I am a HUGE basketball fan.
Always have been, especially since my mothers' parents raised me on the Celtics/Lakers rivalry of the 80's.
He was a Celtics fan. She was still pining for the days when they were the MINNEAPOLIS Lakers;
back when their team colors and nickname actually made sense.
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson set my world ON-FIRE.
They were competetive.
They were clutch.
They made their teammates better, and they were winners.

As a Minnesota-sports-loving Rube, it's been a difficult basketball odessey with my alma mater
(the Golden Gophers) and even more difficult since the Timberwolves inception in 1989.

Like the Gophers have seldom scored any great HS prospects, (even Minnesota's top talent leaves for
National college campuses), the Wolves have always had the WORST luck with their NBA personnel, short of their great gamble on certain Hall-of-Famer and Mr. All-Time-Timberwolf, Kevin Garnett, back in 1995.

In fact, our very first pick in the 1989 expansion draft was for a player (former Detroit Piston and NBA champ Rick Mahorn) who out-right REFUSED to come play here.

Remember the 1992 NBA draft?
It was a two-person draft and the Wolves, despite being THE WORST team in the NBA,
with a meager 15 wins and ZERO prospects to build around, somehow, Minnesota wound up with
the third pick in the draft, missing-out on the two future Hall-of-Famers and future NBA champs; Shaquille O'Neil and Alonzo Mourning.
Instead we did the only thing we could do at that point, picking the elite-NCAA-all-timer Christian Laettner.
This turned out to be a complete waste that left our franchise mired in the NBA doldrums for many years to follow.