Barry Chin/Globe Staff Photo

Along with the excerpt from Jackie Mac's newest work, this bit of required reading was spotted over at RedsArmy.

Slam Online's Daniel Edward Rosen details the two months Kevin Garnett spent with Joe Abunassar, his longtime trainer and founder and president of Impact Basketball, working himself back into basketball shape after surgery to remove bone spurs in his knee.

Rosen writes:

Nearly every day Rudy Gay and Memphis Grizzlies teammate Kyle Lowry sluggishly entered the Impact gym at 11 a.m., they saw Garnett sitting in the weight room, catching his breath and staring around the gym. "You don't even see him work out." says Gay during a practice session at Impact earlier in September. "But then you talk to Joe and he says, 'Yeah, I've been here since 7 a.m., working out KG' ... that gives you something to learn from."

Detroit Pistons rookie Austin Daye, having trained at Impact since May, often found himself marveling at Garnett's untiring dedication to his workout. "He's a physical specimen, that man is," says Daye.