Returning to the Glory of the 90s: The Gabriel Arcadia Story (TPB 2K5)

[Izulde]

1992 NBA Finals
(1) Minnesota vs (3) Atlanta

Yes, it was the Hawks we played for the NBA championship that year. Atlanta soundly thrashed the Bulls 110-93 in Game 6 to capture the Eastern crown behind Dominique Wilkins' double-double of 32 points and 10 rebounds. He was their Detlef, only a bona fide superstar.

I have here an article that appeared in the Tribune shortly before the opening game of the finals.

Wolves Set To Down Hawks In NBA Finals

Nobody, not even the most optimistic of fans, would have predicted in 1990 that just three seasons later, the Minnesota Timberwolves would be playing for a championship, but that is precisely what has happened.

Much of the credit goes to GM Gabriel Arcadia. An unknown to the casual NBA fan, Arcadia built the Lacrosse Purple Knights of the Independant Midwest League into a perennial championship contender, and it was this success at the semipro level that led to his hiring just before the 1990 season began.

A series of deft moves by the general manager quickly laid the foundation for the Wolves' fast track to success. Mitch Richmond came from Golden State and was a popular star the first couple of years when the team needed a face from the franchise. Bill Wennington proves a valuable free agent pickup and has been a solid player, his recent slump notwithstanding. There were the blockbuster trades for Scottie Pippen and Detlef Schrempf that solidified the team at the forward positions and promoted the Timberwolves to the next level, propelling them to this, the brink of an NBA title.

Perhaps the most important decision by Arcadia, however, was the letting go of Hubie Brown after the first season and hiring Gregg Popovich as the team's head coach. The Timberwolves have made the playoffs the last two seasons under Popovich's leadership and possess the league's stingiest defense and best ball-control.

When the Hawks face the Timberwolves in tonight's opening game, there will be familiar faces for both teams on each side. Former Timberwolf Tyrone Hill has become the Hawks' 6th man in the wake of starting center Kevin Willis's injury against the Bulls that will knock him out for the Finals. On the other end, Alexander Volkov has been an unexpected windfall for the Timberwolves after his move from Atlanta in the draft-day trade that allowed Minnesota to move up three spots and select Terrell Brandon.

Expected to be no more than a contributing bench player, Volkov won the starting center job before the season started and has played very well for the Timberwolves, even showing flashes of brilliance. More importantly, his emergence has allowed Popovich the luxury of moving former starter Randy Breuer to the 6th man role, where he has exploded coming off the bench in the second half of the season.

While it will be a tough series for the home team, even with Willis out for the next two months, I predict we'll see the T-Wolves win this one in six games. Minneapolis will become the new Titletown."

***End Article***

I have to admit, I felt nervous when I read that column. It was putting too much pressure on us, pressure that I didn't want. I never have liked being the favourite. Then again, I don't like being an overwhelming underdog, either. I suppose I like the second place position best, where I'm still not expected to win, but I'm in a very good position to pull off the upset.

Game 1 opened up with a 3 point basket from Pooh. We went box to wire from there, with the Hawks unable to do anything to stop us. The final score was 123-83, our balanced offense the usual suspect in the win. Pooh had a double-double of 12 points and 14 assists and Randy chipped in with 20 points and 8 rebounds from the bench, the former the team high for the night, the latter the game high. As you can tell by that stat, both teams were concentrating on having as good a shot selection as they could manage. That first victory was a huge relief to me.

I thought Game 2 would be a lot closer, especially after Bill was knicked up in the last game and declared out for four days, and I was right. In fact, we were losing at the end of the first quarter after we went on a cold streak. Midway through the second frame, we got the lead and held it the rest of the way, but it wasn't easy. Atlanta battled us and hung close all throughout the second half and it wasn't until the last minute or two that we finally pulled away for the 108-96 win that was nowhere near as dominant as the final tally suggests.

Once more it was Pooh who was one of the keys, as he earned Player of the Game honors with 25 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. Ron chipped in 20 points as well, and Detlef picked up a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds.

I felt a little sorry for Dominique Wilkins. He'd been doing everything he could to keep the Hawks in the series, scoring 22 points in Game 1 and getting 22 points again in Game 2 as part of a double-double of 22 and 10 rebounds. But it just wasn't enough, as Atlanta returned home down two games to zero.

We started Game 3 with a 6-0 run, but it didn't last. Atlanta grabbed the lead back by the end of the first after our shooting went cold. The second quarter was a dogfight, with lead changes every few seconds it seems, but by the time the halftime buzzer sounded, we were down by one. In the third quarter, the Hawks broke the game open, seizing a double digit lead. From there, they gave us a taste of our own medicine, controlling us the entire rest of the game and never letting get us within sniffing distance of stealing the game away. 99-80 was the final.

I no longer felt sorry for Dominique Wilkins after the game, but did find myself admiring him all the more. Determined not to give us the driver's seat, he almost singlehandedly led Atlanta to the win and was the clear Player of the Game with 34 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and a block.

As we went into Game 4, I hoped we could get the win and put ourselves in the driver's seat, but that didn't happen. As in Game 3, we kicked off a lead, but lost it by the end of the first quarter. We continued to try and play catch-up in the second quarter but couldn't pull it off and went into the locker room down by five. Quarter 3 went much better as we narrowed the gap to two by the end of the period and were only down 82-84. Then, in the final frame, the Hawks broke us, just as they did in Game 3, and they got the critical series-tying win 115-104.

Once more it was Dominique Wilkins who crushed us and was named Player of the Game for the second consecutive contest. 38 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists was his final statline. Little Spud Webb suddenly woke up for the Hawks as well, adding 25 points and 8 assists to Atlanta's cause, exceeding Pooh's 21 points and 8 assists for our side.

We were still in Atlanta for Game 5, but by this time, the team was mad. They didn't need Gregg to yell at them, because they held a players' meeting by themselves. Though I never did find out what precisely happened in there, I heard afterwards that Detlef and Randy tore into their teammates and told them to wake up and start playing to their potential.

It worked, because we blasted the Hawks right from the start, the score 35-18 at the end of the first. We widened our lead by another three points in the second quarter, but the Hawks cut the margin by eight in the third. In the fourth, we shut down all hopes of the home team's taking the driver's seat as we outscored them 29-27. 110-96 was the final, but the exact score didn't matter. All that was important was that we now had the crucial 3-2 lead.

Pooh led us with 23 points and 9 assists, once again proving my fundamental belief that he was the key to everything we did in our offense. Scottie added in 23 points and Ron picked up 9 points and 10 rebounds.

We finally got to go home for Game 6 in Minneapolis. There was a sellout crowd and the place was going crazy. Everyone wanted to see us win the title on our home court, and to be honest, I was among the everyone. The Twin Cities had been very loyal in their support of us and I wanted to repay them with a championship won at home.

Things started off slow, very slow. Midway through the first quarter, it was just 4-4. The defenses were tight and unrelenting. Then we got a 6-0 run to go up 10-4 and from there, we just zoomed away, leaving the Hawks choking in the dust from our rapid expansion of our lead. By the time it was all over, the scoreboard gleamed red with the final score of 110-91.

I broke down crying when I saw that. On the court, Detlef and Pooh were carrying Gregg to the ladder to cut down one of the nets. It was a beautiful scene and I sat there mesmerized.

Then the door to my suite burst open.

I looked and there was Randy running through the doorway to grab my hand and pull me out of my seat.

"Randy" I blubbered through my tears, "I'm sorry that Gregg benched you. You always did well for us and you were great for us from the bench."

"Don't worry about it. Come on, Mr. Arcadia! The other net belongs to you! We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you!" Randy wasn't about to let me out of this one.

And so the entire arena and probably half the country watched as I was led by Randy down the bleachers and joined by some of the other celebrating players.

Cheering, screaming, crying people were all around me, as the fans had surged on to the court after the final buzzer had sounded. But when they saw me there, they parted to clear a path to the net still uncut. I have to admit, it wasn't entirely of their own doing. A few of my players and security guards helped them to get out of the way.

My heart pounded as I took those hesistant, slow steps to the short ladder. I couldn't believe this was happening. This still didn't seem real to me, none of it did.

I felt a little embarassed as everyone fell silent and turned to watch me make that trip, my face a mess of tears and my hair wild and tousled in all the fuss.

But then I climbed those last few steps and reached up with the scissors that somebody, I think it may have been Bill, handed it to me.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

With three long cuts, the net was freed and floated down into my arms.

I clutched the white cords and turned, holding up the trophy to the watching crowd.

They cheered and again I wept.

Minnesota Timberwolves, 1992 NBA Champions. The sweetest words I have ever heard.

[Izulde]

Oh and I just have to add, this was the very first text-sim title I've accomplished since the Mogul days on Easy Level (and even a blind monkey with rabies could pull that off) so I'm feeling proud of myself, especially since I set Arcadia's evaluations all to the lowest level and only had the second-best charisma of Liked (since it fit the story of the character).

[Izulde]

Shortly after the weeklong celebration in the Twin Cities at last tapered off into an immense sense of satisfaction and quiet joy, the season awards came out. To be perfectly honest, I doubted we would see any recognition on there, other than Gregg as Coach of the Year. That I suspected would be a shoo-in and maybe Terrell would make the All-Rookie Second Team. Anything more than that would be an unexpected bonus.

MVP:
Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
33.3 ppg 3.8 apg 5.9 rpg 0.8 bpg 1.7 spg

Defensive Player of the Year
David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs
22.2 ppg 1.8 apg 10.9 rpg 2.8 bpg 0.8 spg

6th Man of the Year
Sam Vincent - Orlando Magic
11.5 ppg 5.7 apg 2.5 rpg 0.1 bpg 1.0 spg

Rookie of the Year
Dikembe Mutombo - Sacramento Kings
10.1 ppg 2.0 apg 8.4 rpg 2.5 bpg 0.7 spg

Coach of the Year
Lenny Wilkens - Cleveland Cavaliers

All-League First Team
PG Mark Price - Cleveland Cavaliers
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Ricky Pierce - Milwaukee Bucks
PF Karl Malone - Utah Jazz
C David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs

All-League Second Team
PG Kevin Johnson - Phoenix Suns
SG Clyde Drexler - Portland Trailblazers
SF Dominique Wilkins - Atlanta Hawks
PF Kevin McHale - Boston Celtics
C Brad Daugherty - Cleveland Cavaliers

All-League Third Team
PG Terry Porter - Portland Trailblazers
SG Magic Johnson - L.A. Lakers
SF Bernard King - Washington Wizards
PF Larry Nance - Cleveland Cavaliers
C Roy Tarpley - Dallas Mavericks

All-Defense First Team
PG Nate McMillan - Seattle Sonics
SG Ron Harper - Minnesota Timberwolves
SF Scottie Pippen - Minnesota Timberwolves
PF Karl Malone - Utah Jazz
C David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs

All-Defense Second Team
PG John Stockton - Utah Jazz
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Chris Mullin - Golden State Warriors
PF Derrick Coleman - Charlotte Bobcats
C Dikembe Mutombo - Sacramento Kings

All-Rookie First Team
PG Greg Anthony - Detroit Pistons
SG Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf - Miami Heat
SF Richard Dumas - L.A. Clippers
PF Chris Gatling - Toronto Raptors
C Dikembe Mutomobo - Sacramento Kings

All-Rookie Second Team
PG Erick Murdock - Denver Nuggets
SG Elliott Perry - Utah Jazz
SF Rick Fox - Minnesota Timberwolves
PF Doug Smith - San Antonio Spurs
C Isaac Austin - Phoenix Suns

In the end, the voters decided to go with the Cavs' impressive win total when selecting the Coach of the Year. I wasn't too disappointed, though. I knew Gregg would have lots of chances down the line to get the nod.

Lenny's selection as Coach of the Year was just one of many repeats from last year. I was pleased to see that Scottie and Ron both got named to the All-Defense First Team. Not only did it mark a return to the list for them, but it also represented a promotion, as before they'd been All-Defense Second Teamers. I still wasn't sure if I was going to retain Ron or not. Things were just going to have unfold as they would and I'd decide later on.

Rick's All-Rookie Second Team status was largely due to two things: 1) His exceptional performance with the Jazz before he became a bit player for us after the trade, and 2) The fact that the draft that year was heavy on point guards and centers, and pretty weak on everything else. I was disheartened to see that Terrell didn't get a second team mention and in no way did I agree with Greg Anthony's being a first-team selection. I had a hunch the tale of their careers would prove me right.

There were some exciting things outside of the Timberwolves news that season in the awards, too. Derrick Coleman was fast on his way to becoming a complete all-around player and, much more to my pleasure, Dikembe dominated the awards boards that year, proving my prediction before the draft that he was the best damn player available and that the Magic were foolish in taking Dale Davis and passing on Mutombo. The Kings got themselves a steal that draft day.

The draft lottery followed a couple weeks after and it was a very exciting time for me. Not only had we just finished off a championship season, but we were guaranteed a very high lottery selection. So high, in fact, that when the balls started bouncing in the bin, we had the third-best chance of locking up the number 1 selection. Never before had I been in so great a position.

First came pick #14. Slated to go to Charlotte, it stayed there. One down.

#13 remained in Orlando, which I was pleased by. Orlando's earlier luck in draft lotteries was quite vexing, especially after they blew the #1 pick in the last draft. Two down.

Boston kept #12. Three down.

The Raptors were stuck at #11. Four down and I was starting to hope that maybe things would play out according to plan and that we'd at least stay at #3.

Dallas was due to go next and they did, staying put at #10. So far, so good.

The balls continued to bounce our way when Philadelphia didn't budge from #9.

My rivals, Golden State. Would Fate vex me by giving them a high selection, I wondered? No, they stayed at #8. I sighed in pleasure, feeling as though I'd thwarted my rivals. For some reason, we'd never lost the sense of rivalry that developed between our clubs after the Richmond trade, though I still don't know why. It made for some good, intense games though, whenever we met. New Orleans and Seattle were also rivals at the time, though the Hornets were because of Hubie and the Sonics both because of division rivalry and because of Tony.

The stupid, stupid Lakers, makers of moronic front-office moves, were rewarded for their ineptitude by given no shift from their initial position of #7.

Then the bad news came. Denver fell from #4 to #6. That could only mean one thing: Phoenix and Indiana jumped into the top three. I winced when I saw the pick flash on the board. Would we, too, fall, down to fifth?

No, for it was the Heat who came crashing down like the ball of flame that was their logo. Miami dropped from #2 all the way down to #5. I imagined I could hear the thump of pain all the way from South Florida.

As I watched the #4 selection pop up, I couldn't help but feel glad that Danny was no longer the GM for the Grizzlies. Memphis, eternally cursed with bad luck, was once again bitten by misfortune, as they freefell from #1 to #4. Now I could smile. Now I knew we were guaranteed to at least stay the course and maybe even move up.

Oh yes, I have to tell you now while I'm thinking of it. Danny got the job with the Rockets after the owner fired the GM for giving up a lottery pick for Mitch. Despite not having a first-round selection, I knew Danny would be in good shape next year. Hakeem was coming back and if he re-signed Mitch, he'd have a good offensive core to work with. The Rockets would go back to winning and Mitch would be happy again.

I leapt out of my chair and began dancing for joy when #3 came up. The colours were not grey, blue, and black on the image, but blue and gold. Indiana had jumped from #5 to #3. More importantly, we had one of the first two selections in the draft.

And as it turned out, we got the #2 pick, which I was immensely happy about. Sure it would have been nice to get #1, but going from #3 to #2 was still a huge improvement, especially when we could've gone through the same freefall as the Heat and the Grizzlies.

The #1 selection went to Phoenix, by the way. The Suns truly had risen, after falling to pieces in the years following their 1990 championship season.

[Karlifornia]

I'm following this, and enjoying it.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by RadioFriendlyUnitShifter

I'm following this, and enjoying it.

Thanks! I'm glad to hear it.

[JeeberD]

Wow, you have a shot at either Shaq or Zo. The rich get richer...

Edit: And if he's around for your second round pick, you gotta grab Marlon Maxey...

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Wow, you have a shot at either Shaq or Zo. The rich get richer...

Edit: And if he's around for your second round pick, you gotta grab Marlon Maxey...

Yeah, I really lucked out here. Center has been my Achilles heel ever since I started. Sure Volkov, Wennington, and Breuer are all decent centers, even pretty good ones, but they're all starting to get towards the wrong side of 30 if they're not there already and I'm really hungry for a dominant center, an Ewing, Hakeem, or Robinson type.

On the other hand, I may go a different route completely. Just have to wait and see.

Marlon Maxey... got it. I'll see what I can do since second-rounders usually don't do much on my team, though I really liked how Stacey Augmon was doing before I traded him away.

[Izulde]

Before I tell you about the draft, let me show you the regular season and playoff stats for that championship year.


1992 Regular Season Stats

The numbers for Bannister are misleading as after being traded from the Jazz, he was chained to the IR list and not allowed to even think of reaching the active roster. Detlef led us in points by the slimmest of margins and was easily our best rebounder, further reaffirming my belief that he and Pooh were the cornerstone stars of the team and the closest thing to franchise players we had. Ron's numbers also gave me something to think about as I debated whether or not to resign him.


1992 Playoff Stats

Remember how often I've told you about Detlef's clutch playmaking? Well, as you can see from those stats, he validated the claim that year by being far and away the best player on the team. Pooh stepped up his game as well and Ron continued his strong play in the postseason.

After seeing all these statistics, I began to think that we would resign Ron after all, if his demands weren't too exorbiant, that is. The mid-level exemption salary was about what I liked him to be at, but fresh off an NBA 1st Team Defense selection, I had a hunch his demands would skyrocket.

Bill's falloff meant that I would try and trade him in the offseason. With one year left, his $7.4 million expiring contract was sure to appeal to somebody and the fact remained that he was still a solid player. There was just no way he was going to surpass Randy and Volkov anymore in my opinion. Besides, I was looking for a franchise center in the draft.

But before the draft began, there was a coaching matter to be decided. In a bit of foolishness on my part caused by the excitement of having the number two pick in the draft, I'd forgotten to call second assistant Mike O'Koren to see about renewing his contract. I cursed myself for that one, but decided to make the best of it and see who was available in the pool.

I eventually settled on Brendan Malone as my first choice. Average at scouting the current abilities of players, he was good at strategy, and, more importantly for the franchise player I hoped we could get with the #2 pick, good at determining potential and development. That he was a good strategist and believed in the same offensive scheme as Gregg and top assistant Bill Fitch was an added bonus. But alas, he signed with the Nuggets as their 1st assistant.

So then I turned my attention to Hal Wissel, good at evaluating defense and potential, okay at everything else. He got stolen too, by Danny's old team, the Grizzlies, also for the top assistant job.

Now down to the bare bottom of the barrel, I made an offer to Don Casey, good at scouting potential, bad at recognizing the good defenders, and average at anything else. He'd had one year of head coaching experience and had stunk at it, but I decided to give him a second chance at new life in Minneapolis. Thankfully, he signed, even though I wasn't that sure of him.

Once again there was a huge amount of turnover in the head coaching ranks that year. Enough so that a full third of league would be sporting new top men in the coming season.

Don Chaney - Philadelphia 76ers
Jim Lynam - Dallas Mavericks
Pat Riley - New Jersey Nets
Willis Reed - Miami Heat
Jack Ramsay - Denver Nuggets
Cotton Fitzsimmons - Indiana Pacers
Rudy Tomjanovich - L.A. Lakers
John Macleod - Houston Rockets
Dick Harter - Memphis Grizzlies
Matt Guokas - Phoenix Suns

Chaney came into Philadelphia with a 118-128 overall record in 3 years of coaching, but two of those three years, he'd taken his team to the playoffs. A genius on the floor, he liked a fast, high-pressure game, was very good at picking out offensive stars, good at defensive and rookie evaluations, and average at development. This was one hiring I really liked.

Dallas's new head man, Lynam, was another guy with 3 years of coaching, two playoffs, and a sub .500 record at 122-124. I wasn't impressed with him, though. He was literally average in everything.

For as much bashing as I did of the Nets, I had to applaud their move in landing Pat Riley. He was a carbon copy of Chaney in every way, save for the fact that he'd posted a winning record up to that point of 125-121.

Reed, like Chaney and Lynam, three years coaching, two playoffs, 119-127 record. Good at tactics, he liked his offenses to be blazing fast with high pressure on D. Very good at offensive and potential scouting, he was terrible at estimating defensive abilities, but could develop players well. I loved this hiring for the Heat. Maybe now Miami would get a coach they could stick with, and if nothing else, he was going make our former expansion mates a fun team to watch.

Ramsay had 3 years experience, a .sub 500 record, but only had one postseason appearance. Like Lynam, he didn't excite me in the least, but he was good at youngster scouting, something the Nuggets needed.

Fitzsimmons landed in Indiana after being fired by the Suns. In three years of coaching, the championship he won with Phoenix in 1990 was his only postseason appearance, but he still had a good record at 131-115, was a good tactician, ran an speedy offense, and knew how to find the players to fit his scheme. His defense left something to be desired, but with Dan Issel as his top assistant and his number two and three men complementary to his scheme, that wasn't something to be worried about. I predicted Indiana was going to enjoy a resurgence in 1993.

The Purple and Gold were desperate for a coach who could restore them to the glory years, so they took a shot in the dark at a guy a lot like our own Gregg. So much like him, in fact, that the only differences were that Rudy liked a little bit faster offense and wasn't as good as a defensive scout as Gregg. Everything else was the same. Only time would tell if it'd mark the return of the Lakers to postseason form, but I had to say, it was a damn good hiring after that stupid Maurice Martin obsession.

I'm not sure why Danny hired John Macleod as the head man. First assistant Jeff Van Gundy was a better option in every respect, as Macleod was average all around. It was about that time that I began to wonder if maybe Danny wasn't cut out to be an NBA GM after all.

Danny's older employers were now taking the defensive route, hoping to emulate the success we'd had on D in our championship season. Dick Harter had been around for three years and had yet to post a winning season or get in the playoffs. That wasn't all his fault though, because he was good at coaching and was very good at scouting defensive talent. Unfortunately he couldn't pick an offensive talent to save his life and was only average at potential and development.

