Kevin Garnett wanted to attend college at 36, live in a dorm and have Showtime film it

We now know the greatest television program that never happened: a Kevin Garnett reality show as he went through college.

Garnett almost retired after his time with the Celtics came to an end, needing Paul Pierce to convince him into accepting a trade to the Brooklyn Nets. During a trip to China while thinking his career was over, Garnett pitched the idea of a television show that followed him as he went to college for the first time.

We can credit The Vertical’s Chris Mannix for this story, who told it on his podcast Tuesday.

“He was on a plane to China with the head of Showtime Sports, and he went up to this guy -- Stephen Espinoza’s his name. He went up to Stephen and said, ‘I’ve got an idea for a show. How about I go to college?’ KG came out of high school, he never went to college. He wanted to go to college, live in the dorm, and let Showtime shoot it.”

Mannix’s guest, Zach LaVine, thought it was a great idea as long as the cameras could follow him around uncensored. But that’s the beauty of Showtime or HBO — they can do something like that, and it would legitimately be the best reality show ever created.

Ah well. While it will probably never happen at this point, there’s something nice about knowing that this idea actually existed in real life.

(h/t MassLive)