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

[Izulde]

The first offseason move I made was to sign 1st assistant Bill Fitch to a four year contract extension. Bill was good enough to be an NBA head coach and he would have gotten a lot of offers for such in the hiring period.

I couldn't have that. Gregg said top quality assistants are the most important thing to have for a head coach, so we told Bill if he agreed to stay with us, whenever Gregg retired, Bill would be named the successor. He agreed and things were looking very good up top.

I did fire second assistant Don Casey, though. As much as I wanted to keep the same winning staff together, Casey got into too many arguments with the rest of the coaches over how to run the offense that I just couldn't keep him. He wanted an up-tempo game, which we didn't play. I'm sorry to say that he also had not a clue about how to pick the good defenders from the bad, a cardinal sin in the Timberwolf Way philosophy.

These moves were made shortly before the draft lottery that year. While we had no genuine interest in it, I always enjoyed seeing how the balls would bounce. Furthermore, we also had two late 1st round picks that we could package together to move up if there was a player we really liked.

1. Washington Wizards (+10)
2. Miami Heat
3. Portland Trailblazers (-2)
4. Memphis Grizzlies (-2)
5. Los Angeles Clippers (-1)
6. Golden State Warriors (-1)
7. Philadelphia 76ers (-1)
8. Sacramento Kings (-1)
9. San Antonio Spurs (-1)
10. New Jersey Nets (-1)
11. Denver Nuggets (-1)
12. Boston Celtics
13. Orlando Magic
14. New York Knicks

The nation's capital exploded with glee as the Wizards shocked the odds like no other team before in leaping 10 places to get the #1 overall selection in the 1994 draft. It was terrific news for a franchise that looked to be in flux, as greybeard superstars Jeff Malone and Bernard King were due to hit free agency that offseason, along with a number of other Washington players.

In news much closer to home, we got a new owner in Chris Stone, a Minneapolis businessman whose main concern was winning. That meant he expect us to get another title, and soon. While I was already determined to win another championship, the change in owner meant that I would have to make absolute certain that I succeeded in this goal.

My first choice for a new 2nd assistant, Leonard Hamilton, joined Pat Riley's staff in Miami as the 1st assistant, so I scooped up my second choice, 23 year old Igor Koskov, to sit in the second chair. Despite his tender young age, Koskov, who was in fact Russian and freshly graduated from Moscow State University, already knew a lot about basketball strategy and was average in other areas. It was my hope that he'd be able to pick Gregg and Bill's brains to grow as a coach and one day take the throne.

As you can see, I was thinking generations ahead. I wanted to ensure the dynasty would continue even after I stepped down, whenever retirement would prove to come.

To be honest, I don't remember who all changed teams on the coaching carousel that year. I was so concerned with finding a quality second assistant that I didn't pay all that much attention, I'm afraid. I'm sorry.

After a championship season at Duke, everyone was talking up Grant Hill as the #1 choice by the Wizards in the mock draft and with very good reason. Not only would he be the immediate heir to Bernard King, but he was the consensus best player in the draft and looked by all accounts to be a franchise type superstar. Making his selection all the more likely was that outside of him, the pool was lean on players who looked like stars.

For us, the major mock draft I always liked to look at picked out SG Eric Piatkowski out of Nebraska at the #28 pick and and SG Aaron McKie from Temple at #30. They were certainly right about our looking for a young shooting guard or small forward. Point guard, power forward, and center were still set for a long while, so it was swingmen I hunted for.

I gave serious consideration to moving up in the first round. With the two late 1sts, we could move up to take somebody in the mid 1st that would have an actual chance at playing for us. If we added two late first rounders, it would likely be a few critical years before they got any significant playing time.

After talking with Gregg, that's what we decided to do. Only we didn't make the move before the draft. Our philosophy has always been to wait until draft day to make movements up or down in a round. It paid off quite well with Shaq and Terrell Brandon, I'd say.

Thus, it was with considerable anticipation that I looked forward to the first round of the draft that year. I had a short list of players that we were looking very closely at and there was one in particular I looked forward to moving up for.