Matt Guokas was one of those guys who was an average coach and a good scout. Not the most exciting hiring in the world, and I personally would have gone with a youngsters' kind of coach, but this was Phoenix, who seemed determined to prove their title had been a fluke.

The 1992 draft was my favourite one up to that point. Not only did we have the number two and twenty-ninth picks in the first round, but Christian Laettner, my favourite player in college since I'd become the GM, had now graduated from Duke after a championship season in his senior year and was available for the drafting.

The name on everyone's lips, though, was Shaquille O'Neal. After dominating the college competition at LSU, he now was in the draft and was the consensus #1 in every publication. Center, Shaq's position, was our biggest area of need and I was salivating over the prospect of getting this big man or another quality center.

We were lucky in that regard, because the 1992 draft was chock full of dynamite big men. Alonzo Mourning out of Georgetown was another star center, picked uniformly to go to us with the number two pick. Other impressive big men looked to be Laettner, center Matt Geiger from Georgia Tech, and center Marlon Maxey out of UTEP.

With the twenty-ninth pick, the publication I read most often had us selecting a shooting guard I'd never heard of. I wasn't interested in him. They were right in that I was looking at shooting guard for the late first-rounder, though. Either that or power forward, though in both cases it was largely for depth. I sent out my invitations and waited with eager anticipation for the returns.

Draft Night 1993. The Suns had drafted centers in the first round the last two drafts, but the chance to get a superb big man of the kind of caliber that was available at the top of the draft would likely prove too much for Phoenix to resist.

After looking over the scouting reports I'd gotten from my staff, it was clear. Shaquille was definitely better than Alonzo in every possible way, but Alonzo was still head and shoulders above everybody else that we'd scouted. Just on a whim, I decided to call up Phoenix's GM and see what it would take to land the #1 pick.

We negotiated a bit and then I offered them a swap of the #2 pick and Rick Fox for the #1 pick and Danny Ferry. Ferry was a year older, not as well developed, and didn't have quite as much potential as Rick, but they played the same position and I loved his intangibles and one-year contract.

The Suns accepted, and just like that, we had the #1 overall selection in the draft.

I wasted no time at all in sending up the card. Stern's voice as it sounded over the microphone was beautiful, simply beautiful. Here's the audio recording.

"We have a trade. The Phoenix Suns have traded the first pick of the first round in this year's draft, the first overall selection, and small forward Danny Ferry to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the second pick of the first round in this year's draft, the second overall selection, and small forward Rick Fox."

Shh. Here comes the best part.

"And with that first overall selection, the Minnesota Timberwolves select... center Shaquille O'Neal out of LSU."

The rest of his words got washed out in the roar of the crowd as you just heard. The Phoenix fans were furious and the Timberwolves fans were ecstatic. We'd just pulled off the coup of the century and solved our starting center problems for the next ten years.

As the mock draft predicted, and as I would have done myself had we not made the deal, Alonzo Mourning went to the Suns with the next pick.

1993 First Round Selections

1. C Shaquille O'Neal (Minnesota Timberwolves)
2. C Alonzo Mourning (Phoenix Suns)
3. PF Tom Gugliotta (Indiana Pacers)
4. SF Todd Day (Memphis Grizzlies)
5. PF Christian Laettner (Miami Heat)
6. SF Sean Green (Denver Nuggets)
7. PG Robert Pack (L.A. Lakers)
8. PG Randy Woods (Golden State Warriors)
9. C Oliver Miller (Philadelphia 76ers)
10. PG Brent Price (Dallas Mavericks)
11. C Matt Geiger (Toronto Raptors)
12. C Bison Dele (Boston Celtics)
13. SF Walt Williams (Orlando Magic)
14. PF David Benoit (Charlotte Bobcats)
15. SG Doug Christie (L.A. Clippers)
16. SG Latrell Sprewell (Sacramento Kings)
17. C Marlon Maxey (New Jersey Nets) (There's your boy, Jeeber)
18. PG Tharon Mayes (Milwaukee Bucks)
19. PG Litterial Green (New Orleans Hornets)
20. PG Tony Bennett (Utah Jazz)
21. SF Don Maclean (Washington Wizards)
22. SF Paul Graham (Atlanta Hawks)
23. SF Tracy Murray (Chicago Bulls)
24. C Top Copa (New York Knicks)
25. SF Jim Jackson (San Antonio Spurs)
26. C Adam Keefe (Portland Trailblazers)
27. PG Charles Thomas (Detroit Pistons)
28. SF Laphonso Ellis (Seattle Supersonics)
29. PF Robert Horry (Minnesota Timberwolves)
30. SG Harold Miner (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Horry was a player I considered to be a steal that late in the first round. The report I'd gotten on him said he had top notch defensive talent, something that fit in perfectly with our scheme. In my opinion he'd make a nice backup to Detlef, even if he never did turn into a good enough scorer to be anything more than a key bench player.

The other guy I was looking at with that pick was shooting guard Anthony Peeler. I had a hunch he wouldn't make it all the way down to the twenty-second pick in the second round, but neither would have Horry, in my opinion, and I liked Robert's intangibles and defense better, so I chose him.

Good thing too, because the first two picks in the second round were both power forwards, guys I didn't consider to be anywhere near Horry's potential. Peeler wound up going to the Orlando Magic with pick #12 in round 2, so I was in a situation where I was just going to take a flyer on a guy.

Or so I thought. After taking a closer look when we came up again with the 22nd pick in the 2nd round, I saw that shooting guard Hubert Davis from North Carolina, who we'd scouted was still available. Pretty average guy all around, but he had high durability and consistency. True his work ethic was pretty bad, he didn't have a good personality, and he wasn't that bright, but he was still good enough for me to pick up that late in the draft, rather than take a total jump at a complete unknown. So we drafted him.

That's the story of the 1993 draft, one of the most thrilling, exciting, and satisfying ones I've ever had, even after all these years. We'd drafted a franchise player at the position we needed one at, gotten a backup power forward who would fit nicely on our bench behind Detlef, and picked up a guy who had the potential to turn into something okay.

Best of all, it was all coming off a championship year and our prospects for a a dynasty had suddenly brightened immensely.

I'll tell you about the rest of the offseason tomorrow. I'm thinking it's Dairy Queen time, don't you? It's been a while since we've been there.

Good, just let me get my coat. Don't worry about the money. I'll pay for it. My treat.

[JeeberD]

Nice coup in getting Shaq. You should me a dominant team for years to come...

I'm amazed that Marlon is good enough to go that high in the game, he was a marginal pro player in real life. Hopefully he develps well and helps the Nets out.

Oh, and Rudy T to the Lakers makes me sick. Seriously, I feel like vomitting right now...

[Johnny93g]

great dynasty, great read....but its a turn off for me that you got shaq.....ive never played the game, but for Phoenix to trade Shaq like that, makes it seem way too easy, i think you should trade Shaq, and keep trying to win with the modest players you have been doing it with....seems to easy getting shaq after a champiionship year

[Karlifornia]

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

great dynasty, great read....but its a turn off for me that you got shaq.....ive never played the game, but for Phoenix to trade Shaq like that, makes it seem way too easy, i think you should trade Shaq, and keep trying to win with the modest players you have been doing it with....seems to easy getting shaq after a champiionship year

Fair enough, but what about when the Redskins won the Super Bowl and then got Desmond Howard in the draft the following offseason. Granted, it didn't work out well, but at the time it almost seemed unfair. Or when the Spurs lost David Robinson for a year and stumbled into Tim Duncan? I say keep Shaq and see what happens. I don't think you can repeat the success you had last year.

[Izulde]

Jeeber: Yeah, I figured that would make you ill to see Rudy. I have to give the Nets credit, though. It seems they're back on the way to making smart moves again after they went through a string of bad ones following that Drazen Petrovic coup a few seasons ago.

Johnny: I was guaranteed a dominant center either way, because of the Mitch deal with Houston I made to get the #1 pick. It was just a question of whether it was Shaq or Alonzo. So it would have seemed unfair either way, but at the time, it was an okay move for Houston. Sure they could have the lottery pick but instead they got Mitch and uh something else I think. I'd have to go back and look. With Mitch they've got another potent scoring option for the games when Hakeem is having an off night.

Besides, Shaq isn't guaranteed to become the dominant player that he was in real life. He could very well turn out to be a bust in this particular universe, or Alonzo could end up as the more dominant of the two centers. You won't know until all is said and done. Phoenix didn't get ripped off in this deal I don't think. They still got a franchise type center in 'Zo and they got a guy in Rick Fox who was a pretty significant upgrade over Danny Ferry. A year younger, guaranteed for an extra year at a very affordable price, and much more developed.

And back when I made the trade with Houston, there was no guarantee that it was going to be a pick this high. The Rockets could have suddenly taken off with Mitch now in the lineup and I could have been stuck with a mid first-round lottery selection. Or the lottery could have ended up screwing me and dropping me down to the #6 selection.

And I do plan on keeping Shaq. Like I said, he may not even develop to the level he did in real life. Or he may get hurt. A lot of things could happen. Look at Vlade Divac for the Grizzlies in this game. He's been around for a few seasons now and he still isn't turning out to his potential. Hell, he's not even solidly in the starting lineup. He's a part-time starter, and that's for the worst team in the league.

The thing is, there's a lot more variables and factors involved to this than it first appears, so this isn't necessarily the great steal that it looks like at initial glance.

I'm glad you enjoy the dynasty, though.

RFUS: I agree it's going to be tough to repeat. It seems pretty difficult to maintain a dynasty in this game and you never know when an injury bug might strike to ruin your carefully laid plans like what with Hakeem being lost for not only the playoffs in 1991, but the entire freaking 1992 season. That took the Rockets from being title contenders to a lottery team.

But it should be fun and I hope I can repeat.

[Neon_Chaos]

Great read. The Minnesotta era has begun!

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Great read. The Minnesotta era has begun!

Thanks. This is easily my favourite out of all the dynasties I've ever done.

[Izulde]

I can still taste the Butterfinger Blizzard on my lips. So delicious. My doctor tells me I shouldn't eat too many fattening foods or I'll have a heart attack on him, but a Butterfinger Blizzard is worth it. More divine and sweet than the cherriest of wines.

Now then, let's have a seat before I get hungry for another one even though we just went there last night.

After the draft was concluded, it was time to make decisions on contracts.

We were $18 million over the cap and had three contracts set to expire: Pooh's, Ron's, and Bowie's. Bowie I renounced right away. Danny Ferry made for a much cheaper backup to Scottie and to be honest, I liked him quite a bit better than Anthony.

Pooh had to be kept. There was no question about that. Ron was a little different story. He'd been brilliant for us on defense and gave us flashes of offensive output throughout the season. Tyrone's terrible contract we were still stuck with for another four years. But then I realized that even if we *did* renounce Ron, we'd still be far from reaching salary cap underness, so I decided to keep his rights, too.

Going into free agency, there really weren't any need outside signings we had to do. We were very comfortable with Pooh and Terrell at the point; Ron, Tyrone, and Hubert, who looked to be a very capable defensive player and a real steal that late in the second round had us set at shooting guard. At small forward as I said, we were happy with Scottie and Danny. We also still had team captain Sam Mitchell with us as well.

Power forward was our glut position, where we had a ton of guys. Detlef, Volkov, Bannister, and Horry. Horry looked lost on offense, at least before the summer league started, but on defense, he appeared to be the second coming of Scottie, only in a power forward's body. Excellent value for the second-to-last pick in the first round. Both he and Hubert fit our system quite well, almost perfectly, in fact.

At center, we had Shaq, who looked so dominant even as a rookie that it appeared he was instanteously one of the top centers of the league, if not *the* best. The scary part was, he was just 19 years old and already looking like a Hall of Famer. Randy and Bill would continue to be very capable backups, so all of our positions were more or less set.

As I peeked ahead to the next season though, I realized a lot of work lay ahead. No less than 6 players would be up for contract decisions then, but I decided to worry about that later and just concentrate on this year.

I grabbed Shaq's rookie option immediately. That wasn't going to be one thing I waited on. Hubert I signed to a 3-year deal. Horry's option was something I decided to hold off on and see how he did the first year before I made any binding decisions.

As everyone expected, Shaq destroyed the competition in the summer league, picking up the MVP award with 26.0 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.1 blocks, and 0.3 steals on average while improving on his already scary defense and increasing his stealing ability.

In other Timberwolves news that summer, Horry became a better blocker, but that happy development was negated by his worsening scoring technique. Danny Ferry's blocking got a little worse, Terrell Brandon's got a little better, and Hubert's defense went down a notch.

A mixed bag, but all in all, I was happy. Terrell appeared to be blossoming into the type of player I knew he was capable of and of course, everyone was abuzz about Shaq. The few bad pieces of news I would handle when the right time came for me to do so.

When the free agency period began, we had 13 players under contract, a record for me. Because of that, I didn't go hunting around for any new people. I just put my efforts on Ron and Pooh and let the rest fall where they may.

Pooh made $4.9 million in 1992. Now he was asking more than double, $11 million a year for 6 years. I countered with $8 million for 7 years. It was still a significant pay raise and it validated his importance to us. I knew he wouldn't accept it right away and might not even consider it, but I was prepared to wait him out until his demands lowered.

The season before Ron had made $5.8 million. Now he want $10.4 million for 6 years and didn't really show all that much interest in coming back to us. Not like Pooh, who really, really wanted to stay in Minneapolis.

I'm not sure why, but I was really disgusted with Ron's cool attitude to us. Maybe because I pulled him off the free agency pile and gave him a salary five times what he would have gotten otherwise. He finally got to start for a winning team, too, so winning in fact, that he got a ring because of it.

So I told Ron that if he was going to act that way to us, then we had no interest in having him back with us for the next season or any season after that. We broke off talks and I went looking for a new target, simply because I didn't really want Tyrone to have a free pass to the starting lineup. I still remembered his high turnover rate in his starting years and I wanted to bring in some competition for him.

Luckily for us, Dan Majerle was also out there, the equal to Ron in defense and even a little bit better ballhandler. While not near the passer or shooter that our former starter had been, with Shaq, Detlef, and Pooh, we didn't really need another shooter. He was also two years younger than Ron but had been forced to play the season before in the semipro leagues after the Suns renounced his contract in 1991 and for some reason, no other team made him an offer.

Was it a risk? Yes, but he had some interest in playing for us and his initial demands were a lot lower at $8.8 million for 5 years. I decided to offer him the mid-level exemption and turn it into a contract for $4.9 million for 3 years. I reminded him over the phone that he'd been out of the NBA for a year, so a lot of teams would be wary and not so eager to sign him because of that. He wouldn't get any other better deal from any other team than what I was willing to give him.

Pooh decided to consider our offer, recognizing that it was quite fair. Danny still wanted something a little more, so I decided to wait him out, especially when he became extremely eager to play for us after mulling over the initial offer and realizing how true my words were.

Out of the premium players that year, Patrick Ewing re-signed with the Knicks for $107 million and 6 years. Clyde Drexler resigned with Portland for a similiar deal. All-Star point guard Michael Adams stayed in Dallas after having been traded there. He got 6 years and $81 million.

Pooh resigned with us for $56 million and 7 years the same day that Rony stayed in Charlotte for 7 years and $80 million. I guess money really talked to the center I'd once coveted and seriously contemplated getting.

Majerle joined us a little over halfway through the period, inking on for the $4.9 million a year for 3 years mid-level deal I gave him. I liked the signing. He was a good, smart player, and he'd be good insurance in case Hubert didn't pan out like I hoped.

Not a lot of real quality players jumped teams that year. Former Timberwolf Brad Lohaus signed with the Celtics. Ron got a one-year deal at the end of the period with Denver for $2.4 million, less than half of what he'd made in Minneapolis.

There was one significant player who changed teams, though. Otis Smith, who'd averaged 19.5 points a game the season before with Orlando and had improved his scoring each of the three seasons he'd played for the Magic, jumped ship to of all teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers. The chance to be on a winner was too much for Otis to resist, who signed a midlevel contract that started at $4.9 million in Year 1 and ran up to $7.8 million by year 6. I fully expected the Cavaliers to repeat as one of the top teams in 1993.

As you might expect, we sold all of our season tickets before the first game. That's what winning an NBA title does for your gate receipts. But it was still special to me, because it was the first time in my tenure we'd managed to succeed in that goal.

You should be getting home now. You've got work tomorrow. Yes, yes, I know, you want to hear more. But it's important that we always get enough sleep so we can do our absolute best on the job.

Here, take this. It's the Opening Day lineup for the 1993 season. I'll tell you how the first month went next time you come.

1993 Minnesota Timberwolves' Opening Day Lineup

PG Pooh Richardson
SG Dan Majerle
SF Scottie Pippen
PF Detlef Schrempf
C Shaquille O'Neal
6th Man: Alexander Volkov

[Neon_Chaos]

"Shaq who?"

"Shaq FU!"

[JeeberD]

bump

I don't care about Laramie frats...don't you dare let this sucker die now!

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

bump

I don't care about Laramie frats...don't you dare let this sucker die now!

Thanks for the bump. I'll try and get an update in tonight.

[Izulde]

The 1993 season began with very high internal expectations and a considerable amount of external expectations as well. Within the organization, we felt that we'd made the moves we needed to in order to successfully defend our title. To the world outside, we were one of the league's top teams, but most considered the championship to be a fluke occurrence. Only time would tell who was right.

Opening Night was in Toronto, where the Raptors hung with us for half of the first quarter. From then on, it was all Timberwolves as we ran roughshod over them to take away a 115-82 victory. Terrell Brandon won the starting job from Majerle earlier that week and repaid us with a game-leading 19 points. Shaq was quite good in his debut, with 13 points and 15 rebounds. Detlef added a double-double of his own, 17 points and 10 rebounds. We were continuing the high defense-balanced offense scheme that had given us the title in the first place, or so this early game seemed to indicate.

Detlef was out for about 2 weeks, as he picked up a really bad ankle sprain in the opener. Volkov replaced him in the lineup and Robert Horry got a chance to get some minutes as a result of our placing Detlef on injured reserve.

The next game we faced that bastard Ron Harper and the Nuggets. Forgive my language, but I never have forgiven Ron for being so acrimonious in negotiations after we got him the ring. There was no excuse for it. In any case, they were with us for a full half before we broke away in the 3rd and never looked back, winning 106-74. Shaq stepped up and was player of the game with 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, and a block. Already he was becoming one of the premiere players on the team, and a vital force in the middle for us.

Another reunion awaited us in Game 3 against Hubie and the Hornets. This time, there was no easy victory going away. Instead, it was one of the fierce back-and-forth battles so common between our two squads. In the end we prevailed 103-96, with Pooh leading the way thanks to 32 points and Shaq accessorizing nicely with 15 points and 21 rebounds.

Remember all the times I've told you that Pooh was the most important player on the team and the one who really guided us? Well, he was out with an injury in our next game against the Pacers and we lost for the first time that year, 107-96. Neither Scottie's 26 points nor Shaq's double-double of 11 points and 17 rebounds could save us.

There's still a bitter taste that lingers in my mouth even after all these years over our next game. Pooh was back and Shaq scored 31 points, and yet we fell 100-99 to Mitch Richmond and the Rockets. One damn lousy point. And it was our fault too, as we had several stretches where we didn't score that single point. Suddenly we weren't looking as good as we'd thought we were. And to think this was on a night when Olajuwon scored only 3 points and Mitch just 10. Making matters worse, Shaq injured his knee and was expected to miss the next game.

He did play the next contest, but for 9 minutes and scored just 1 point as we suffered an embarassing 101-97 loss to the then 1-win Miami Heat. Gregg and I were both furious after that game and I began to contemplate moves to shake up the team. We were far, far too talented to be 3-3 at this point in the season.

An aggravating loss to the Bucks dropped us a game below .500, but we rebounded with a win over Hubie's Hornets that was far too close for comfort. We weren't just playing as well we should have, even though we got Detlef back before the Milwaukee game.

A blowout win over the Spurs, a close win over Tony Campbell's 7-4 Sonics, and a demoralizing 1-point loss to the surpising 9-2 Pacers comprised our next three games. Indiana was quickly becoming our most hated rival and I wanted to beat them badly. Once more it was offensive droughts that caused our undoing in that loss.

We followed that up with a split in our next games, a massacre of the Grizzlies and an infuriating 99-96 loss to the Kings where we blew a third quarter double digit lead and played with absolute sloppiness and utter disregard for hanging on to the ball. It was emblematic of just how vexing the month was.

Finally the first 30 days came to a close with a 118-111 victory over the subpar Golden State Warriors that was much closer than the final score would suggest.

It also ended in Pooh's being injured again, this time down for 8 days.

We were 8-6 and struggling badly. I feared for the worst for the rest of the season, a season that had the most talented team I'd ever assembled as the T-Wolves GM.

[Icy]

Awesome read, have missed this until now and now you made me wanting to start to play TPB again, but i'm in a midle of an ootp dynasty with KC thatis being fun too. One question, i have always played being myself the coach, i like to manage lineups, but after reading your dynasty, maybe it could be fun to play as GM only, leaving the lineups and strategies to the coach i hire, but do they really look different from eachothers? do they adjust tactics etc properly to the players they have? in resume, do they look like "live" personalities?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Icy

Awesome read, have missed this until now and now you made me wanting to start to play TPB again, but i'm in a midle of an ootp dynasty with KC thatis being fun too. One question, i have always played being myself the coach, i like to manage lineups, but after reading your dynasty, maybe it could be fun to play as GM only, leaving the lineups and strategies to the coach i hire, but do they really look different from eachothers? do they adjust tactics etc properly to the players they have? in resume, do they look like "live" personalities?

Glad you're enjoying it.

And the strategies *do* translate into a significant difference. One thing I noticed going from Hubie to Gregg were the following: lot lower turnover numbers, lot better defense, but also quite a few irritating instances where we just plain weren't scoring and it wasn't because we didn't have offensive weapons available to us.

So yes, they do have live personalities to at least *some* degree.

[Izulde]

Three trades transpired during those torturous thirty days. The one that most interested me was the one that involved a talented young superstar who had been unhappy with the team that drafted him from the very first day, so I'll tell you about that one first.

