After 21 seasons, the Big Ticket’s career has officially expired.

Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett is retiring.

“I’m just thankful, man. I can’t ever put that into words. I’m just thankful. I’m just thankful for everybody and the love. I never would have thought that people love me like this, but for it to be reality is just something else, man,” Garnett said in a video he posted to his Instagram account on Friday. “We going to be all right, man. I don’t expect this to be easy, but so far so good. Stay tuned.”

“Farewell,” the screen read at the end of the video. “Thank you for the journey.”

Garnett is the greatest player in the Timberwolves’ young history and one of the NBA’s best power forwards of all time. His 21 NBA seasons played tied him for the league record, matching Kevin Willis and Robert Parish.

“It has been a real joy to watch KG come into the league as a young man and watch him develop his skills to become one of the very best in the NBA,” Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said in a statement released by the club Friday evening.

Garnett, who moved straight to the NBA from high school (Farragut Academy in Chicago), possessed a versatility previously unseen in the league. He was one of the first big men able to switch defensive assignments and capably cover guards, while also dominating defensively in the paint. The Wolves chose him with the fifth overall pick in the 1995 draft.

He’s the only player in NBA history to record six straight seasons averaging at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists (1999-2005) and finished his career 17th on the league’s all-time scoring list (26,071), ninth in rebounding (14,662) and 17th in blocked shots (2,037).

His crowning season in Minnesota came in 2003-04, when he was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player while leading the Timberwolves to their first and only Western Conference Finals appearance. In a Game 7 win over Sacramento in the Western Conference semifinals, Garnett logged 32 points, 21 rebounds, five blocks and four steals. He scored 13 straight points for Minnesota in the fourth quarter.

But that was the end of the good times in Minnesota. Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell, Garnett’s sidekicks, left town after a disappointing 2004-05 season in which Minnesota missed the playoffs. Garnett played two more seasons after that in Minnesota, with the Timberwolves finishing under .500 both times with a limited roster.

In 2007, Garnett was dealt to Boston, where he teamed up with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to win the 2008 NBA championship.

Moments after winning the elusive title, he famously shouted, “Anything is possible!”

Tom Thibodeau, the Timberwolves’ coach and president of basketball operations, was an associate head coach with the Celtics for Garnett’s first three seasons in Boston. He said Garnett brought the types of passion and leadership to Boston that were evident for years in Minnesota.

“Just the way his leadership, the words were fine, but it was more his actions. It was how he practiced, it was how he played,” Thibodeau said this week. “In Boston, he was still a dominant player. The thing that I respect about what he did there is he probably sacrificed more than anybody. He could have been the leading scorer there very easily. He ended up being, I think, the third leading scorer, but I think he set the tone for all our guys to sacrifice … so that’s what made it all work.

“He was obviously great defensively, but he was so unselfish,” Thibodeau said. “Kevin would never take a bad shot. He knew when to shoot and he knew when to pass. When your star is like that, it makes everyone else be like that. The year before, Boston had been in the lottery, and it was a tough year to go from a team that had lost I believe it was 18 games in a row to a championship in one season. I thought that Kevin set the tone, along with Paul and Ray. But it was Kevin’s willingness to sacrifice that really, I thought, led us to that championship.”

Garnett returned to Minnesota midway through the 2014-15 season, when Flip Saunders acquired him in a trade from Brooklyn, but Garnett’s knee issues kept him from ever contributing much on the court in the past year and a half. He played just five games for Minnesota at the end of the 2014-15 season after the trade and played just 38 games last season, averaging 3.2 points and 3.9 rebounds in 14.6 minutes. He was inactive for the final 37 games last season.

Still, he provided value in other areas. Karl-Anthony Towns, the 2015-16 NBA Rookie of the Year, touted the importance of Garnett’s leadership on many occasions.

“Thank you for everything my brother,” Towns said in an Instagram post. “You know how much I’m gonna miss playing with you and just simply having you around. Congrats on having one of the greatest careers the game has ever seen. We talked. I know what I must do. I’ll take it from here.”

“Hands down one of the best to ever play this game,” Wolves’ point guard Ricky Rubio said in an Instagram post. “I learned what hard work really means. Great teammate. It was a dream come true to play next to you. What an amazing career the one you had. I enjoyed watching you play every single game. Thank you again BigTix 21.”

In 2015, Garnett called coming back to Minnesota “a perfect ending.” But these past few months seemed to be anything but that.

Garnett inked a two-year, $16 million deal last offseason, but his primary attachment to the organization was Saunders, who tragically passed away last fall after a battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The question of whether Garnett would return this season hung over the organization throughout the summer. Would he return? Would he not? Thibodeau deferred the question to Taylor, who was waiting on an answer from Garnett.

It came, finally, definitively, on Friday — four days before the start of training camp in Minnesota.

The Associated Press reported the Timberwolves and Garnett came to agreement on a buyout Friday, according to a source. Garnett will be waived by the Wolves and collect his entire $8 million salary for next season. That is the same approach the San Antonio Spurs took with Tim Duncan.

Garnett’s retirement, fittingly, comes in the same offseason that marked the end of the road for Duncan and Lakers guard Kobe Bryant. The three — all champions who shaped this generation of the NBA — can potentially enter the Hall of Fame together in the Class of 2021.

Garnett’s effect on the game stretched far beyond his patented baseline turnaround jump shot. He brought an unmatched intensity to the court, with a propensity to talk trash with his opponents, regardless of the stakes at play.

He was the first player drafted out of high school since 1975, and his instant successes paved the way for players such as like Bryant, Tracy McGrady and LeBron James to make a similar leap in the years that followed. He retires as the Wolves’ all-time leader in games played (970), points (19,201), rebounds (10,718), blocked shots (1,590), assists (4,216), steals (1,315), double-doubles (607) and triple-doubles (16).

“I have treasured the opportunity to see him grow as a leader.” Taylor said. “I wish him continued success in the next chapter of his life. His Minnesota fans will always cherish the memories he has provided.”