Kobe Bryant on Kevin Garnett’s Retirement Announcement: "I Loved Every Minute I Competed Against You"

The Black Mamba shows love to The Big Ticket upon his curtain call after 21 years in the NBA.

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Elite basketball players tend to hold other elite players in the highest regard whenever they speak about or see each other. Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett held this mutual respect for 20 years, and both are now on the other side of the game as retirees. After KG officially announced his retirement from the NBA on Friday, it marks the end of one of the greatest eras in NBA history that had these two of its biggest stars to ever set foot on the hardwood.

On Saturday, Kobe tweeted his love for competing against his fellow future Hall of Famer after closing the curtain on his 21-year career in the league.

The 40-year-old Garnett was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves as the No. 5 overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, and 37-year-old Bryant was drafted No. 13 by the Hornets before being traded to the Lakers in the 1996 draft. He and Bryant were two players to begin the late 1990s through early 2000s trend of high school basketball players to declare for the NBA Draft. In 2005, the NBA put an age limit at 19 years of age and one year removed from high school for players to forego their college eligibility and enter the NBA.

The Big Ticket and The Black Mamba faced off against each other in the 2008 and 2010 NBA Finals, where their teams the Celtics and Lakers won titles in those respective years.

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