Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves is a Minneapolis-based American professional Basketball franchise. The Timberwolves compete as members of the Western Conference Northwest Division of the nba within the National Basketball Association. The team was founded in 1989 and is owned by Glen Taylor who also owns the Minnesota Lynx of WNBA. The Timberwolves have been playing their home games at target arena since 1990. Unlike other expansion franchises, the Timberwolves had struggled in their early years but the team qualified for the playoffs in eight straight seasons from 1997 to 2004 after Kevin Garnett's selection at the 1995 NBA draught. The Timberwolves won their first division crown in 2004 and advanced the following season to the Western Conference Finals, having missed their first seven tries in the first round. In that season Garnett was also named the NBA's Most Valuable Player. Since reaching the finals in 2005 and in 2007 trading Garnett to the Boston Celtics, the franchise went into rebuilding mode for more than a decade at a time. In a contract agreed in February 2015, Garnett returned to the Timberwolves and ended his career there, retiring in the summer of 2016. The Timberwolves ended a 14-year drought in the postseason when they returned to the 2018 regular season. In 1989 NBA returned basketball to the Twin Cities for the first time since Minneapolis Lakers left for Los Angeles in 1960. On 22 April 1987, the NBA granted three of the four new expansion franchises to the original owners Harvey Ratner and Marv Wolfenson to continue playing for the 1989–90 season. There were two teams of the American Basketball Association, the Minnesota Muskies of 1967 and 1968, respectively, and the Minnesota Pipers in 1968 and 1969. In December 1986, the franchise held a contest called "name the band," and eventually selected two winners, "Timberwolves" and "Polars" The committee also challenged Minnesota's 842 city councils to sort out the winner, and "Timberwolves" won by nearly 2–1. On 23 January 1987, the team formally became known as "Minnesota Timberwolves." Among the 48 states below Minnesota has the highest number of timberwolfs. On 3 November 1989, the Timberwolves made their debut, losing to the Seattle SuperSonics on road 106–94. We made their home debut at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome five days later, and lost 96–84 to the Chicago Bulls. The Timberwolves claimed their first victory two nights later, on 10 November, crashing home the Philadelphia 76ers 125–118. The Timberwolves, led by 23.2 ppg from Tony Campbell, went on to a record of 22–60 and finished sixth in the Midwest Division. The relocation of the Timberwolves, played in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, set an NBA record drawing over 1 million fans to their home games. It includes an attendance of 49,551 on April 17, 1990, which saw the Timberwolves losing in the last home game of the season to the Denver Nuggets 99–88. A variety of stars arrived before the next season begins, including Gary Trent, Loren Woods and Maurice Evans and Joe Smith's return. The Timberwolves began the season by winning their first six games and managed to achieve a best 30–10 franchise record. The Timberwolves recorded the best win by a 53-point franchise over Chicago in November. We finished with a 50–32 record: their second ever 50-win season, marked by Garnett's first All-Star selection and the breakthrough season for Wally Szczerbiak, which won his first All-Star game. Minnesota again avoided the playoffs during the first round, where they were defeated in three consecutive rounds by the Dallas Mavericks. For the Timberwolves the 2002–03 season started to shape. Following a strong season of 23.0 points per game and 13.4 rebounds per night, Garnett took second place in MVP and the Timberwolves finished third with a record of 51–31. Consequently, when faced with three-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, they were given the home court advantage for the first time. The Timberwolves had an opportunity to take a 3–1 series lead going into the 4th quarter of Game 4 in Los Angeles, despite being shut out at home in Game 1, but the Lakers fought back to win the game and finally took the series in six games. At the end the Timberwolves were defeated for the seventh consecutive year in the first round of the playoffs.