Kevin Garnett Made the Brooklyn Nets Keep Reggie Evans

Initially, the Brooklyn Nets wanted to deal forward Reggie Evans away to the Boston Celtics over the summer, but Kevin Garnett made them alter their plans. KG and Evans have grown extremely close as new teammates. Per Newsday: “I won’t go into specific details of what I was wanting and dislikes and everything else when it came to building the business of basketball,’ Garnett said before the Nets beat the 76ers, 127-97, in Monday night’s preseason game at Wachovia Center. ‘But I will say this: One of the key things for me was not only Paul (Pierce) and ‘Jet’ (Jason Terry) coming here with me to make it comfortable, but Reggie Evans had to be on the roster. That was a huge key for me coming here.’ That explains the change in personnel the Nets sent to the Celtics in their blockbuster deal. When the trade initially was consummated, Evans was a part of the package along with Gerald Wallace, MarShon Brooks and Kris Humphries. But once Garnett voiced his opinion, Evans was taken out of the deal. […] ‘He kind of told me a little bit like, yeah, I was one of the reasons of him coming back,’ Evans said. ‘I thought that was even more motivation because someone of that caliber wants to play with me. That shows I’ve got a lot of respect . . . If I was in a position of a lot of power from a player’s perspective, I’d be wanting to play with him too.’ […] ‘You’ve got a lot of guys that’s just groupies instead of respecting a person for who they are,’ Evans said. ‘So I like real people, and he’s a real person. He’s one hundred. He’s a real person and I like that. He’s just being himself. Where he’s more vocal, I’m vocal, but not as vocal as him. His antenna is always going. Always, always, always. But I love it, though. I’m ready to ride this wave. I’m ready to go hard and hopefully get him a No. 2 ring and get my first one.’ As Garnett has said several times, that’s the only reason he’s here. Well, other than to hoop it up with Evans, of course. ‘I wanted to play with another workhorse,’ Garnett said, ‘a person I admired, thought gave a lot to the game when it came to just being a dog and worked hard. I’ve been a superfan of his for a long time and I will concur and actually say that he’s a big part of why I came here.'”