![]() ![]() In the truest sense, I felt the highest of highs and lowest of lows as a Wolves fan in one night. Thursday night was one hell of a way to start.Įliciting every possible emotion out of those of us who have been far too intensely faithful for far too long was quite the introduction that none of us will forget anytime soon. “In the Wolves’ defense, they haven’t broken my heart before.” That same friend turned to a classic Minnesotan follow-up with his next text. The Grizzlies outscored the Wolves 29-4 in the subsequent 6:24 to tie the game on a Desmond Bane 3-pointer, and the rest was history. Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images Just when fans started to feel as though the first half was behind them, the avalanche began. Minnesota lost the final 10:28 of the first quarter by 19 points to lead by seven at the half, before building the advantage back up to 25 with just 15 minutes to play in the game. In truly astonishing, yet somehow foreseeable form, the Wolves shifted from flooring it to slamming on the brakes not once, but twice. “The first quarter was the highest high I’ve ever had as a Wolves fan,” one friend in attendance texted me after the game. Minnesota shot out of cannon from the tip, building a 26-point lead in the first 13:32 of the game, capped off by a huge Malik Beasley triple that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Nothing can prepare you for the real thing. The play-in game experience only emboldened Wolves fans to believe this season was truly different from those of old, and strengthened their hearts after a fourth-quarter scare. As Apple Valley native and Memphis Grizzlies point guard Tyus Jones made clutch play after clutch play to suck the air out of a building he knows oh so well, we braced for what we had never seen before - a Wolves team we believe in unraveling in a playoff meltdown. Young Wolves fans like me have never given the Wolves a heart for them to break.īut on Thursday night, our hearts were collectively snapped in half and stomped on by One of Us. Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Imagesįinally, we had a team we could pour our hearts into, after 18 years of the franchise remaining unworthy of anyone’s heartbreak. This season, thanks to incredible effort from Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, Chris Finch and company, has given us a feeling that the winds of change are whistling off the banks of the Mississippi River through the wind tunnels of Downtown Minneapolis. Outside of that, the Timber-woes are all I’ve known. ![]() 23 Cleveland threads in Target Center in 2003 and Kevin Garnett jumping on the scorer’s table in 2004. The first basketball memories I have are of seeing in-person a rookie wearing the No. The Timberwolves have been a perennial laughing stock of the NBA for most of my conscious life. Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Imagesįor Minnesotans like myself, we’ve fearlessly given our hearts to our favorite teams, with the success of the Minnesota Lynx as the only true, lasting success to point to out of the core professional sports teams in the area. Our so-called unbreakable hearts always have a way of breaking and reforming, as our expectations lower with each successive heartbreak as a means of avoiding the next one. The hundreds of thousands of homegrown Minnesotans that still call this place home have experienced just about every possible feeling a sports team can give them in their lifetimes. Nearly 24 years after I was born into the fires of Minnesota sports fandom ( thanks for choosing UST, Mom!) - forged along the way by hellish experiences at the hands of the teams, players and coaches I pour so much of my energy, time and money into - I am still learning that this rock bottom feeling always has another depth to descend to. Whatever it is you’re feeling after a truly horrifying Minnesota Timberwolves Game 3 loss that will be indefinitely etched into our memories, I feel it, too. ![]()
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