Q OK, just one real question about Ricky Rubio, and it doesn’t contain the word “buyout.” But I wonder: Would the draft and subsequent days have been easier if Rubio had already been chosen, even if it was the right pick?
A Yeah, perhaps. But I also believe that nothing comes easy, especially when you’re striving to build a championship contending team. In this respect, hopefully, in a twisted way, this is a precursor that shows you need a little luck. Hopefully looking back on this, maybe we’ll be able to say somewhere down the road that we were lucky.
Q Free agency is here. How active will you be, and does the coaching search make things more difficult?
A We’re a late player. I think most people understand that our ability to add players is next summer, not this summer. We have to be extra careful this summer that we don’t corrupt our ability to make moves next summer. When I say we’re a late player, when the market starts to settle, and we see who’s still out there, there might be some opportunities to find players who pencil out as being effective and won’t cost us the ability to make a big move next summer.
The Niagara Falls basketball community is hoping that what happens in Vegas this week doesn’t stay in Vegas.
Local products Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris will debut in the NBA Summer League tonight, teaming up for the Minnesota Timberwolves as they did before at Niagara Falls High School and Syracuse University...
The Timberwolves will face the Houston Rockets at 6 p.m. today. On Monday they’ll play the D-League Select team. Their next game is Friday against the Washington Wizards. They’ll finish summer league play with games against the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday and the Chicago Bulls on Sunday.
Woodside and the Timberwolves went through two-a-day practices Friday and Saturday before today’s opening game against the Houston Rockets. Woodside’s ultimate goal is to land on an NBA team. If not, he is expected to land a lucrative contract with a major team overseas.
“After this week, I should have a good idea of what direction I’m going,” Woodside said. “I’m just thankful for this opportunity. This whole ride has been a blast.”
The Timberwolves’ Mark Madsen, who spent two years in Spain after high school and before entering college at Stanford, wrote a 700-word open letter on his blog to the Wolves’ top draft pick Ricky Rubio of Spain. Madsen wrote that Rubio, 18, immediately could affect the transformation of the Wolves into a competitive team.
Madsen also told Rubio that Minnesota fans want to see him play. As for the cold weather, he said Rubio will be able to drive his SUV into Target Center’s enclosed parking and never experience the outside air.
Among outstanding sports figures past and present who will appear at the Starkey Hearing Foundation’s So The World May Hear Awards Gala today in St. Paul to raise money to provide hearing aids for poor children all over the world will be four members of the 1961 Yankees: Bob Turley, Ralph Terry, Moose Skowron and Whitey Ford; Vikings coach Brad Childress and Vikings players Steve Hutchinson and Bernard Berrian; Arizona Cardinals star receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr.; golfers Arnold Palmer and Tony Jacklin; Timberwolves forward Mark Madsen, and Gophers men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith.