Denver Nuggets receive:
PG Gary Payton

Toronto Raptors receive:
SG Todd Lichti
Denver Nuggets 1994 2nd round pick

Payton finally gets out of jail and escapes to a team that was once proud, but has struggled in recent years. The Nuggets unfortunately are still downtrodden thus far, going 3-11 in the first month. Gary will help turn them around though, as he becomes their starter and a legitimate rising star. A huge, huge pickup for Denver. For some inexplicable reason, the Raptors are planning on having Lichti start at the point, even though he's subpar with the ball and is mediocre all around. The 2nd round pick at best is going to be akin to a late first rounder. The only positive Toronto gets out of the deal is that they get rid of a malcontent and tack on someone who doesn't care about losing. Still, the Raptors could have done a lot better than this.

Winner: Denver fleeces Toronto and then some

San Antonio Spurs receive:
PF Jayson Williams

Cleveland Cavaliers receive:
SF Marcus Liberty

So how does the league's most dominant team do in this swap? Well, Liberty is a third-year player who is an average bench player right now, but he's got some considerable upside. The only question is if he'll get enough playing time on this powerhouse team to develop it. Jayson is an extremely talented rebounder in just his third season in the league, and an above average inside shot and defender. He just hasn't uncovered natural scoring instincts yet. He also hasn't had much of a chance to prove himself given the Cavs's powerhouse front court. In San Antonio, his minutes will ramp up, as he's the 6th man and should start showing results more commensurate with his talent.

Winner: San Antonio by a pretty big margin as Williams should break out now with the greater opportunities

New Orleans Hornets receive:
C Johnny Rogers

New Yorks receive:
PF Andre Moore
New Orleans Hornets 1994 2nd round pick

Hubie's Hornets needed some more frontcourt depth after Lionel Simmons got hurt, so New Orleans goes and picks up Rogers. Honestly, he isn't any better than what they have right now at C, but he's a damn sight better than their current backup PF. Moore, who was the Hornets' former backup PF, settles in with the Knicks in a bench role. Comparing the two players side by side, Johnny has significantly better scoring instincts while Andre is a phenomenally better free-throw shooter. Scoring is weighted more heavily than free-throw shooting in my book, so the 2nd round pick balances it out perfectly.

Winner: Very slight edge to New Orleans

As for we the Timberwolves, my aim was simply that we would start gelling and playing up to our talent level starting with the second month of the season. The papers had started getting a little ugly, returning to calling our championship a fluke and a lot of people were beginning to doubt us. Gregg, of course, used the clippings as corkboard motivational material.

Unfortunately, we were without Pooh for the first few games of the month and thus we opened with an embarassing 112-105 loss at home to the Suns, who were 3-12 at the time. Foul trouble and uncharacteristically shoddy defense doomed us. Things were starting to more bleak than ever before.

A vexing 97-93 loss to the Clippers followed, dropping us to .500. Making matters even worse, Terrell got hurt for nine days and Pooh wasn't back yet, robbing of us any true point guards on the roster.

The injuries crippled us at the end of our next game against the Spurs, where we led the entire way, only to blow it in the last minute of play and fall 91-89. Our post-championship season that had brimmed with so much hope, was quickly turning into a nightmare. Shaq was whipped by Robinson in that game, as The Admiral showed The Big O who was truly the most dominating center in the NBA.

Our losing streak hit 4 games with a blowout loss to the 76ers before we finally got Pooh back. The result was that we won our next game, finally breaking the dry spell. That 97-87 victory over the Kings was like sweet water to my parched lips and some of the shakeups I had begun quietly contemplating were put away for the moment.

The losing streak had been dominated by Detlef and Shaq frequently scoring 20+ points or more and getting a double-double. With Pooh's return, we got back to our balanced offense, highlighted by Shaq's 12 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 blocks to have a superb all-around game in the much-needed win.

That game kicked off an amazing winning streak that included an immensely uplifting and satisfying 113-105 OT win against the Knicks that was all about Ewing and O'Neal going head to head. This time Shaq held his own against one of the league's established great middle men, getting 26 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and 3 blocks to Ewing's 34 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. I still have that contest on videotape as well. When I get done telling you about the rest of the month, we'll watch it. I consider it to be Shaq's first real coming out game.

We ran the wins to five games before suffering a heartbreaking last-second 88-86 defeat at the hands of the mighty Cleveland Cavaliers. Still, I was extremely proud of the team. We'd gone from 8-10 and being filled with doubts about the prospects of the rest of the season all the way to 13-11 and confidence that we could battle our way through and recover despite the near-apocalyptic slump we'd fallen into early on.

Rolando Blackman ambushed us for 39 points in the next game as we dropped one to the Mavericks, but then we rebounded with a convincing win over the Washington Wizards, despite Pooh's being out with yet another injury.

The month ended with a win versus the Raptors that was too close for my tastes, but at that point, I regarded victories as victories.

We grew a lot as a team in that second set of 30. Started 8-6, had the 4 game swoon when we lost Pooh and Brandon, then rebounded to finish with a significantly improved 15-12 mark by the time 60 days of the season concluded.

Dan Majerle, the free agent signing I'd had considerable hopes for took the starting shooting guard spot from Terrell at the end of the month and at first glance, it appeared that the move was working out fairly well. Only time would tell if he managed to keep it though, or if Brandon would fight his way back to the first five.

In a way it was a microcosm of the T-Wolves ourselves. Would we make up that half game we were behind Tony Campbell and the Supersonics, thusly elevating ourselves from our then #5 slot in the playoffs, or would we stay where we were or even slide down?

Regardless of what the answer turned out to be, I can safely say that I felt much better about the squad as a whole after the second cycle of our defending championship season and I held out renewed hope that we might be able to repeat after all, something I very seriously doubted at the start.

What do you say we go get ourselves some lemonade? I'm thirsty from too much talking and you look a little bone-dry too.

Good, we'll go over to the Evans's yard then. Their two kids have a lemonade stand going right now. It's a little too sweet for my preferences, but I've always believed in encouraging the dreams of youngsters. The world's a hard enough place as it is without crushing the hopes of our future generations.

[Izulde]

So it wasn't too sweet for you? Ah well, we all have different preferences of taste, I suppose. Come, let's sit on this bench and I'll tell you about the next month. I love this park. It's so beautiful in autumn. But you can see that for yourself, so let me get started, or rather, let me continue what has already begun.

Two trades were made in month two of the 1993 season and I brought my notes with me so you can look over them.

Detroit Pistons receive:
C Dale Davis

Orlando Magic receive:
PF Scott Hastings
Detroit Pistons 1994 1st round pick

I have never been fond of Dale Davis, especially not after he was made the #1 overall selection a couple years ago by Orlando, as they quite foolishly passed up Dikembe Mutombo. Yes, Davis is a great rebounder and a very good defender, but there are many big men in the league who fit that description. Double D has produced very little in his first season and a quarter of play, whereas Mutombo is a very good player. DD is buried on the Pistons' depth chart and doesn't even show that much potential. Conversely, Hastings is just a body, but he's a body with an expiring contract. That financial freedom, compared with a 1st round selection in next year's draft, means the Magic have a good chance at rectifying their Davis over Mutombo error of two seasons ago. The Pistons paid dearly here, and for a player who isn't worth it.
Winner: Orlando by an overwhelming majority

Sacramento Kings receive:
PF Tellis Frank
Memphis Grizzlies 1994 2nd round pick

Memphis Grizzlies receive:
C Elden Campbell

The Kings pick up a guy with a pretty good all-around game. Nice inside shot and decent rebounding to go with passable defense. He also becomes Sacramento's 6th man. Pretty nice upgrade, I think. Memphis already has two young, talented centers in Rich King and Vlade Divac, the latter of whom is finally starting to realize some of the immense potential he has this season. Elden, much like Divac up until this year, is a player with incredible promise that hasn't delivered on it. He sits on the IR now and unless the Grizzlies trade one of their young big men, I can't see how this makes sense at all.
Winner: Sacramento without question, unless Memphis pulls a move to unload either King or Divac

I should also mention that Derrick McKey had once again re-surfaced in the NBA by this time. He signed a one-year deal with the Kings before the season started and actually was doing quite well for them. So well, in fact, that he'd been the 6th man before they traded for Tellis.

Thus far, it had been a rocky season as I'd described to you those first two months, but we were still in good shape. It just remained to be seen if we could at last gel together as a team and play consistently.

We started the month with a series of solid wins, including a decimation of the Suns that was over with early in the 1st quarter. Sam Mitchell scorched Phoenix for 28 points as he played most of the game coming off the bench. That's how badly we whipped the once-proud franchise. But there was a severe cost associated with that second victory in as many games. Terrell Brandon, who'd won his starting job back from Majerle, shattered a bone in his hand and was estimated to be out for two months. So to the IR he went, with rookie SF Danny Ferry activated to replace him.

Despite the loss, we continued to roll, winning our third straight game against a competitive Bobcats team that entered the contest with a .500 record. Mitchell was the surprising winner of the starting SG sweepstakes but played well. The real hero of the game though was Shaq, who put one of his finest performances yet together. 26 points, 16 rebounds, a steal, and 5 blocks. It felt wonderful having an incredible force inside that we'd lacked for so long. And to think that he was only a rookie!

Our blazing play lasted for five games and in the sixth, we dropped a 108-96 decision to the Lakers to end the streak. Not even Detlef's 35 points and 14 rebounds could save us, as Orlando Woolridge countered with 21 points and 12 rebounds and James Worthy added 30 while completely shutting down Scottie on 2 for 9 shooting. It was another great game in a long line of Lakers vs Timberwolves contests that proved pleasurable to watch, even when one was on the losing end.

The next game was a win, a solid one over the Atlanta Hawks. Shaq put up 27 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks to lead the way. Though he'd initially struggled with fitting in to the team concept that Gregg preached and was concerned more with making sure he got his stats, as the season wore on, he became more and more acclimated to Coach Pop's system and the results were impressive, both for himself and for the Timberwolves as a whole. He'd really become our greatest star player during that third set of thirty.

Robert Horry got the chance to get some minutes in for a couple weeks after that Hawks game, as Randy and Bill both picked up small injuries that looked to keep them out for a short while.

We got to see Gary Payton in Nuggets' powder blue next and it was a tough battle before we prevailed by a handful of points, thanks to a balanced game. While Denver still wasn't a superior team, Payton had really enhanced the team and directly as a result of him, the Nuggets were playing better than they had in a very long time.

The evening after, the Trailblazers crushed us 95-77 to end our two-game win streak. Simply put, we couldn't hit the bucket worth anything that night. I wasn't too worried, though. Every team has a bad outing every now and then.

My faith was justified when we rebounded for a 119-104 victory over the then 27-11 Knicks. Shaq schooled that game, with 34 points, 9 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He also sent Patrick Ewing out of the game towards the end of the third quarter with a hard shoulder collision on one of his blocks. O'Neal was easily the best draft choice I'd ever made.

We crushed the hated Lakers 101-60 in a rematch. James Worthy was out with an injury and we took advantage. Shaq had 19 points and 11 rebounds and in what was my favourite double-double of that year so far, Pooh had 20 points and 10 assists. I've always felt that Pooh never got the recognition that he deserved for being one of the top point guards in the league. He was easily the most underrated player in the NBA according to my lights.

Pooh drove that very point the next game against Tony Campbell and the Seattle Supersonics when he hit a buzzer-beater to get us the 98-96 win. He finished with 26 points and 7 assists to go with Shaq's 23 points, 16 rebounds, assist, 2 steals, and 3 blocks.

At our customary supper afterwards, Tony said, "Man, after that first month and a half, everyone had written you guys off. Even I was wondering if maybe you'd fallen into the post-championship hangover but then you bounced right back and now you're kicking everyone's ass." He also privately congratulated me on having the courage to stand pat and not make any panicky moves when the team was at its low point. I'd always liked Tony and wished I hadn't had to trade him, but it'd worked out for both sides. I was already thinking about extending an offer for him to join the front office in Minnesota after he retired.

We then promptly went out and lost a rematch at home against the Blazers, 115-112 in a tight game that was back and forth the whole way. I privately hoped we wouldn't have to face them in the postseason, because Portland, perenially playoff-bound, looked especially sharp that season. In my mind, they were the biggest threat to our hopes of repeating as Western Conference champions.

The month ended with a loss to the Bucks where Pooh didn't play because of a sprained finger he picked up in warmups, a game that once more reinforced Pooh's vital importance to our gameplan and a solid win over the Magic, highlighted by Detlef's 30 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists, steal, and block. Schrempf had been picking up double-doubles for a good portion of the season's games to that point, but, much like the rest of the team, he was overshadowed by the brightly burning brilliance of Shaq's rookie campaign.

Oh yes, there was one more game that month, a loss to the Jazz that I prefer not to think about, because we a) played terribly and b) had a two-week injury to original Timberwolf Tyrone Corbin that laid him up for two weeks and a concussion to Ken Bannister. ...And yes, I have to confess that yes, we had another game that ended in a loss, a 94-89 defeat at the hands of the Kings. I don't like admitting when we ended months on losing streaks, to tell the truth. To me, it shows bad form.

Still, I have to say that overall we'd played very well in the third month of the 1993 season. While various injuries that hit us disrupted our flow in the second half of the month, we still managed to parley ourselves into a stronger record of 26-16.

The bad part? We were now a full game behind in the division and still were stuck in the 5th seed of the playoffs, a game and a half out of the 4th spot.

Ahead of us in the playoff race for #4? Hakeem Olajuwon and Mitch Richmond's Rockets.

Ahead of us in the division? None other than the Portland Trailblazers, the postseason opponent I feared most.

[Izulde]

I'll admit that I had my reservations going into the fourth month of our defending season, as we would be without Terrell for the entire sum of it, and my feeling was that we would at best retain a mid-playoff spot.

Two trades occurred during month three and here they are.

Utah Jazz receive:
PF Antonio Davis

New Jersey Nets receive:
C Eric Leckner
Utah Jazz 1994 2nd round pick

Antonio has developed into a very solid player since leaving us for the Nets. While he doesn't do anything spectacularly, he's become good at scoring, rebounding, and defending and is a nice all-around guy. He's the Mailman's top backup in Utah, so it looks as though he'll finally start getting the minutes like what he had with us and maybe even more, for he was much further down the bench in New Jersey. Leckner is a great rebounder and shows some inside shooting ability, but much like Davis was, he's buried on the bench. Furthermore, they have rookie Marlon Maxey ahead of him, so essentially to me this trade's value as far as the Nets go is solely that 2nd round pick.
Winner: Utah by a significant margin as Davis is worth far more than a 2nd rounder

Phoenix Suns receive:
PF Keith Lee
Toronto Raptors 1994 2nd round pick

Toronto Raptors receive:
C Alec Kessler

Lee is a veteran player with a very good inside shot, some scoring instincts, and good rebounding ability. He also has terrible ballhandling abilities and has never been anything more than a mid-bench player, something he remains in Phoenix. Kessler had a solid rookie campaign for the Suns, starting at C in the Rookie-Sophs game in '91 and named to the All-Rookie 2nd Team. However the drafting of Isaac Austin the next year and Alonzo Mourning the year after that meant fewer and fewer minutes for Kessler, the once promising rookie reduced to mere bench fodder. He won't even be that in Toronto, as he's put on the IR. Nor is he likely to be anything more than a backup, for rookie center Matt Geiger looks to be playing okay for a first-year guy and is developing quite nicely.
Winner: Phoenix, for Toronto gets little of value here

We started off with a solid win against the Pistons. Shaq had 24 points and 9 rebounds to nearly complete three double-doubles for the team, as Scottie had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Detlef got 16 points and 11 rebounds himself.

The second game was a vexing one, as we shot with frozen hands down the stretch to fall 101-98 to the Suns in a game that we'd been controlling quite well up until that point. Even more obnoxious was that the loss came during a brilliant Shaq performance of 20 points, 20 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and 3 blocks.

We reversed our fortunes with a narrow 95-94 win over Mitch and Hakeem's Rockets, thanks to our usual balanced scoring effort and spirited defense that allowed us to come back from 14 points down in the late 3rd quarter.

Robert Parrish's retirement after the 1992 season meant that the Celtics had to go with youngster Luc Longley at center. Shaq feasted on him for 32 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 blocks to lead us in a 116-96 squashing of Boston. Pooh just missed a double-double in that game, as he finished with 25 points and 9 rebounds.

Another case of a great individual performance in a loss struck us the next game, as Detlef turned in 36 points, 14 rebounds, an assist, and a steal in a 115-104 defeat at the hands of the lowly Memphis Grizzlies. I was furious after that loss and began contemplating shaking up the team.

Dominating wins against the Nuggets and the Jazz caused me to stay my itching hand however, the latter witnessing a gem of a near triple-double from Shaq, who had 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 blocks. He was defintely the superstar we'd long been thirsting for and that he was only a rookie... well that gave me hope for our being able to have a dynasty.

My jubiliation was short-lived however, as we went on a three game losing streak to the Bulls, Nets, and Cavaliers. Even more distressing than the losses was the fact that we showed a lack of ability to close out in the 4th quarter, leading to our defeats.

A reprieve came in the form of the All-Star Break and a break was definitely what we needed. I spent most of the weekend quietly talking to GMs from other teams about the possibility of working out a trade.

As expected, Shaq started for the Rookies in the Rookie-Sophomore game. With his inclusion, it was expected that the Rookies would blow away the Sophomores.

But it didn't happen. The Sophs jumped out to a 10-0 lead and the Rooks never recovered, falling 115-112. Shaq finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Todd Day led the Rookies with 22 points, but the player of the game was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf of the Sophomores, who had 25 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and a critical steal late in the game.

Shaq also started for the West Conference in the All-Star Game... at small forward. I laughed when I heard the news, but to me, it was great exposure for both O'Neal and for us. We'd never had an All-Star starter before, so it was something really special for us.

It was without question one of the most thrilling finishes to an All-Star game in history. The East dominated most of the game, but then the West charged hard in the 4th quarter to tie it up 107-107 at the end of regulation. In overtime, the lead changed hands multiple times, but when the final buzzer sounded, the West stood there with a 122-118 victory.

Shaq played reasonably well, getting 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal, and 2 blocks. His 4 turnovers were a knock, though. But Shaquille was not alone in representing Minnesota. After being shut out in the All-Star rosters for the first three years of existence, the T-Wolves had two representatives that year, for Detlef Schrempf played as well. The reserve PF got 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists, and was instrumental in keeping the West in the game during the early and middle going.

Buoyed by those results, I began to believe that we would finish out the month well.

The trade deadline came and I found myself exploring possible options. While we would be getting Brandon back at the start of the next month, I wasn't entirely certain that we would be able to repeat even with his return. As of the deadline, we held the #6 seed in the playoffs and were a game behind the Sonics and the Trailblazers, who were tied for the division lead, and a half game behind the Rockets for the #5 slot.

I was principally looking for a scorer who had an acceptable amount of defense and stamina. Though we had won our championship with excellent defense, it was the scoring outages and the lack of closing that thus far had doomed us in the defense year.

There were the discussions I'd had with the GMs at the All-Star Game, but now these intensified as I scoured the league, looking for the missing piece of the puzzle.

Originally I was involved with the Celtics in heavy negotiations for Kevin McHale, but in the end the cost was going to prove too prohibitive for my tastes and anyhow, I wasn't sold on Kevin's advanced years and defense.

Many of the other players that I looked at had contracts that were far too big and far too long for my tastes, when I looked at what they would bring to our team.

And then, along came our old trading partners, the Golden State Warriors. A lot of their star players were wanting out of a bad situation where losses were mounting and the team just plain was bad.

An hour or so of negotations later, the deal was struck. Bill Wennington, who had played little enough for our team the last few years, but who had a valuable expiring contract, went with Hubert Davis, who I was fast becoming convinced would never pan out, to Golden State. In exchange, we got a player I'd admired very much. Excellent scorer, passable ball handling, and good defense. His rebounding left something to be desired, but that was okay, because we had lots of rebounders.

Yes, that's right. Chris Mullin joined us, along with the Warriors' 1994 2nd round pick.

The move had a tremendous effect on the lineup. Scottie moved to the starting SG spot while Terrell rehabed his injury and Mullin took over at SF. Suddenly we were looking like a much dangerous team.

How did the move make sense for Golden State? Well, as I said, Chris was terribly unhappy with the Warriors. Bill had an expiring contract and Hubert represented a potential piece of a youth movement puzzle for them, even if for the moment he was on their IR. Furthermore, by jettisoning Mullin, they made their team that much worse and put themselves in a better chance of ending up with the #1 pick in the lottery, something the front office was desperately wishing for.

Mullin made an immediate impact that very night in our 122-75 romp over the Clippers. He had 17 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. An excellent all-round game for him and he finished third on the team in scoring, fulfilling precisely the role I'd envisioned for him, that of the third scoring option beside Detlef and Shaq.

He continued to pay huge dividends in our next game, a critical 122-93 over Tony Campbell's Sonics. 25 points he dropped on Seattle, 2nd behind Shaq's 30. The early returns indicated that I'd not only diagnosed our problem correctly, but that I'd found the perfect cure for what ailed us. Mullin fit in seamlessly with our team and both he and us were thrilled for it.

If I'd had any doubts at all in my mind about the trade, they were erased when we won the next game against the feared Trailblazers, 114-102. The player of the game and leading scorer? None other than Mullin, with 24 points, 5 rebounds, an assist, 3 steals, and a block. There was no greater marriage under heaven that year than Chris Mullin and the Timberwolves. Of that, I am sure.

Thanks to the Mullin-inspired three game win streak, at month's end we were 34-23, a full game on the Trailblazers and the Sonics.

This time, unlike the prior months of that season, I had no worries about what lay ahead.

For the first time, I was fully confident that we would have a very strong chance at becoming repeat champions.

[Izulde]

Although a great many big names were on the trading block and rumours abounded everywhere as to major deals, in the end, the Mullin deal we made was the only one that went down at the deadline and indeed in the entire month.

Flush with newfound confidence, I found myself greatly looking forward to the rest of the season. Chris was the spark that we needed to blaze into determined, brilliant glory. Even better, we now had Brandon back.

