Where, oh, where has time gone?
I remember growing up, playing basketball in my friend Cory’s front yard. We would pick players to be while we faced imaginary opponents (I’m sure the neighbors had their questions).
If I remember right, we were seven or eight at the time. He was generally always Tom Gugliotta (he had the jersey) while I was Stephon Marbury or Anthony Peeler (I even pretended I was lefty when heaving up 3-pointers).
You’re asking the obvious question. Why weren’t any of us Kevin Garnett? I think we were both afraid, to be honest. We knew neither of us were worthy.
In retrospect, neither of us were worthy of pretending we were any NBA player. We rode scooters everywhere and we were both small enough to play tackle football, although Cory was much stronger than I was, which wasn’t saying a whole lot.
Where is this story going? This is one of my first memories of the man we know as “Googs”.
Today, Dec. 19, marks Gugliotta’s 46th birthday.
Gugliotta was traded to the Wolves on Feb. 18, 1995 in exchange for Donyell Marshall.
He played with the Wolves until 1998 and even though it was just three seasons and some change, he had some of his best years with the Wolves.
In his time with Minnesota, he averaged 18.2 points (7th in team history), 8.5 rebounds (4th in team history), 3.8 assists, 1.7 steals (4th in team history) and a block per game while shooting 46.4 percent from the field and 80.1 percent from the free-throw line.
I can’t find any NBA videos of Gugliotta, but trust me when I tell you that he was a very smooth player. Dude could score. Dude could pass. He would have fit in well in today’s NBA. And Kevin Harlan’s call when he scored were unbelievable.
Along with Garnett, Gugliotta made his first and only All-Star game in 1997. Michael Jordan (never heard of the guy…) led the East to a win, but Gugliotta was solid off the bench for the West, finishing with nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Minnesota went to the playoffs once with Gugliotta active in 1996-97. The team was swept by the Rockets, but in Game 3 at the Target Center, Gugliotta finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds.
Gugliota’s next season was limited to just 41 games before the Wolves released him. He would go onto play six seasons with Phoenix, while also spending time with Atlanta, Utah and Boston. For his career, he averaged 13 points and 7.3 rebounds.
His time in Minnesota was short, but it was effective.
I’ll have to see if Cory still has his jersey.
Happy 46th birthday, Googs.
