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" It&amp;#039;s always nice to see a professional athlete come full circle and return to the team where he or she became a star. After stints in Boston and Brooklyn, Kevin Garnett did just that last year when he returned to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who selected him fifth overall in the 1995 NBA draft. This means that K.G. is old as hell\u201439 to be exact\u2014ancient for a power forward with weak knees. He&amp;#039;s not done, though. Today, the 15-time all star re-upped with the T&amp;#039;Wolves for two more years. If he plays out the entirety of the contract, he&amp;#039;ll be 41-years-old by the time he hangs it up. For what remains of his career, Garnett will only play a handful of minutes per game and will be far more valuable as a mentor to young guns like top pick Karl-Anthony Towns. If he sees any court time at all as a 41-year-old, though, he&amp;#039;ll be in rarified air. Only nine players in NBA history have balled so hard for so long, including John Stockton, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and most recently, Dikembe Mutombo, who called it quits a few months shy of he turned 43 in 2009. It&amp;#039;s far more common to see big men like Mutombo last into their late thirties or early forties, as they don&amp;#039;t have to rely on quickness as much as guards do. At 39, point guard Andre Miller is the oldest active player in the NBA, and though he&amp;#039;s said he plans on playing next year, he&amp;#039;s currently an unsigned free agent. He&amp;#039;s probably got one more year in him, if that. Spurs guard Manu Gin\u00F3bili is 37, but next season will almost certainly be his last. Kobe Bryant is 36, but he has been hampered by injuries, and because of the load he bears when he is on the court, making it to 40 is all but out of the question. The only other player who stands a chance of rivaling Garnett is the robot, the ageless one, Mr. Fundamental himself, Tim Duncan. He&amp;#039;s a few days older than Garnett, has committed to playing next year, and I don&amp;#039;t think it would surprise anyone if he stays on for another year after that. Like Garnett, Duncan&amp;#039;s minutes will be limited, but unlike Garnett, he&amp;#039;ll be part of a team competing for a title. This means he&amp;#039;ll not only be logging additional minutes in the playoffs, he&amp;#039;ll also incur the mental drain of a drawn-out championship run. But regardless of how long either of the future Hall of Famers end up lasting, there will likely come a time in 2016 when they will be once again guarding each other, both with a never-ending list of career achievements under their belts. Considering they&amp;#039;ll be playing for the teams that drafted them 20 years ago, that&amp;#039;s pretty damn amazing. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/news/a36231/kevin-garnett-resigns-with-timberwolves/>