It’s a gorgeous, almost ghostly image, at once impossible (it takes a moment to see why) and perfectly natural:

The once and future kings of Target Center, separated by 20 years and a hand check. It gave us the chills.

And it made us wonder: Who wins?

To be sure, Karl-Anthony Towns, promising as he is, has a long way to go before he’s in the conversation to take on Kevin Garnett in peak form. Ask a 40-year-old Garnett today and he might tell you he can take Towns right now. Related Articles Timberwolves head into team bubble excited to spend time together, on and off the court

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But the KG squaring off across time and memory here isn’t in peak form yet. He’s too skinny. He still has hair. That makes for a fairer question: Which kid did it better?

As a rookie, it was Towns, and it wasn’t close. Garnett came straight out of high school and didn’t become a regular starter until midway through his first season. Towns was ready to go out of the box, courtesy of John Calipari’s finishing school, and it shows:

Start them both at age 20, Garnett’s sophomore season, and they’re much more similar — in many respects, strikingly so:

From here, that looks like that slimmest of edges to Towns (it’s not quite as slim when you account for Garnett playing nearly six fewer minutes per game).

We played the whole cross-generational season out over 82 games, measuring the “winner” of each matchup using Game Score, a broad measure of contributions. It’s a back-and-forth affair:

Towns ultimately comes out ahead, aided by better numbers and better health (Garnett missed five games at age 20).

We’ll never have the pleasure of finding out what a young Garnett would have to say about it. But we have the privilege of watching someone who might turn out to be better.