Timberwolves Roundup: For Flip, Wolves players in L.A.

While the Timberwolves are enjoying an eight day gap in between games, it’s already been an eventful start to the All-Star break.

The Timberwolves completed the unofficial first half of the season (yes, they’ve actually already played 61 of 82 of their regular season games) with a victory over the Lakers on Thursday night. The evening was dominated, however, by a wonderful tribute to former Wolves head coach, executive, and part-owner Flip Saunders.

The game was preceded by a presentation emceed by former Wolves announcer and current TNT broadcaster Kevin Harlan. Many former Wolves players were there, including Gary Trent, Sam Cassell, Latrell Sprewell, Troy Hudson and Chauncey Billups.

Then, the banner was unveiled that will hang above the Timberwolves home court forever. Here’s the ceremony in it’s entirety.

It was an awesome job by Glen Taylor and the Wolves front office. Here’s an excerpt from a fantastic piece by The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski that paints a picture of just how big of an impact Saunders had not just on the basketball side of the organization, but on the business side as well.

"When Ethan Casson took over as CEO of the Timberwolves in July of 2016, one of his first orders of business was to start the discussion on how the organization would honor Flip.As a young sales representative for the team, Casson and his buddy Ryan Tanke flew to Los Angeles on their own dime in 2003 for Game 3 of the Wolves’ first-round playoff series against the Lakers.After the Wolves prevailed, Casson and Tanke came back to the team hotel and found that Saunders and former GM Kevin McHale had opened a tab at the bar.Equipment manager Clayton Wilson let Flip know that two young sales reps had paid their own way to L.A. for the game and Flip came over to greet them. The two were due to head back to Minnesota before Game 4, but Flip had other ideas."

Saunders made sure that the pair of sales reps had tickets to Game 4 and were able to fly back to Minneapolis on the team’s charter flight.

Kevin Garnett was not at the ceremony, due largely to commitments in his role with TNT, but his fractured relationship with Taylor surely played a part in his absence as well. What was Garnett up to? Well, he was in Los Angeles, operating a camera crew with Rasheed Wallace. Really.

The current Timberwolves players who are representing the organization at the All-Star game spent the first day of the break contributing to the community as part of the NBA All-Star Day of Service. This year, that involved working with Baby2Baby, an organization that provides children in low-income situation with basic necessities.

For the first time in awhile, the Timberwolves won’t have a presence on either All-Star Friday or All-Saturday. But for the first time since 2004, Minnesota will have two All-Stars playing in the marquee event on Sunday evening. Additionally, it’s the first time since Kevin Love made the team in 2014 that the Wolves will have anyone representing the squad in the All-Star Game itself.

Next: Timberwolves primer for All-Star Weekend

We’ll have continuing All-Star break coverage here at Dunking With Wolves, with predictions and reactions all headed your way throughout the weekend.