Minnesota Timberwolves: SI feature on Wolves’ year in the community

There are several reasons why it’s been a challenging year for the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise.

The one that carries the most real-world weight by far, however, is the team’s role in attempting to help the Twin Cities community heal from the murder of George Floyd last May and, more recently, the death of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Park last month.

Now, marking the one-year mark of Floyd’s death, Sports Illustrated’s Michael Pina penned a piece covering the Wolves’ response as an organization, including both their immediate reaction in the wake of the tragedy and their continued efforts to affect change.

Minnesota Timberwolves: SI feature on Wolves’ year in the community

The story of the Wolves’ immediate reaction to the tragic events of May 25, 2020, has been told before.

To the organization’s credit, team leadership spoke out in the days and weeks following Floyd’s death, both in disbelief and clear condemnation of the actual killing and in desperation for an end to police brutality and racial injustice. From Gersson Rosas to then-head coach Ryan Saunders, the leading voices in the organization were heard.

Players were involved, too, including the presence of Josh Okogie and Karl-Anthony Towns at a rally held at Minneapolis City Hall.

The franchise was active as well, and Pina does an outstanding job lining out exactly what the efforts were that Rosas led beginning almost immediately following Floyd’s death. Remember, the team’s season was not only over, but the entire league was on hiatus amid the thick of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, Wolves leadership understood their role in the community and did what they could to be not just present, but active.

"In late May and early June, the front office scheduled video calls with local politicians (including the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey), community leaders, Minneapolis Chief of Police Medaria Arradondo and criminal justice experts who could inform players, answer questions and allow them a safe space to process the pain and hurt that came with Floyd’s death.“It was cool for the Timberwolves to be proactive that way, and put us on calls with people who are in places of power, to actually demand direct change,” Minnesota guard Josh Okogie says."

Pina goes on to talk about Tru Pettigrew’s influence on the organization. Pettigrew is “a community bridge builder who opens lines of dialogue between police departments and diverse populations” and went from a friend of Rosas and guest speaker to the team’s vice president of player programs/diversity and inclusion.

Also included in the article are Okogie’s own views on racial injustice and how much the ongoing issue impacted him in the past year, rising to the forefront for the third-year wing following Ahmaud Arbery’s killing in Okogie’s native Georgia and continuing with Floyd’s death in late May.

Even the Timberwolves new ownership group has pitched in, with pending co-owner Marc Lore matching the $25,000 raised by the team after they auctioned off warm-up shirts with the message “With Liberty and Justice For All“.

While much of these stories have been told, Okogie gives his unique perspective on the goings-on, and Pina does a great job pulling together much of what the organization has done over the past year to pitch in and be involved in the Twin Cities and minority communities as a whole.

Once again, Kudos to the Timberwolves organization, from the players and coaching staff to the front office and team ownership, the franchise has helped the way in its desire to make a truly meaningful impact.