As I look back on my 20 years as a Wolves fan, I realized that almost all the biggest highs I've experienced were followed by equal or greater related lows either immediately or within a relatively short time - big high-low swings that are indicative of the Wolves franchise. Here they are:
1. High: Wolves had worst NBA record in 1991-92 season when Shaq and Alonzo Morning were coming out of college. Related Low: Wolves end up with the 3rd pick in the lottery and have to settle for Christian Laettner.
2. High: Wolves pull off draft-day swap for Stephon Marbury in 1996 and began a clear assent to championship contention with the KG/Marbury duo. Related low: Just over 2 years later (18 games into his 3rd season with the Wolves, Steph gets traded to Brooklyn at his request.
3. High: Wolves signing a struggling but really talented Chauncey Billups in 2000 and watching him develop into a starter in the 2001-02 season and a player who looked like the guy who could replace Marbury as KG's contemporary star for another assent to championship contention. Related Low: Wolves let Billups go as a free agent even though he wanted to stay because Flip preferred to go with the older (and almost always injured) veteran, Terrell Brandon.
4. High: Wolves were on the clock with the 26th pick in the 2003 draft and Josh Howard, Kendrick Perkins and Leandro Barbosa were still available. I was sure the Wolves would draft Josh Howard. Related Low: Wolves draft Ndudi Ebi, apparently because McHale saw him hold his own against LeBron in a tournament game somewhere.
5. High: Wolves had just beat the Kings in the Western Conference Semi-finals and looked like the team to beat in the showdown with the Lakers in the Finals. Related Low: Sam Cassell injures his groin with sideline antics and the Wolves not surprisingly lose to the Lakers.
6. High: Wolves were coming off a season in which they went to the Western Conference finals with KG, Spree and Cassell. Related Low: Spree refused a $20+ million contract offer because it wasn't "enough to feed his family." In other words, he was offended that it wasn't higher even though, back then, that was a huge contract offer. Sam the lost interest and the whole thing collapsed.
7. High: Wolves drafted Ricky Rubio at #5 with Steph Curry on the board and fans at the Wolves draft party chanting Curry...Curry. After drafting the most dynamic playmaker in the draft, it looked like the Wolves were about to draft one of college basketball's best shooters who, according to Bobby Knight, was also college basketball's best passer. Related Low: Wolves draft Jonny Flynn.
8. High: Wolves were climbing up the standings with Ricky Rubio leading the way and Charles Barkley, among others, proclaiming the Wolves the best young team in the League. Related Low: Ricky Rubio goes down after his knee collided with Kobe Bryant's knee. Ricky's ACL was torn and neither he nor the Wolves were ever the same after that.
9. High: Wolves had an exciting young core of KAT, LaVine and Wiggins when Thibs took over the team. Related Low: Thibs blows it up by taking a swing on Butler and trading LaVine instead of Wiggins in that deal.
10. High: Butler and KAT take the Wolves to the playoffs for the first time in over 10 years. Related Low: The following season starts amidst a Butler induced drama that defined dysfunction.
Since the Butler fiasco, I've experienced one huge high: the emergence of Anthony Edwards as a potential superstar. Perhaps for once, just once, we can go forward without a related low.
Reflecting on Highs and Related Lows as a Wolves Fan
Re: Reflecting on Highs and Related Lows as a Wolves Fan
Outstanding work, Lip! And what a depressing chronicle of the Wolves' fan experience. One might argue that any team that doesn't win a championship could describe their up and down experience in a similar fashion, but being a Wolves fan is different. I would have felt fine,,,well, relatively fine... after the loss to the Lakers in the finals had the circumstances surrounding the Cassell injury not been so typically Wolfian. Thanks for getting my Tuesday off to such a depressing start!
Re: Reflecting on Highs and Related Lows as a Wolves Fan
Been a Wolves fan from day one.
Thanks for the rundown Lip here are a few comments on some of your highs and lows.
2. I remember that day that the Wolves traded Marbury. I was in college in my dorm room and my friend called me on the phone to tell me about the deal. I was a little bit excited because at first I thought we were getting Cassell. I then asked my buddy if he could take me to the ER. It turned out I had a sinus infection and before he called me I had been curled up in a ball on the floor absolutely miserable.
3. Ron Mercer was a guy a lot of people were interested in signing that offseason. I think I had brought up Billups name once but anyways McHale and Flip signed him and it was not received well for the most part. It was a heck of a signing but the decision later to let him go proved to be a bad one. That happened again on a smaller scale with signing Troy Hudson which was a fantastic signing but then it went bad when they ended up resigning him for more money than he was worth couldn't stay healthy and is looked at so unfavorably in the wolves pantheon of PGs...lots of talent at that spot with bad ankles.
4. I'm pretty sure now taking Ebi was Rosas fault. :)
Thanks for the rundown Lip here are a few comments on some of your highs and lows.
2. I remember that day that the Wolves traded Marbury. I was in college in my dorm room and my friend called me on the phone to tell me about the deal. I was a little bit excited because at first I thought we were getting Cassell. I then asked my buddy if he could take me to the ER. It turned out I had a sinus infection and before he called me I had been curled up in a ball on the floor absolutely miserable.
3. Ron Mercer was a guy a lot of people were interested in signing that offseason. I think I had brought up Billups name once but anyways McHale and Flip signed him and it was not received well for the most part. It was a heck of a signing but the decision later to let him go proved to be a bad one. That happened again on a smaller scale with signing Troy Hudson which was a fantastic signing but then it went bad when they ended up resigning him for more money than he was worth couldn't stay healthy and is looked at so unfavorably in the wolves pantheon of PGs...lots of talent at that spot with bad ankles.
4. I'm pretty sure now taking Ebi was Rosas fault. :)
Re: Reflecting on Highs and Related Lows as a Wolves Fan
FNG wrote:Outstanding work, Lip! And what a depressing chronicle of the Wolves' fan experience. One might argue that any team that doesn't win a championship could describe their up and down experience in a similar fashion, but being a Wolves fan is different. I would have felt fine,,,well, relatively fine... after the loss to the Lakers in the finals had the circumstances surrounding the Cassell injury not been so typically Wolfian. Thanks for getting my Tuesday off to such a depressing start!
Thanks, FNG. Sports are filled with ups and downs, but there is something especially poignant, unbelievable or just downright pathetic about the highs and lows we've all experienced as Wolves fans over the years. And what struck me as I looked back over the years was the connection between the highs and lows associated with Wolves fandom as the very thing that gave us a huge high transformed into something terrible.
Some of the lows were simply terrible, almost unbelievable luck, while others were clearly self-inflicted - i.e., the result of front office incompetence.
The two examples of bad luck that stand out the most for me were Ricky's ACL injury, and before that, the change in the CBA when Marbury was here. We all know what happened with Ricky's injury and the impact it had on the team. The role of back luck in Marbury's departure wasn't quite as obvious. I guess it was bad luck for the Wolves that Marbury turned out to be quite a head case at the time. But it was the collective bargaining agreement change that ultimately caused him to leave. KG had just received a historically huge multi-year contract before a new CBA was negotiated. That new CBA prevented Marbury from getting anything close to what KG was being paid. That's what stuck in Marbury's craw. He just couldn't accept being the second-highest paid player, especially such a distant second, on a team. When Flip told him he won't make more money elsewhere, Marbury replied that at least he could be the highest paid player on another team.
The list of self-inflicted lows is stunningly long.