IT’S EASY TO
be suspicious of a
documentary in which the
subject’s voice is featured
as prominently as
Kevin Garnett’s is in
Kevin Garnett: Anything Is
Possible. The Hall of Fame
forward spends a good
bit of the two-hour film,
which is streaming on
Showtime, addressing
the camera, telling the
audience that he wants
the movie to show how
he navigated the high-
school-to-the-pros path.
“This is like a history
lesson,” says Garnett, who
retired in 2016. “Let me
take you all back in time.”
While that’s not exactly
a spontaneous moment,
it quickly becomes clear
that viewers are in for
some serious unfiltered
KG, which, of course,
is the best kind of KG.
Take his solo workout for
NBA execs at a predraft
camp in 1995, when he
overheard Pat Riley ask,
“Why are we even here?
You got me watching a
high school guy?” As
he recounts the story,Garnett gets so agitated
that he stands up and
roars into the boom mike
above his head before
yelling, “Motherf-----.
What the f--- you mean,
why you in here?” If it’s
not genuine emotion, it’s
unparalleled acting.
KG’s isn’t the only
voice heard. Snoop Dogg
explains the significance
of Garnett’s early embrace
of hip-hop culture, while
Allen Iverson, Paul Pierce
and a host of others weigh
in on the pivotal basketballmoments in Garnett’s life.
Since KG came of age in
the 1990s, most of those
moments were captured
on video. Taken together,
the footage, the insight
and Garnett’s undeniable
screen presence prove
that sometimes the
best person to tell a
man’s story is the
man himself. —M.B.THE KID
STAYS IN THE
PICTURE
SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR 2021SI: How much do you want to incorporate the real
person into what you’re doing as opposed to your
interpretation of them?
ZL: More than anything you’re trying to capture their
essence. Every time I’m doing a character, I ask myself
the two questions: How intelligent are they? And What is
their level of empathy? W hat do they know and how much
do they care, essentially. And once you find that out, you
can start applying it to your own rhythms and how you
then attack the character. Fortunately, for me, Kurt was
a great guy who cares a lot about people.
SI: Rate your QB skills when you signed on
to the project.
ZL: When I started, on a scale of one to 10, I would be a
one. Maybe. I played baseball, I played volleyball, I played
pickup basketball throughout my life. Football was just
never something I’d really picked up. Learning how to
throw a spiral at 40 is not ideal. I had great coaching—
sometimes even from Kurt himself and from Clint Dolezel.
He was also in Arena football and ultimately got drafted
by the NFL. I got about a month and a half with Clint
where we were doing all kinds of physical stuff, learning
my three-step drop or my five-step drop, pivoting and all
that jazz. But also really understanding how you read your
coverage—you know, making sure you’re not looking at the
receiver because you don’t want to telegraph to the defense.
It was a crash course, but I think we had as much time
as we needed, because having seen the final product, I
think all cut together very well....Actors are all our
own worst critics. And when I finally saw a screening
of this film, I was like, Wow! You know, I didn’t entirely
hate myself. —M.B.Best
Documentary
Of the Year87 SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR 2021MI
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