Staring at Dry Grass

When I traveled to South Africa nearly eight years ago, we went on safari.  Our bus stopped by the side of the road as we approached some animals on one side of the bus.  Almost everyone in our group moved to that side of the bus to take pictures.  I remember jokingly moving to the other side of the bus and taking a picture of the African savannah, minus the animals, and saying, "Everyone has that picture, I'm the only one who has this picture." And that about sums up my experience my year as a Timberwolves season-ticket holder.  It might not have been the prettiest or the most exciting team to follow all season, but I saw something very few others saw.

Today's sports culture allows us to be as good as season ticket holders for the best, most popular, or most interesting teams.  Any average basketball fan can have a reasonably informed conversation about the up and downs of the Heat, the Lakers, the Celtics, and the Knicks.  When it comes to the Wolves, I have an expertise that is singular.  Everyone else has been staring at elephants, lions, and hyenas, I've been looking at dry grass. 

I realize this analogy makes it seem as though I've had a bad experience, but on the contrary, it has been the best sports experience of my life.  Dry grass in South Africa is still more compelling than the dry grass that I grew up with in Nebraska.  And watching a professional basketball team over the course of a season, albeit a struggling one, is far more compelling than only watching the best teams on an occasional Sunday afternoon.  I got to know the players, the coaches, the team, the arena, the fans, and downtown Minneapolis.  So if you'll indulge me, I invite you to come enjoy the view from the other side of the bus.  My take on the 2010/11 Timberwolves season.

Overview

The season was basically a play in three acts.

Act 1: Exceeding Expectations

The beginning of the season couldn't have been any better.  Almost every home game was exciting and close.  The Knicks came to town for their fourth home game of the season, and I witnessed the most exciting live sporting event of my life.  What looked like an easy win for the Knicks, became a 21 point comeback victory for the Wolves.  Somewhere in the third quarter the jumbotron displayed Kevin Love's stats, and we realized we were possibly witnessing history.  He ended up with 31 points and 31 rebounds.  Michael Beasley scored 35.  The Wolves led Sportscenter that night.  They took off on a run of games where they played teams tough, and close, but almost always lost in the end.  However this string of games was more exciting than anything I expected going in.  I could have ended the season in December and felt like my tickets were a worthwhile investment.  Unfortunately, that Knicks win has been the signature win for the whole season.  That was 5 months and 80" of snow ago.  Fortunately we had something else to distract us from the piling losses...

Act II:  Kevin Love is Streaking

If you had told me before the season that the Timberwolves would have an All-Star this year, I would have  said you're crazy.  Even if someone put up the numbers to be an All-Star, certainly the lack of wins would prevent him from being an All-Star.  But no one in years had put up numbers like Kevin Love.  He added his name to lists that included names like Chamberlain, Malone, O'Neal, etc.  So the Timberwolves had their first All-Star since Kevin Garnett left.  He had at least 10 points and 10 rebounds in every game for 52 straight games, a modern record.  The streak itself became a little tacky, but at least it gave us some consolation and the season was slipping away.  The ovations he would receive when he reached those double-doubles was often embarrassing given that the Wolves were on their way to another loss, but he is not to be blamed for it.  As Kevin Love said all season, "Rebounding is not a selfish stat."  And the Wolves don't even run plays for the guy on offense.  Offensive rebounds, wide open threes off of screens, and using his savvy to get to the free throw line account for most of his points.  In the close games he has a knack for coming up with the right play at the right time: a steal, a block, drawing a foul, a three.  This is a guy who clearing hates losing, and I can't wait for him to play on a winning team.  Watching Kevin Love play basketball is worth the price of admission.

Act III: Buy Pepperoni, Get Tickets

Losing adds up.  I don't blame the Wolves, it's a long season, but there is a lack of motivation that is clearly evident.  I seriously thought I was going to fall asleep during a game against Sacramento on Sunday We're all just trying to make it to the end of the season, the marketing department included.