1994 1st Round Draft Selections

1. SF Grant Hill - Washington Wizards
2. PG Darrell Armstrong - Miami Heat
3. PG Jason Kidd - Portland Trailblazers
4. PF Juwan Howard - Memphis Grizzlies
5. SF Glenn Robinson - L.A. Clippers
6. SF Jalen Rose - Golden State Warriors

My old trading partners came back to haunt me. Rose was the guy I wanted to pick up in the middle of the round, but there he was, snatched away at #6 by Golden State. That wasn't nearly as big a headscratcher as the choice of Armstrong by Miami at #2. Darrell wasn't a top 3 talent at all by my lights, and furthermore he was 26. That's not the age of a player you want to build a future with.

That just left one more player I coveted, so I began quietly talking to teams about moving up, as he was due to go soon.

7. PF Brian Grant - Philadelphia 76ers
8. SG Eddie Jones - Sacramento Kings

And he went to the Kings, who I thought for sure wouldn't take him, as they had plenty of shooting guards on their roster, but that's where he went. It was at that point that I began thinking about next year's draft.

9. PG Brooks Thompson - San Antonio Spurs
10. PF Donyell Marshell - New Jersey Nets
11. PG Charlie Ward - Florida State
12. SG Voshon Leonard - Boston Celtics
13. SG Gary Alexander - Orlando Magic
14. SF Harold Ellis - New York Knicks
15. SG Eric Piatkowski - Dallas Mavericks
16. C Zeljko Rebraca - Chicago Bulls
17. C Anthony Miller - Toronto Raptors
18. SG Aaron McKie - Charlotte Bobcats
19. C Dontonio Wingfield - L.A. Lakers
20. SF Lamond Murray - Milwaukee Bucks
21. PG Khalid Reeves - Phoenix Suns
22. PF Carlos Rogers - New Orleans Hornets
23. PF Lawrence Funderburke - Indiana Pacers
24. C Tony Farmer - Atlanta Hawks
25. PG Tony Dumas - Seattle Sonics
26. C Stanley Jackson - Utah Jazz
27. SG Wesley Person - Detroit Pistons

I worked the phones leading up to our pick about getting a deal squared away, but no one wanted to give away a future first rounder for our two firsts and a passel of second rounders.

Around pick 20, our old friends Golden State came calling. It turns out the Warriors GM wasn't much interested in Rose, but one of our staffers had tipped them off how much we liked Jalen so they drafted him in hopes that they could get something out of us for him.

His asking price? Our two first rounders. They were looking to build the team with youth and had some guys they rated about equal to Rose who were projected as late 1st/early 2nd rounders. I told them they'd have to throw in their 1997 2nd rounder and they agreed. It's always been my method never to accept the very first offer and besides, 2nd rounders make excellent trade bait.

So the deal was made and the Warriors happily went about making their picks as the bread around the Cavaliers' sandwich. We had our man from the draft, too.

28. PG Howard Eisley - Golden State Warriors
29. PF Shawnelle Scott - Cleveland Cavaliers
30. C Sharone Wright - Golden State Warriors

Everyone else on our board was gone by the time our second rounder came up, the very last pick in the draft. By that time, all that was left were atrocious centers and a glut of small forwards, so I took a flyer on SF Damon Bailey out of Indiana.

We had no major contract decisions to make, as only Malik Sealy and Mike Peplowski were up for contract. Sealy turned out to be a major bust and I regret to this day trading for him. With Rose around, Malik was definitely out, so I renounced his rights and cut our losses. Pep I knew I would resign. He'd turned out to be a very pleasant surprise for us in his rookie year and stepped up when Shaq went down.

Grant Hill dominated the summer league in a way that reminded many people of Shaq just a couple seasons ago. Jason Kidd, the Trailblazers' top pick, looked like the perfect point guard. Jalen Rose had a nice summer camp in averaging 17 points a game and 4.3 assists and improved significantly according to our coaches. Damon Bailey underwhelmed, but would get a two year deal anyway, just to give us another cheap contract to work with.

It turns out Pep didn't have all that much interest in coming back to Minnesota. His intial demands were $4.4 million for 4 years. Needless to say, that wasn't going to fly. I still wanted to bring him back, though. Still, if his demands continued to be excessive, I had a couple backup options in mind, including former Timberwolves Duane Causwell and Randy Breuer. Randy was looking for relatively big money after his leadership role with the Raptors, whereas Duane was willing to sign for peanuts.

