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He singlehandedly made the Celtics great.
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He was the first to suggest that the team is still Pierce's. And he continues to suggest that they can not be good without all three and the other 9 on the court/bench.
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These two things cannot both be true. If Garnett singlehandedly makes the Celtics great, then by definition they can still be good without the rest of the team.
I have a lot of respect for Garnett, and though he's a legitimate MVP candidate he is, like Steve Nash, over-rated. The most succinct measure of him was made, IMO, by of all people, Scottie Pippen.
"He's very productive but unproductive. He gets you all the stats you want, but at the end of the day his points don't have an impact on the game. He plays with a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm, but in the last five minutes of the game he ain't the same player as in the first five."
Garnett has demonstrated this by disappearing at the end of close games this year as well(Detroit, Cleveland, etc.) and as long as that's the case, he's at best no more important to the Celtics than Pierce is(who should be and probably eventually will become their go-to guy at the end of games, something they clearly haven't figured out yet).