Observations
Kahn Deserves Some Credit
GM David Kahn has been criticized for many, if not most, of his decisions, but he has made this into a more exciting, watchable team with assets.  The Wolves have young talent, cap space, draft picks, and Ricky Rubio on the way (or as trade bait).  However, it is clear that the parts don't fit.  What he now does with these assets is the true test.

Keepers
I've already sung Kevin Love's praises.  If there is one other guy I feel like is worth building around it's Wesley Johnson.  His stats are not eye-popping, but he can do a lot of things on the court.  He seems intent on improvement (almost strictly a jump shooter at the beginning of the season, he has clearly made a conscious attempt to drive more).  He has the tools to be a good defender (the most glaring weakness of the Wolves).  He has a really nice smile.  Some people thought Demarcus Cousins should be the Wolves' pick (myself included).  I watched Cousins on Sunday, he was ejected in the third quarter, and seemed to think he was a point guard.  I know it's a small sample size, but I think the Wolves made the right picks.

Guys I would prefer to see succeed elsewhere
The thing about being a season-ticket holder, is you really do start to care for the players.
Darko Milicic has found a place to belong for the first time in his career, and that makes me happy, but it's tough to watch him fade in and out of games.  He is tall, he is a gifted passer, he is a gifted shot-blocker, but I don't know if I've ever seen an NBA player want it less.
Johnny Flynn is lightning quick, but he is too short to do anything once he gets to the rim.  Also, I think he leads the league in passes to nobody.
Kurt Rambis.  Kathy really doesn't like Coach Rambis.  She thinks he sits his best players for too long.  I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I'm starting to think, at the very least, this is a bad fit for him.  He seems too intent on teaching lessons, too intent on running an offense that doesn't fit the personnel, too intent on being Phil Jackson, something just isn't right.

Visiting Players that Impressed Me
Manu Ginobili- Gets wherever he wants on the court.  Makes jumpers.  Moves differently than anyone else on the basketball court.  Just really fun to watch.
Kevin Durant-Totally calm and in control.  Can get his shot off from anywhere at anytime.  I almost saw the Wolves beat them in OT in the second best game I saw all year (after the Knicks game), but Durant simply wouldn't let it happen.
Kobe Bryant-Obviously.  But what is interesting is how inefficient he is.  It's like he spends the first couple quarters trying impossible shots to see how hot he is.  Both times I saw him, he didn't have it going early, and the game was closer than expected.  But when he got down to it in the second half, he was absolutely unstoppable.
Dorell Wright-Not really, but for some reason he made just about every three he took against the Wolves.  Guarding the three point line was one of the Wolves biggest weaknesses this year.

A Quick Look Inside the Target Center

• The only Timberwolves banner in the building celebrates their 2003-2004 Midwest Division Championship.  The one next to it celebrate Minneapolis Lakers hall of famers.  Yikes.
• Instead of screaming during an opponents free throw, we howl.
• When Darko makes a basket, the PA announcer, says "Darko!" kind of the way you do when you are saying "Marco" in the game Marco Polo.  This leads to a confusing reaction from fans, where some say, "Polo" some just repeat "Darko" and most say nothing.
• When Nikola Pekovic makes a basket they play the theme music from "The Godfather" and show a graphic of him looking a little like Marlon Brando on a movie poster.

Why I'm renewing my tickets for next season
It snowed a lot this winter in Minneapolis, but spring and summer in a city with so many trees, lakes, and trails makes it all worth it.  I have always lived in places that have real seasons, so I've convinced myself that it builds character.  I find myself feeling bad for people who live in Los Angeles, who think life is only 70 degrees and sunny with a good chance of championship basketball teams.  Negative 10 degrees and 20 wins builds character, and I want to be there when spring comes.  Of course I convinced myself that spring came during a nice thaw last week only to have several more inches of snow dumped on us today, so I am fully prepared for another tough winter with the Wolves next year.

Ramona and Beezus, and Kendrick Perkins

There have been some big stories in the NBA this year.  Lebron and Bosh join Wade in Miami.  Carmelo forces his way to New York.  Utah trades Deron Williams to New Jersey to avoid having him force his way out next year.  And to hear most people talk about it, the NBA is doomed because of this.  We can't put up with a league where stars pick where they get to play.  It's all too selfish, too contrived, and leaves middle America feeling like a basketball farm system.  Something needs to change.  Or so they say.

Well, to me, the biggest story of the season is that Kendrick Perkins was traded from my beloved Boston Celtics to the Oklahoma City Thunder and cried about it.  I know that's a little like saying "Ramona and Beezus" was a more powerful movie than "The King's Speech"...which...well actually...funny you should mention it...

I watched these two movies about a week apart from one another.  I saw "The King's Speech" first.  I was moved, not quite to tears, but I was moved.  I thought it was one of the finest movies I had ever seen.  So you can imagine my confusion when I found myself sobbing by the end of "Ramona and Beezus" a week later.  It was not the finest movie I had ever seen, but it was the first that ever made me cry.

Just a couple of days before watching "The King's Speech", a fellow pastor's kid and I (we are now both pastors) were sitting at a table with our dads.  We were talking about how difficult it was for us to move at age twelve.  His story involved sincerely invoking the words, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me."  Mine involved lying in bed as my dad shared the news with my older brother, thinking that I was asleep.  I was not ready to leave Connecticut for Nebraska.  I cried all night.

These feelings were fresh in my mind, when I sat down to watch "Ramona and Beezus" with Kathy one week later.  So when Ramona was struggling with the idea of moving from the only house she ever knew; I was right there with her.  And I cried like a baby.  My eyes didn't just get a little moist like they do when they "move that bus" on Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  I bawled.

Moving is hard.

Kendrick Perkins cried because he left the only basketball city he had known.  A place where he was a key player on a championship team.  A place where he had become best friends with Rajon Rondo.  A place where he felt like he belonged.  And without his consent, he was sent away.  Kendrick Perkins, he of the prominent shoulders, needed a shoulder to cry on.

Kendrick's story is the biggest of the season, because it gives us perspective.  It reminds us that:

1.  Most players don't actually make their own decisions about where they'll play.  Not even very good players like Perkins.  Most players' fate rely on the decisions of billionaires and executives.  So maybe we should be slower to judge the ones who are good enough to make their own decisions, even if we disagree.  The NBA essentially has a system in which a team has 7 year's to build a competitive team around a young player.  The financial incentive to stay means that most star players spend at least their first 5-7 years in one place.  We expect too much if we think they should have any obligation to stay longer than that.  And with talents like Lebron, or Carmelo, or Deron, if you can't put championship pieces around them in seven years, it's actually better for them, and for the league to give them all a fresh start.

2.  One of the teams that has the best chance to win over the next 10 years is in a tiny market in middle America.  The OKC team to which Perkins was traded, is young, talented, and seems committed to stick together.  So maybe basketball in small markets is not dead.  And maybe not all star players (see: Kevin Durant) are wired the same way, which leads me my final point...

3.  Basketball players are human beings.  Muscles, money, and expectations do not make athletes any less or any more human.  When we put athletes on pedestals we give them superhuman qualities.  When we reduce them to trading cards, we strip them of that humanity all together.  We forget that they are human.  We forget that they have emotions, weaknesses, and goals separate from our own. 

I loved "The King's Speech" because it emphasizes what we all have in common as humans.  We all have weaknesses, and we all have a purpose.  We may have different roles, but no one role is any more or less important than any other.  A king may need a speech therapist to look him in the eye, call him by his nickname, and have the gall to see him as an equal.  And because of this speech therapist, the king could perform his kingly duty when the world needed it most.  In order for this spectacular moment to happen, they had to reach some common ground.

Kendrick and I have common ground.  We both moved.  We both cried.  If I met him, I might not be able to look him in the eye (he's really tall), but I would hope we could sit down and watch "Ramona and Beezus" and talk about how hard it is to move.  But most of all, I hope that he'll someday be able to say, like I do now, that moving was one of the best things that ever happened to him.