1994 was as equally exciting a free agency as its draft was weak. Big names like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem Olajuwon were available. Sterling point guard Mark Price was out there too, along with Magic Johnson and Houston playoff hero Derrick Chievous. Oh and a guy named Isiah Thomas. The biggest young superstar available was Derrick Coleman, but Charlotte would have to be insane not to keep him. Gary Payton also had his contract up that year.

I waited until after the news hit that Jordan resigned with Chicago to check up on our guys, though. I knew that once Jordan decided where he was going, the rest of the market would fly fast and furious. By this time, Pep had only lowered his demands to $3.5 mill, whereas Duane was willing to play for the minimum wage. I'd always felt guilty about trading Duane to the Hawks, so I was certainly interested in returning him to the fold.

A mass of resignings happened the day after Jordan came off the market: Magic Johnson, Hakeem, Chievous, Derrick Coleman, and Lionel Simmons were the standout names in the group. John Stockton resigned with Utah the day after, the same day that we welcomed Duane Causwell home for two years at a combined cost of $1.4 mill and change, just below $700k in year 1, just above $800k in year two.

Duane was the first player to jump teams and the only until Day 19, when shockwaves radiated through the entire league.

The defending NBA Champion Houston Rockets signed Mark Price and Charles Barkley to two year deals at discounted rates. Sir Charles wanted a ring and Price, though he had a ring from Cleveland, was sick of the Cavaliers' postseason ineptitude and wanted more titles.

This led Fat Lever to jump ship from Houston to sign with the rising East Conference power Toronto Raptors, who not only got one of the top point guards, but also re-signed Randy the same day. A day later, the last interesting news of free agency came, informing that Gary Payton had, after all, re-signed with the Nuggets.

The offseason was complete and I thought we'd improved our team significantly, the Rockets looked like the team to beat heading into the new season.

They'd gotten that much better.

But the games are played on the court, not on paper sheets, so the chance for venegance was still ours.

[Izulde]

The new season was a breath of fresh air and no one epitomized that more than Robert Horry. After a better postseason the previous season than anyone expected out of him and a banner preseason, he started the year in the 6th man role. The starters remained unchanged, as we featured the same lineup of Pooh, Scottie, Mullin, Detlef, and Shaq that we had the previous two years. Much like last year's opening games, Gregg expermented with Pippen at point.

We tipped off at home against another team that had a consistent lineup, our old Finals opponents, the New York Knicks. A close game at the half was broken open in the second half of play and we came away with an easy win to start the year. Mullin and Detlef picked up right where they left off last year with 26 points and 19 points and 13 rebounds respectively. Pooh scored 22 as well.

But there were also things to keep an eye on. Our bench played terribly and Shaq looked largely out of sync. I could only hope that it was rust and not the sign of a growing problem. Yes, it was only one game, but a good GM is always watching for potential spots, especially on a team with championship aspirations.

A lot of people questioned why Gary Payton chose to resign with the Denver Nuggets when he wanted a winner, but after they jumped out to a 22-7 lead and hung on for a 94-92 win over us in our second game, I knew why. Denver was 2-0 and in the infant part of the year, Antoine Carr was having a career start. He tore us apart for 33 points and 14 rebounds, something we couldn't counter, even with Shaq's 23 points and 15 rebounds, or Scottie's 12 points and 10 assists.

We ground out a victory over Hubie's Hornets to go back above .500, thanks to Mullin's 22 points, Shaq's 19 points and 18 rebounds and the first good game from a bench player, as Horry had 15 points and 8 rebounds.

Although I'd started wondering if maybe I shouldn't talk to Gregg about switching Pooh back to the point, his wisdom showed in our come from behind win against the Pacers, in which Scottie had his second double-double on the year with 10 points and 10 assists. Detlef torched Indiana for 33 points, making it a great all-round game with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals besides. Mullin threw in his usual 20 points and Horry had 13 points and 5 rebounds coming off the bench.

