Timberwolves will retire Kevin Garnett's No. 21 on Feb. 28 against Boston

Minnesota announced it will retire Kevin Garnett's No. 21 on February 28 against the Celtics, in a Sunday Night Basketball broadcast on NBC. It will be a second number raised to the Target Center rafters for Garnett, who won NBA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year honors across 14 seasons with the franchise and remains its all-time leading scorer.

The opponent is fitting. Garnett spent the back half of his prime in Boston, winning a championship there in 2008, and the Celtics game gives the ceremony a natural weight — a chance to honor what he was in Minnesota before he became something else somewhere else. The coverage notes the honor is roughly a decade overdue, which is its own commentary on how long the franchise took to formally close that chapter.

The timing lands in the middle of what figures to be a consequential stretch of the 2026-27 season. Tim Connelly's offseason — trading Julius Randle, acquiring LaMelo Ball, signing Ayo Dosunmu — was the most aggressive restructuring in franchise history, built around Anthony Edwards and a playmaking-first identity. By late February, the new roster will have had months to either validate or complicate that bet. Garnett's night will arrive as a reminder of the only banner this franchise has ever hung, at a moment when the current group is trying to build toward something comparable.