June is typically one of the busiest months on the sports calendar in the United States. The NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals are running concurrently. The U.S. Open is a June tradition unlike any other. The WNBA is in full swing. The hotly anticipated drafts for the NBA and NHL are coming up in mere weeks. And the men’s and women’s College World Series are taking place. So, it’s admittedly a strange time to be thinking about the Minnesota Timberwolves.
There’s enough smoke to give April and October a run for their money for the best sports month of the year. If that doesn’t seem busy enough, the biggest tournament in the world is returning to its rightful place slap bang in the middle of summer.
After a brief winter hiatus in Qatar in 2022, the Men’s World Cup is returning to its usual June-July position on the calendar, beginning across Mexico, Canada, and the United States on June 11 and running through the final in New Jersey on July 19.
As our collective attention shifts from Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs taking on the New York Knicks and everyone who has ever lived in New York City in the NBA Finals to the FIFA World Cup, how would a franchise like the Timberwolves fare in a tournament that is “like 104 Super Bowls,” and which country would they be if they were in the 2026 World Cup?
The 2025-26 Timberwolves entered the season with the highest expectations in franchise history. Fresh off consecutive trips to the conference finals, the Timberwolves, led by Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid, looked to go one step further and reach the NBA Finals.
Instead, they meandered through a lackluster regular season, finishing with 49 wins and in the sixth seed again. The team that all season acted like they just needed to get to the playoffs, then flip the switch and get to the conference finals again, got pantsed in the second round. Edwards played through injuries. Donte DiVincenzo suffered a severe Achilles injury. Gobert couldn’t contain the oxymoronic French counterattack. And Julius Randle disappeared faster than IMAX tickets to the Odyssey.
The San Antonio Spurs dispatched the Wolves with relative ease in six games. While the Spurs are in the finals for the seventh time in their franchise history, the Wolves face a long offseason with a bunch of questions ahead. As the NBA season winds down and World Cup season heats up, which team in the field of 48 most resembles the Timberwolves?
There are a few easy comparisons to get out of the way early. The Spurs are France, obviously. The Knicks are England. Both are historic teams at the heart of their respective sports, having waited for generations for a return to glory. The Oklahoma City Thunder are Brazil, again, obviously. If it’s not obvious to you, it’s because they flop. The Chicago Bulls are Italy, one-time greats stuck on the outside looking in.
But which soccer federation best compares to the Minnesota Timberwolves?
It has to be a team that’s never won the World Cup before. Along with the aforementioned squads, that also eliminates Uruguay, Germany, Argentina, and Spain. Let’s also eliminate any team that’s made it to the final, because the Wolves have yet to play with the Larry O’Brien trophy emblazoned on the Target Center court for the NBA Finals. That also eliminates Croatia, the Netherlands, Czechia, Sweden, and Hungary from contention. By my Minnesota math, that leaves 37 teams to choose from (thanks, Infantino).
I’ll spare you the boredom of going through all 37 one by one and making a case for or against Haiti, Qatar, or Scotland, because the Timberwolves are Norway. No, I’m not just making that comp because of the scandi influence all over Minnesota. The Wolves, like their distant cousins to the North (I think), are in their golden era. Both teams are led by young galacticos hell-bent on world domination. Ant is an athletic freak trying to bend the NBA to his will, one monster dunk and clutch-time step-back three at a time.
Erling Haaland is a 6’5” Norse god who entered the Premier League at 22 years old and broke the single-season goals scored record. While Haaland has won the Premier League twice, he followed the Kevin Durant join a stacked championship team model to success. Haaland has virtually no international success. While playing 55 matches for Norway, he’s never qualified for the Euros and is leading Norway to its first World Cup appearance since 1998. Sounds an awful lot like the 20-year desert the Timberwolves were in until Ant and Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves back to the conference finals in 2024.
A bunch of good but flawed role players surround Ant. Julius Randle is a former All-Pro who gets t-rex arms against great defenses. Rudy Gobert is the greatest defensive player of his generation, but he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat on offense. Jaden McDaniels dismantled the Denver Nuggets, but the Spurs bullied him. Naz Reid is the Sixth Man of the Year, but only when his shot is falling. And Terrence Shannon Jr. hasn’t used his right hand since puberty.
Ant doesn’t have the luxury of playing alongside two straight top-four picks like Wemby. And he no longer has KAT by his side, stretching the floor. For Norway, Alexander Sorloth is a proven goalscorer. But Martin Odegaard is Haaland’s one true running mate who could ride with him to a World Cup title. The former Real Madrid wunderkind just captained Arsenal to its first Premier League title in 22 years. But the 27-year-old has been hampered by injuries since peaking with 22 goal involvements for the Gunners in 2022-23. When healthy, the combination of Haaland and Odegaard is like prime Shaquille O’Neal teaming up with prime Steve Nash.
Like the Timberwolves, Norway has an impossible road to World Cup glory. They’re in the group of death with tournament favorites France, solid Senegal, and Iraq. The Wolves have to contend in the West with the Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Houston Rockets, all vying for supremacy.
The Timberwolves and Norway winning it all would bring about the same scenes all across the world: a bunch of white boys pretending to be modern-day Vikings falling to their knees, crying out “Skol” through tears of joy while the sun still shines at 10:00 pm.