The biggest game of the nascent year came up next, against the 5-0 Houston Rockets. They'd gone undefeated to that date not from any one powerhouse performance, but from a balanced scoring format largely borrowed from us. As Danny, my old friend who'd landed in Houston after Memphis fired him said, "I think it's pretty hard to argue with the Timberwolves' success. Two championships in as many years and nearly returning to the Finals even without their top centers tells me that they've got a system worth learning from."

And so a team with matching philosophies battled in a matchup many called the likely Western Conference final rematch in the preseason. In the early going, the Rockets' superior talent showed, but our grit and determination won out as we came from behind to secure a critical win in terms of morale. Both teams had all starters score in double-digits and Sir Charles and Hakeem had double-doubles, but it was our even greater balance and steady defense that won the day. Detlef scored 23 points and Mullin had 15 points and 10 rebounds in an amusing role reversal.

One thing I noticed about the Rockets was that Mark Price had taken to leadership of the squad right away. In fact, he was not only their floor general, but their leading scorer. Houston definitely upgraded when Price came to replace Fat Lever. In fact, I'd say even to this day that he was a more valuable acquisition than the much more hyped Charles Barkley.

We split the next two games, a squash of Miami in which Jalen Rose saw his first action and scored 5 points in 3 minutes, and a dismantling by Detroit, where Scottie fouled out and was limited to just 12 minutes of play. Adding to our woes in that blowout at the hands of the Pistons, Terrell Brandon was having an awful early season and Robert Horry was proving to be maddeningly inconsistent.

Who was consistent was Mullin. Night after night, we were able to count on him for around 20 points, such as when he scored 25 in our next game, a laugher against Hubie's Hornets. While Shaq was averaging a double-double on the year, he didn't seem to be nearly as explosive as he was a season before, leading me to wonder if his injury hadn't had some affect on him. He did score 28 and grab 14 boards against New Orleans, though.

I shared my concerns with Gregg and he told me Shaq's inconsistency was a matter of readjusting to playing night in and night out and getting used to the high-intensity level of NBA basketball. "After all", he pointed out, "It's been months since Shaq's really played against the best basketball players in the world. It's not even been a month. He's still getting back into the flow of the game." He was right, it seemed, after Shaq blitzed the Mavericks for 30 points and 10 rebounds that was the margin of victory against Dallas in our next game.

It was about that time that I also began exploring options to move some of our bench players. Jalen Rose had looked very good in limited action and I wanted to get the rookie more minutes. Yes, that would mean trading an original Timberwolf, most likely former team captain Sam Mitchell, but I felt Jalen to be the future for us. Dan Majerle was another possibility, for he had an expiring contract and just never was able to impress Gregg's staff.

In many ways, 1995 was the year of the Returned Timberwolf. Although Duane sat on the IR during the early going, another old Timberwolf came back to Minnesota when we sent Dan Majerle and Damon Bailey to the Milwaukee Bucks and welcomed home Avery Johnson, who'd had a moderately successful few years as a backup in Milwaukee, the same role he'd play with us. We also harvested the Bucks' 2nd rounders for the next three years in the deal.

Although this had almost no effect on our depth chart, as Avery simply replaced Majerle, it opened up the possibility for Terell Brandon, Tyrone Corbin, and Sam Mitchell being traded later in the year. Yes, I was considering trading the heir apparent to Pooh. Although he was only 25, Terrell simply hadn't broken out like expected. In fact, his game looked to be getting worse, no doubt from his inability to crack the lineup like he wanted.

Speaking of old Timberwolves, we greeted Tony's Sonics the next game and promptly demolished them behind double-doubles from Shaq and Detlef at 25 points and 17 rebounds and 14 points and 12 rebounds a piece. At the traditional dinner after the game, this time at Davanni's Pizzeria, Tony teased me about the possibility of bringing him back to Minneapolis, too. He was only joking, of course, as he was a hero in Seattle and had no intention of leaving the Sonics.

The trade, combined with Shaq's rise in production as he acclimated to being back in the NBA, energized the team and we continued our winning streak with victories over the Pacers and Grizzlies. Shaq and Detlef had double-doubles in both games and Mullin score over 20 points in each contest. Terrell, as if sensing he was playing for his job with Avery's addition, played considerably better in both wins as well.

