Hey, have you heard? LeBron James is a free agent.
It’s the decision pt. 2, and this time the Minnesota Timberwolves have a vested interest in the outcome.
In 2010, LeBron James held a television event to announce his next destination. “The Decision” aired 16 years ago to the day of writing this. The Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets, and Los Angeles Clippers waited on bated breath for a gingham-clad LeBron to say the infamous words “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.”
Absent from the proceedings were the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the summer of 2010, the Wolves were coming off an abysmal 15-win season led by young Kevin Love and Jonny Flynn and, famously, not young Steph Curry. It was the darkest stretch of Timberwolves history and still a decade away from shepherding the Messiah, Anthony Edwards, into the franchise. The Wolves were as far away from the LeBron sweepstakes as the USMNT is from winning a World Cup.
Oh, how the tables have turned in the last 16 years. Now that LeBron is a free agent again and his agent, Rich Paul, is shopping his talents on his podcast, the Timberwolves suddenly find themselves squarely in the mix. LeBron’s team is keeping things vague holding half the league hostage, but every time a new whiteboard comes out, the Wolves seem to be in the running alongside the Cavs, Warriors, Heat, 76ers, and some combination of half a dozen other teams. This time it doesn’t feel like The Decision: Part 2. This time, LeBron’s free agency feels more like another saga involving an aging superstar that Minnesota sports fans are much more familiar with.
LeBron James is the Millennial Brett Favre. It might as well have happened before the Civil War for Zoomers who were still in diapers during Favre’s heyday, but Brett Favre was a problem. No. 4 won back-to-back-to-back MVPs in the 90s. He won Super Bowl XXXI and lost Super Bowl XXXII the next year because he who must not be named (John Elway) helicoptered all over my six-year-old heart. He was the Josh Allen of the 90s and 2000s, bridging the gap among Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady. Favre famously didn’t want anything to do with Aaron Rodgers after the Packers took ARod in the first round of the 2005 draft.
Favre announced his retirement in March 2007 after blowing it in the NFC Championship game. The Packers moved on, named Rodgers the starter, and made plans for life without Favre for the first time in 15 years. That summer, Favre tried to come back to play. The Packers balked, there was a feud, it got ugly, and the Packers traded Favre to the New York Jets. If this sounds like exactly what happened with Aaron Rodgers in 2023, Favre laid the groundwork for Jordan Love to make his prodigal move to the Jets in 2037.
But that’s not the move we’re here to compare to LeBron James; it’s Favre’s move to the Minnesota Vikings in the summer of 2009 that is reminiscent of what LeBron is up to now. After Favre’s one year with the Jets, which most people forget was actually off to a great 8-3 start until he hurt his arm and limped through the rest of the season. The Jets released him in April 2009, and the summer of Favre began. While he had suitors, one man caught his eye. Favre flirted with Brad Childress all summer until, finally, he signed with the Vikings, and Chilly flew him to training camp on a private jet.
Once the speculation was over and Favre was finally on the team, things could not have gone much better for the 2009 Vikings.
Brett Favre had arguably the best year of his career at age 40. He started all 16 games for Minnesota, led the Vikings to a 12-4 regular-season record, won the NFC North, and finished fourth in MVP voting. The Vikings blitzed the Dallas Cowboys 34-3 in the divisional round, setting up a matchup against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game.
Favre had the Vikings in position to kick a game-winning field goal that would have sent them to their first Super Bowl appearance since Super Bowl XI in 1977. The Vikings had the ball on third-and-10 from the Saints’ 33-yard line. It was well within kicker Ryan Longwell’s range. But Brad Childress called a timeout to give things one last thought, and that’s when the wheels came off.
Out of the timeout, the Vikings were flagged for having too many men on the field, backing them up five yards to the 38-yard line, pushing them out of field goal range. Forced now to pass to get back into field goal range, Favre threw an interception over the middle. The Saints won in overtime. The Metrodome collapsed the next season. Favre almost died on the frozen field at TCF. And the Vikings still haven’t made it to the Super Bowl since the ’70s.
If LeBron picks the Timberwolves this offseason, he’ll fill an immediate roster need and give the Timberwolves a much-needed boost in the Western Conference arms race. But he, like Favre, will also be filling a hole in the battered psyche of the Minnesota sports fan.
Favre was a Vikings killer and one of the most hated athletes in Minnesota until he chose us. LeBron has always hovered above Minnesota basketball in places we can only dream about. But now that he even has the Wolves in the mix, he’s legitimized this era of Timberwolves basketball. And if LeBron ultimately actually picks the Timberwolves, he, along with Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, could lead the Wolves into a new era of Minnesota basketball on the global stage.
