When I was 23, I thought the world was coming to an end.
Not literally.
Full disclosure: I was a little concerned about The Rapture, to be completely honest.
I just finished an internship at USA Today in Washington D.C.
“You’ll get a job right away! What a great opportunity!”
“Star Tribune? What’s next for you?”
My parents’ house actually.
I applied anywhere and everywhere. I even took some crappy scam sales job that I hated so much, I just left during lunchbreak one day and didn’t come back. I went back home. Sat around all day and played Xbox. I went to movies alone. I would blog nonstop, hoping that the work would pay off. But who was reading it? I decided to take some classes. I didn’t really have any intention at all of getting another degree. I just had to keep my mind busy. I also coached a baseball team.
All the while, I kept writing daily, hoping that everything would work out.
I’m 25 now. I’m not completely satisfied, but I’m grateful for the position I’m in. Obviously I needed help to get here, but that’s life. You need people. And I learned a valuable lesson. If you work your tail off and suffer for a little (my mom’s cooking isn’t great) while in the process, when you reach your destination (or the first stage of it) it feels pretty damn good.
I was reminded of all of this when I was fortunate enough to be in Toronto to watch the Timberwolves win All-Star Weekend.
As I’m typing this, the Wolves at 17-37. They aren’t going to make the playoff s and there’s a good chance they’ll get a top-5 pick in the upcoming draft. It’s easy to be disheartened as a fan.
But after years of trying to pick up the pieces after the (first) Kevin Garnett trade, it finally seems like the Wolves got it right with this core.
You can’t ignore the strikeouts. From Randy Foye to Jonny Flynn (yes, I know who the Wolves could have drafted). But Flip Saunders had a vision. He tried to put a playoff team together for Rick Adelman. He brought in pieces like Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer and Chase Budinger to surround star power forward Kevin Love. That team won 40 games and didn’t make the playoffs, but it was the most wins the Wolves totaled since the 2004-05.
It was apparent that team wasn’t going to be a dynasty in the West. Saunders always said that the worst place to be in the standings is in the middle. You either want to be at the top or at the bottom, acquiring assets to get to the top. Luckily, the Wolves had a huge asset in Kevin Love, a player who was hoping to be dealt to a winner.
After balking at a few deals, Saunders finally struck gold with the Cavaliers, dealing Love for No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins – the new face of the franchise. Wiggins was branded with No. 14 pick Zach LaVine as the Bounce Brothers, and the new faces of Timberwolves basketball.
One problem, though.
They were just 19 years old. That combined with Ricky Rubio’s ankle injury, led to a 16-win season. Which, as you know, led to the Wolves landing the No. 1 pick for the first time in franchise history. Enter Karl-Anthony Towns.
That brings us to this season. The Wolves are struggling, sure, but the talent and the potential is there. I’m not sure we’ve ever been able to honestly say that before. The core of Towns, LaVine and Wiggins, along with Rubio, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng has fans and the media excited for Minnesota’s future.
Again, there is one problem here. These guys are 20. The future isn’t now for them. This is their “sleeping on their parents’ couch” moment. Yes, it’s probably a very expensive couch, but you get what I’m saying. They’ve put the work in. They will continue to put the work in. They deserve success and the success will come. They, along with us, just need to be patient.
These guys have much more pressure on them than some nerdy writer like myself. In fact, I had no pressure. My parents were super supportive, as were my friends. These guys have SO much pressure on them. Media. Fans. Agents. The list goes on.
But they handled that pressure in Toronto pretty well, didn’t they?
The trio in Toronto was just 20 years old. Their time isn’t now, although they’ll have some moments that will make you think otherwise. But when it is their time, whether that be next year or the year after, watch out.
The Wolves won three trophies in Toronto, but the real win might have been reminding everyone how incredibly dangerous this team is going to be moving forward.
