Below is the content of an e-mail I sent to a co-worker who agreed to be a Timberwolves fan if I would in turn be a Bulls fan. I considered this a fair exchange and prepped this little run down of the franchise's history for his benefit.
1.) The team is 18 years old this year which means it’s old enough to vote and smoke but not to drink legally. I was 9 when the team came into existence, drafted Pooh Richardson and played their first season pushed up against the bleachers in the Metrodome. Our first win was against the Charles Barkley-lead Philadelphia 76ers and I was there. Our first home game was against Michael Jordan and the Bulls. We didn’t win that game.
2.) The following media members were ours first.
Kevin Harlan
Michelle Tafoya
It gives us a little smile to see that they succeeded coming out of our small market. So well, in fact, that no one knows they were ours first.
3.) The following players were ours at one point.
Pooh Richardson
Luc Longley
Stephon Marbury
Donyell Marshall
Chauncey Billups
Any mention of their success as players on playoff teams after leaving our team is subconsciously foot-noted in our minds with the words “Ex-Timberwolf.”
4.) The less said about Gerald Glass, Felton Spencer, Marlon Maxey, Will Avery or Ndudi Ebi the better.
5.) Isaiah Rider warrants mentioning if only to prove there was someone even more screwed up than Stephon Marbury whom we placed all of our hopes into at one point.
6.) Christian Laettner warrants mentioning if only to illustrate the Wolve’s ability to get draft pick X+1 when there are X number of sure things in the draft. Laettner was after Shaq-Alonzo in 1992, Rider went after Webber-Bradley-Penny-Mashburn in 1993 and Marshall went after Robinson-Kidd-Hill in 1994.
Other than Bradley, all of those guys were an All-Star at least once if not multiple times. Laettner is the only one of our guys who made the All-Star Game and he was an ex-Wolf by then. As such, we’re all a little troubled by picking third in this year’s draft.
7.) Mr. Timberwolf is Doug West. He was the original Timberwolf who stuck with the team for the longest and we were all shocked when he was traded for Anthony Peeler and then even more shocked when it was revealed he was an alcoholic. I mean, if he’d just said something we would’ve got him some help and not loved him any less.
8.) The greatest accomplishment in Wolves history pre-1995 was when Micheal Williams (notice the Dwyane-esque alternative spelling) made 97 FT in a row to break and set the “consecutive FT w/o a miss” record.
9.) The career leaders in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers, personal fouls, field goals, field goal attempts, games and minutes played pre-1995 were Doug West, Christian Laettner, Pooh Richardson, Doug West, Christian Laettner, Christian Laettner, Doug West, Doug West, Doug West, Doug West and Doug West respectively. (See #7)
10.) The second greatest day in Timberwolves history was June 28th, 1995 when the Timberwolves drafted Kevin Garnett out of Farragut Academy High School in Chicago. He then became the franchise’s career leader in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, personal fouls, field goals, field goal attempts, games and minutes played. Often this is by a large margin.
11.) Kevin Garnett was and is a superior player to Tim Duncan. It’s arguable if you’re an impartial fan. It’s completely inarguable if you are a Timberwolves fan and anyone who believes otherwise doesn’t see KG on a game-to-game basis. If Garnett had the same supporting cast as Duncan and vice versa, we’d be talking about Tim Duncan never living up to his potential. For further evidence, examine the career of Rasho Nesterovic when he played next to KG and then when he played next to Tim.
12.) The most painful day in Timberwolves history was May 20th, 2000 the day Malik Sealy was killed by a drunk driver who was driving down the wrong side of a divided highway. Sealy was driving home from KG’s 24th birthday party and to this day Malik’s number 2 is the only number retired by the Wolves. That they guy who killed him was recently arrested again for DWI makes us smolderingly mad.
13.) The second most painful day in Timberwolves history is the day Marbury was traded to New Jersey, Sam Casell went to Milwaukee and we got Terrell Brandon. Remember when Terrell Brandon was considered an elite point guard in the NBA? Yeah, that all disappeared into knee surgeries and lost opportunities in Minnesota. More importantly, it broke up the KG-Marbury duo who honestly had fun playing together and were perfectly suited to each others games. Marbury just didn’t want to be second banana to KG.
14.) #s 12 and 13 are the things which make KG’s career actually Large “T” Tragic. Something changed in the ultimate teammate each of those days.
15.) The Joe Smith Debacle didn’t cost the Timberwolves as much as you’d believe. Yes, we lost three first round picks (The penalty was originally five and then two were returned) but the only player we actually lost out on was Zach Randolph in 2001 and he plays the same position as KG. The way it hurt the Wolves was we didn’t have 1st rounders to throw in on trades for veterans to surround KG.
16.) The third and fourth greatest days in Timberwolves history were July 25th and 28th, 2003 when Glen Taylor, a man who made his millions selling greeting cards, pushed his chips to the center of the table and said, “I’d like Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell.” In return the Wolves gave up Terrell Brandon, Joe Smith, Anthony Peeler and Marc Jackson. The Timberwolves then embarked on the greatest season in franchise history winning 58 games, taking the 1 seed in the West, busting out of the first round and winning KG the league MVP award.
17.) The greatest game in franchise history was during the playoffs that year, Game 3 of the second round series against Sacramento. Each side kept trading blows until Trenton Hassell got a hand on a last second OT jumper by Peja Stojakovic. I literally am getting goose bumps right now. This also doubled as the greatest game of KG’s entire career as he submitted a 30-15 right when his team needed him to play huge.
18.) The greatest day in Timberwolves history is May 19th, 2004 when Timberwolves beat the Sacramento in Game 7 of that same series to advance to the Western Conference Finals. The Wolves won 83-80 behind 32-20 from KG, 23 points from Cassell and another 14 from Sprewell. The eerie coincidence is it was exactly four years to the day from the birthday party that ended with Malik Sealy losing his life. In that moment, the franchise had never been so high and yet its history was extremely close at hand.
19.) Things kind of fell apart from that day. The Wolves lost to the Lakers in six game, Cassell and Sprewell both acted pouty when the Wolves wouldn’t give them exorbitant amounts of cash, the Wolves did give exorbitant amounts of cash to guys like Troy Hudson and Trenton Hassell and things weren’t going to work out. When The KG Trade came it was like both sides happily walking away from a marriage. The love was still there but we just were headed in two different directions.
20.) In fact, the sting of the KG Trade was dulled a bit when eleven months later Boston won the title and KG had a little mini-breakdown on live television. When the words “This is For ‘Sota,” escaped his mouth every true fan felt a tingle up their spine, every “KG was better than Duncan” argument gained that much more credibility and every moment spent loving KG was validated.
There is only one other Minnesota athlete in my entire life that the people of Minnesota loved as much as KG and that was Kirby Puckett. Some may have been bitter that KG couldn’t bring the hardware to us the way Kirby had twice. But deep down we were all happy that KG that, even if he got his championship somewhere else, KG was still thinking of us first.
21.) The future of the franchise looks good. We have a soon-to-be elite player in Al Jefferson who is good enough that our front office allegedly rebuffed the Bulls offer of the #1 pick for him, Randy Foye who any Wolves fan worth his salt will argue is statistically equal to Brandon Roy when healthy and some honest to goodness cap space coming in 2009.
Add in whomever we end up with after the draft (Mayo Clinic! Mayo Clinic!) to a bunch of other young guys like Rashad McCants, Corey Brewer, Ryan Gomes, etc. and we’re going to be a team to follow. Maybe we won’t win a championship or even go that far into the playoffs. But we’re at least going to be interesting to watch.
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