The Early Ineptitude and Subsequent Rise of the Minn. Timberwolves

The team known as Minn. Timberwolves is a team that plays out of the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This team came to be known as the Minn. Timberwolves since 1989 when owners Harvey Ratner and Marc Wolfenson got awarded an extension franchise along with the one belonging to Orlando, Florida. The Minn. Timberwolves first played in the 1989 to 1990 season and lost their very first match to the Seattle Super Sonics.

The Minn. Timberwolves was a team that struggled to make things happen their way with a lot of losses and a rather embarrassing 2nd season NBA-Worst record of 15 wins and 67 losses for a season. This led the team and its owners to do a lot of reorganizing which included the firing out of the team's first coach, Bill Musselman. The new head coach of the Minn. Timberwolves did not fare better than his predecessor and the team continued to suffer the backlash of such failures to deliver. The team even contemplated a move but was thwarted from doing so by a rejection of such a request by the NBA.

The Minn. Timberwolves started 1995 with high hopes that the team will indeed become one of the best basketball teams around and this kind of a goal had the team finding the people they needed to reach just such a goal. The following years saw the Minn. Timberwolves recruiting such promising players like Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell and coach Flip Saunders. These additions to the team as well as the other future additions in the following seasons saw the Timberwolves entering the play-offs year after year from the 1996-1997 Season up to the 2003-2004 Season when the Timberwolves won their first Northwest Division title to play in the Western Conference Final.