INDIANAPOLIS, IN – NOVEMBER 13: Kevin Garnett #21 of the Minnesota Timberwolves (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Kevin Garnett is looking to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were created in 1989, but were almost moved to New Orleans in 1994 before former Republican senator Glen Taylor took over and kept them in Minneapolis. Even with that commitment, winning basketball has continued to elude the Wolves, as they have made the playoffs only nine times and gotten past the first round only once.
Hall-of-Famer Kevin Garnett, who is the best player the franchise has ever had by a considerable margin, is considering taking the team over, as he and a group of investors are willing to buy the Timberwolves after the 79-year-old Taylor expressed a willingness to sell. Garnett wants to keep the team that drafted him as a high-schooler in 1995 in the state of Minnesota.
Garnett could erase Glen Taylor’s decades of failure with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Garnett and Taylor, who was once banned for an entire season after trying to skirt around salary cap rules to sign free agent Joe Smith, aren’t on the best of terms, and this beef has been brewing for a long time.
Garnett and head coach Flip Saunders made the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons but lost in the first round seven straight times due to the lack of help around KG. Only when Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell arrived did Garnett get this team to the Western Conference Finals, only to run into the Kobe-Shaq buzzsaw.
The seeds of beef were sown when Kevin McHale, under Taylor’s watch, not only chose to let Cassell and Sprewell go in free agency, but fired Saunders — Garnett’s mentor — the year after. What really got Garnett fired up was the fact that a planned role within the organization after retirement went up in smoke following Saunders’ death, which has led to KG taking shots at Taylor whenever possible. Taylor refusing to retire Garnett’s No. 21 is just an added insult.
Garnett’s fire is what this team needs.
Garnett has love for his old organization, and this move signals a need to do whatever it takes to make Minnesota a contender. If that involves splurging on free agents to prevent a repeat of the 2003-04 team’s dissolution, so be it. If it involves getting rid of the copious negativity around the franchise, which can only be achieved by someone with the fire and drive that Garnett possesses, so be it.
Taylor looked at the Timberwolves as an asset that increases his overall net worth or an object that he can gloat about at cocktail parties with other billionaires. If they won, which they rarely did, great. If they lost, he still got to sit courtside and rake in the money from a fanbase that remains supportive despite years of losing.
Rather than viewing this team in that way, Garnett’s ownership comes from a place of passion, as he is sick of seeing the franchise that made him a superstar and a Hall-of-Famer ruined by those who aren’t taking an interest in making the team good.
The Timberwolves might be a franchise built on mediocrity, but the nucleus for a successful future on the court is there with Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell and Ryan Saunders. Unfortunately, as T-Wolves fans know all too well, poor ownership is a cancer that trickles down to all levels of the organization. Try to find an organization that is both well-run and a perpetual loser. It’s almost impossible.
While Garnett might be new to the NBA ownership circle, his desire to the franchise return to glory and that new, motivated, uniquely energetic ownership coming in and replacing the milquetoast regime of yesteryear could help the Timberwolves finally become a force out in the West. I
t’d be truly inspirational if KG finally managed to deliver Minnesota an NBA championship as an owner. Here’s hoping it actually comes to fruition, but as the former MVP once said himself, anything is possible.