You remember the scream. That "Anything is possible!" moment after the Celtics took down the Lakers in '08. Kevin Garnett was the soul of that era. But if you look at his feet during those championship highlights, he wasn't wearing a Swoosh. He was in Adidas.
It’s one of the weirdest "what-ifs" in sneaker history. Why did the most versatile, terrifyingly intense big man of his generation walk away from the biggest brand on the planet?
Honestly, the Nike Kevin Garnett basketball shoes era was short, but it was electric. It lasted from his rookie year in 1995 until 2000. In that tiny window, Nike and KG dropped three official signature models and a handful of shoes that were signatures in everything but name. If you were hooping in the late 90s, you knew the Air Garnett line was the peak of "cool" for anyone who didn't want to just copy Mike.
The Birth of the Air Garnett 1
When KG jumped straight from high school to the pros, Nike knew they had a unicorn. He was 6'11" but moved like a guard. He needed a shoe that wouldn't crumble under a big man's weight but stayed light enough for a guy who loved to run the floor.
The Air Garnett 1 (1998) was... fine. It was a very "Timberwolves" shoe. Lots of black, white, and those deep forest greens. It had a clean leather upper and featured a visible heel Air unit. It didn't reinvent the wheel, but it established "The Big Ticket" as a brand.
Then things got weird with the Air Garnett 2.
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Most people don't even remember the 2s. Even KG didn't seem to love them. They had this wavy, asymmetrical design on the side that looked like a topographical map or something. He barely wore them on court. In the sneaker world, if the athlete doesn't wear the shoe, the shoe is dead on arrival.
Why the Air Garnett 3 Still Costs a Fortune
If you go on eBay or StockX right now, you’ll see the Nike Kevin Garnett basketball shoes from 1999—the Air Garnett 3—commanding some wild prices. We're talking $300 to $600 depending on the condition.
Why? Because they are beautiful.
Designers Aaron Cooper and Eric Avar (the guy who basically built Kobe’s line) looked at the Air Max Plus running shoe—you know, the "Tn" ones with the veins—and said, "Let's do that for basketball."
The Garnett 3 had this incredible gradient mesh on the side. It looked like it was moving even when it was sitting on a shelf. It used Tuned Air in the heel and Zoom Air in the forefoot. It was arguably the best-performing big man shoe ever made at that point.
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One tiny detail most people miss: the original outsole had "OBF" molded into the rubber. That stood for "Original Block Family," KG's inner circle. It was a personal touch that made the shoe feel like it belonged to him.
The Breakup: It Wasn't Just About Money
By 2000, KG was the face of the Nike Flightposite 2. It was a futuristic, zippered-up space boot. It was supposed to be his next signature, but the relationship was already fraying.
KG wanted his own "OBF" clothing line. He wanted more creative control. He felt like Nike was too "controlling"—his words, not mine. He felt like they were trying to fit him into the Jordan mold, and KG was never going to be a corporate "Be Like Mike" guy. He was a rebel.
So, he walked.
He went to AND1, which at the time was the scrappy underdog of the streetball world. It was a shocker. Imagine a Top 5 NBA player today leaving Nike to sign with a brand you mostly see at Walmart (though AND1 was much cooler back then).
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The "Air 3" Problem
Here is the annoying part for collectors. Nike still owns the designs for those shoes, but they don't own the "Garnett" name rights anymore.
When Nike decided to retro the Garnett 3 in 2009 and 2015, they couldn't call it the Garnett 3. They had to call it the Nike Air 3 LE.
They also had to scrub his name off the tongue. They replaced "Garnett" with a generic "Basketball" logo. They even took "OBF" off the bottom and replaced it with a Swoosh. To a purist, it felt like a shell of the original. They even swapped the high-end Tuned Air for basic Max Air.
What to Look for if You're Buying Today
If you’re hunting for a pair of Nike Kevin Garnett basketball shoes, you have to be careful. Original pairs from 1999 are almost certainly "uncourtworthy" now. The glue dries out, and the midsoles will crumble the second you try to do a defensive slide.
- Check the Midsoles: If you see any cracking or "cloudiness" in the Air unit, they are for display only.
- The 2015 Retros: These are your best bet for actually wearing. They look 95% like the originals, even if the tech is slightly downgraded.
- The Flightposite 2 Connection: If you find the "Big Ticket" colorway of the Flightposite 2 (the ones with the metallic green/blue), those are the spiritual successor to his Nike line.
Final Insights
The Nike/Garnett era was a lightning strike. It gave us some of the most aggressive, tech-heavy designs of the late 90s. While he eventually found success with Adidas and Anta, those early Nike years captured a specific kind of raw energy that the sneaker world hasn't really seen since.
If you're looking to start a collection, skip the 1s and 2s. Focus on finding a clean pair of the Garnett 3s—or the "Air 3" retros. They represent the moment when basketball shoes stopped looking like heavy boots and started looking like high-performance sports cars.
Grab the 2015 retro if you want a piece of history you can actually lace up on a Saturday morning. Just don't expect "The Big Ticket" to be written on the box.