Minnesota sports fans are bursting with potential. All the fans here need is a team that they can get behind. The problem is, there haven’t been that many teams to hitch their wagons to. Go to a Minnesota Lynx game and tell me the fans here are dull, I dare you. D’Angelo Russell put out a call to the faithful here lambasting the Minnesota Timberwolves crowd, calling them “quiet-ass fans.” Before arriving in Minneapolis, Russell played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Brooklyn Nets, and Golden State Warriors. If the Timberwolves go on a dynastic run and win three championships in five years, trust me, the Wolves fans would be loud. All they need is something to root for.
The greatest Timberwolves game I’ve ever been to was on April 11, 2018. Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets marched into the Target Center for a game that would decide which of the two teams would advance to the playoffs. Both the Nuggets and Wolves held a 46-36 record. The victor would go on to face the Houston Rockets; the loser would go home.
For the Timberwolves, there was much more at stake than just a playoff berth. At the time, the Timberwolves franchise had played 13 long, middling seasons since their last postseason appearance. The organization made a big push for the playoffs the year before by installing Tom Thibodeau as the head coach and president of basketball operations. Thibodeau had brought in Jimmy Butler to help bolster the team’s playoff hopes, which worked — until it didn’t. Jimmy was a square peg being forced into the round hole that is the Timberwolves. It just wasn’t meant to be.
Beating Denver wasn’t just an opportunity to make the playoffs. It was the opportunity to make the playoffs. With so much riding on this game, the Target Center was filled to the brim. A sold-out, boisterous crowd managed to buck the typical apathy I’d grown to expect from Timberwolves fans and fill the arena with noise. So much noise. The game went into overtime. Taj Gibson put on a defensive master class against Jokic and Butler put the game away at the free-throw line.
I never went to another game that had that type of energy. Not until this year, that is.
The first signs of life flickered when Butler came back to town. Karl-Anthony Towns is the only remaining Timberwolf who played in that game against the Nuggets back in 2018, but the hard feelings from the fallout that followed that fateful game still fuel the fanbase. An exciting new optimism for the Wolves, and a palpable sense of vengeance was the cocktail that inspired the crowd that night to be engaged with the game from the tip. Chants of “Go call Rachel!” erupted when Butler touched the ball. The roof just about flew off when Anthony Edwards pulled off the greatest dunk of his young career that technically didn’t really happen
But that was back in November. As the harsh winter blew into Minneapolis, a lull fell over the city. The Wolves spent the next several weeks continuing their oscillation between winning streaks and losing streaks ad nauseum. Then a wave of COVID hit the NBA, and with it the Wolves were forced to root for a scrappy albeit unfamiliar cast of characters — not to mention the rag-tag rosters of their opponents. With all the chaos came a fading of the early-season enthusiasm.
So, DLo put out his call and the fans responded. Now, when you go to a Timberwolves game the crowd stands until the first bucket. At any sign of inequality from the referees, you can hear the chorus of “Refs, you suck!” echo through the building. There is a renewed enthusiasm in the Target Center. With it comes a much-needed burst of energy to help carry the team through the end of the regular season and hopefully into the playoffs.
But on Friday night the Timberwolves met the crowd’s fervor with an all-around flat performance. The Wolves shot 9/39 from three and lost 133-102 to the Philadelphia 76ers in a game that never felt close. It’s been a while since the Wolves have been stomped the way that the Sixers stomped them.
I won’t read too much into one game, especially after the Wolves beat the Memphis Grizzlies the night before. The Memphis win was impressive but took a 23-point fourth quarter by DLo. Ant is slumping, and Minnesota’s bench hardly gave them anything against Philly. Moving forward, the Wolves face the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State before a five-game run against sub-.500 teams. A playoff berth would be damn near cause to throw a parade. More importantly, at least for this season, the Wolves have to keep competing. If Russell wants the crowd to stay enthused, he’s got to keep on stepping up and leading the team to hold their own against the toughest competition.
The Target Center is full of ghosts from Wolves teams past. Minnesota trotted out rosters that were middling at best for more than a decade. At worst, it was abject horror that led to a mass exodus of interest in Minnesota Timberwolves basketball. But the fans are still here, they are hungry, and at times they are dynamic. All they need is something to root for.
