Jeff: Thought For the Day

Who'll have better attendance next season: the Minnesota Lynx or the Minnesota Timberwolves?

Right now, with a top 5 player in Kevin Garnett, the Wolves are still a distant fourth on Minnesota's pro sports radar behind the Vikings, Twins, and Wild. As underwhelming as the Wolves have been, currently at 15-16 after their hot start, Minny sits just a game out of first place in the league's worst division, which, under the current playoff format, means a #3 seed in the first round. That's definitely something to play for and hope for, and yet for the umpteenth year in a row, Minnesota hasn't gotten behind its NBA team. If interest is this poor now, just wait till the coming offseason...

Kevin Garnett WILL be traded, and judging by the last three trades involving NBA superstars (Shaq, T-Mac, and Vince Carter), Minnesota will be lucky to get 50 cents on the dollar for him- and that's IF we had a competent GM (we don't, but looking around the league we're certainly not alone). I usually hate it when guys whine their way out of town, but KG deserves better than this. He's been here 11 years, has busted his ass everytime on the court, and has been more than a model citizen to boot. You can't ask for anything more out of a professional athlete than KG has given. You just can't. He has every right to demand a trade to try and get a championship somewhere else, because it's obvious it's not happening here- Kevin McHale has seen to that. (And I think that's what bothers me most about all of this: I've been screaming for years about how terrible McHale is at his job. Now people are finally starting to see the light, and instead of getting angry about it and demanding something be done, people here just throw up their hands like "Golly gee, whatareya gonna do? That Kevin McHale is just sucha nice guy doncha know!" Part of the blame needs to go on Glen Taylor too, for having unfounded loyalty for a guy that's driven his franchise into the ground. He took McHale's side and it cost us one of the league's top coaches in Flip Saunders (although don't get me wrong, I think Dwayne Casey will be a good coach), and now his loyalty to McHale is going to cost us the greatest athlete in the history of the state: and nobody seems that worried about it!)

But I digress. After Garnett goes, what are you left with? Brace yourself, this won't be pretty: first off, we won't have a first round pick, unless we get one in trade, because McHale shipped it to the Clippers ALONG WITH AN EXPIRING CONTRACT for Marko F@#$ing Jaric. The free agent crop is thin to begin with, and once KG leaves we'll turn into Utah or Atlanta North, as in good luck trying to lure free agents here, so you're going to have to overpay mediocre players just to fill out a roster. Next season's starting lineup will probably consist of Hudson, Jaric, Wally, Griffin, and some overpaid center like Nazr Mohammed, or Lorenzen Wright in the middle. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2006-07 Minnesota Timberwolves!!! Please, they'll be giving away tickets at Lynx and high school games just to fill the lower bowl.

A word to the few true Wolves fans out there: get to Target Center before May, because it's not only the last time you'll see KG in a Wolves uniform, it won't be long before this team is forced to move to Kansas City or St Louis. And you'll have Kevin McHale to blame for it, except of course, that nobody will "because ah gee he's such a nice guy!"