Celtics Set To Acquire Garnett

10-Time All-Star to Leave Wolves in Multiplayer Deal

The Boston Celtics agreed in principle yesterday to acquire 10-time all-star power forward Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to a league source. The trade matches a once-great franchise with the 2004 NBA most valuable player -- and instantly makes the Celtics, a team that won just 24 games last season, a contender in the Eastern Conference.

The 6-foot-11 Garnett becomes the third former MVP to be traded in the past three years, joining Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson. He will form an all-star trio in Boston with veterans Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, who was acquired in a draft day deal that sent former Georgetown star Jeff Green to Seattle.

As part of the blockbuster deal -- which ends Garnett's 12-year run in Minnesota -- the Celtics had to part with a package of players that reportedly includes Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff and at least one first-round pick. After shipping Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak to Seattle last month, the Celtics currently have just eight players under contract -- four short of the league-mandated 12.

With one of the youngest rosters in the league, the Celtics finished with the second-worst record in the league last season. Despite winning an NBA-best 16 championships, Boston hasn't won a title since 1986 and was most recently in the conference finals in 2002.

Celtics President Danny Ainge has made it clear this summer that he is turning away from a strategy based on building the team with young players and replacing it with a win-now policy by matching Garnett, 31, and Allen, who turned 32 this month, with Pierce, who will turn 30 in October. Those three players will earn close to $60 million combined next season, making the Celtics a luxury-tax paying team.

"They need to go all in," one NBA executive said yesterday of the Celtics, "because lately, they've been all out."

Garnett, the league's highest-paid player, has two more years on his contract and will earn $22 million this season. A 15 percent trade kicker worth $6.75 million over the next two seasons will be added to the deal. The Boston Herald reported that Garnett, who waived an option to terminate his contract in 2008, already had agreed in principle to terms on a contract extension with the Celtics.

Garnett pioneered the modern-era, high school-to-the-NBA phenomenon in 1995, when the Timberwolves selected him fifth overall from Farragut Career Academy in Illinois. Two years later, Garnett signed a then-record, six-year, $126 million pact with Minnesota that proved to be a financial blessing and professional curse.

The Timberwolves have missed the postseason the past three seasons, and failed to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs in all but one season in Garnett's career. In 2003-04, Garnett teamed with Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell and won the MVP award while the Timberwolves advanced to the Western Conference finals, which they lost in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Celtics and Timberwolves came close to consummating a deal involving Garnett before the draft in June, but Garnett's agent, Andy Miller, scoffed at the idea, saying that his client would not play in Boston. Since then, Garnett has been mentioned in possible trades with the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors.

The trade would occur less than two weeks after Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor announced that he preferred not to part with Garnett, for more than a decade the cornerstone of his franchise. Miller did not return calls seeking comment yesterday, but he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that rumors involving Garnett opened his client to the possibility of changing addresses.

"Everything that had gone on in the past probably was an awakening for him," Miller said. "He's fiercely loyal. He loves the team and the organization and the state of Minnesota and the fans. But I think everything that happened over the last two months probably was more of an awakening that Minnesota is looking to move in a different direction and it's time for him to look at his options, as well."