On Tuesday night, Timberwolves stars Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns were named as reserves to the 2018 NBA All-Star Game.
On the heels of the announcement of the All-Star starters that came last Thursday night, Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns were honored on Tuesday as Western Conference All-Star reserves.
This is Butler’s fourth consecutive season being named an All-Star, while Towns will participate in the game for the first time after competing in the BBVA Rising Star Challenge the past two years, which is the current version of the NBA’s rookie-sophomore challenge.
The Timberwolves haven’t had a player in the All-Star Game since Kevin Love made the team (and was named a starter as an injury replacement) in 2014. This is the first time that the Wolves have had two players in the game since … you guessed it, 2004. Kevin Garnett and Sam Cassell represented Minnesota in Los Angeles that season.
As a reminder, while the players were selected evenly by conference, the format of the game will be vastly different. This Thursday night on TNT, leading vote-getters LeBron James and Stephen Curry will act as team captains as they draft their respective teams from the pool of available All-Stars. The reserves were chosen by the 30 NBA head coaches, and will be selected one-by-one to be part of Team LeBron and Team Stephen.
Towns is one of four first-time All-Stars, including New York’s Kristaps Porzingis, Indiana’s Victor Oladipo, and Washington’s Bradley Beal. KAT is the only new All-Star in the Western Conference.
The Wolves are in good company, as the only other teams to have multiple All-Stars in 2018 are Golden State, Cleveland, Boston, Toronto, New Orleans, and Washington. Also, Former Timberwolf Kevin Love was named a reserve and will play in his fifth All-Star game and second with the Cavaliers.
Next: 3 trade ideas to send Kemba Walker to the Timberwolves
The Timberwolves will be back in action on Wednesday night in Portland as they try to beat the divisional rival Trail Blazers for the third time in three tries so far this season before moving down the coast to take on the Warriors on Thursday.