Ironically enough, our first game was against the Warriors. Golden State had gone on a three game win streak of their own after trading Mullin, as the improved chemistry resulted in a happier team with the departure of the miserable star small forward.

Golden State came out fired up and raced to an early 11-2 lead. We caught up and from there it was an exchange of leads until late in the 2nd quarter. From there, we won going away. Detlef got into foul trouble early and only played 11 minutes as a result, but there the strength of our bench told, as Volkov came on to score a career high 38 points and nab 7 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal, and a block in helping us to crush the Warriors 121-97. Many of the points came as a result of Pooh's brilliant passing, who finished with an amazing 15 assists. It was the only grognards among the NBA fanship that recognized Pooh's excellence, something I still find sad. To my mind, he was one of the top 10 point guards in the league during his career. Easily one of the most underrated players, as I've said.

From there, we peeled off a win streak that included a 114-104 OT win against the Celtics. Shaq had 31 points and 13 rebounds in that game, as we survived a dreadful 0 for 7 shooting performance from Detlef. We hit four games consecutive before dropping a 105-100 decision to our East Conference foes in the Finals the year before, the Atlanta Hawks. Shaq's going 1 for 4 was the biggest culprit, but I was still proud of the way we hung in there.

My complacency and cheer were shattered the next game, however, when we fell to the Spurs in a game where we were beaten in every single aspect. Suddenly I was worried, afraid that we had gotten too confident and were starting to get too lacksadasical out on the floor.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried so excessively, for our next game, also against the Spurs, we turned it around and won 105-85 behind our old balanced attack. Gregg really hammered it home to the guys that we couldn't afford to let up after I privately voiced my concerns to him. In both games though, Robinson schooled Shaq and whipped him bad. Good thing for us that San Antonio wasn't about to make the playoffs that year, as the Admiral had missed quite a bit of time earlier in the season.

From there we went on to a small three-game win streak, where Mullin was the lead scorer in each victory. Immediately after game three, a win over the Grizzlies, we received the disturbing news that Detlef was out for a couple of weeks. Since I thought he would be back before the playoffs, I authorized him to be on the IR. With Volkov already on IR as well and not due back for another 6 days, we were suddenly shorthanded in the frontcourt. The situation was resolved by signing power forward Rob Lock from the developmental league, who had yet to appear in the NBA at 27 years old.

Mullin once again came through. In a critical game against the Rockets, with Randy Breuer starting for the first time in a long time, Chris shredded Houston for 35 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block. Truly, he was our saviour that year.

Our reign ended with a 102-98 loss to Hubie's Hornets. The weakness at the PF position was just too much for us to overcome, especially when New Orleans had Lionel Simmons, a player I still very much coveted, there. Hubie had done a great job with the Hornets, well enough that after their win over us, they were up to 43 victories.

Volkov came back for the next contest and we got a nice 108-82 win over the Nets that featured our bygone balanced scoring. Randy got 15 points in bench play, but even with that, I knew that he would not be a Timberwolf for long. His play had simply eroded over the past season and a half, and he wasn't going to be coming back once his contract ended.

Unfortunately, Volkov got hurt again, out for 5 days, as did Sam Mitchell. We still managed to win our next game, against the Clippers, when Shaq dropped them for 35 points and Chris hit them for 22. These nagging injuries had me worried for what would happen in the rough and tumble playoffs, though.

The last game of the month, we finally got Detlef back on the team. The spate of injuries we'd suffered at the power forward position had me thinking we would be looking in that direction come draft and free agency time, even though Horry was developing beyond our wildest imaginings.

A shared-wealth game later, we'd beaten the Purple and Gold 113-92 and the month officially ended.

With a 46-26 record, we held a one and a half game lead over Tony Campbell's Sonics, with the Trailblazers 6 games back. We were tied with Hubie's Hornets for the top seed in the playoffs, with New Orleans holding the barest edge thanks to winning percentage and their 45-25 mark. Third were the Lakers, a full 5 and a half games off the pace we two top teams had set.

The last set of 10 games were coming on in the next month and I felt good about our chances if we could avoid injuries. At worst, we would lose the division and finish as the number 4 or 5 seed. At best would be the number one seed, obviously. Still, I'd be happy with even the number two spot.

Only time would tell how things played out, however.

[Izulde]

It was with great excitement that I looked forward to the last ten games of the 1993 season. I knew Hubie's team presented a great challenge to our top seed aspirations, but I thought we could pull it out, thanks to our deadline move for Mullin.

We started off with a dazzling 3-0 run, highlighted by Mullin's consecutive player of the game awards against Phoenix and Sacramento, and topped off by our arguably most complete game of the year in a 107-86 dismantling of the Utah Jazz. In that game, Shaq had 32 points and 9 rebounds, Mullin scored 32, Detlef had a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Pooh had a double-double of 11 points and 11 assists.

The Nuggets and Magic were our next two victims as we extended the streak to 5-0. Not even Gary Payton's 26 points and 11 assists could save Denver from falling to us. Against the Magic, Shaq led with 24 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and 4 blocks, Mullin adding in 22 to the victory.

We faced Golden State next and beat them soundly, 109-82. Once again it was the Shaq and Mullin show, as O'Neal got 29 points and 12 rebounds, 21 points tacked on by Chris. Volkov contributed 17 points and 9 rebounds from the bench. Three of our big men had their last year of contract that season. Wennington was traded to the Warriors and incidentally only got 4 rebounds in that game against us, Randy lost his active roster spot to Robert Horry, who was far exceeding all our expectations and looked to be a huge steal, and Alexander was averaging 10 points on the nose after that game. I knew already that we wouldn't be resigning Randy and in Alexander's case, it depended on what price he demanded.

Our 6 win game streak ended the next contest against the Jazz. We lost 110-105 and had no answer for the Stockton-Malone combo, who had 24 and 29 points respectively. Mullin put up 32, but it wasn't enough. Still, I was proud of the team for the run they'd put together. I only hoped we'd be able to continue it for the last three games of the year.

Unfortunately, Detlef got hurt that game and was expected to be out for 8 days. I decided to ride it out and not put him on the IR, since I wanted to be sure he'd be there for the playoffs. We were 4 games up on the Rockets for #1 vs. #2, so in essence, we'd won that battle. The only question that remained was the division title. Tony Campbell's Sonics were just two games back of us, so we needed to win at least two during the final three to lock up the division and the first seed.

It was that very team we faced in Seattle next and came away with a critical 109-89 victory that sealed the division title and the number one seed in the playoffs for us. Volkov, starting in place of Detlef, scored a fast 10 points in the first quarter to give us the early lead and we never looked back.

Despite having nothing left to play for, we came from behind to beat Hubie's Hornets 100-91 in the next contest, all but destroying the hungry Hornets' hopes for getting the division title back from Houston after the Rockets stole it earlier in the month.

The Dallas Mavericks exacted revenge on behalf of the Hornets, beating us 116-112 in a comeback of their own in the 4th quarter in the final game of the regular season. Mullin scored 35 points and Shaq double-doubled with 26 points and 12 rebounds, but it was nothing doing in the end.

I was happy though. We went 8-2 in the last 10 and were sitting pretty at the top of the Western Conference. Still, there was a dark cloud of concern on the horizon. Detlef was going to miss the first two games of the opening playoff round.

This did not bode well, for it was Malone's Jazz that we were up against in Round 1.

But that story will have to wait until tomorrow night.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Utah Jazz receive:
PF Antonio Davis

New Jersey Nets receive:
C Eric Leckner
Utah Jazz 1994 2nd round pick

Antonio has developed into a very solid player since leaving us for the Nets. While he doesn't do anything spectacularly, he's become good at scoring, rebounding, and defending and is a nice all-around guy. He's the Mailman's top backup in Utah, so it looks as though he'll finally start getting the minutes like what he had with us and maybe even more, for he was much further down the bench in New Jersey. Leckner is a great rebounder and shows some inside shooting ability, but much like Davis was, he's buried on the bench. Furthermore, they have rookie Marlon Maxey ahead of him, so essentially to me this trade's value as far as the Nets go is solely that 2nd round pick.
Winner: Utah by a significant margin as Davis is worth far more than a 2nd rounder

I mised this trade earlier, and it really makes me smile. Not only does it show that Antonio is developing quite nicely, but it also shows that punk-ass Wyoming Cowboy Eric Leck-nerd sucks ass and is stuck behind my boy Marlon. Good times...

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

I mised this trade earlier, and it really makes me smile. Not only does it show that Antonio is developing quite nicely, but it also shows that punk-ass Wyoming Cowboy Eric Leck-nerd sucks ass and is stuck behind my boy Marlon. Good times...

If I transfer to ASU like I'm planning to, you can talk shit about the former Sun Devil players, too.

As for Marlon, he didn't have too bad a rookie year, but I'll post his stats up when I do the T-Wolves' after the playoffs.

[JeeberD]

I don't have nay problems with former Sun Devils, but back when Leck-nerd was playing for Wyoming the Cowboys and the Miners were HUGE basketball rivals. The WAC championship always was between the Tim Hardaway and Antonio Davis led Miners and the Leck-nerd and Fennis Dumbo led Cowboys. Such fond memories of mid to late eighties WAC basketball...

[Izulde]

Glad you have those good memories, Jeebs. And to make you even happier, here's an update!

**********************************************************

Take off your coat and relax a bit. You look pretty tired. Yes, studying for final exams does tend to wear you out. Sit down on the couch and I'll go brew up a pot of coffee.

Here you go. Hope you don't mind that it's just basic black. I never did care for all those different flavour coffees. To me they're just cream and sugar added in under another name.

Now then, where was I? Ah yes, Malone and the Jazz. Detlef gone for the first two games in the 1993 playoffs. I've the sheet with me as always.

1993 Playoffs: 1st Round (East Conference)
1) Cleveland vs 8) Philadelphia
4) Chicago vs 5) New Jersey
3) Atlanta vs 6) Indiana
2) New York vs 7) Washington

1993 Playoffs: 1st Round (West Conference)
1) Minnesota vs 8) Utah
4) Seattle vs 5) New Orleans
3) L.A. Lakers vs 6) Portland
2) Houston vs 7) Sacramento

I had no doubt the Cavaliers would steamroll the 76ers. Jordan still played for Chicago so the Bulls looked to beat the Nets soundly. Atlanta I figured would make a run towards defending their conference title and get by at least Indiana. The Knicks seemed certain to trounce the Wizards.

Because of losing Detlef, I felt our series against the Jazz would be close, but in the end, we would pull it out. The Sonics and the Hornets presented an intriguing matchup of people with ex-Timberwolf statuses, but Hubie was too brilliant a coach to allow Tony Campbell's team to beat him. Portland was my pick to upset the Purple and Gold, for in my opinion the Trailblazers were the scariest team in the West besides us that season. Houston should have no trouble against the Kings to my mind.

We jumped out to an early 25-17 lead, but then the Jazz came roaring back to tie it up and then take the lead. From then on, it was a series of constant lead changes and inspired rallies on both sides. Malone, as I feared, abused us all night long and we couldn't do anything to stop him. But Mullin answered him basket for basket, point for point... and when it was all over, we stood on top 116-112, having made the last rally in the final minutes of the contest. Mullin and Malone both scored 41 points. It was the most dazzling duel of amazing postseason performances I'd ever seen. Even better, Mullin made the last two points to seal the win for us, on picture-perfect free throws.

His value since coming to the team had been nothing short of tremendous. Pooh also played wonderfully, amassing a double-double of 19 points and 13 assists while continuing to be the most underrated player in the league.

Game 2 was another case of ceaseless changes in command, but then we broke the game open early in the last quarter and coasted to a 116-107 win behind balanced scoring efforts. Evidence of this came in Mullin having 23 points and Shaq 22, with two players scoring in double figures off the bench, Bannister, who had turned out to be a nice suprise that year after getting virtually no time when he joined us the season before and aging, yet still crafty team captain Sam Mitchell. The submen scored 14 and 11 points respectively.

Malone did everything possible to keep his team in the game and the series, though. He scored 25 points in Game 2, adding to it 14 rebounds, 7 assists, and a steal. Much like Dominique Wilkins in the '92 NBA Finals, he was carrying his team on his back.

Speaking of back, Detlef returned for Game 3 and we rode him all the way to a solid 110-94 series clinching victory. No, he didn't score lots of points or grab a ton of rebounds. In fact, he scored just 2 points and netted only 4 rebounds. But what he did was use his superior defense to lock down Malone and frustrate the Mailman all game long. As a result, Karl ended up with just 14 points on the evening and nobody else on the Jazz was able to pick up the slack.

Also key to the win was Mullin's 24 points and Shaq and Pooh's double-doubles of 17 points and 12 rebounds and 16 points and 10 assists respectively.

But we hadn't clinched yet. After all, it was when I joined the league that the NBA switched the opening round to also be a 7 game series.

Alas for the Jazz, all the fight had gone out of them in Game 3. They went down with barely a whimper in Game 4, falling 107-87. Pooh and Scottie each scored 22, Detlef dropped 18 points and 9 rebounds, and Shaq had a double-double of 13 points, 10 rebounds.

We'd done it. We'd gotten past the Jazz, and more importantly, we'd swept them. This meant we would be well-rested for our next series against either Tony Campbell's Sonics or Hubie's Hornets.

In other round one action, the Knicks swept the Wizards, the Bulls won over the Nets in 5, the same count the Rockets used to punch out the Kings and Tony's Sonics needed to beat Hubie's team. The Lakers topped the Trailblazers in 6 and the Pacers-Hawks series went the full seven, ending in a 106-86 Atlanta victory that was the epitome of the tough-defense, balanced-scoring mentality we used. Evidently the Hawks had learned something from our methods after being beaten by us in the Finals that last year.

But the biggest upset is the one I haven't mentioned yet. It's the one that people still talk about to this day and shake their heads in amazement over. Even I was shocked when I heard it. It was the most stunning upset I'd ever encountered to that point. Here's the slip of paper.

Philadelphia 76ers 4 Cleveland Cavaliers 1

The mightiest team in the entire league had fallen in the first round. To a number eight seed.

[Izulde]

Though Tony would no doubt be fired up to go against us, I had little doubt that we'd beat the Sonics and beat them soundly. The rest of the playoffs looked to tip in our favour as well, for Cleveland and Portland were the only two teams that scared me much at all.

1993 Eastern Conference: 2nd Round
(8) Philadelphia vs. (4) Chicago
(3) Atlanta vs. (2) New York

The Bulls I counted on manhandling the 76ers. Philadelphia's stunning opening-round upset was a fluke in my eyes and the combined firepower of Jordan and former Timberwolf Glen Rice would simply be too much for Philly to handle. Atlanta and New York represented an interesting matchup. Last year's Eastern Conference champions had been playing our brand of ball, but the Knicks boasted the superlative Patrick Ewing. As I had become partial to the way we played, I favoured the Hawks in the matchup, though I felt for the Knicks' fans frustrations everywhere.

1993 Western Conference: 2nd Round
(1) Minnesota vs. (4) Seattle
(3) L.A. Lakers vs. (2) Houston

Fat Lever had been a huge free-agent signing for Seattle in the offseason, so big that he was the team's second leading scorer. As such, he gave the Sonics an option to go besides Tony and the developing star Shawn Kemp. Still, even with Fat, I knew we could beat them soundly and move on to defend our Western Conference title.

Houston and the Lakers. I had to go with the Rockets. The Lakers' foolish manlove for Maurice Martin finally ended with the putting of A.C. Green in the starting center slot, but they, like the Celtics, were a greybearding team by that point and Hakeem looked eager to punish the Purple and Gold and set up a playoff rematch with us where he would be completely healthy.

Well, as it turns out, we came out in Game 1 overconfident and as a result, it wasn't until the halftime buzzer that we took our first lead. We held it through the third quarter, but then in the fourth, the entire team went cold and the Sonics surged back to upset us 100-95 on our own court. Shaq was the only one truly with it that night, as he had 28 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks.

Gregg focused our game plan around stopping Tony and Fat. Tony still managed to score 19, and by focusing on those two players, we opened the door and Sedale Threatt charged right in, popping off 29 points and 8 assists to completely blindside us.

We came out determined to beat them in Game 2 and not let them go back to Seattle with a 2-0 series lead and we got it done with a stellar defensive effort in a 102-83 win, where we pulled away midway through the third quarter and never looked back. Shaq was again a beast on the boards with 28 points, 13 rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Having him in the middle truly was saving our franchise and the draft day trade we made with Phoenix to get him is still talked about even to this day.

The noise of the home crowd was deafening for Game 3 and I'm ashamed to admit that our boys were affected by the ear-splittind decibel level. The Supersonics broke out to a 10 point halftime lead and staved off a Herculean effort by our squad in the second half to escape with a 109-106 victory and a 2-1 series lead. Shaq once again tried to save us with a 20 point, 10 rebound, one steal, 4 block night, but it wasn't enough. The real culprit in our defeat was the bench play. Seattle got contributions from virtually every single one of their reserve players, whereas we only got 17 points from Volkov and a scattering of points from a few others.

Sadly for Tony, he got hurt in Game 3 and was projected to be out for the rest of the series. This was a serious blow to the Supersonics' chances of toppling us and a very lucky break as far as I was concerned. I only wished it wasn't Tony that had gotten hurt, for we were still quite close to him as a franchise.

Tony's absence was just what Chris Mullin needed. The newest Timberwolf had been largely shut down and frustrated by him throughout the series and was a significant reason why we were down 2-1. With Tony gone, Chris exploded in Game 4 with 34 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks to lead us to a handy 109-95 win and a series tie. Detlef chimed in with a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds and Shaq kept his 20+ points streak alive with 21. Sedale Threatt on the other side also had his fourth straight 20+ point game for the Sonics.

Back in Minneapolis for Game 5, we felt confident that we could deliver the knockout punch and put the Sonics on the ropes. But Seattle wasn't going to go away so quietly. Inspired by a passionate pre-game speech from Tony, they came out as equally determined as we to win. The lead changed hands 20 times over the 4 quarters and it was tied another 9 times, but in the end, we were handed a 94-91 loss. Fat Lever exploded all over us for 27 points and once again, their bench ran roughshod over ours. Shaq's 23 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 blocks, in what was becoming a familiar tale of the series, just wasn't enough.

Down 3 games to 2. One game away from elimination and the destruction of our dynasty dreams.

[Izulde]

As we headed to Seattle for Game 6, I sweated profusely on the plane. To lose in the second round the year after a championship, after an offseason where we solved our center woes with Shaq... I couldn't bear the thought of it. But it may be that our dynasty would fall that night.

The partisan Sonics crowed roared lustily as the opening lineups were announced. They were determined to knock off the defending NBA champions, here on the court of green and gold.

But it never happened.

Gregg gave a fiery speech in the locker room before the game, reminding the players that everyone considered our title last year a fluke, an abberation that would end tonight. The papers called us a Cinderella story last year, one that would be revealed as pretender at the conclusion of that year's playoffs.

We came out angry and hungry and at the end of the first quarter, we were up 29-17. From there, we tore into them and slammed into them, denying everyone but Sedale Threatt, who scored 31 points, a dominating offensive presence. By the third quarter, our lead was 20, and when the final buzzer sounded, the score read 101-86. We were headed back home to Minneapolis for Game 7.

Chris Mullin once again answered the call for us as he did so many times after the trade for him, leading the team with 25 points. Shaq, our other key acquisition, had 14 points and 10 rebounds, in yet another critical double-double. Volkov contributed 16 points and 7 rebounds from the bench in a continuation of his valuable, surprising contribution since coming to us from the Hawks before the start of last season. 1993 was the last year of his contract and the decision of whether or not to resign him was going to be the most difficult of the offseason for me.

But contract issues did not matter just then. All that was important was that we bought ourselves another chance at life, at redemption.

Back in Minneapolis, it was we who had the frenzied crowd at our back, and the passion in the arena was palpable. We did not want to see the dynasty dreams die here.

A quick 6-0 run to open the game made me breathe easier, but it was not to be so elegant and dominating as Game 6. Time and time and time again throughout the game, the Sonics fought back, now within 2, now within 1, back down to 7 and getting again to in 3. With the score 101-100 in our favour, a critical play that changed the fate of the game ensued.

Sedale, who had been the threat to us the entire series, squared up in front of the three-point line.

He took a breath, set himself, and launched the ball in the air.

....BLOCK!

Racing from a foot away, Sam Mitchell, the lone original Timberwolf and veteran bench player, reached out and swatted away the ball. He took possession and a series later, Detlef Schrempf sunk two free throws to make the score 103-100.

We won 105-100.

It seemed only fitting that the blue-collar Mitchell, loved by fans and teammates alike and happily accepting his bench role after that first season, made the play, for our original championship was founded on those men.

And even though we had two true stars on the team now in Shaq and Mullin, at the core of our success were still the Blue Men, underrated and hard-working players.

Blue Men, who thanks to one of their own could still hope for gold to once again find their fingers.

[Izulde]

Ours was not the only series to go the full 7 in that round that year. The Chicago Bulls also required the entire set of seven to top the 76ers. Once again, Michael Jordan led the way, scoring 39 points as Chicago thumped Philly 126-106 in the deciding contest.

The Lakers evicted the Rockets in 6 games. Hakeem simply failed to show up in the second round and played especially terrible in the last game, getting just 11 points. The Purple and Gold were carried in the series by their aging Triplet Stars of James Worthy, Orlando Woolridge, and Magic Johnson. One had the feeling that their star was falling fast, just as Chicago's star would explode the instant Jordan was no longer a Bull. As I have already told you before, Glen Rice made an excellent support player, but when asked to carry a team, he simply could not do it.

Patrick Ewing's Knicks crushed our Finals foe in 1992, sweeping the Hawks 4-0. Ewing conspired with Jay Vincent and Kiki Vandweghe to obliterate the defending East Conference champions. In some ways, I felt for Patrick. Ever since I'd joined the league and for seasons before, he'd pulled the Knicks as far as he could carry them and yet it was never enough to even get to the Finals. I privately hoped that he would make it that year. So, too, did the media, for a matchup of the crafty veteran superstar center versus the young franchise center in Ewing against Shaq meant a sensational storyline to build coverage around.

But first both squads would have to prove themselves worthy.

