A sort of bonkers ESPN piece features the idea that "Minnesota has been in search of a savior since KG, but shouldering the load isn't Kevin Love's thing."
In other words, we're supposed to see it as a sign of personal weakness that Love doesn't want to play for bad Minnesota teams that miss the playoffs.
One of many interesting things to note about this is that back in his peak performance years of 2003 and 2004, the Timberwolves paid Garnett $25 and $28 million a year. This season Love got $17 million. Adjusting for inflation, Garnett's 2004 salary equals $35 million in today's dollars. That's more money than any NBA player is currently paid.
And that, in turn, is no coincidence. The owners have acted over the past couple of CBAs to restrain how much money top stars get paid. One big consequence of that is that top stars are increasingly picky about where they want to play and increasingly forceful about getting there. After all, if you can't make mid-aughts Garnett money then you're going to demand some non-monetary compensation.
