The Minnesota Timberwolves haven’t given their fans a whole lot of reasons to cheer this year, so they have moved on to jeers.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have certainly been entertaining this season, but not always for the right reasons. An extremely public battle between Jimmy Butler and the organization occupied headlines for well over a month, and he was eventually moved to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Just last week Derrick Rose was hailed with MVP chants at the United Center, which was weird and a bit of a throwback to the days of old for the Chicago Bulls.
And last night, the Timberwolves were booed repeatedly by their fans during their 123-120 overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Andrew Wiggins clearly wasn’t pleased with the fans’ decision to boo based on his postgame comments.
“We’ve got some s—ty fans,” Wiggins said to ESPN. “And we’ve got some good fans. That’s just how it works.”
Here’s the thing. If you don’t want to get booed, then don’t shoot five out of 12 from the charity stripe. That was Wiggins’ performance from the free throw line and the Timberwolves as a whole shot 21 of 38.
That’s not likely to ever win an overtime game. Also, come on Wiggins. You can’t even remember to put your jersey on before the game? How much respect does that show for the people who are paying your exorbitant salary?
He has shot 74 percent from the line during his career, and so this game might be an anomaly, but fans of the Wolves deserve to be frustrated about how poorly this franchise has been run over the last few decades.
They managed to waste the prime years of Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love, and then this Butler situation has just exposed Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns as overrated players when it comes to winning.
The Wolves are 16-19 this season and unlikely to make the playoffs, and that comes down to their two highest-paid players. Say what you will about the way that Butler handled forcing his way out of Minnesota, but he led them to the playoffs last season. Fans and especially season-ticket holders, who invested after that playoff run, deserve better than what they’re seeing from this team.
So Wiggins should get used to these boos if this is the product the Timberwolves keep delivering on a nightly basis.