Kevin Garnett Talks About Joining Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaq on TNT's 'Inside the NBA'

Kevin Garnett has decided to join Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaq, and the rest of the team at TNT’s 'Inside the NBA.'

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Complex Original

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Kevin Garnett might be retired from the NBA now, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to stray too far from the game of basketball. On Thursday night, TNT announced that KG will be joining Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaq on TNT’s Inside the NBA this season and providing his "unfiltered" opinions on all things basketball. They did it with this promo:

KG won’t start serving as an analyst until next Thursday night, but he made a brief appearance on Inside the NBA last night to talk about why he decided to make the jump to the media now that his NBA career is over. He said it’s "strange" not being out on the court right now, but he also said that he’s not just going to sit around and do nothing in retirement. You can watch his appearance here:

"It’s definitely strange not being out there. I told Shaq and I told a couple people this, like, the weird part for me is not preparing for this year," he said. "And what I mean by that is training, shooting, the extra shots, running—all that’s over. Now I’m into a position to where I’m trying to find something to do with myself, if not fill my time, and I’m doing that. So I’m figuring that out now."

KG joked about needing a cuss button for his appearances on Inside the NBA while talking with Barkley, Smith, Shaq, and Ernie Johnson, and he also offered up his first piece of analysis while discussing his now-former teammate Karl-Anthony Towns—though, thankfully, he didn’t let a bunch of expletives loose just yet.

"The Big KAT could be as good as he wants to be," KG said. "The sky is the limit for this kid. He does everything. He posts up, he handles the ball, he passes well—willing passer—he loves the 3-point shot a little more than I would like him to, but he’s going to be something special. He just needs to continue to work hard like he always does. He’s the first in the gym—he’s really the first in the gym—but his work ethic is impeccable. This is one of the things that, to me, stands out when it comes to these young boys these days. His work ethic stands out, hands down, from anybody else I’ve seen."

It’s good to see KG staying involved in the NBA, and it’ll be interesting to see how he fits in with the rest of the TNT crew. Stay tuned to see him make his debut next week.

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