Alexander Volkov, who'd been having a mediocre season, highlighted a walkover of the hapless Kings by stealing the ball 8 times to go with his 17 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 assists and Detlef and Scottie made sure that even without Shaq, who was nursing a sprained toe, that we finished on a high note with an obliteration of our friends, the Golden State Warriors. Detlef scored 33 and took down 16 points, Scottie matching the double-double feat with 16 points and 14 assists.

Thus, at month's end, we stood on top of the division at 12-2, a game and half ahead of Tony's Sonics, the perennial bridesmaids. Houston, as expected, dominated the Southwest, and the Pacific Division was easily the worst in the NBA in the early going, with the 6-10 L.A. Clippers on top.

The former royalty, the Purple and Gold? Last and least at 2-14.

In the Eastern Conference, Toronto was proving themselves no fluke as they stood atop the Atlantic by 1.5 games. The Bucks, who were giving Majerle more minutes than we ever had, were narrowly in the lead of the Central, and the Charlotte Bobcats just barely held on to the Southeast first position in the league's most competitive division. The Washington Wizards were at the bottom of the Southeast after the first month and they were a mere two games back.

Although we were highly successful in the first month of play, we'd already made one move and I suspected that more would be coming. Sam Mitchell was growing angry again at his lack of playing time and Avery Johnson proved to be more consistent and just as productive as Terrell Brandon in limited minutes of play.

Without question, the season was going to be an exciting one for Timberwolves fans and it'd only just begun.

[Izulde]

There was only one other trade that happened in the first month, but it happened on Opening Day and it was a shocker.

Memphis Grizzlies receive:
SG Reggie Miller

Indiana Pacers receive:
SF Purvis Short
Memphis Grizzlies 1996 2nd round pick

Memphis fans are sick of years of bad teams and so the front office goes and gets Miller, who, while a good player, isn't an All-Star or franchise player. What he does is shoot the three and shoot it very well, as his 1992 Long Distance Championship title proves. That being said, he's being horribly misused in the Grizzlies's system. Ideally designed as a shooting guard, he's forced to play the point for Memphis and is furious about it. Coupled with the Grizz's 5-11 record, it won't be long before Reggie's demanding out of Tennessee. On the converse side, Indiana gets a sizeable expiring contract in the 37 year old Short (immediately put on IR) and a probable high-to-mid 2nd round pick that could turn out to be as good as Miller, while freeing up the starter's role for Chuck Person, who is far better than Miller.
Winner: Indiana as they're still what they were before, a mid-tier playoff team and get a chance to roll the dice. It would be a draw if Miller weren't being miscast in Memphis

I never did like Memphis's ownership group in those years. Even a brilliant mind like Danny Brooklyn's couldn't make a winner out of that terrible franchise and I was happy when Danny won the title with Houston that prior season. It just went to show that it was the owners of the Grizzlies who were at fault, not Danny.

But there were more important things for me to worry about than laughing with Danny about the latest Memphis move. I still had a championship to win back.

I had a lot of discussions with teams in the days leading up to that second month. In fact, I spent so many hours on the phone that Mrs. Arcadia joked it'd end up glued to my ear. Of course it didn't, but I was looking for to make a shakeup. It would be easy to make a deal that would more or less sign and deliver us the title, but I wanted more than that. I wanted another dynasty secured.

It was in many respects the most difficult period of trade negotiations I'd ever been though. Most of my time was spent with the Miami Heat, talking about a way to get Christian Laetnner in a Minnesota uniform. As you know, I'd coveted him ever since I saw his name in the 1993 draft pool. But it was proving difficult for the salaries to match up, and every offer I put at them got thrown in my face, even when it looked like they were going to accept a deal that'd have them getting Terrell Brandon, Robert Horry, Sam Mitchell, and two second rounders for Laettner and Shawn Bradley, who, though I wasn't all that enthused with, provided us an extremely valuable backup in case Shaq got hurt again. I'd lost faith in Duane by that time, you see.

