MINNEAPOLIS — Kevin Garnett is a member of the Timberwolves once again.

After nearly a decade of estrangement from the franchise over disputes with former owner Glen Taylor, Garnett has rejoined the organization that drafted him, one for which he played in 14 of his 21 NBA seasons.

His official title is Team Ambassador.

The mending of fences between Garnett and the Wolves also paves the way for the team to retire Garnett’s No. 21 jersey, although a date hasn’t been chosen yet. Garnett has already had his No. 5 jersey retired by the Celtics. He won an NBA title with Boston in 2008.

“I always thought he should be there,” Taylor said. “That he wanted to wait until now is fine. It’s his decision. Overall, I like the guy, respect the guy, and I’m happy for him.”

Garnett will have a role on the business side of the Wolves that involves fan engagement and content development. Owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have made it a priority to build a relationship with the Hall of Famer after Garnett had a falling out with Taylor following the death of former coach and team executive Flip Saunders in 2015.

The connection between Lore, Rodriguez and Garnett took time to develop over the last four years before Garnett agreed to this role. But from the time they joined the ownership group, Lore and Rodriguez made it a point to build a relationship with Garnett and spoke publicly about their desire to see him back with the team in some capacity.

“He’s the [greatest of all time] in Minnesota, and we have a tremendous respect for KG,” Lore said in July. “We would love to get close to him, and we know the fans want to see that and we want to see that, too.”

New role for KG

As part of the agreement, Garnett will attend select games during the season. His role will not be on the basketball side of the operation; he will not be advising the coaching staff or the front office. The jersey retirement was a key part of the agreement to Garnett back, with Kelly Laferriere, the chief business officer of A-Rod Corp. and the Wolves’ senior advisor to ownership, helping to bring the sides together behind the scenes.

“He deserves it,” Wolves forward Naz Reid said of the jersey retirement. “All the work he put in. Hall of Famer obviously. It speaks to what he’s done for the organization.”

Garnett rejoined the Wolves as a player in 2015 and 2016 to close out his career, but after Saunders’ death, Garnett said Taylor, who owns the Minnesota Star Tribune, went back on an agreement he said the two had made for Garnett to join the team’s ownership group. That fractured his relationship with the team, and Garnett has only occasionally come to games at Target Center since.

Taylor said in an interview Thursday that their differences “never changed my feelings toward KG.”

“If he can help the franchise — and I care about this franchise dearly — if he could be of help to them, that’s more power to him, to the franchise and to our fans,” Taylor said.

Minnesota memories

Garnett said in a 2020 interview with the Athletic that he “won’t forgive” Taylor for what happened. He also would not participate in any jersey retirement the team attempted to have while Taylor was still owner. Taylor said he had reached out to Garnett “five different years” about retiring his jersey, but Garnett didn’t want to do it.

Taylor, who still retains courtside seats as part of his agreement with Lore and Rodriguez, said he would like to attend Garnett’s jersey retirement ceremony.

“I’ll just wait and see if the date works out,” he said.

When Garnett was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class, he said: “Nothing is with regret. Everything I learned in Minnesota, I was able to carry with me to Boston to make myself a better player and better teammate.

“Minnesota took a chance on me. I don’t have any regrets. I thank Glen, I thank Kevin [McHale], I thank Flip Saunders with actually blessing me with the opportunity of being drafted and giving me the canvas to actually come out here and show the world.”

In a news release Thursday, Garnett said: “I’m thrilled to be back home. Minnesota is where it all began, where I was young, hungry and learning how to compete at the highest level.”

Requests for interviews with the new owners and Garnett made through the Wolves were declined.

The road back

Garnett expressed interest in being part of an ownership group that bought the team when Taylor eventually reached a deal with Lore and Rodriguez in 2021. After saying Lore and Rodriguez did not fulfill terms of the ownership agreement, Taylor tried to retain majority control of the team via arbitration in 2024 and 2025.

Rodriguez and Lore prevailed in arbitration in a 2-1 ruling in February, and Taylor eventually sold controlling ownership to Lore and Rodriguez in June. That allowed for the mending of fences between Garnett and the Wolves.

“Just off his energy and things he’s done in the past, I’m sure it will be good for us, the organization and the fans,” Reid said. “That’ll be good for the fans to see him come back. I think we’ll get a lot of juice from that.”

Garnett is the only Wolves player to win the NBA MVP award in the team’s uniform, capturing it in 2004, the same year the team made its first Western Conference finals appearance.

The Wolves drafted Garnett, 49, with the No. 5 overall pick in 1995 and made eight consecutive playoff appearances with him before trading him to Boston in 2007. After that trade, they reached the playoffs only once once before drafting Anthony Edwards in 2020. They have now reached the postseason in four straight years and the Western Conference finals in back-to-back seasons.

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