Twenty seasons later, Sam Mitchell — the aforementioned rookie who later became prodigy Kevin Garnett’s veteran mentor and now is Toronto’s tenured, professorial coach — remains remembered in Timberwolves history not only for scoring the franchise’s first point. He also recorded its first basket, foul, missed free throw and injury…
“Minnesota gave me my start,” he said. “I’ll always have a special place in my heart there. I still have my Minnesota cell phone number. Doesn’t make sense to change it.”
But the spotlight doesn’t shine on the T’Wolves and Jefferson is overshadowed by big men on winning Western Conference teams. Until his squad is a postseason contender, Big Al will struggle to receive the same recognition as players like Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, and David West.
Led by Rashad McCants’ team-high 18 points, the Wolves’ bench outperformed the starters in the 95-85 loss.
Rookie forward Kevin Love added nine points, and guard Kevin Ollie had seven for the reserves, who hit 60.9 percent of their shots (14 of 23) compared to 30.4 percent (17 of 56) for the starters.
Randy Foye got sat down for the second consecutive game. Wednesday, he watched while Kevin Ollie played most of the fourth quarter. Last night, Wittman sat him down quickly after he took a rushed three-pointer in the third quarter. He put him back in the game in the fourth quarter, but at one point you could hear Wittman say to him about something, “I’m not going to tell you again.”
Randy Foye got sat down for the second consecutive game. Wednesday, he watched while Kevin Ollie played most of the fourth quarter. Last night, Wittman sat him down quickly after he took a rushed three-pointer in the third quarter. He put him back in the game in the fourth quarter, but at one point you could hear Wittman say to him about something, “I’m not going to tell you again.”
After spending last season traveling the world – from Japan to Russia, Brazil, Turkey and China – to attend basketball clinics and decompress from a tough one and a half seasons as coach of the Wolves, Casey was hired by new Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle to serve as an assistant on his staff.
He had been back to the Twin Cities a few times since being fired, but when the Mavericks beat the Timberwolves 95-85 on Saturday night, it marked the first time that Casey had walked into Target Center since he cleaned out his office…
“The direction they are going in now is a great direction,” Casey said. “They have some good young talent. I’m really impressed with the young guys that they have. They’re signing people that have made them a character team. That is a transition that I think they were trying to decide to do while I was here.”
Timberwolves forward Ryan Gomes played two seasons in Boston with Green in addition to last season.
After seeing Green get moved out of Minnesota quickly and have a bad experience in Houston, Gomes hopes this time Green has found a fit.
“I hope he makes it,” Gomes said. “I think he will because he has the talent. I talked to him when he signed with Dallas and I said, `You know what? This might be your last chance. You just never know. It’s only one year [contract], but you’ve got to make your marks and show them you’re here for the right reasons.”
