MIAMI -- Another week, another potential NBA farewell tour swings through AmericanAirlines Arena. Last week, it was Kobe Bryant. This time, it's Kevin Garnett who could be delivering his South Florida swan song in the midst of his 21st NBA season.

With Garnett approaching the end of his career, several Heat players reflected on moments with the future Hall of Famer they'll never forget as the Minnesota Timberwolves visit Tuesday for what could be Garnett's final game in Miami.

Amar'e Stoudemire has the longest-running history with Garnett.

It started two months into Stoudemire's rookie season with Phoenix when the Suns played in Minnesota on Dec. 30, 2002. Seven years earlier, Garnett revived the trend of high school standouts jumping directly to the NBA. And Stoudemire was the latest off the assembly line.

It would have been a major rookie mistake then for him to anticipate any sort of natural bond with Garnett, who is about as cuddly and approachable on the court as barbed wire. Stoudemire instead got caught in the crossfire between Garnett and Suns point guard Stephon Marbury, who had recently left the Timberwolves in a bitter breakup.

"I remember Garnett and Steph had something going on between them, some words back and forth," Stoudemire recalled Monday of the 2002 game. "And I noticed KG was kind of talking to himself but looking at me. I was confused. I was like, 'Hold on, are you talking to me or you talking to yourself?' And Steph was like, 'Yeah, that's why Amar'e is better than you when you were this age.'"

Stoudemire, who had just turned 20, was in a tough spot. He appreciated Marbury's confidence in him, but he also wanted no part of Garnett's on-court craziness.

"And all of a sudden, Garnett is talking to me and I'm talking back to him and it's wild," Stoudemire said with a snicker. "Steph was trying to get me motivated and get under Garnett's skin. I got caught in the mix."

All these years later, Stoudemire still proudly considers it his "welcome to the NBA moment" when he dropped 38 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks on the way to rookie of the year honors. Garnett tallied 22 points, 14 rebounds and five assists in Minnesota's 104-98 win.

"But that's when I knew I was as competitive as he was," Stoudemire said. "He was always real vocal toward me, a big-time trash-talker. But that was huge. It jump-started my career."

Father Time has now limited Garnett to a reduced role, but his impact and influence still resonate throughout the league. He remains the only player in NBA history to amass at least 25,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 5,000 assists, 1,500 steals and 1,500 blocks.

In Sunday's loss to Memphis, Garnett showed flashes of the versatility that remains in his game. He made all four of his shots and finished with eight points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in 24 minutes. He also reached yet another milestone in that game to become the fifth player in league history to log at least 50,000 career minutes.

"I'm sure someday when I'm in a rocking chair, having a cigar or something, thinking about what I've done, I'm sure it will make some sense to me," Garnett once said about his career.

Garnett's dynamic skill set made sense to Heat forward Chris Bosh from an early age. Bosh won't forget the numerous vicious encounters he has had with Garnett. But he also appreciates Garnett's legacy, one Bosh insists is largely defined by how Garnett transformed the traditional power forward spot to the do-it-all hybrid position that dominates today's NBA.

"He was an inspiration for me to be here," Bosh said. "When I was in high school, when they called me [Baby] KG, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. [For] a skinny guys like me, he was the first guy I saw that kind of had the body type that I did get the rebound, block a shot, take it down, finish, pick and pop, hit a jumper, take them to the post, give them everything they want."

The spirit of fierce competition would never allow Bosh to tell Garnett these things personally. Besides, if Bosh tried, Garnett is more likely to respond with a head-butt rather than a handshake or hug. But Bosh admires Garnett for setting the modern mold.

"I was like, 'I can do that, too, if he can do that -- and he's in the league,'" Bosh continued. "I'd see [Garnett's games] and go straight to the playground, and I'm practicing my moves. Back then, people were saying, '[Traditional] bigs need to do this.' I'm saying, 'Nah, I saw KG doing it [this way] and this is what I'm doing.' And his intensity is just, I don't know how he did it or how he does it. But he's a very intense guy."

That intensity has sometimes crossed the line throughout Garnett's career, especially during his time with the Boston Celtics teams he led to a championship in 2008. Heat forward Udonis Haslem has been in plenty of those run-ins with Garnett, trading elbows and barbs.

There was the Heat-Celtics playoff series in 2009-10, when a fight nearly broke out on the court with Garnett in the middle of the skirmish. Former Heat forward Quentin Richardson made headlines afterward when he referred to Garnett and Paul Pierce as "a bunch of actresses." After Bosh and LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade in Miami the following season, the teams met in what seemed an annual rite of passage on the way through the conference playoffs.

At one point, Haslem responded to Pierce and Garnett's comments and antics by referring to the Celtics as "studio gangsters." Scars still linger from those days, although Garnett's role has shifted in his return to Minnesota to mentor the rebuilding Timberwolves.

"I got a lot of respect for what he's done over his career, but we don't particularly see eye to eye," Haslem said Monday. "Words passed between us all and I don't forget. I'm blessed to have the memory of an elephant. He's going down as one of the best, and he'll be in the Hall of Fame. You can't take nothing away from that. I ain't no hater. But we don't see eye to eye. I don't care if it's your first game or your last. I only play one way."

For Wade, the tenacity Garnett brought during those playoff battles forced Miami to match Boston's mental toughness. The Heat's breakthrough moment during the first of their consecutive championship runs came when they fought back from a 3-2 series deficit on the road in the conference finals to beat Boston en route to the 2012 title.

Garnett personifies the struggle the Heat needed to overcome in order to thrive.

"Those battles with Boston, man, those were great," Wade said. "That's what I think about when you talk about Kevin Garnett, no matter where else he's been. They kept knocking us out and then we finally got over that hump. Those were the toughest series we went through, and they prepared us to be champions. We always gave him and them the respect for that."