Mauldin High School (1991–94)

Garnett grew up in Mauldin, a suburb of Greenville, South Carolina, and starred for the Mauldin Mavericks from 9th through 11th grade. By his junior year he was already 6’11 with point-guard ball-handling skills, and college coaches across the country began circling.

His final year at Mauldin ended in controversy. In 1994 Garnett was one of several Black students arrested following a fight with white students at the school. The charges against Garnett were eventually dropped, but his mother Shirley Irby and stepfather decided a new environment for his senior year would protect both his future and his peace of mind.

Farragut Career Academy (1994–95)

Garnett transferred to Farragut Career Academy on Chicago’s West Side, moving in with friend Jaime Peters’ family. The Farragut Admirals went 28–2 with Garnett anchoring the lineup, and he was named USA Today National Player of the Year and McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP alongside Ronnie Fields.

Crucially, transferring to Chicago put Garnett on national TV. Scouts who’d had to drive into Greenville to see him at Mauldin could now catch him on Chicago Public League broadcasts. By the spring of 1995 he had committed to the University of Michigan — then never enrolled, declaring for the NBA Draft instead.

Straight from Farragut to the Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves selected Garnett 5th overall in the 1995 NBA Draft, making him the first player in 20 years to go directly from high school to the NBA (Bill Willoughby in 1975 had been the previous one, and Darryl Dawkins jumped that same draft).

Garnett’s success cracked open a decade of high-school-to-NBA stars: Kobe Bryant (1996), Tracy McGrady (1997), Al Harrington and Rashard Lewis (1998), and on through LeBron James in 2003. The NBA’s 19-year-old age minimum, instituted in 2005, eventually closed the door.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Kevin Garnett and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).