There were a lot of talks with the Indiana Pacers too about bringing Tom Gugliota in to the Timberwolf fold, but those stalled, too. As you can see, I was hellbent on getting Horry's replacement. The problem came that when even salaries did match up, the other teams always wanted something more than I could give them. Since I was looking to give up my young cadre of players, I wanted a first rounder out of any deal I made, but nobody, not even the Golden State Warriors, who I spoke with repeatedly about Chris Webber, was willing to budge.

So many times we got so damn close to making a deal with teams that it made my head hurt.

Finally, I just gave up and decided to wait and roll with what we had. Though it'd risk losing a chance at some players I had my eye on, I couldn't take any gambles of the Malik Sealy variety.

As I watched Shaq and Mullin propel us to a win in the month's first game with double-doubles of 28 points and 15 rebounds and 24 points and 11 rebounds against Mourning's Suns, I couldn't help but feel regret for the long-term contract I'd given Pooh Richardson. Yes, he'd put up respectable numbers, but not ones worth $8 million a year and certainly not worth being tied down for the number of seasons I'd committed to him. What was worse, he'd regressed on defense considerably.

In truth, it was probably only a slight overpay, but at the time, my frustration at being unable to make the shifts I wanted made me a little stir-crazy. I had a different kind of spring fever in the middle of that winter.

The one thing I could take pride in as we kept winning was not only the victories, but our frontcourt. One article I read around then said, "In Chris Mullin, Detlef Schrempf, and Shaquille O'Neal, the Minnesota Timberwolves have an All-Star quality player all along the front line, making for nightmare matchups for any opposing team." Those three were untouchable. No matter how much I liked wheeling and dealing and trying to improve the team, those three were the Timberwolves. Mullin, as I've told you before, had long since supplanted Sam Mitchell as our team captain, and there were many in those days who would have suggested that he in fact was our biggest star, not Shaq.

I disagreed with those who believed that. I knew that our gameplan started and ended with the big man in the middle. Without him, we were still a very good team, but with him, we were a nearly unstoppable force. As evidence, we started the month with three straight wins and in each game, Shaq had over 20 points and 10 rebounds. Even in the agitating 99-97 loss to the 76ers on the road that broke our streak, he still had 22 points and 7 rebounds.

Our bench play still made me unhappy, but Jalen Rose was starting to steal some minutes from Sam Mitchell, which made our former captain even angrier than he'd already been. Once more he came into my office demanding to be traded him. I told him with point-blank honesty that I'd been trying for about a month to do it but nothing had come through yet, and he asked that I try harder. He really wanted the chance to go somewhere and play more often, much like Majerle did in Milwaukee.

But try as I might, once more, no one was willing to make any movement. The fact that the Pacific Division featured four teams under .500 made for a lot of hassle, because everyone there thought if they made the right move, they could get the division, so all four GMs became extremely demanding in negotiations and in this turn set the bar high for the rest of the league.

We rebounded from our loss against the 76ers with a textbook Timberwolf Way win over the Kings, crushing them behind Shaq's 17 points and 14 rebounds and Mullin's 22 points as everyone in the starting five hit double digits in scoring. A new streak jumpstarted with a win the following night against the Rice and Jordan Bulls, highlighted by Tyrone Corbin's scoring 18 from the bench, a pleasant surprise from an original Timberwolf kept around largely due to his defensive prowess.

Sam Mitchell added 12 points in 10 minutes to go with Shaq's 21 points and 17 rebounds and Detlef's 20 points in our next game, a victory over the Portland Trailblazers. Yes, we were winning and winning fairly handily, but I still couldn't feel that something was amiss, that we were due for a Cleveland Cavaliers type fall in the playoffs.

Part of the problem was that Gregg and his staff kept changing the bench's roles around. While the starters were established, the subs all lacked a clear pecking order and it shifted from game to game, so we didn't play as well, including in a fairly grim loss to the Toronto Raptors, who dropped us by 13 in Canada. Sam Cassell matched Shaq's 28 points and their reserves just hammered the heck out of ours.

Detlef picked up the slack for a lackluster rest of the squad in an uninspiring win over the Clippers, scoring 23 points and 11 rebounds. Although Pooh was finally back in his natural point guard spot, the team looked like it was losing focus out there and Gregg was having trouble snapping them back into playing with fire in their bellies.

