You can't underestimate the impact a player like that must have on the rest of his teammates, especially the younger guys.
I can just imagine, when you come out of college as a young hot shot, I can see how the cockiness could get the better of you.
But then you rock up to practice, and you have this 36-37 year old hall of famer who is showing up with 100% effort and energy at every practice, fighting through all the pain. It would be so hard for you to see that guy busting his butt like that, and to not do the same yourself...just out of pure respect.
You'd have to get that mentality of "[dang], this guy is already cemented in as a future hall of famer and all time great, and at his age / condition he still puts in he work every practice. How can I not do the same?".
That's why I think the Timberwolves are going to be great in the near future - because they have so much young talent on that team, and all of those guys are going to be seeing KG putting that effort in every night...and so they will feel like the have to do the same. At the end of the day this is only going to speed up the development of those players.
Then I see star players who have played for lesser quality organisations (Sacramento, Washington, etc) and I think that guys in those scenarios are so unfortunate to not have somebody like that around them to set the precedent. Those guys will need to be super hard working guys by nature to get anywhere, because they'll have no KG there to push them along.
Anyway such an inspiring quote there, and it just goes to show why Kg has had such a huge impact in this league - especially on defense. Defense is , after all, one part of the game that largely dependent on effort and energy.