Top cards of Kevin Garnett and KAT 10 years after they joined forces
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Ten years ago, Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) was gearing up for his rookie year, while Garnett was on his swan song with the team that drafted him. Both big power forwards, with everyone hoping Garnett could show KAT the ropes of the NBA early on so he could hit the ground running. Sports Illustrated highlighted the two with the cover of their 2015 NBA Preview edition.
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While the 2015-2016 season for the Timberwolves was not a successful one (they finished 29-53 and missed the playoffs for the 12th consecutive year), it made for a good storyline.
With Garnett nearly 10 years removed from retirement and KAT in New York, here are a few of their best cards from their days in Minnesota.
Kevin Garnett | 1997-98 Metal Universe PMG
One of Garnett's top selling card is his red, numbered to 90, 1997-98 Precious Metal Gems (PMG) from Metal Universe, graded a BGS 7. With the incredible rarity of these cards, they can have a modest to low grade and still reel in a premium on the re-sale market. According to Card Ladder, this card has a single recorded sale of $29,400 on August 6, 2022.
Kevin Garnett | 1995-96 Topps Draft Redemption
There are not a whole lot of very valuable rookie cards of Kevin Garnett. While it could be he was drafted in the junk wax era, or the fact that he was one of the early high school draftees the card companies chose not to make much rookie stuff for him.
Either way, his top rookie card, according to Card Ladder, is the 1995-96 Topps Draft Redemption. The draft redemption was a program by Topps, if you pulled a certain insert, you'd physically mail in the card for the specific rookie.
Graded a BGS Gem Mint 9.5, this card is fairly modest. The top sale, according to Card Ladder, was for $202.50 that sold on September 15, 2005. The last sale, still nine years ago, was for $196.50 and occurred December 13, 2016.
Karl-Anthony Towns | 2019 Panini One-and-One
One of KAT's top cards isn't graded. According to sales history on Card Ladder, his 2019 Panini One-and-One encased auto, numbered to just five, sold just twice on the same day. It was unclear if this happened to be the same card or not. But the two sales occurred on February 22, 2021. One went for $1,536 and the other went for $1,699.99.
Karl-Anthony Towns | 2015-16 Panini Excalibur Kaboom
Who doesn't like a Kaboom? And if your a fan of KAT, his rookie Kaboom from Panini Excalibur is the top piece to have.
Graded a BGS Pristine 10, this card can command a four figure return on the resale market. According to Card Ladder, this one last sold for $1,273 on May 11, 2025. Even in the post-covid era, this card tends to retain its value. The peak sale of this card happened on June 1, 2023 and was only about $50 higher than the latest one when it sold for $1,320.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz