A video highlighting the great moments that Kevin Garnett gave us during his twelve seasons with the Timberwolves.

This picture appears on the front page of ESPN NBA, where long time Timberwolf-hater John Hollinger ranks Rubio #2 in the ROY race behind Kyrie Irving. 

Can you find David Kahn? He does lurk...everywhere.

And on that note, how insane is it that the link to the article cannot be posted because it is an ESPN Insider, paid article? While I am a subsciber (thank you, $10 Groupon), how shady is it that in order to read one man's opinion, usually laden with snide, holier-than thou remarks, you need to pay a fee? Never understood it. Alas.

On a brighter note, Rubio is due for more minutes and a starting role soon. Things are looking very good for a Ricky of the Year trophy. 

PS...vote him into the All-Star game! Text the word "Rubio" to 69622. Do it. Now. Just do it. 

As most of you probably saw, it had been rumored a few days ago that K-Love could soon be playing in the Turkish Basketball League on a team with Luol Deng and Deron Williams, during this never-ending and absurd NBA lockout.  It was definitely a legit rumor from Adrian Woj of Yahoo Sports, but it turns out that it just wasn't going to end up happening.  Apparently Love didn't feel great about that opportunity, but he didn't rule out playing elsewhere during the lockout:

Think Mr. Love would want to come play at one of our houses on an adjustable basketball goal?  Maybe put that baby down to 9 feet so that he'd really be able to show off his hops?  Someone Tweet him up.

Also in Ricky Rubio T-Wolves news...

There have been two superb pieces about Ricky Rubio in the past two days.  Definitely make sure to check them out if you are wondering what he's been up to lately.

- Again from Adrian Woj at Yahoo Sports: Free at last, "Ricky Rubio ready to start NBA career."

- And from the solid Sam Amick at CNNSI.com: "With little fanfare, Rubio takes 'little step' on road to the NBA."

- Saving the best for last, We've got Rubio highlights from Drew Gooden's charity game.  Here are the top ten plays below.  Rubio makes it twice, and also has the #1 overall play of pure, studly awesomeness:

no comments

(Always focused on basketball)

In case you do not fanatically peruse NBA blogs like some people I know, The Real Shaq is hosting a wonderfully entertaining series of articles throughout August detailing the worst contracts in the NBA since the 1998 lockout.  This series is known as the Jon Koncack Commemorative Awards, and links to all of the other entertaining and informational articles in the series (aside from the KG article, as a huge KG apologist I am going to pretend that I never read it); can be found HERE.  I decided to do my portion of the series on Larry Hughes, as the entire outlook of the NBA for the past 5 years, the present, and beyond may have been altered by that hideous $70 million, 5 year deal Mr. Hughes signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2005.

“I’m going to take my talents to South Beach.”  This was the most famous quote in the sporting world this summer, probably this year.  And if it was not for Larry Hughes and his ridiculous contract signed in 2005, this quote may never have been uttered.  Actually, the whole scope of the NBA may look a lot different right now if it was not for this joke of a contract.  The Miami cHeat may still be D. Wade + scrubs, or even worse a bottom 5 team with the loss of Wade this summer.  The oppressed fans of Cleveland may be an overjoyed, thankful bunch of crazed fans in the midst of celebrating consecutive championships.  The Lakers may not be back-to-back champions, and Kobe may not be viewed as a “winner at all costs”, but instead as a “me-first” guy who cannot carry a team led by him to a championship.  Ron Artest – a team cancer rather than a key contributor to a championship.  Pau Gasolina – too soft to be a champion, rather than the Robin to Batman on the past two championship teams.  The Celtics – a one and done championship team rather than perennial contender who was 6:00 away from winning another championshi…

...whoa, sorry, I just snapped out of a 20 minute daydream caused by my mentioning that the Celtics were THAT CLOSE to winning another title in June.  I digress…

Okay, so how could a relatively unnotable player like Larry Hughes alter the state of the entire NBA in 2010?  Easy, actually.  Before all of the other failed second banana to LeBron James experiments occurred (think Jamison, Shaq, Mo Williams), Larry Hughes paved the way as the originator of this string of failed sidekicks.  Not only did he fail on the court as the second option, but his ridiculously big contract made it nearly impossible for Cleveland to try again with anyone else for years, much less trade him for anything worthwhile (he was eventually traded in 2008 for an over the hill Ben Wallace and his hefty contract).

Please click "Read More" to continue on with this tale of woe...

The Wolves fell to the Knicks Friday night at Target Center. Neil tells you why:

With KG getting injured and falling on the way to the tunnel due to pain, only to make a late-game return, I knew we were potentially due for another WWF-esque moment from the Big Ticket.  I was really hoping to see him raise his arms as he entered and get the crowd going nuts. It's absolutely incredible when he gets them going like that, even if it does get the home crowd rallied up against my own team. 

Instead, we were "treated" to KG's tirade at the end of the game in which he popped out his jersey to display "Celtics" and kept repeating "This is what I'm talking about Motherf***ers!"

I have to admit, I love it when KG goes bonkers, but tonight I found it a little tough to swallow. It seemed to me that his actions were a little insulting to the Wolves organization. The way he clearly pointed out "Celtics" over and over again made it appear that he was driving home the message that the C's are so much better than the Timberwolves. 

Trying to take a more objective look, Garnett was at home and was celebrating in front of the Boston fans. His actions could just be his way of saying "I'm happy to be here, to be a part of this organization, etc." But in the back of my mind, it still just seemed like there was a little bit of anti-Wolves sentiment there as well.  I've seen him do the jersey pop before, but this one just seemed a little more enthusiastic, a little longer, and thus, a little more deliberate.

Trust me, KG has every reason to want to stick it to McHale, Taylor, and whoever else put him through twelve years of hell with their bad management decisions. I would just like to think that Kevin would also remember that there's thousands and thousands of Timberwolves fans who still support him just as strongly as ever.  We treat him as if he were still one of our own.  When he went down in the 4th quarter with the abdominal strain, it never crossed my mind to think "Yes!  We have a better shot of winning!".  Instead, I was annoyed with the Wolves as if they'd just injured one of their own teammates.

Through location, loyalty, or a twisted gluttony for punishment, we're all still following and supporting the Wolves in Garnett's absence.  Because of that, any action he does to insult the organization can be taken as an insult to us.  Truth be told, as much as I consider him to still be "one of us", he's really not.  The fans on this site and I can take our shots at the team because it's "our" team.  Anything negative we say is out of love coupled with frustration, and at the end of the day we still bleed for this organziation.  Garnett doesn't have that relationship any more and every move he made last night was going to come under major scrutiny.  I just wish he'd been a litte more careful, and, without sounding like a total wuss, a little more sensitive to the people he left behind. 

Again, the game was in Boston and he was celebrating with the Boston fans.  It's not far-fetched to think that he got caught up in the moment and forgot about the thousands in the Midwest who were watching him over the television.  After twelve seasons of doing the incredible for us, I'm more than willing to give KG a pass on this one.  I just seriously hope we don't see anything similar when the Ticket comes back to the Target Center, because that would simply be inexcusable.

My final word of advice to KG would be this - if you're going to pull out a WWF move on February 8th, make it this one:  Act like you're going to run up to Al Jefferson and clock him in the face, and then instead raise his arm into the air as a sign of solidarity with your long-time fans and the players they now support in your absence. 

Trust me, the crowd will love it!

Coach Bobby Knights explains his favorite word in the English language.

***CONTAINS MATURE LANGUAGE***

Vince Carter dunks over 7'2 Weis at the 2000 Olympics.

Amazing.