As the lights inside TD Garden went black, Marcus Smart looked up at the neon-green illuminated Jumbotron in astonishment. On the screen, a video reel played clips and highlights from Kevin Garnet’s time on the Celtics.
“What’s going on?” the Celtics guard thought.
He watched as the video displayed the passion Garnett competed with: clips of him iconically hitting his chest, or on the free-throw line doing knuckle pushups after Heat power forward Udonis Haslem fouls him. There’s him screaming, yelling, and stomping on the court, and in the air landing a posterizing dunk.
Then, the screen switches to a big reveal, one that even Smart was not aware of: the Celtics would retire Garnett’s jersey.