Kevin Garnett said he's not thinking about the future yet.
WALTHAM – Kevin Garnett has pondered retirement before and he’ll have a chance to do so again sometime soon, regardless of how long the Boston Celtics manage to extend their season.
But he's not thinking about the future yet.
Asked a question referring to his potential retirement after the season, Garnett said he’s still focused on the playoffs.
“I’m thinking about the game Wednesday, and pretty much that,” he said before Tuesday's practice. “I haven’t thought about post-, after. I’m focusing on what it’s going to take to get to the next game.”
What it takes for Garnett to get to the next game, according to teammates and coaches, is quite a bit. The center missed 10 of the season's final 13 games while dealing with bone spurs that reportedly "float" between his ankle and foot.
Guard Jason Terry recently said he’s motivated by seeing everything Garnett has to do just to play, and head coach Doc Rivers voiced similar sentiments before Tuesday’s practice.
“People have no idea what he goes through. You can’t, unfortunately. It really is – watching him, just in (the training room) now, doing all the stuff that they’re doing, and stretching – he just plays because he loves it, and it’s will,” said Rivers. “A lot of guys would just not play anymore. The fact that he does it, and to the level that he does it – he’s a rebounding machine right now for us, and we need it.”
Garnett has recorded 17 rebounds in each of the last two games. He played 37 minutes during Sunday’s overtime Game 4 win, connecting on 5 of 7 field goal attempts, including two clutch jump shots – one near the end of regulation, another early in overtime – that helped Boston avoid a sweep.
"He still had a lot of minutes in a row, which we try to avoid with him," Rivers said. "He was great, though. Every time I looked at him, he kept saying, 'No, no, no,' meaning, 'Don't take me out. I'm just going – I'm going to keep going, I'm going to get through this.'"