Minnesota Timberwolves: Hard luck kids of the NBA lottery
By Jaime Tyler
The curse of Christian Laettner
Ever since the Wolves missed out on O’Neal and Mourning in 1992 and drafted the man from Durham, they seem to have enjoyed the league’s worst lottery luck.
What happened on that summer night in the early 1990s?
Did Christian use up all of his equity with the basketball gods during his One Shining Moment against Kentucky?
Or, did he take one giant stomp for man, one giant leap backwards for Wolves’ kind?
Whatever happened to ruin fans’ tranquility, the Curse of Laettner has lived on for over a quarter century.
Three times during the past 26 seasons, the Timberwolves have ended up with the worst record in the NBA. The Wolves’ were the hipsters of tanking in the early 1990s — racing the rest of the league to the bottom of the standings before it was cool, or ‘Pop approved’.
The Wolves also finished with the second and third worst record another five times. That’s a total of eight top-three worst records in 26 seasons.
Unfortunately, out of the eight times the Wolves have finished in the bottom three, they only have one number one pick to show for it.
While this may be true, critics can argue the Timberwolves, despite their bad lottery luck, have had several chances to make a great pick exactly where they stood.
Of course, that’s true, and it’s sound logic.
On one hand, Minnesota made a franchise-changing pick in 1995 when they drafted KG at number five.
On the other, they missed out on Steph Curry in 2009.
And, a player like DeMarcus Cousins was there for the taking when the Minnesota Timberwolves opted for Wesley Johnson in 2010.
That said, this isn’t about missed chances and bad drafts by the Timberwolves’ front office. It’s about pointing out that the Wolves and the lottery balls just haven’t seen eye to eye over the years.
After 20-plus years of lottery suffering, the Timberwolves did pick the right year to tank, win the draft lottery, and make the obvious choice, Karl-Anthony Towns, in 2015.
That’s one stroke of luck the Timberwolves, and their fans, hope to ride into a fortunate future.
What kind of luck will next Tuesday bring? If history is any guide, the Wolves won’t fare too well. However, in this year’s
If history is any guide, the Minnesota Timberwolves won’t fare well.
Next: Timberwolves mock lottery draft 2.0
However, in this year’s loaded draft, ping-pong luck might not even matter to Tom Thibodeau and crew.