Boston's Garnett opens camp on another mission

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Kevin Garnett hasn't had a shorter offseason. And the Boston Celtics star couldn't be happier.
Garnett typically starts working out in mid-June in preparation for the season. His routine, however, changed after he led the Celtics to their first title in 22 years in 2008. Although Garnett's regimen was cut short by a month and a half, he will be in typically great shape for the 2008-09 season, and dreaming of another short summer.
"It's going to be the biggest challenge," Garnett said of repeating yesterday while promoting the NBA 2K9 video game. "But I'm telling you, man, I want to take time to enjoy these next four years. That's not to say I'm going to let up or anything like that. But I'm going to go at this [because] I like how this felt. I need a couple more short summers like this.
"Give me a couple more short summers where I feel like with this team, [we] set our mark. Every Celtics team sort of had their run, and its multiples. It's only right that we set our mark in this league like Timmy [Duncan] has done it with the Spurs, Kobe [Bryant] and Shaq [O'Neal] have done it [with the Lakers]. This is my opportunity to do that. I'm trying to take advantage of it fully right now."
The Celtics played more postseason games than any team in NBA history last season. Also, the well-traveled Celtics had training camp and preseason games in Rome and London last year. After the Celtics won the title, a tired Garnett knew it was important to unlace his sneakers for a while. The 2008 Defensive Player of the Year celebrated with teammates in Las Vegas in late June. Garnett said he also used July as "a vacation."