1993 Conference Finals
East: (4) Chicago vs (2) New York
West: (1) Minnesota vs (3) L.A. Lakers

To be honest, things looked very good for the Knicks. They had three players who'd been playing at All-Star level that postseason and Ewing was of course the Behemoth, the Franchise, in the middle. The Bulls had Michael and Others, lead supporting actor being Glen. The firepower of New York looked too powerful for even Jordan to overcome.

The Purple and Gold. I've mentioned them frequently, I know, and obsessed with their Maurice Martin infatuation that really hurt the franchise. But they'd wisened up late that season and had A.C. Green as the starting C. The series, I felt, would be an interesting one, and likely close. Without Maurice on the starting five, they became that much deadlier a team. Still, we'd beaten them in our first season and we'd only improved since then, while they, like the other teams in the Finals, were in their autumnal period.

We tipped off the series with Game 1 at home. The media billed the contest, and the series as a whole as Glorious Tradition vs. Noveau Riche. They were old, star-laden, ring-studded, and filled with mystique. We were young, with one title, and lacking in iconic status, save for Shaq and maybe Mullin.

The Lakers took advantage of our shooting troubles to be up by 15 at halftime. I was sick up in the booth, but not totally disheartened. We'd bounced back from worse deficits and as it turns out, we did. Buoyed by a frenzied crowd, we tied the score at 87-87 at the end of the third on a last-second shoot by Pooh, then took command in the fourth and never let go, winning 118-113.

Mullin made the brunt of our offense, scoring 25 points and Shaq added a double-double of 18 points and 16 rebounds, as four of our five starters finished with double digits. Only Scottie failed to break 10, and he sat just one behind with 9. Volkov and Sam Mitchell made key contributions from the bench, contributing 14 points, 7 rebounds and 16 points respectively. That win lifted an immense weight from my shoulders. Had we lost that first game, I suspect some of the team may have started buying into the Laker magic after all.

We shattered the Purple and Gold morale with that opening win, and it showed when the Lakers came out flat in Game 2, losing 110-72 in a massive blowout. Scottie led all scorers with 20 points, and each of the starting 5 had 17 points or better, save for Detlef who added just 2. Alexander Volkov continued his sterling play from the bench with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. His stellar support in the playoffs was making my decision about whether to retain him or not more and more difficult.

Down 2-0, Laker Nation was reeling and quite thankful to be going home, where their large and rabid fan base would cheer them on to evening the series. We ruined that party with a 124-80 demolition that put the Lakers on the brink of elimination. Much like Game 2, there was never any doubt as to the outcome.

That contest marked a return to the Timberwolf Way, with every starter getting at least 14 points. Mullin headed the slaughter with 19, Shaq got his usual double-double at 14 points and 15 rebounds, and Pooh came near the double-double waters with 17 points and 8 assists. From the bench, Alexander Volkov slid in 13 points and Sam Mitchell added a workmanlike 10 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. Magic Johnson had a double-double of 31 points and 10 rebounds to go with his 3 steals for the Lakers.Woolridge tried to help with 19 points, but no one else from the Purple and Gold came to play.

Going into Game 4, the Laker faithful wondered on the radio, in the newspapers, and in private conversation if this was the death knell for their glory years. Were we the Wolves who would dethrone the NBA's Western royalty, stealing their crown in their own home for added insult to the egregious injury?

The answer... was no. Not at home would the last sad notes of their swan song be played. The Lakers came out fighting fiercely, showing their first spirit since Game 1. We, in turn, were equally vicious, determined to vanquish the lords here and now, to rake our claws into them and announce that the Purple and Gold were dead, and it was the Blue and Black that now ruled the West in dynasty. But in the end, they were just a little hungrier, and triumphed 112-108.

Magic Johnson scored 34 points and A.C. Green answered the multitude of critics concerning center for the Lakers with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Robert Pack, a rookie, had a small coming-out with 15 points in limited time, a glimpse into the future of what life might be like after Magic. On our side, Chris Mullin again led us, this time with 26 points. Volkov had his most masterful game from the bench yet in that postseason, a beautiful double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds. Sam added 15 points himself.

All in all, it was one of the most beautiful, inspired games I'd ever seen played up until that point and it's one of the only losses I regularly watch on my VCR. It was just that magnificent a game.

Yes, you're right. I should convert to DVD someday. Maybe you can help me with that sometime.

It was with some discouragement that we returned home to Minneapolis. We'd really wanted to close out in L.A. and our failure to do so made more than a few members of the team downhearted. But Gregg reminded them that we still controlled our destiny with the 3-1 series lead and, more importantly, Orlando Woolridge was out with a small injury. This meant Maurice Martin's return to the lineup, a prospect I salivated over.

Energized by their win, the Lakers came out ready to play and it was a dogfight for three quarters. Then, in the fourth, the Purple and Gold simply ran out of gas and we coasted to a 107-95 victory that ended with, of all things, an Alexander Volkov buzzer-beater to get points 106 and 107, his 14th and 15th of the game.

In addition to Volkov's 15, we were spearheaded by Shaq's 25 points and 9 rebounds and Detlef's 19 points and 8 rebounds. On the other side, Magic Johnson had an amazing 42-point game. He played his heart out, determined not to see the dreams of one last championship die there. But die there they did, for the rest of the Purple and Gold was simply too tired, too worn out, to deliver the finishing touches needed to force another game.

And so the sky rained confetti, the fans cheered, and the team and coaches hugged one another. As I walked down for the trophy presentation, I was struck by something that I've remembered and held to ever since.

Championships are not about talent. They are made of the teams who can overcome adversity, who can come together and triumph even when their defeat seems a foregone conclusion.

We banished the Sonics when our fall appeared a fait accompli. The Lakers succumbed to us when we mounted the same type of challenge to them.

Because of that, and for no other reason, we were the new Lords of the West.

[Izulde]

Here's an article for you to look over.

Ewing East Conference Champion At Last!

The New York Knicks, led by superstar center Patrick Ewing, conquered Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls last night 130-123 to win the Eastern Conference Finals 4-2. They'll be facing the defending champion Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Finals.

Ewing schooled the Bulls, dominating the contest with a mind-boggling 38 points, 16 rebounds, and 3 blocks in taking Player of the Game and Eastern Conference Finals MVP honors.

Despite Jordan's 36 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals and surprise sub Wayne Turner's breakout performance of 21 points , Chicago just couldn't find the energy to force a Game 7, meaning that Ewing will at long last be making an NBA Finals appearance.

"It's a great feeling. I can't tell you how wonderful it is, all those years of getting so close to this moment and never quite getting there and now it's finally happening. I look forward to going up against Minnesota in the Finals. Shaq is going to be the next great center, Gregg Popovich is a fantastic coach, and they have a fantastic front office. It should be a good series, but I think we've got the talent to be able to bring home the Trophy to New York", said Ewing in a postgame conference.

Indeed, it should make a fascinating Finals. Unlike last year, when the Atlanta Hawks and Minnesota Timberwolves were lacking in true superstar appeal, this year's edition features Ewing vs. Shaq, two dynamite, popular centers who are the faces of their teams. The wily veteran versus the brilliant newcomer should be an exciting show.

***End Article***

Yes, that's right. No mention of me. That doesn't bother me, though. I'd had my articles the year before when we first made the trip to the Finals. I did get a few articles that year against Ewing, too, but you can look at those later. They mostly praised me for my draft-day move to land Shaq and my bold trade to get Chris Mullin on the team, without whom I don't think we would have had a chance to defend our title.

It was a tense week leading up to the Finals. A lot of people considered our championship the year before a fluke win over a team led by a second-tier star in Dominique Wilkins and predicted we would fall flat against a much better and tougher team in the Knicks. Personally, I thought that was utter hogwash. The Lakers were a fine team and we'd trashed them. But I did agree then and now that the Knicks matched up better with us than most teams in the league and we'd have to fight hard if we wanted a repeat.

New York had homecourt advantage in Game 1 and it showed. The crowd was large and loud, blue and orange waving everywhere as the arena shook with ecstacy. The Knicks fed off of that and, save for a 3-point basket by Scottie to open the game, led from start to finish, beating us 117-109.

As expected, Ewing continued his postseason mastery, getting 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Shaq equalled him with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Mullin scored 38 points, and had 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals in a stellar showing that still amazes me when I watch it. How did we lose then?

Scottie, Detlef and Pooh weren't able to hit worth anything. Jay Vincent continued his superior starter-style imitation of Volkov, scoring 24 points. Their other starters and bench players had solid games. In short, they played a total team game and we just couldn't muster it in Game 1.

Gregg banned the team from leaving the hotel that night and told them they had to stay there and take the time to think about how they failed in playing defense and sharing the scoring load, the two hallmarks of the Timberwolf Way.

As so often happened in his time coaching us, the team responded, playing hardnosed, gritty defense in Game 2 en route to a 105-83 rout of the Knicks to even up the series. Shaq had a double-double of 33 points and 10 rebounds. Detlef double-doubled too, with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Mullin scored 24. Every one of the starting five was in double-digit scoring except for Pooh, who returned to his catalyst role and dished out 10 assists. Volkov had 14 rebounds to go with a scattering of points from the bench.

The Timberwolf Way was back, at least for one game.

We were so happy to be back in Minneapolis for Game 3 that we went on a 20-4 opening run on our way to a 108-88 trouncing that put us up 2-1. It was a night for double-doubles as Shaq had 23 and 10, Detlef had 21 and 11, and Pooh had 14 points and 10 assists. Rock defense and balance, the way we'd won our title last year. The way we were on our way to winning it that season.

The most noteworthy line in Game 3:
Patrick Ewing: 9 points 4 rebounds, 4 TOs

Game 4 proved to be one of those epic battles that so often happen in the middle of a playoff series. The lead changes were constant and each team was getting into it. I had the feeling though as I watched from the booth that we didn't seem to be playing with the killer instinct we should have, and as it turns out, we didn't, losing 103-100 that only saw us break triple digits because of Scottie's last-second jumper.

Ewing roared back with 26 points and 10 rebounds and the Knicks got double-digit scoring from their starters and solid contributions from their bench. On our part, Shaq had 23 and 16, Mullin had 25 points, and Pooh had 10 points and 10 assists, but Detlef and Volkov both had horrible shooting nights. I was beginning to see just how valuable Alexander was coming off of our bench and I began to lean towards re-signing him, particularly since Randy's terrible contract was finally going to be off our books.

The series now evened at two a piece, I felt it imperative that we win Game 5 in Minneapolis to give ourselves the upper hand. It didn't happen. Down 58-44 at the half, we made a furious rally in the second half, but ran out of steam down the stretch and dropped a heartbreaker 106-102.

We limited Ewing to 15 points, but the other Knicks starters stepped up with balanced scoring and New York got two sensational performances from the bench. Gerald Wilkins scored 20 points from the pine and benchmate Andre Moore came out of nowhere with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. For the Blue and Black, nobody and I mean nobody on the team hit anything but Shaq, who had 33 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 blocks, and Detlef, who contributed 17. Everyone else had shooting woes so terrible that I avoid watching this game whenever I can. That night, the Knicks took us apart using our own methods.

So there we were, down three games to two and headed back to New York.

One more loss.

That was all we needed to have our throne smashed, our dynasty destroyed, and for the world to call us pretenders.

Pretenders who had one lucky season and that was all.

[Izulde]

Things were tense when we filed into New York for Game 6. None of us wanted to get beaten then. If we had to lose, we wanted to lose in a seventh game, going down to the wire so that we could at least say we gave a good accounting of ourselves.

We opened up a fragile lead in the first quarter, expanded it on the second, and drove it home to a victory that was far closer than the final 108-90 score. Shaq fouled out of the game and our saviours were unlikely heroes. Pooh got the Player of the Game nod with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. Sam scored 19 from the bench, a point total matched by Mullin. I've told you before time and again that Pooh was the most underrated point guard in the league. He quietly had good seasons and guided our offense year after year. With Shaq and Mullin's additions, his scoring had gone down, but he was still our indispensable floor general.

Patrick Ewing's line: 6 points, 4 rebounds. We'd once again held him in check, something that was critical to ensuring our victory. The 2-12 from the field stat particularly impressed me about that game. Defense. We were the best in the league at it two years running and we showed it then.

So there we were, tied 3-3. Many were calling it one of the more exciting Finals in recent memory. I don't know about that. Those Lakers-Celtics clashes were always thrilling in the 1980s, but I have to admit, I secretly enjoyed the white-knuckle tension that Finals induced in me.

Game 7 in New York for everything.

The tension was on both sides now and the place hummed with it. I even imagined that I could see it swirling in the air, given the shape and form of whirling water. Oh, I know that's a silly image. Humour an old man, will you?

Our lead was slender after the first, slightly bigger at half. In the third, they took the lead briefly, but we snatched it back and even built a little more on our margin. The Knicks rallied hard in the fourth, but then the long series and the age of their veterans began to wear down and we took advantage, capturing the fourth as well by two points. The end score: 109-98.

This time, the joy that I felt as I walked down to accept the NBA Championship trophy was even sweeter. This time, I was barely on the court before the players and coaches hoisted me up and carried me over to the comissioner.

"Gabe's #1! Gabe's #1! Gabe's #1!" they chanted as I was transported and set down. I'll admit I blushed at the attention. In most NBA circles, such an action would seem odd, but not in Minneapolis. I maintained a close, personal touch with all the Timberwolf players and coaches, both former and current, and so there was a family culture to it all.

Holding that gleaming trophy in my hands, tears brimmed my eyes as I gave my acceptance speech. I thanked everyone in the organization for all their hard work and belief in us. I told them the truth, that this championship meant even more to me than the first one. We'd played a great franchise, led by a legendary player, and were just good enough to beat them in a battle of equals.

That seventh game itself was one of the most special I've ever seen us play. Here's the lines for the starters. You'll see what I mean.

PG Pooh Richardson: 18 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals
SG Scottie Pippen: 13 points, 1 assist, 6 rebounds, 3 steals
SF Chris Mullin: 25 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals
PF Detlef Schrempf: 18 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists
C Shaquille O'Neal: 15 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists

The Knicks focused their game plan on stopping Shaq, but we countered that by distributing the scoring. Our defense was solid, holding them to double digits. The Timberwolf Way.

Ewing once more tried to carry New York, playing an impressive game in a losing effort with 27 points, 16 rebounds, an assist, and 3 blocks. Jay Vincent added 23 for the Knicks, but it just wasn't enough. We let them have their games, as we knew they would be the most fired up. Gregg told me afterwards that the plan all along was to try and make Patrick beat us. That way, if we lost, the glory would fall on his shoulders, as would be so richly deserved.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, back-to-back championships. Two-time champions.

The taste is delicious in my mouth even after all these years.

Let's go get ice cream to celebrate the memory.

[Izulde]

Regular Season Stats


Playoff Stats

As you can see here, Shaq and Mullin carried us to that second consecutive title. To this day, the Warriors' fans angrily complain about how Golden State's management allowed them to get fleeced in the trade. The Suns' fans were also disappointed to see Shaq obliterate the league, though to be fair, Alonzo Mourning did exceptionally well himself for a rookie and would be Rookie of the Year in nearly any other season. Rick Fox, too, showed promise and contributed to Phoenix's improvement, far more than the minutes Danny Ferry played for us, so on the balance, it wasn't a bad trade for the Suns.

Now let me tell you the award winners that year.

MVP:
Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
34.8 ppg 3.7 apg 5.8 rpg 0.9 bpg 1.9 spg

Defensive Player of the Year
Hakeem Olajuwon - Houston Rockets
21.1 ppg 2.5 apg 11.1 rpg 3.5 bpg 1.5 spg

6th Man of the Year
Kiki Vandeweghe - New York Knicks
16.2 ppg 1.7 apg 3.0 rpg 0.0 bpg 0.9 spg

Rookie of the Year
Shaquille O'Neal - Minnesota Timberwolves
19.7 ppg 2.1 apg 10.4 rpg 1.1 bpg 0.8 spg

Coach of the Year
Lenny Wilkens - Cleveland Cavaliers

All-League First Team
PG Mark Price - Cleveland Cavaliers
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Charles Barkley - Philadelphia 76ers
PF Karl Malone - Utah Jazz
C Hakeem Olajuwon - Houston Rockets

All-League Second Team
PG John Stockton - Utah Jazz
SG Jeff Malone - Washington Wizards
SF Larry Bird - Boston Celtics
PF Kevin McHale - Boston Celtics
C Patrick Ewing - New York Knicks

All-League Third Team
PG Gary Payton - Denver Nuggets
SG Jeff Hornacek - New Orleans Hornets
SF Dominique Wilkins - Atlanta Hawks
PF Larry Nance - Cleveland Cavaliers
C David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs

All-Defense First Team
PG Nate McMillan - Seattle Sonics
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Charles Barkley - Philadelphia 76ers
PF Larry Nance - Cleveland Cavaliers
C Hakeem Olajuwon - Houston Rockets

All-Defense Second Team
PG John Stockton - Utah Jazz
SG Ron Harper - Denver Nuggets
SF Scottie Pippen - Minnesota Timberwolves
PF Shawn Kemp - Seattle Sonics
C David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs

All-Rookie First Team
PG Robert Pack - L.A. Lakers
SG Latrell Sprewell - Sacramento Kings
SF Todd Day - Memphis Grizzlies
PF Tom Gugliotta - Indiana Pacers
C Shaquille O'Neal - Minnesota Timberwolves

All-Rookie Second Team
PG Randy Woods - Golden State Warriors
SG Doug Lee - Utah Jazz
SF Paul Graham - Atlanta Hawks
PF Christian Laettner - Miami Heat
C Alonzo Mourning - Phoenix Suns

I was greatly surprised at the awards, I have to confess. I felt certain that Chris Mullin would receive at least a Third Team nod, and Gregg's being denied Coach of the Year was scandalous to say the least. Ah, well. Sportswriters are always a fickle lot.

We had no draft lottery excitement waiting for us that year, so I'll just tell you that the Suns had luck on their side again as they leapt from 5th to 3rd and our old and familiar trading partners, the Golden State Warriors, landed the #1 overall selection for the 1994 draft.

[Izulde]

Before the draft that year, I signed Gregg to a four year contract extension and Larry Riley, the third assistant, to a three year extension. The coaching staff worked extremely well together and I wasn't about to change something that'd won us two consecutive titles. First assistant Bill Fitch was particularly flourishing under Gregg's tutelage and there were rumours that he was being considered for a head coaching job with one of the other teams in the league.

Although we stayed with our same man, other teams changed coaches that offseason.

Milwaukee Bucks: Don Nelson
Miami Heat: Gene Shue
Boston Celtics: Mike Fratello
L.A. Clippers: Ron Rothstein
Detroit Pistons: Jimmy Rodgers
Toronto Raptors: Chuck Daly
Charlotte Bobcats: Douglas Moe
Golden State Warriors: Del Harris
Orlando Magic: Willis Reed
Atlanta Hawks: Bill Musselman

I won't bore you this time with the analysis of the carousel, except to say that Mike Fratello was a hiring I thought was ingenious. He'd led his previous team to three playoff appearances and was sound a coach as I'd ever seen.

Ron Rothstein, though a poor coach in record, was actually a brilliant strategist good at developing young players, and in fact was the perfect fit for the Clippers in my opinion. The rest of the hirings were either mediocre or not very good.

The mock draft that season had us picking SG Calbert Cheaney out of Indiana with the 28th pick. I'll confess he greatly appealed to me when I first looked at him. As we were extremely solid at PG, PF, and C, I was most looking at a young SG or SF to serve as an understudy to Scottie and Chris, who held the starting spots for those positions in our scheme. Tyrone Corbin never did impress me much and Dan Majerle looked like an error in misjudgement in signing after our second title.

PF Chris Webber was considered the consensus top pick in the draft by most analysts, though I personally thought C Shawn Bradley looked like a kid with a lot of talent. Even back in those days when true centers were taller, it was rare to find somebody with a 7'6" height.

As expected, Webber went #1 to Golden State. Our familiar foes and trading partners really needed a franchise type player to build around and he looked like he could be it.

After reviewing the scouting reports, Chalbert didn't seem like the right fit for us. While gifted, his intangibles were terrible and against everything I felt we stood for as an organization. Instead, I started viewing Bryon Russell out of Long Beach State as our most likely pick. He was an excellent fit for our system and had good defensive talent. There were others I was looking at, but only if they fell to us.

1993 Draft 1st Round Selections

1. PF Chris Webber (Golden State)
2. PG Sam Cassell (Toronto)
3. SG Anfernee Hardaway (Phoenix)
4. C Shawn Bradley (Brigham Young)
5. PG Adonis Jordan (Memphis)
6. C Gheorge Muresan (Denver)
7. C Acie Earl (Iowa)
8. SF Jamal Mashburn (San Antonio)
9. PG Nick Van Exel (Boston)
10. C Josh Grant (Orlando)
11. PG Keith Jennings (Dallas)
12. PF Rodney Rogers (L.A. Clippers)
13. SG Isaiah Rider (Charlotte)
14. SG Allan Houston (Milwaukee)
15. SG David Wesley (Utah)
16. SF George Lynch (Philadelphia)
17. SF Scott Burrell (Washington)
18. PF Steven Howard (Indiana)
19. SF Chris Mills (Sacramento)
20. PG Melvin Newbern (L.A. Lakers)
21. SG James Robinson (Atlanta)
22. PF Andres Guibert (New Jersey)
23. PF Andre Spencer (Portland)
24. PG Terry Dehere (New Orleans)
25. PF Vin Baker (Chicago)
26. PF Popeye Jones (Houston)
27. SG Calbert Cheaney (Seattle)
28. SF Bryon Russell (Minnesota)
29. C Eric Riley (New York)
30. PG Chris Whitney (Cleveland)

I'll admit, I was shocked at Orlando. Two 1st round selections and they took centers with both of them. They didn't learn from the Dale Davis trade and the Magic management was one of the worst in my early years in the league. I also found myself surprised that the Heat selected Bradley. While I was personally high on him, I considered Rony a good enough player to build around in the paint, but they didn't see it that way.

