn't reconcile. At one point, VP of basketball operations Kevin McHale summoned Garnett, Marbury and forward Tom Gugliotta to his office to talk about sacrifice and sharing the ball and submerging egos. KG nodded emphatically, but the message, says former Wolves point guard Terry Porter, might have been lost on Marbury.

"There's nothing Kevin could have done to change it," Gugliotta says. "If you ask Steph, I'm sure he's the one kicking himself a bit. No matter what Steph did -- he could score 25, 30 points -- he still wasn't going to be the best player on our team. That was KG." In March of 1999, just two-plus seasons into his Wolves career, Marbury, who had just turned 22 -- Garnett would turn 23 that May -- forced a trade to New Jersey.

Marbury would play for four NBA teams over the next decade with limited success on each, before retreating to China for the next stage of his career. (Now playing for the Beijing Ducks, he couldn't be reached for comment for this story.) For the next eight seasons, with the exception of a Western Conference finals appearance in 2004, Garnett would flounder in Minnesota.

"Kevin didn't mind at all deferring to Stephon or Googs late in the game," Porter says. "He just wanted to win, to create a great environment. It scarred him for a long time, how that all played out."

Says Garnett: "I'm very real with these guys now. I tell them straight up how it is. I tell them there is only one thing that can mess this up: egos. I tell them because I lived it. Because that's what messed us up with Steph."

Source: The Cruel Tutelage of Kevin Garnett.
That's a good cautionary tale for anyone, in any walk of life to take heed of, but particularly in the NBA, and it brought to mind a few guys who should heed KG's words of wisdom.

• Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant: These are two of the best players in the entire world, and it's a testament to both of them that they have managed to curtail their egos to the degree they have. It's easier for them, given that there's never been a problem with the money aspect that tore KG and Marbury apart; both players received max deals when they hit free agency. Still, there's never been jealousy between them for the attention one another received. I wrote earlier this year that Westbrook is the No. 1 reason Durant should stay in OKC, and the same is true for Westbrook. They've kept their eyes on the prize and realized that they can both be stars. If that dynamic ever shifts, it'll be a shame. Both deserve to be "the man" on their team, but they are so much better together.

• Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry: Again, the money hasn't been a problem, as Thompson got his max deal. That's helped by the fact that Curry didn't receive (or deserve) one when his rookie deal was up. However, Thompson could have balked at the attention and the way that sometimes it feels like "Steph Curry and the Warriors," when Thompson has become as much of a star. Instead, Thompson, and honestly the entire Warriors team, have embraced how good of a situation they have found themselves in. Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut, and even Harrison Barnes seem to recognize how good they are as a unit instead of focusing on what they don't have. Everyone gets that it's "Steph's team," but they also feel the spotlight shine on their contributions.

• Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose: It's not exactly the same situation but there are some parallels. The Bulls have become Butler's team, through and through, and that has sparked some rumors that two don't get along. They have denied it -- at times strenuously, at times not so strenuously -- but with Rose talking about his inevitable payday amid injuries and overall struggles in returning to his 2011 form, you can see a scenario in which this pairing splits. If Rose can embrace a step back in star power, it would set him up much better for the future. It's Butler's team.

• Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins: That's maybe the best reason to have KG there, to teach those two not to ruin what they have together. Wiggins has been phenomenal this season, Towns has been incredible. Together they have a combo that can win, and win a lot in Minnesota. They have to manage those egos to avoid that same fate befalling them that did in Marbury and Garnett.