I had the player I wanted, so when our next pick came up, the #2 selection in the 2nd round, I let my assistant, James Anderson, make the pick. He took PG Rex Walters out of Kansas. It was the last time I let him decide who we drafted. I won't deny that I spend a good three and a half hours dressing him down after the pick. We didn't need another point guard; we were set with Pooh and Terrell. It's a lesson and lecture he never forgot, I can tell you that much. What made me particularly irate about that pick is that SG Lucious Harris was still on the board and he was a kid I'd half-considered picking up with the selection. Naturally he was taken immediately after us by the Raptors.

With our second selection in the second round, #14, I decided to take one of my own flyers, figuring if my foolish young assistant could do it, I could do the same thing. And so I took C Mike Peplowski out of Michigan State, simply because he was the last seven-footer in the draft. It was a silly way to spend our second round selections I know, but all I can say now upon looking back is that we were in a festive mood that year. We really had nothing we urgently needed. Our starting five was set, we had a good bench, and there were lots of exciting young players on our team already. So why not be a little frivolous? Particularly since we were coming off of two straight NBA titles.

The very first thing I did after the trade was announce our renounciation of Randy's rights. It was a bad contract I'd waited years to get rid of and now that it was finally gone, I felt relieved. Danny Ferry was also shown the door. He'd contributed very little to us since coming over in the famous draft-day trade that allowed us to pick Shaq and Bryon looked much better than he did already as a rookie. Ken Bannisters also got renounced, as I decided in the end to try and keep Alexander Volkov as the primary backup at power forward and center after his amazing playoff appearances. Having his veteran leadership would also help Detlef in schooling Shaq, Horry, and Peplowski, who'd I developed a very strange fondness for.

I also determined that I would do my best to re-sign team captain Sam Mitchell. He was aging and his skills were detoriating, but he was still the man that held our squad together and I considered him the epitome of the Timberwolf Way.

None of our young players lit up the summer league that year and I'm sorry to say that Peplowski regressed against the stiff competition he faced, but on the bright side, Bryon, who a lot of analysts had criticized me on selecting, improved his defense according to Gregg. Still, I signed Peplowski for two years and cut Rex Walters, who had a horrible attitude and acted like he should be the starter. You know me well enough by now to know that Minneapolis under my watch didn't allow that kind of behaviour.

Alexander ended up re-signing with us for 3 years, $13.5 million. He figured out that earning $4.5 million a year for 3 years with a championship calibur team was far better than earning a starting job somewhere else as he initially wanted.

Sam was a little bit tougher to crack. The fact is he wasn't as valuable to us in terms of the court as Volkov, so I only wanted to give him a 3 year, $9 million contract. $3 million a year I felt was fair market value for the lockerroom contributions he brought to the team. Certainly he wouldn't get that kind of money elsewhere. He eventually took it.

The most noteworthy and indeed the only noteworthy change of teams took place when Fat Lever signed with Houston on a one-year deal as he hunted for a championship with Hakeem and the Rockets. Danny did a good job in getting him, I thought at the time. Randy went to Toronto on a one year deal, by the way.

And so with our team intact, we looked forward to the new year. Would we be good enough to capture that coveted third straight title? Only time would tell.

Our starting five remained unchanged from the end of last season at the opening tipoff, except for one thing.

PG Scottie Pippen
SG Pooh Richardson
SF Chris Mullin
PF Detlef Schrempf
C Shaquille O'Neal
6th Alexander Volkov

Yes, that's right. Gregg wanted Scottie playing at the point as an experiment to begin the year. It paid off handsomely in our first game, as we crushed the Knicks 116-75 in a rematch of last year's Finals. Shaq had 19 points and 15 rebounds with 3 blocks, Detlef nearly equalled that double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Sam scored 17 points from the bench, proving to his critics that he still had the ability to contribute on the floor. All of our starters scored in double-digits in that game, which gave hope that we hadn't lost our touch as I privately feared we might.

The Scottie as PG experiment proved to work far better than I'd anticipated as we started the year with a three game win streak before Detlef picked up an injury that took him out of the lineup a few games. The move benefitted the team in the following ways: It allowed Scottie to shut down the other team's point man, as he was our best defender, Pooh exploded with more scoring opportunities, hitting 18, 25, and 21 points in his first three games, and Terrell got more playing time at point guard and displayed capability at the position that was mesmerising to watch.

Even without Detlef, we ran our record to 4-0 by romping over the Chicago Bulls. Shaq was on pace for another double-double year and looked even stronger with the prior season under his belt. Chris Mullin was averaging over 20 points a game. It wasn't until we ran into the Rockets in a matchup of unbeatens that we recorded our first loss. Fat was proving to be their Pooh, a guy who ran their offense and made the Mitch and Hakeem show click. When I had supper with Danny afterwards, he said that Fat's signing was the best move he'd ever made as a GM. Mitch refused to speak with me, as you can imagine. He was still angry about the trade that'd sent him to Houston, especially after our two titles.

I'll be honest with you in saying that the Rockets scared me more that year than they had in any other season to date. While they'd been our frequent rivals and we'd beaten them when it counted, they were still a dangerous team, even more deadly now that Fat was their point guard.

We got back on track with a 112-91 win over the Miami Heat that featured Shaq with a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds, Chris with 19 points, and Pooh with an electric 25 point, 4 rebound, 3 assist, and 5 steal showing for Player of the Game honours. He'd really flourished in terms of scoring and stealing since getting shifted to shooting guard.

A cold shooting streak doomed us in a 107-100 loss to the Pistons, but we rebounded with a winning streak following that, including a cakewalk game against the Mavericks where Alexander scored 13 and Sam added 22 points from the bench. Through our victories, the keys remained the same; Shaq and Detlef with double-doubles, Chris as the key scoring option, lockdown defense from Scottie, who got his first double-double as a point guard in the Mavs game with 10 points and 11 assists, and an abrupt avalanche of points from Pooh now and again. Oh yes, occasional bench support from Volkov, Sam, and Terrell too, but we were a team that relied most heavily on our starters. This was evidenced particularly in a victory against the Suns towards the end of the month, when Shaq scored 40 points, one of the highest totals in Timberwolf history.

At the end of the first month, we were 12-2, just behind the perennial regular season juggernaut Cleveland Cavaliers for the best record in the NBA. No more could they call us fluke champions or upstarts.

As one paper around that time put it, "The Lakers have been dethroned. No longer is it the Purple and Gold who are the West's royalty and the NBA kings. The title belongs to the Blue and Black. All hail the new Lord of the NBA, the Minnesota Timberwolves."

And now, let's feast like kings ourselves in memory. I know an excellent steakhouse not far from here. My treat as always.

[Izulde]

There's nothing more delicious than a nicely made steak and a glass of good wine to wash it down with. I don't eat there as often as I'd like to, because that helps keep the place special. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your meal, too.

Here, have an After Eight mint chocolate or two. They're the best desserts after a supper like that.

Now then, we were 12-2 after the first month in 1994. The team was clicking in all levels and I foresaw no reason to change the makeup at all. We were a talented squad and pretty deep too, with the right balance of youth and veterans.

Oh, yes, the trades. Only one trade occurred during the first month, but it was a blockbuster one in the eyes of many.

Cleveland Cavaliers receive:
PG Kevin Johnson
Phoenix Suns 1995 2nd round pick

Phoenix Suns receive:
SF Billy Owens
SG Craig Ehlo

It's hard to believe that Kevin Johnson is only 27. He's a solid player and been a member of the All-League First or Second Team three times. What he gives the Cavs is not only a splendid guard to put in the starting five, but a much-needed young star. For a team that relies heavily on its veterans, this infusion of youthful blood is critical and provides a franchise face for when the old men such as Larry Nance retire. Furthermore, he's a proven playoff warrior and won a title with Phoenix in 1990, experience the title-hungry Cavs are eager to have. The Suns wanted to get rid of Johnson's major contract, as he's signed for 5 years, making $13 million this year, $21 million in the final year. Ehlo is an adequate replacement at point guard and plays better defense than KJ, but Owens plays more like a late second rounder than the late first rounder he was. All in all, this is a huge coup for Cleveland as they seek to capture that elusive Eastern Conference crown, to say nothing of an NBA title. Phoenix's payroll flexibility won't kick in for another couple years, they lose their biggest star, and their fans are furious.
Winner: Cleveland in one of the biggest steals ever

Our juggernaut continued its rolling in the second month, with a pair of victories over the Kings and Clippers highlighted by Shaq's 20 plus and 10 plus double-doubles. Detlef hit a double double in the Clippers game himself, scoring 23 and grabbing 12 rebounds. Mullin provided consistent, steady scoring at 19 and 18 points.

Not all was rosy, though. Pooh suddenly couldn't hit anything, finishing with just 2 points in both those games. While the team played well enough to win even despite his unexpected icy streak, I started to become a little concerned. Not that there was much I could do, of course. His contract was so massive that no team would take it on.

Gregg solved the problem by telling Pooh not to feel like he had to take any shot that came to him. He reminded our former point guard that we had enough scorers to where Pooh didn't have to be the big man and to just relax. Pooh took that advice and scored 17 points and 9 rebounds in our next game, a 109-105 win over the Mavericks that was a tough contest the entire way. I came away from that game greatly impressed with Toni Kukoc, a fourth-year player for Dallas who harrassed Mullin into 5 turnovers and showed the ability to consistently score double digits season after season. While he wouldn't be a starter on our team, he'd significantly strengthen our bench and was in the last year of his contract to boot. I decided to keep tabs on him and possibly look into acquiring him later in the season or in free agency the next year.

Our next game featured a 116-98 romp over the 76ers that was never in question, but I mention it because Mullin scored 40 points and 10 rebounds, arguably the most impressive single-game showing of his career and one of the best performances in Timberwolf history to that point. His shooting line read: 16-18 from the field, 3-4 from three-point range, 5-5 from the charity stripe. I've still got the tape of that game. It's just an excellent one to watch if you like watching one of the best shooters ever at the absolute pinnacle of his craft.

As the month wore on, we just couldn't stop winning. Shaq was always good for a double-double, Detlef occassionally added one of his own, usually scoring at least 20 points when he did, and Mullin consistently scored 20 or better. Our bench featured three players as the top contributors as well: Volkov, Brandon, and Tyrone. Any given night, at least one of these guys would break 10 points and throw in a handful of assists or rebounds to go with it. Often, it'd be two of them. The other starters and other bench players, while valuable, weren't the core producers in the same way those six were.

Midway through the month, the Scottie Pippen experiment came to close. While we hadn't lost in the second set of thirty days, Gregg became concerned with Pooh's propensity for taking far too many shots and moved him back to the point, restoring Scottie to shooting guard.

The shift paid off well, as our winning continued unabated and I consider the move directly responsible for our greatest victory that month. We beat the then 20-4 Cleveland Cavaliers 102-89 in large part because Pooh kept his shot attempts low as he had since going back to the point and Scottie, free to shoot now that he no longer had to worry about the offense, scored 22 points. The game also featured a vintage Shaq performance of 23 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 blocks.

That contest against Cleveland was important for another reason. It marked Robert Horry's move up the bench into the 6th man role. While statistically speaking, he wasn't showing much, he'd actually played extremely well in the limited minutes he'd been given and scored 12 points in that game, following it up with his first career double-double in our next victory, over the Spurs. There he scored 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Foul trouble by Detlef and Shaq in that win against San Antonio led to not only reliance on Horry, but Alexander, who showed once more that I was right to resign him by scoring 21 from the bench.

The month ended with yet another win and sixty days into the season, we stood on top of the league with a 25-2 record. We went 13-0 for the month, a feat that still amazes me even to this day. The next closest team, as you might expect, was the Cavaliers with a 23-6 mark.

But the biggest story of the early 1994 season wasn't our 13-0 second month record, or our dominance of the league.

It was the surprise leader of a division in the East Conference. A team that held a six game lead at that point and one that nobody predicted would be there, including me.

I'll tell you about it next time.

[Izulde]

Hello again. Feel free to have a seat and I'll get you some coffee from the kitchen.

Here you go.

When last we met, I told you there was a surprise division leader in the East at the end of month two in 1994 and there was.

Standing atop the Atlantic Division with a 20-9 record, 6 games in front, were none other than the Toronto Raptors, easily the biggest surprise of the young season. How did they manage to do it?

Sam Cassell was a huge part of it. The #2 overall selection in the draft at the time averaged 20.9 points a game with 6.6 assists. Nobody expected the rookie to take off like he did, but there he was, lighting up the league in the same way Shaq did the year before.

Michael Young played a large role, too. Since signing from the Clippers after my first year as GM of the Timberwolves, he'd been a big part of the Raptors offense and was having a career year in 1994, averaging almost 20 points a game himself.

Chris Gatling, the Raptors' #5 overall selection in the 1992 draft, had improved all aspects of his game year by year and by 1994, the third year of his career, developed into an extremely solid all-around player able to score, rebound, and defend. His line read 14.4 ppg/8.2 rpg/1.3 spg at the start of month three and he was without question the team's best all-around player, the Raptors' top rebounder, third-highest scorer, and second-best on the team in terms of steals per game.

Chuck Daly can't be discounted either. The man who'd led the Pistons to three playoff appearances since I entered the league energized Toronto in his first season in Canada and had them believing that this was their year to emerge from the league cellar.

Only one trade occurred during the second month.

Atlanta Hawks receive:
C Bison Dele
Boston Celtics 1995 2nd round pick

Boston Celtics receive:
PG Kenny Anderson

Atlanta's back on top of their division and desperately needed a center. Kevin Willis is 31 and Duane Causwell, a former draftee of mine, just hasn't panned out like the Hawks hoped he would after the trade sent him there. Dele gives them another young center to try out and while he's a turnover machine, he has potential to become an explosive scorer, good rebounder, and fine defender. The Celtics have a glut of young point guards, but none of them are very good. Kenny Anderson is much more polished than they are in all facets of the game and should start. On the other hand, why make this deal when promising but raw rookie Nick Van Exel needs playing time to develop?
Winner: Atlanta as the deal makes more sense for them

After the 13-0 month we had, everyone came gunning for us and as fate would have it, we faced Hubie's Hornets on the first of the new month. They promptly upended us 93-88 behind Jeff Hornacek's 27 points and some extremely ferocious defense that not even Detlef's 20 and 14 could save us from. Still, I wasn't upset about losing. I regarded it as a relief, a break from the pressure in the papers speculating aloud that we might be one of the greatest teams ever assembled.

I didn't believe we were then and I still don't believe that. The only true stars we had were Shaq and Mullin. Everyone else was simply a team guy who knew his role and executed it.

We got back on track with a gritty 92-84 victory over the Kings highlighted by Shaq's 19 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Scottie chipped in 16 points, Pooh scored 8 points and handed out 8 assists, and Volkov contributed 8 points and 10 rebounds from the bench.

Shaq's dominance continued with our next game, a 117-85 smashing of the Wizards, where he scored 32, got 11 rebounds, dished out 3 assists, and got 4 blocks. Mullin chimed in with 36 points and Brandon scored 10 points and nabbed three steals from the bench. To be honest, I felt a little sorry for Terrell. Here was a kid with the talent to start for most teams in the league right now and the potential to be a franchise player and he was stuck behind a guy that couldn't be moved due to his contract.

That game against Washington really got me thinking. We had the pieces in place for another title certainly, but what about future years? How long could our dynasty run without getting the young phenoms like Terrell more of a chance to develop? Yes, Shaq looked likely to be the most dominant center of his generation, but was I not atrophying Terrell by having Pooh in front of him?

Too, I was concerned that we'd found no future replacement for Mullin. Bryon was a nice bench guy but not the sparkplug scorer we needed out of the position.

Unfortunately, as I feared, I couldn't get anyone to take Pooh's contract. A decision that once seemed such a wise one now had come back to haunt me in the hour when I wanted a chance to stabilize the team's success now and in the future.

Still, I couldn't complain. 29 other GMs in the league would've been ecstatic to be in my position, with two straight rings and a team strong enough to contend for a third.

Our win streak continued and two games after I'd shopped Pooh out, he scored 20 points and had 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a victory against the Bobcats, the same contest Bryon set a new career high with 15 points from the bench. Not bad for a rookie, I admitted to myself afterwards, but I grew a little more concerned when Gregg quietly informed me a few days later that the staff agreed with my assessment that Bryon wasn't showing in practice and games quite the potential they thought he'd exhibited.

Pooh broke 20 again in scoring 21 in our next game, a 99-94 loss to the Lakers that snapped our streak. Scottie got held to a goose egg in scoring, the first time he'd ever been humiliated that way. Shaq scored 23 and took down 16 boards, blocking 5. One thing I'd noticed in the early going of that year was that while Shaq would occasionally have average numbers in points and rebounds, he'd become a monster blocker in his second season, another sign that he was to be The Center in the next generation.

My worry about Bryon grew until I finally traded him the day after the Lakers loss. I shipped him to Dallas for Malik Sealy and the Mavericks' 1996 2nd round pick. Malik looked like he had potential to become a legit scoring threat and a possible replacement for Mullin. In my eyes, it was a low-risk move.

Unfortunately I underestimated the fan reaction. Timberwolves faithful were furious with me for the deal. He'd quickly become a favourite with his hardnosed style of play and one columnist wrote at the time, "Bryon Russell epitomizes the Timberwolf Way that GM Gabriel Arcadia is so fond of calling the foundation of the franchise. He plays tough defense, is loyal, works hard, and integrates himself with his teammates. Malik Sealy is none of these things. Gabriel Arcadia has betrayed the T-Wolf nation and the Way today."

To be honest, I deserved the criticism and after I sent the papers in confirming the swap, I found myself wondering if I'd made the right decision. But it was too late to turn back now. The deal was done.

After Malik went 1-6 in his Minnesota debut, the press became even more vicious, not only calling me to the carpet for the trade, but openly questioning Gregg's decision to put him in the 6th man role as we narrowly beat the Magic 105-102 behind Shaq's 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 blocks and Mullin's 21 points. I understood their fury and told Gregg we'd simply have to weather the storm and that it was his choice what to do about Malik.

We split the next two games and Malik went 0-2 in the loss and 4-7 in the win, showing major foul trouble in both. Still, I felt he'd adjust more fully in time. More curious was that since his arrival, Volkov had gone 2-8, 0-8, and 1-8 in the first three games. Whether this was Alexander just in a cold streak or difficulty with his new teammate I couldn't be certain. But his newfound struggles made me glad I'd only signed him to a three-year deal. That made him tradeable if he had to be, which I hoped he wouldn't. Volkov had been the most unexpected bonus to a trade I'd ever made. While the move'd allowed us to trade up and select Terrell, he'd blossomed with us in a way he never had with the Hawks.

Malik started to show what he could do without foul trouble when his 5-8 shooting with just 1 foul led to a critical 12 bench points in a 103-100 win over the Celtics next game. If I seem to be talking too much about him, it's because even now I'm trying to justify the trade in my mind after all these years. That's how controversial a move it was.

When Malik went 6-8 for another 12 points with 4 rebounds in the next game, a 126-81 rout of the Purple and Gold, I knew he'd be fine. Shaq scored 31, with 15 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 blocks in that contest, Mullin dropping in 21 points.

At the usual dinner following a win over the Supersonics, Tony Campbell told me he'd be willing to take Malik under his wing in the offseason and give him some advice and pointers for dealing with life in Minnesota.

"Gabriel, the kid's only 24 and he's in his third season. From what I saw him on the floor tonight, he's going to be the scorer you guys will need on down the line. I really think he can break out and be like Chris for you guys when Chris retires", Tony said. And I was grateful for that, relieved that someone who I'd traded away had faith in me for making a move that caused such bitter debate in the papers.

Tony, as I've told you before, loved it in Seattle. There he was one of the team's most popular players and one of the stars along with Shawn Kemp. While he would have liked the rings from playing with us in Minnesota, he was happy as a Supersonic.

I'll tell you more about the effects of some of the other deals I've made through the years later.

Anyway, after the Seattle game, Gregg dropped Malik down to the bottom of the rotation. While he'd been playing pretty well as of late, Gregg was of the opinion that Sealy just wasn't ready to be up that high yet and needed to start off again at the bottom and work his way up. Also, by limiting his minutes, Gregg thought the fans would turn their attention to other players on the team again and forget about heckling Malik.

It worked for the team, as we reeled off another win streak marked by Shaq double-doubles and a return to the balanced scoring and iron defense that marked the Timberwolf Way. This let the Malik controversy die down for the time being.

At month's end, we were 39-5, still the best record in the league by far, good for a 12 game lead over Tony's Sonics. Mitch's Rockets led the Southwest by 4 games and the Phoenix Suns, involved in the fateful deal that landed us Shaq, barely held on to a 2.5 game advantage over the Purple and Gold. Ironically enough, Mourning outplayed Shaq in our 103-101 victory over the Suns on the last day of the month.

In the East, the Raptors' lead in the Atlantic was narrowed to 2.5 over the Celtics, the perpetual regular season giant Cleveland Cavaliers fronted the Central by 3.5 ahead of the Pistons and the Hawks ruled the Southeast roost, the Bobcats 3.5 games back.

Next time I'll let you know how Bryon was settling in with the Mavericks.

[JeeberD]

Good stuff as usual.

[Izulde]

Thanks, Jeebs. Sorry that the Rockets haven't managed to take a conference title yet because we're in their way, though they have a fantastic two person scoring punch in Hakeem and Mitch.

[Izulde]

In Dallas, Bryon had the misfortune of being undersized relative to his fellow small forwards, most notably Toni Kukoc, who, as I said before, I had considerable admiration for. Thus, he became a bench man just as he was for us and even saw fewer minutes. On the other hand, his production relative to his playing time actually went up, as the Mavericks system seemed suited to him. Or maybe it was just a small sample size. I'm not certain.

In any case, besides the deal we made, one other trade transpired in the third month, a relatively minor one.

Sacramento Kings receive:
PF Larry Krystkowiak

Milwaukee Bucks receive:
C Ralph Sampson

The Kings lack a backup PF who can play decent defense and Krystkowiak gives them that. Sampson is an expiring contract and though a relatively small one at $3.9 mill., he both gives Milwaukee a smaller payroll and a reduction in their cap swamp, as they're bogged down to the tune of $36.6 mill. over the cap even with the trade.
Winner: Kings by a slight margin as they get more value out of the trade

An uncharacteristic defensive meltdown caused us to lose our opening game against the Bucks 112-98. Considerable foul trouble didn't help matters either. Fortunately we rebounded with a win against the Kings, headlined by Shaq's 28 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 blocks and Mullin's 29 points. Horry grabbed 13 rebounds from the bench, too, a career high.

We followed up that victory with wins over Mitch's Rockets and the Toronto Raptors, the latter a thrilling overtime contest where we prevailed 122-113. Toronto's poise impressed me, particularly Chris Gatling, who scored 31 and grabbed 10 rebounds on us. Sadly for them, that couldn't counter Shaq's 37 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks in combination with Pooh's 24 points and 12 assists, Richardson's second straight game with 20 or more points.

Despite an injury to Brandon, we continued to roll, scoring blowout wins against Hubie's Hornets, the Jazz, Nuggets, and Pacers thanks to Mullin's 20 plus points and Detlef's double-double in all four contests, Shaq's 30 points and 6 blocks in the game versus Denver, and Scottie's 21 points against Indiana.

Detlef and Chris's hot hands continued in a rout of the Nets, with Detlef scoring 24 and Chris scoring 21. Shaq had a quiet double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds and Tyrone Corbin had his most explosive game in a long time in scoring 23 from the bench. While I didn't like Tyrone's $7.5 million per year contract that wasn't due to expire for another three seasons and he was invisible on the floor and to the fans, he still was capable of catching fire now and again.

Cold shooting in the fourth quarter and a major rebounding disadvantage translated into a 107-100 loss to the Cavaliers on the road to end our winning streak. To tell you the truth, it always puzzled me just why Cleveland wasn't more successful in the postseason in those years. They had the talent and the regular season success; for some reason they just couldn't put it together in the playoffs.

Immediately following the Cavs loss, the All-Star Weekend kicked off with the Slam Dunk Contest. Malik, who'd started complaining about lack of playing time, got invited. He made it to the finals with a sensational dunk in the first round before the pressure got to him and he put up a horrendous dunk to lose to Phoenix's Jon Barry. The media had quite a bit of fun with that schizophrenic performance I'm sorry to say.

Chris represented us in the 3-point contest but failed to advance beyond the first round. Mark Price of the Cavs ended up the winner. Funnily enough, Glen Rice was there too and also didn't get out of the first round. I had a good chat with him, though. He'd come to really love playing for Chicago alongside Jordan and only wished he could've been a part of our rings teams. To tell you the truth, I think most of the players I traded over the years became if not happy, at least satisfied in their new homes and bore me no ill will. The biggest exception of course, is Mitch, who to this day hasn't forgiven me for dealing him to the Rockets.

As you might expect, Shaq was the starter at center for the Sophs in the Rookie-Sophomore game. He scored 17 points and 8 rebounds in the 119-100 win for the second-year players, but was outperformed by, ironically enough, Alonzo Mourning, who took home Player of the Game honours with a 16 point, 13 rebound, 3 block showing.

In a pleasant surprise, Shaq also started at center for the West in the actual All-Star game, a 140-95 rout of the East by our conference's stars. Gregg looked masterful in coaching that game. Shaq scored 13 with 8 rebounds, not a bad showing at all considering it was his second game in as many nights. Mullin got in as a reserve, scoring 4 points. David Robinson of the Spurs was the Player of the Game, finishing with a line of 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks in just 19 minutes of play.

I received a shock at the trade deadline. Sam Mitchell, our team captain and the man I considered the quintessential Timberwolf, came into my office and told me he wanted to be traded. He said he wasn't happy with his reduced minutes and that trading Bryon gave him even more doubts about my ability to sustain the team's success.

Unfortunately for Sam, nobody would take his contract on. To them, $3 million a year for 3 years, even for a character guy who'd bolster their bench, was just too much. I tried to fulfill his request, but at the end of the day, I simply couldn't.

In spite of our team captain's disillusionment with me and the coaching staff, we reeled off another pair of wins behind Shaq's 30 and more points and 10 plus rebounds in each game, coinciding with Detlef's double-doubles.

Another 30 point performance by Shaq secured a victory over the Trailblazers that closed out the month with us well on top of the league, the first team to 50 wins on the year.

The closest team to our 50-7 mark was the 40-17 Houston Rockets, leading the Southwest by 5. Phoenix still held sway in the Pacific, expanding the gap to 5.5 games. We led the Northwest by 14 over Tony's Sonics, a team I couldn't help but feel sorry for, being stuck behind us in those years.

In the East, things looked far more interesting, the Raptors keeping the pace at 2.5 games ahead of the Celtics, the Cavaliers just a game above the Pistons, and the Hawks 4.5 ahead of the Bobcats.

The most shocking standing showing?

Jordan and Rice's Bulls looked to be in danger of not making the playoffs.

[Izulde]

No trades happened in the fourth month, something that mirrored the admittedly dull state of the NBA at the time in terms of fierce competition for the divisions. My one concern about the team was that we would take our 50 win mark and lapse into complancency.

We came out flat in the first quarter of our first two games, but crushed Golden State by 30 behind Shaq's 30 points and 10 rebounds and barely squeaked out a 109-107 win over the Bucks in which Mullin scored 30 to follow his 18 points from the Golden State game and Tyrone Corbin had his second straight double-digit scoring game from the bench.

The next game, against the Raptors, marked our third straight win to open the month and our third straight contest where one of our players broke 30. This time it was Detlef, who had an astonishing 35 points and 19 rebounds against the league's biggest surprise team that year. Shaq contributed 18 points and 14 rebounds himself as he and Detlef conspired to control the boards.

Our 30+ single player streak came to end against a 33 point blowout victory over the Wizards but returned the next game against the 18-44 Miami Heat, who actually led us at halftime, the first time we'd gone into the second half with a deficit. Gregg exploded on the team and Mullin responded by scoring 25 in the second half en route to 33 points and an 11 point Timberwolf victory on the night. We actually needed guys who could step up because Shaq had been bothered all month long with a recurring wrist injury that wasn't enough to keep him out of the lineup, but affected his shot drastically.

Shaq's wrist recovered fully before our next game, as he went out on and dropped 31 points on the Magic for yet another 30+ point night by one of our guys and our streak of victories kept right on rolling. We looked virtually unstoppable.

And we were. We kept right on winning, knocking out the Mavericks two games in a row and winning a back-to-back Dallas/San Antonio Texas road trip, despite the fact that the Mavs gave us all we could handle the first night and the Spurs nearly succeeding in taking advantage of our exhaustion to topple us the second night. Gregg had by that time started telling the team that while having a different guy score 30 or more every night was great, we needed to get back to the Timberwolf Way and we did, readopting our old ways of balanced scoring. As Gregg liked to say, two guys scoring in the 20s or five guys scoring in the 10s is better than one guy scoring in the 30s.

Our 60th victory of the year, 10th straight of the month and our 12th straight overall came at the hands of none other than Hubie's Hornets, a 124-81 dismantling highlighted by Shaq's 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks, Detlef's 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Mullin's 26 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. It's one of the sweetest, most complete victories I had in my years as a GM and what made it particularly pleasant was Terrell Brandon's 10 points and 6 assists off the bench. I loved his patience and his willingness to sit behind Pooh for all those years. The one mark on the win was an abdominal injury to Tyrone Corbin that kept one of our important subs out for the next 20 days, but it didn't really matter all that much. Nothing was going to keep us from the #1 seed in the West Conference.

The tendency to slack off in the first quarter showed up in a bad way in our next game against the Hakeem-less Rockets as we were down 32-18 after the first, a margin that held at halftime. I heard later that Gregg screamed at the team in the lockerroom for their poor effort and said that if we lost that game, he'd resign, effective immediately. As they had so many times, the team responded to his tactics and we fought back for a 96-92 win.

A 10 point win against the Grizzlies that was closer than it appeared was thanks to Mullin's 27 points and the balanced scoring that we'd gotten used to. The truth was, after our streak of 30s ended, there were no real dominating performances by anyone. It was just pure and simple team Timberwolf effort all the way. Unfortunately, our depth took a severe hit after the win, as Volkov got hurt and was estimated out for a month and a half. Our run for the NBA record, which the press had been talking about, didn't seem so likely anymore.

Still, despite his broken hand, Alexander insisted on playing and got 10 minutes in our blowout victory over the Nets thanks to Mullin's 33 points, Detlef's 26 points and 13 rebounds, and Scottie's 25 points, with an 11 point, 6 rebound, 5 assist bench performance from Terrell Brandon, who was making the most of the minutes afforded him in the wake of Corbin's injury.

That game marked the worst injury of all in a month of injuries, for none other than Shaq, our stabilizing force in the middle and the key to our inside-centred offense, broke his hand as well. Estimated time out: Two months. It couldn't have happened at a worse possible time for us.

Robert Horry became our starting center and my second round pet project, Mike Peplowski, got taken off the IR and put in the rotation in exchange for Tyrone. We barely squeaked by the Clippers in our second-to-last game of the month, thanks to Scottie and Detlef scoring 24 points a piece. We got slaughtered on the boards, with Detlef having a team high of 8 rebounds.

As fate would have it, our final game of the month was against the Purple and Gold. Normally the team we dethroned would be a fairly easy win for us, as they relied on old veterans and couldn't match our youth or depth. But with Corbin, Volkov, and Shaq out, it was anyone's game. It went back and forth until the very waning minutes of the last quarter, the 122-110 final score we won by a deceitful pair of numbers. Pooh had a monster game, scoring 29 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and 4 steals while dishing out 7 assists. Mullin scored 30, Scottie chipped in 24 points and 8 rebounds, and Detlef double-doubled with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

We'd done it. We ran the month with another perfect record, our second of the year. At 65-7, no team could touch us for that #1 seed in the West. We were 15 games ahead of the #2 seed Houston Rockets, 20 ahead of the Jazz in our division, who in turn led Seattle by just half a game.

The playoff picture as far as we were concerned was more or less set. Barring sudden surges or slides in the last nine to ten games of the season, our first round opponent was going to be Toni Kukoc's Mavericks. They were a team that we could certainly beat even wounded, but behind Kukoc and All-Star guard Michael Adams, they were much more dangerous than their 31-40 record indicated.

Yes, we were on top, but at tremendous cost. Our best bench player would undoubtedly be out for at least the first round after Volkov aggravated his injury in the 10 minute showing after he got hurt. As for Shaq, if he came back at all, it would be deep in the playoffs, if we made it that far. Our chances for a third straight title looked extremely bleak. That year's postseason would prove to be the single greatest challenge to date in my tenure and one of the most difficult and hardest roads we'd have to forge in my entire career.

[Izulde]

With our primary big men out and the top seed a lock, the focus for Gregg and the team was to adjust our gameplan for the playoffs. We started the last set of 10 with a 26 point win over the Kings, that margin of victory scored both by Scottie and Mullin. Detlef put in 18 points and 7 rebounds and Pooh had a double-double of 12 points and 12 assists. Even my pet project, Peplowski, had a career day, scoring 8 points with 5 rebounds. Though originally regarded as a throwaway pick, the minutes he'd gotten in the last three games indicated that he in fact made for a pretty decent reserve player, though he wasn't likely to ever get much better than what he was. For a mid 2nd-rounder, I'd take that.

In a much tougher test against the playoff-bound Mourning-led Suns, we prevailed 88-85 behind Horry's double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds, both team highs as we returned to our balanced scoring approach. Mourning put in a Shaq-like performance of 32 points, 16 rebounds, an assist, and two blocks, but it wasn't enough for Phoenix to overcome us. The streak prevailed.

Following our next win, against the Nuggets, Tyrone Corbin was ready to come off the IR list. Gregg and I had a lot of discussions about who to put on IR so Tyorne could come back. We both agreed that Peplowski, who'd formerly taken the spot, needed to stay on the active roster. Not only had he proven himself to be a valuable reserve, but from a bodies standpoint, we couldn't lose another big man. So it came down to Dan Majerle or Malik Sealy.

Both players fell into the category of major disappointments. Majerle never did become the top reserve guard we expected when we signed him in free agency and Malik not only failed to crack the rotation very much, he was furious about his lack of playing time and announced his determination to leave as soon as free agency came. Although it pained me to have to admit I'd made a mistake in trading away Bryon Russell, I agreed to put Malik on the IR. Not only did his dissatisfaction risk the team chemistry so fundamental to our franchise's philosophy, he'd been on an icy streak lately.

A 105-87 victory on the road against Utah, highlighted by Mullin's 40 points and Detlef's 19 points and 15 rebounds, signaled without question that even lacking Shaq and Volkov, we were still a dominant team and a powerful force to be reckoned with. Horry and Peplowski were doing remarkably well under the pressure situation they were in and flourishing with their extra minutes. I determined to myself that I would, without question, resign Peplowski in free agency.

Pep had a career game in our 104-83 win over our old friends, the Atlanta Hawks, with 14 points and 7 rebounds from the bench, a point total matched by Tyrone in a contest that featured just solid all-around performances from everyone, with no real standout player. Oh yes, it also marked our 70th win of the year.

We followed up the landmark victory with two more wins, against the Warriors and Nuggets respectively. The triumph over Denver was particularly sweet, as three players had double-doubles: Horry with 11 points and 11 rebounds, Terrell with 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Peplowski with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his very first double-double and career highs in both categories. Detlef's 24 points and Mullin's 20 certainly helped as well.

The streak finally came to an end with a 96-92 road loss against Tony's Sonics in a game where the margin of difference was, ironically enough, their bench vastly outplaying ours, which had done so well. At dinner afterwards, Tony, who'd scored 20 points, told me he admired the job Gregg and I did to keep the team together despite the rash of injuries.

"But, Mr. Arcadia", he grinned with that joker's gleam I knew so well in his eye, "I hope we meet again in the playoffs so we can beat you guys there too and end your dynasty."

No doubt Seattle was amped that year, more determined to topple us than they'd ever been and it showed in that single, largely meaningless, late-season game, when they played with heart and fire traditionally reserved for us. It hadn't been easy for them having to play second fiddle year in and year out to us since our rise.

We rebounded with a narrow win over Memphis, thanks to Detlef's 31 points and 10 rebounds, Mullin's 29 points, and a return of quality play from our reserves, highlighted by Peplowski's 14 points and 5 rebounds.

Our last game of the year was against the Spurs, who were an astounding 29-52 and one of the league's most shocking disappointments that year. We destroyed them 112-75, Mullin leading all scorers with 25 points, Detlef double-doubling with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Pooh scoring 20. Terrell scored 16 from the bench, Peplowski, now the 7th man in the rotation, scoring 12 in his debut in the new slot.

Thus, we finished the year with a new NBA regular season record of 74-8. The papers lauded us for our brilliant play down the stretch and Gregg and I in particular were the toast of both Minneapolis and the nation. As one columnist wrote, "On any other team, the loss of their biggest star and most important reserve would doom the squad. Not so with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who, thanks to the fantastic coaching by Gregg Popovich and the uncanny genius of general manager Gabriel Arcadia, have set a new NBA record despite playing much of the final two months without Shaquille O'Neal and Alexander Volkov."

Yes, we'd excelled at a level no one else had and in the face of daunting circumstances. Yet, I did not celebrate our record then. The time for those festivities would have to come later, for a greater task awaited us.

The NBA playoffs and our quest for three straight championships.

[Izulde]

And so it was with no small amount of trepidation that we headed into the playoffs that year. Volkov was expected out for another week and a half, meaning he'd miss the first round for certain and probably part of the second as well if we made it there. Shaq wouldn't be back for another month, so unless we made it back to the Finals, it didn't look as though we'd see him that postseason.

1994 Eastern Conference First Round
(1) Cleveland vs (8) Charlotte
(4) Detroit vs (5) Indiana
(3) Toronto vs (6) Milwaukee
(2) Atlanta vs (7) Chicago

No New York. Age finally caught up with the Knicks. Instead, a pair of rising teams slid in with Charlotte and Toronto. While both teams had been to the playoffs once before, the Raptors' seeding marked their establishment as a legitimate postseason franchise.

The Cavaliers I figured would steamroll over the Bobcats. Cleveland did win a title in 1991, but for all their promise and all their regular-season dominance, they'd won just the lone title, the only time they'd been to the Finals since I entered the league, in fact. Being prone to playoff upsets had really tarnished a lot of their success.

Detroit looked set to down Indiana. The Pacers had a solid core of veterans and a quietly developing all-around potential franchise player in Tom Gugliotta, but they couldn't match the exceptional veteran leadership or firepower of the Pistons. Motown was eventually going to fall, as their younger players included colossal bust Dale Davis, but for now, they were one of the more potent teams in the East.

The Raptors and the Bucks represented the most intriguing matchup in the first round. Toronto, fueled by phenom Sam Cassell and supplanted by fellow youngsters Chris Gatling and Matt Geiger, looked determined to squash the veteran Bucks. Helping out the league's lone Canadian entry was none other than our own Randy Breuer, who admitted to me in the offseason that the coaching staff relied on his playoff experience and rings to help prepare the young players for the postseason atmosphere.

Finally, the Hawks and the Bulls. Chicago snuck into the playoffs after all, on the strength of a guy named Jordan and Armon Gilliam's excellent all-around play. However, the Bulls didn't really have any legitimate shooters outside of Michael. Glen Rice had a horrible year that season and looked astonishingly unfocused when I managed to see him play. This contrasted with the Hawks, who possessed an excellent blend of veterans and young guys. Dominique Wilkins was the clear offensive leader of the team with his 26.8 points per game. Of particular interest to me were Tyrone Hill and Alaa Abdelnaby. Tyrone had developed into a pretty good all-around player, though he sometimes struggled to find playing time in Atlanta's stellar frontcourt. Abdelnaby, on the other hand, was a 1991 late 1st rounder who'd been quietly developing into a quality starter-type player in much the same way that Gatling did for the Raptors. The Hawks looked set to crush the Bulls in my opinion.

1994 Western Conference First Round
(1) Minnesota vs (8) Dallas
(4) Utah vs (5) Seattle
(3) Phoenix vs (6) New Orleans
(2) Houston vs (7) L.A. Lakers

It still felt strange not seeing the Spurs in the playoffs, but that's the kind of crazy year 1994 was. Nobody could've predicted anything that happened that year, from our record regular season wins mark to Toronto's emergence to San Antonio's bizzare crash.

The Jazz and the Supersonics matchup certainly favoured Utah, who boasted superstar Karl Malone and an extremely balanced, talented supporting cast and bench. Jordan would've given half his salary to have the type of players around him that the Mailman did. More telling: Even despite losing a month to injury, Malone still averaged 28.6 points and 10.2 rebounds and the Jazz took the top wildcard seed. This didn't bode well for Tony's Sonics, whose offense lived and died by him, with a scattering of scoring support from Shawn Kemp and Kevin Duckworth, Seattle's rebounding machines averaging 8.7 and 7.2 boards respectively. They just didn't look to have enough offense to advance.

Anyone who expected Phoenix to miss Kevin Johnson turned out to be sorely mistaken, as the Suns featured arguably the most balanced starting five in the NBA outside of us in Craig Ehlo, Anfernee Hardaway, Eddie Johnson, Tom Chambers, and Alonzo Mourning, all of whom averaged double figures in scoring and had high averages in key position categories to boot. The problem was their bench players were frankly terrible. This wasn't a difficulty for Hubie's Hornets, who boasted Sean Elliott as their top reserve and had a pretty decent set of starters besides, headlined by Jeff Hornacek's 22.7 points per game and a pair of frontcourt players in Lionel Simmons and Anthony Fredrick who were identical twins in much the same way that Kemp and Duckworth were for Seattle. It looked to be a close series, but I had faith enough in Hubie that I gave him the benefit of the doubt and privately tipped him to advance.

The Rockets were a team I couldn't help but liking. Danny'd done a remarkable job in landing Fat Lever, who jumpstarted Houston with his brilliant passing. Between Mitch and Hakeem, they had the topflight scorers, too. The only weak points were a lack of legitimate rebounders outside of Hakeem and Otis Thorpe and a shaky bench, the latter of which would be a huge problem against the Purple and Gold's superior reserves. The Lakers certainly had the offense to challenge Houston, with Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Orlando Woolridge all close to 20 points per game or over the mark. The only question is if their aging bodies had the stamina to play defense for one and last the series for two. If it became a short series, I had to give the edge to the Purple and Gold. Fail to win quickly and it'd be a Dreamworld.

As for our matchup, I've mentioned my admiration for Michael Adams and Toni Kukoc on that Maverick squad, but their key player was actually center Roy Tarpley, one whose presence would particularly critical against Robert Horry and Mike Peplowski if Dallas hoped to beat us. I had no doubt Horry could shut him down, but I secretly worried about Pep's ability to contain Tarp. All told though, I liked our starting five a lot better than theirs, but I'll be the first to admit that their bench was much better than ours. I anticipated a close series thanks to Shaq and Volkov being out.

That was before I got the call two hours before tipoff for Game 1. Tarpley had badly sprained his finger and was questionable for the series. Sure enough, he didn't play the first game and after a neck and neck, we broke it open in the second quarter and coasted the rest of the way to a 112-97 victory. Mullin stepped up with 28 points, Detlef double-doubled with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Pep proved my concerns about his ability to handle playoff pressure wrong with an astonishing 17 point 10 rebound double-double on 8-9 shooting from the bench that the national press called his coming out party.

Our easy victory sent Dallas into early panic mode and so Tarpley started the next night as the Mavericks sought to pull even in Minneapolis before the series moved to Dallas. Or so it was announced, but when the game began, Tarp was on the bench in street clothes. The scare tactic infuriated our team and the psychological backfired on the Mavericks as we raced out to a 9-0 lead and went box to wire in a 107-83 win. Detlef picked up his second straight double-double, this one good for 24 points and 16 rebounds, along with 4 assists, 2 blocks, and steals en route to a player of the game nod. Mullin scored 17 and Tyrone Corbin, the starter at SG while Scottie protected against a minor injury getting worse, scored 20 in a jubiliant performance for one of the few remaining original Timberwolves.

Heading to Dallas with a 2-0 lead in hand, we felt extremely confident in our chances of putting the Mavericks away quite quickly, which would give us valuable time to rest and heal. Game 3 turned out a repeat of Game 1, as the Mavericks played with the desperation they surely felt in the first quarter, but their miniscule lead vanished in the second and never came close to being regained as we crushed them 112-94 behind Detlef's third straight playoff double-double of 28 points and 13 rebounds and Mullin's 20 points. You couldn't help but admire the Mavericks' tenacity though, especially Michael Adams, who scored 31 points in Game 3 in an effort to carry his team to a needed win.

If you had told me before the series started that we'd be looking at the chance of a sweep in Game 4, I'd have bought you a soda for telling me such a great joke, but that was the reality of the situation. All the momentum lay on our side and Dallas looked absolutely deflated after the Game 3 loss. But the Mavericks marshalled together energy and made a spectacular showing in Game 4, showing grittiness and heart in leading at halftime and staying close until the closing minutes of the final quarter, when they just finally ran out of gas and bowed out 111-100. Michael Adams again put in a Herculean performance in scoring 25 points and the rest of the starters scored 19 or 20 as well, save for Tarp replacement Irving Thomas, who contributed just half that. Unfortunately for Dallas, their bench played horribly and in particular had no answer for Mike Peplowski, who scored 20 points and grabbed 8 boards as a sub, filling in the void when the Mavericks focused on shutting down Detlef's hot hand. Dallas did succeed in that goal, as our starting power forward scored just 5 points and took down only 3 boards. But they couldn't stop Pep or Horry, who matched Pep's 20 points and added 13 rebounds for an unexpected double-double. Add on to it Mullin's 31 points and you have the ingredients of our series sweep clinching victory.

In the end, it boiled down to our team simply having too much talent for the Mavericks, even without Shaq and Volkov.

But a more powerful opponent would await us in Round 2.

[JeeberD]

I must know how badly the Rockets crushed the Lakers!

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

I must know how badly the Rockets crushed the Lakers!

Sorry about that, but I just got back from Russia a day or two ago and have been recovering from jet lag.

I'll try and get an update in later today.

[Izulde]

If an upset keeps happening, does it stop becoming an upset after a while? That's something I still don't know the answer to, even after all these years.

What I do know is that in the 1994 postseason, the number one seed Cleveland Cavaliers once again fell in the first round, as the Charlotte Bobcats officially announced their arrival as a franchise in ousting the Cavs in 7. Dell Curry's 24 points a game average in the first round and Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman's excellent all-around series paved the way for yet another heartbreak by the lake.

The other series to go the full seven was the contest between Tony's Sonics and the Jazz. Tony quite simply carried Seattle on his back to the Game 7 win, his 29 points actually lower than the 31.5 points he averaged for the first round, an output of scoring that many fans still talk about. In fact, I still have the line of points he scored in each game:

Game 1: 31 points (L)
Game 2: 32 points (W)
Game 3: 30 points (W)
Game 4: 29 points (W)
Game 5: 39 points (L)
Game 6: 33 points (L)
Game 7: 29 points (W)

The contest was frankly the most exciting one of the first round, for not only did it go the limit, but Tony and Malone put on single-man superstar shows, for the Mailman averaged 30 points himself, including a pair of 39 point games.

In other first-round action, the Hawks took out the Bulls in six games after nobody stepped up to help Jordan out, Hubie's Hornets rode the triangle of Jeff Hornaceck, John Starks, and Lionel Simmons to dispatch the Suns in six, and in the third series to end in six innings the Toronto used a total team effort to blast the Bucks out of the playoffs.

The Pistons proved the value of veteran savvy in squashing the Pacers in five games, as Indiana looked completely lost through much of the round and Houston served notice to the Purple and Gold that Showtime was officially over in trouncing the Lakers in five as well, highlighted by Hakeem's dreamlike series, averaging 23 points and 8 rebounds a game.

On to the second round then.

1994 Eastern Conference Second Round
(8) Charlotte vs (4) Detroit
(3) Toronto vs (2) Atlanta

The Bobcats were high off their triumph over the Cavaliers, but Cleveland were notorious for underachieving. Furthermore, it'd be a case of Charlotte's youthful exuberance versus Detroit's experienced, postseason-tested cunning and I just didn't see a way that the Pistons could lose. In fact, I considered it quite possible that they might manage a Finals appearance.

Toronto and Atlanta made for a fascinating matchup. The Raptors, while young like Charlotte, also were much more talented than the Bobcats, and they seemed a team of some destiny that year. On the other hand, the Hawks featured a team that was solid from top to bottom. I felt the series would be close, but in the end, experience and team completeness would give Atlanta the win.

1994 Western Conference Second Round
(1) Minnesota vs (5) Seattle
(6) New Orleans vs (2) Houston

Hubie's team had done well to get to the second round, but Hakeem and Mitch appeared ready to decimate the Hornets. The best way to describe my hunch that the Rockets would come out on top is to say that while the Hornets were good, the Rockets were great. And greatness always wins.

For our own matchup, against an old friend and a familiar opponent, I felt we could win more readily than I thought we would against the Mavericks before the opening round. Yes, Tony would get his points, but our firepower, like Houston's, was simply going to be too much for the Sonics to overcome, even without Shaq. My beliefs were further confirmed when the team's doctors informed me that Volkov was cleared to play and would be in the starting lineup from the get go.

Then Game 1 happened.

Gregg's plan to shut down Tony worked in its goal of shutting down Seattle's top scorer, but we discounted the rest of the Sonics, who suddenly showed offensive life and showed us how the other half lives when it was they who pulled away down the stretch to stun us 117-106. Shawn Kemp had a coming out game with 19 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. A near triple-double. Even now that amazes me to think that almost happened against of our mid-90s teams. Gerald Glass and Sedale Threatt had double-doubles as well for Seattle and Dale Ellis led all scorers with 24 points.

On our end, nobody scored 20 points and two of our starters were held to 10 or less. Our rebounding efforts were horrendous as well. In fact, Tyrone Corbin's 16 points from the bench was the lone truly noteworthy performance. Despite the closeness of the score going into the fourth quarter, the fact of the matter is that we got whipped and whipped soundly on our own home court.

Yet, as has happened so many times before, we didn't take the loss hard. Gregg reached into his bag of motivational tricks and the end result was a 121-89 trouncing of Seattle in Game 2. Tony was held to 2-11 from the field and Shawn Kemp was the Sonics' high scorer with 18 points, 15 points the next-highest individual total for the away team.

Mullin took over for us as he had time and time again after we landed him, coming through in a big way with his 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. All of our starters broke double-digit scoring this time and Horry and Corbin both hit the 10+ point mark.

With the series tied at a game piece, we trekked to Seattle. The Sonics opened Game 3 with a 6-0 run, but we countered with a streak of our own to capture the lead. From there, it was the same back and forth battle of Game 1 with the same result as the Sonics ran away in the waning minutes of play to win 99-89. Neither Mullin's 25 points, nor Detlef's double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds or Tyrone's third straight 10 point performance from the bench could counter Kevin Duckworth's 21 points and 12 rebounds, Tony's 18 points and 9 rebounds, or the fact that Seattle enjoyed a +15 rebounding edge over us.

Recognizing that a win was imperative, Gregg went directly to Volkov and told him that we needed him to prove his value to the team. Shaq wasn't there to hold down the center spot for us and Horry was still developing, so it was up to Alexander to prove once again his postseason mettle. Volkov responded to the challenge by scoring 25 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, edged in scoring by Mullin by a single bucket, as Chris continued his clutch playoff performance in leading all scorers with 27. Our team defense tightened up as well after Gregg appealed to our pride in our iron tradition, so that we left Seattle with a critical 123-81 win to tie the series up at two.

Game 5 was another dogfight and this time, neither team ran off at the end. A Kevin Duckworth bucket with two seconds remaining proved the differencemaker in a heartbreaking 104-102 loss at home. Scottie's 27 points didn't matter and no one noticed much Detlef's 20 points and 10 rebounds. All that we could see were the red neon numbers announcing our untimely defeat, 21 points by Tony's name, 11 points and 12 rebounds by Kemp's.

Our season and our dynasty were once again on the line against Seattle. Though not a traditional rivalry, the postseason wars between the Sonics and the Timberwolves had, through the years, turned into a playoff rivalry.

When we arrived in Seattle for Game 6, we discovered that Gerald Glass and Sedale Threatt wouldn't be playing for the Sonics after being injured in Game 5. Mullin, upon hearing the news, promptly announced to the rest of the team that we needed to take advantage and hammer home the victory to send the series to Game 7.

We did, none more so than Mullin.

Every single one of his 45 points was a beauty to witness and even a sweat-drenched Tony told reporters after the game, "There was no way Chris Mullin was going to be denied today. Not even Hakeem could've stopped him." No, nothing would stop him in that glorious 21 point win we so desperately needed.

A deafening crowd greeted us at home and the entire team fed off the Game 6 momentum and the energy of our fans in the stands to crush the Sonics 117-66. There were no standout players for the series finale. Befitting the Timberwolf Way, everyone but the injured Shaq played and, more remarkably, every single player on our side scored.

Once again we'd pulled off the miracle against Seattle and once again Sonics fans were left with heartbreak and wondering what might have been.

But as for us, we had no time for the luxury of wonderment. Our most challenging opponent yet lurked ahead in the Western Conference finals.

Here's the scorecard for our team in that incredible, vintage Game 7:

[Izulde]

Charlotte's shocking run continued with a five game conquest of the Pistons. In a series that largely could have gone either way, if the close scores of each game were any indication, Joe Dumars's 30+ point per game average just wasn't quite enough to topple Dell Curry's continued golden scorer's touch and Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman's combined layups and fierce rebounds inside. I've always been a great admirer of Seikaly as you know, so to see him succeed at the highest level pleased me.

The Hawks and Raptors went to six games and was another series of close contests until Sam Cassell's injury in Game 4. That spelled the end for Toronto, as the team looked lost and uncomfortable without their rookie sensation running the show.

What didn't surprise in the least was Houston's sweep of the Hornets. Despite's Jeff Hornacek's masterful series and determination to carry New Orleans, he simply wasn't enough for the three-headed monster of Hakeem, Mitch, and Fat Lever. What fascinated and worried me about the series when I watched the tapes was that Dream wasn't relied on to do the bulk of the scoring. Instead, they utilized him as a second and third option so he could concentrate on grabbing boards and blocking shots, both of which he did extremely well. So well, in fact, that he had a near triple-double one game with 15 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 blocks.

So the conference finals were then set.

1994 Eastern Conference Finals
(8) Charlotte vs (2) Atlanta

The Bobcats showed a lot of pluck to make it that far and as you can imagine, the city of Charlotte was in a tizzy. But I sensed that this would be as far as they go. Our opponents for our first title had learned a lot from our blueprint and largely imitated the Timberwolf Way by having a pair of high-octane scorers in Dominique Wilkins and Kevin Willis with everyone else in a specific role that included an emphasis on defense. The system and level of talent would prove too much for the nascent franchise to handle.

1994 Western Conference Finals
(1) Minnesota vs (2) Houston

What worried me most was that the Rockets were well-rested and hungry. Hakeem hadn't forgotten missing the series a few seasons before on our way to the first title and nor had he forgotten our previous matchups. Mitch, too, was eager to trounce us, for although he was a star in Houston, he'd never forgiven me for trading him away, especially not after the rings we collected.

Even more troublesome, Shaq was still out for another two weeks. If we were to win, we woud have to do it with a severe disadvantage at the most critical position on the floor.

Gregg told me before Game 1 that his plan was to let Hakeem loose to do what damage he would. We would concentrate on limiting Mitch's production and that's exactly what we did, holding him to just 1-12 from the floor as we broke open a game with 25 lead changes and 17 ties in the fourth quarter, running away in vintage Timberwolf fashion to seize a critical first game 102-88.

Our scoring was balanced across the board in our signature manner, with Detlef our top man in points and rebounds after his impressive double-double of 19 points and 15 rebounds. All five starters had double-digit scoring, as did Robert Horry and Tyrone Corbin in a reserve role. Corbin's playoff presence from the bench pleasantly surprised me and our fans. No one expected it out of the original Timberwolf, but there the veteran was, guiding our second team night after night under the bright postseason lights.

Game 2 followed much the same course as Game 1, but with one tragic difference. Preserving a two-point lead, Houston had the ball for the last shot. Derrick Chevious went up for the layin and Mullin stupidly fouled him on the way. Chevious made the bucket as time expired and hit the ensuing free throw. 102-101 Rockets and tied series. In a way though, it was an ending emblematic of the game we'd had, with our starters plagued by foul trouble throughout.

In spite of Chevious's heroics, it was actually Fat Lever who did the most damage to us, scoring 15 points and dishing 12 assists while grabbing 4 rebounds and committing 3 steals. The Rockets held a significant rebounding advantage as well, so that not even Mullin's game-high 22 points could rescue us from a hearbreaking defeat.

Game 3 in Houston proved equally disheartening, for Pooh and Detlef's inspired shooting and our 8 point lead going into the fourth quarter proved all for nothing. Hakeem took over the game in the last period and we found ourselves staring at the wrong end of a 113-107 score. Detlef's 32 points and 9 rebounds and Pooh's 22 points could not make up for Scottie's terrible shooting day, nor Hakeem's 30 points, 19 rebounds, and 5 blocks or the Rockets' equally fired-up bench play.

Genuine fear that we would lose the series started to grip me then and Game 4 opened with my hands clenched into fists and a 11-0 Rockets run. That proved to be the differencemaker in a 110-101 loss. Houston's Big Three of Hakeem, Mitch, and Fat scored 18, 20, and 26 points respectively and the lever who enginereed the Rocket's offense also double-doubled.. with 10 rebounds. A point guard with a 26 point, 10 rebound, 4 assist, 3 steal line. While Fat was a talented player, the fact that we'd allowed that to happen showed to me that the fight had gone out of us after Game 3.

Down 3-1, we returned home praying for a miracle. It would take an extraordinary, Hollywood-scripted bit of magic to get back in the series and actually win it. The first act was written as we eagerly fed off the home crowd and let Detlef and Mullin carry us to a desperate win that was a lot closer than the final 24 point margin indicated. 24 was the number of the night, though, for not only did we win by 24, but Detlef and Mullin both scored 24 points, our most popular German doubling with 15 rebounds and Chris playing inspired defense with 6 very timely steals.

Before Game 6 in Houston, Mullin, who'd come to take over Sam Mitchell's role as captain, went to Scottie Pippen and told him that it was his turn to come through for us. Scottie took the ultimatum to heart, scoring 27 points to go with Mullin's 23 and lead us to a 100-78 victory that, much as in Game 5, did not tell the real tale of the game's competitiveness.

As evidence, I point to Mitch's frenzied 35 point game and Hakeem's 18 points and 15 rebounds. They were determined to knock us off in Houston in front of their rabid fans, but it was not to be, as Gregg had the team focus on Fat, who was held to 1 of 11 from the floor.

Act two of the script had been carried out.

Now it was back to Minneapolis for the final act and Game 7. Would we complete the storybook ending or would our dynasty be dashed on the rocks, our loss of Shaq too much to overcome?

Down by 7 at halftime, we turned to the frantic, sold-out crowd for one last boost of energy and raced out to take the lead in the third quarter. We precariously held on to it going into the fourth.. and then Houston's defense simply shut us down. For the last two minutes and eighteen seconds of the game, we didn't get a single point and fell 97-92.

The dynasty was dead.

As the players sat on the court, stunned and numb, Pooh sobbing after his horrendous 2-13 performance, I stared with equal shocked despair at the screen.

We'd worked so hard and to have it end in so ignoble a fashion hurt, our own sword of defense turned against us, betraying us with its dual-edge and stabbing into our collective hearts.

What hurt most was this.

Shaq would have been cleared to play the next day.

[Izulde]

For a week, I didn't speak to the reporters. Yes, media-friendly me shunned the press. I couldn't take the questions and the half-hearted consolations. Mrs. Arcadia can tell you I wasn't the easiest man to live with during that stretch, even though she constantly reminded me that we'd had a wonderful run and any GM in the league would be happy to have the two consecutive titles I'd won.

As wives so often are, she was right.

By the time I came out of the blues, the 1994 NBA Finals was underway between the Houston Rockets and... the Charlotte Bobcats.

Yes, a #8 seed made it all the way to the Eastern Conference title. More astoundingly, Charlotte came back from a 0-3 deficit to win the series 4-3. There was no greater playoff upset in the history of the NBA til that time and some might say it remains the biggest upset of all time.

Atlanta simply got overconfident and when that happened, Dell Curry scorched the wings of the high-flying Hawks, sending their title hopes spiraling to the ground. I had no doubt that the man who deserved the playoff MVP, no matter how the championship turned out, was Curry. His explosive shooting, consistently good for 30 points or better, not only carried the Bobcats, but inspired the rest of his team to play fast and play hard.

Derrick Coleman continued his double-double train and while Rony tapered off, the rest of the squad picked up in his stead so that Tobacco Road was in delerium after that Game 7 shocker in Atlanta.

Of course, no one gave Charlotte a chance against Houston. Hakeem and Mitch had been waiting for quite a while to have a shot at a championship and everyone knew they weren't going to let this opportunity pass them by.

They didn't. Mitch scored 35 points in Game 1 and Fat scored 18 while handing out 13 assists as Hakeem had a quiet game playing decoy in a masterful move by head coach John Macleod and his staff.

Game 2 meant Dell Curry's awakening with 27 points after a miserable Game 1, but Hakeem's 32 points and 16 rebounds and Mitch's equal of Curry with 27 meant that not even Coleman's 21 points and 11 rebounds could prevent the Bobcats from a morale-crushing 120-119 loss.

Back to the decoy role for Hakeem in Game 3. End result: Rockets 127 Bobcats 120, despite a dazzling 32 point outpouring by Dell Curry. It seemed that nothing could save Charlotte now.

And nothing could. Not Dell's 31 points or Rony's 14 rebounds. Derrick Coleman's 4 steals did nothing. Fat's sprained ankle? Houston's beloved hired point guard shrugged it off to dish out 10 assists and Hakeem-Mitch-Chievous conspired for a 27-26-23 point hydra that drowned the Bobcats. Dream's 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 blocks also gave him Player of the Game and NBA Finals MVP honours.

At long last, the Houston Rockets could hold aloft the golden, gleaming ball. Mitch and Hakeem had their title.

And Mitch still refused to speak with me.

I'd hoped he would take my call when I phoned to congratulate him on the championship, but he passed it off to his agent instead. It was the bittersweet topping to a bittersweet year.

Here are the standings and statistics for the 1994 season:






Regular season statistics.


Playoff statistics. The two minutes logged for Shaq are an inside joke from our stats men. No, I never got the joke either and Shaquille never did tell me what it was. Said it was a you had to be there moment.

About a week and a half later, the NBA Season Awards Ceremony was held. I predicted we'd pick up a couple awards, but it was hard telling just who would win what. If the past was any indication, Gregg would be a shoo-in for a long overdue Coach of the Year Award, based on our regular season record.

MVP
Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
33.0 ppg 4.0 apg 6.7 rpg 0.6 bpg 2.1 spg

Defensive Player of the Year
Hakeem Olajuwon - Houston Rockets
20.9 ppg 2.2 apg 10.4 rpg 2.9 bpg 1.3 spg

6th Man of the Year
Billy Thompson - Detroit Pistons
11.7 ppg 2.0 apg 4.9 rpg 0.9 bpg 0.8 spg

Rookie of the Year
Sam Cassell - Toronto Raptors
19.4 ppg 6.3 apg 3.2 rpg 0.2 bpg 1.1 spg

Coach of the Year
Gregg Popovich - Minnesota Timberwolves

All-League First Team
PG Mark Price - Cleveland Cavaliers
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Dominique Wilkins - Atlanta Hawks
PF Larry Nance - Cleveland Cavaliers
C Hakeem Olajuwon - Houston Rockets

All-League Second Team
PG John Stockton - Utah Jazz
SG Magic Johnson - Los Angeles Lakers
SF Chris Mullin - Minnesota Timberwolves
PF Kevin McHale - Boston Celtics
C Brad Daugherty - Cleveland Cavaliers

All-League Third Team
PG Sam Vincent - Orlando Magic
SG Jeff Malone - Washington Wizards
SF Ricky Pierce - Milwaukee Bucks
PF Detlef Schrempf - Minnesota Timberwolves
C Roy Tarpley - Dallas Mavericks

All-Defense First Team
PG Nate McMillan - Seattle Sonics
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Jerome Kersey - Portland Trailblazers
PF Shawn Kemp - Seattle Sonics
C Hakeem Olajuwon - Houston Rockets

All-Defense Second Team
PG John Stockton - Utah Jazz
SG Doc Rivers - Atlanta Hawks
SF Scottie Pippen - Minnesota Timberwolves
PF Larry Nance - Cleveland Cavaliers
C Alonzo Mourning - Phoenix Suns

All-Rookie First Team
PG Sam Cassell - Toronto Raptors
SG Anfernee Hardaway - Phoenix Suns
SF Jamal Mashburn - San Antonio Spurs
PF Chris Webber - Golden State Warriors
C Josh Grant - Orlando Magic

All-Rookie Second Team
PG Adonis Jordan - Memphis Grizzlies
SG Pat Durham - Portland Trailblazers
SF Lloyd Daniels - Orlando Magic
PF Vin Baker - Chicago Bulls
C Shawn Bradley - Miami Heat

The bittersweetness continued with the awards. Gregg, Mullin, and Detlef finally got the recognition they so richly deserved, but in a year when we lost our hold on the NBA Championship. All of them said they would have taken another title over the individual prizes, but as Mullin pointed out after a moment, "At least this way, we have both. We're lucky. There's a lot of players, coaches, and teams in the league who would give anything to have either."

And indeed, he was right. The speech he gave at the press conference after the awards ceremonies reminded me that I needn't be sad. We'd proven that we were still a talented team, taking the mighty Rockets to seven games even without Shaq.

Our nucleus was still relatively young and behind our veteran players, we had recent draftees who were ready to step up at a moment's notice.

We would be back, I swore to myself.

But first, there was the offseason, always the most important phase of a GM's career.