Mullin scored 28 in our next game and Tyrone had 16 points from the bench, Robert Horry chipping in with 13 points and 9 rebounds in his best showing in a long time, as Shaq battled a sore knee and had a horrendous night in a squeaker of a win over the Priceless 14-10 Cavaliers.

A 103-101 loss to the Spurs was the result of our faltering on offense down the stretch. Shaq played just 10 minutes because of his knee and everybody on the bench except Horry, who scored 14, just went through the motions, negating Mullin's 26 points and Detlef's double-double of 11 points and 16 rebounds. It irritated me and I once more vowed to make a change, only this time I'd wait until the next month. That second month was cursed obviously in terms of my trying to get anything done.

I did get the pleasure of watching Grant Hill play in person the next game in Minneapolis, something I enjoyed immensely. Hill had been tearing up the league, averaging 20 points and 7 rebounds a game in the early going of his rookie year, just as thought he would. Although the Wizards weren't challenging for the division yet, he had his Washington team at .500 coming in to our game, a remarkable feat in my estimation.

We held the sensational rookie to 10 points and 6 rebounds that game, as Shaq scored 20 and yanked down 14 boards, Detlef grabbing the same number of rebounds and putting up 17 in our solid triumph. It was a beauty to watch the two of them work inside together. Though Shaq had only been in the league two years, he and Detlef just harmonized perfectly together in our inside game.

I'll never in my life forget that next game against the Knicks. They were 17-11 and Ewing had been averaging 30 points a game on the season. Our team was shorthanded due to Terrell and Horry being out with injuries. We went into New York, Ewing fouled out early and Shaq had 25 points by halftime. Despite Shaq continuing to be a scoring machine in the second half, the Knicks matched us for point for point and the game went to overtime. There, it was basket traded for basket until we pulled away in the end for the 135-125 victory.

Shaq's line for that game: 54 points, 19 rebounds, an assist, a steal, and 3 blocks.

It was the first time in Timberwolf history that any Minnesota player broke the 50 point mark.

That would prove to be our last game of that turbulent thirty days.

With two months of the season gone, we were 22-5 and 3.5 ahead of the Sonics. The Rockets had boosted their lead to 9.5 games in front of the Spurs and held a game and a half advantage over us for the top seed in the playoffs. A Los Angeles team led the awful Pacific Division and I'm sure you can guess it was the 11-17 Clippers holding a half-game lead over the Sacramento Kings.

In the East, the Atlantic was a deadlock between Ewing's Knicks and my favourite Eastern Conference team, the Toronto Raptors. They both led by 6 over the decripit Boston Celtics. Chicago was enjoying a rebound season and led the Bucks by 3 in the Central and our old Finals foes, the Hawks, temporarily reasserted themselves as the class of the Southeast with a one game lead over Charlotte.

I'll be honest with you. I didn't know then just what to do, whether to stay with the team I had or try and make a move to improve our bench. Horry had gotten hot towards the end of the month and I began to have second thoughts of moving him. Trading away Terrell Brandon was still an option, but I also needed to get Sam somewhere where he could get to play some more.

And in the world of the NBA, where everyone was over cap, that wasn't going to be easy.

To end on a cheerful note, here's Shaq's picture with his statline from the 50 point game I told you about.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Dwight Mighton

My god, Shaq's a MONSTER.

Good diary, one of the best on Grey Dog forums. Heavily underrated because of the lower amount of TPB diaries.

It's amazing though, I'm dying to see how 2006 turns out.

Thanks for those incredible words, Dwight.

And yeah, Shaq can definitely be a beast, but he's also looking like he might be injury-prone.

Since Alonzo Mourning and Shaquille O'Neal will always be linked together in this universe, I decided to compare their numbers. Without looking at them, my guess would be that Shaq has the better overall numbers, but 'Zo has been much more durable.

Shaquille O'Neal
1993 19.7 ppg 10.4 rpg 2.1 bpg 0.8 spg 2.1 apg 2.2 topg (82 games/82 starts - Rookie of the Year, All-Rookie 1st Team, Rookie All-Star Starter, All-Star Reserve)
1994 19.7 ppg 10.0 rpg 2.6 bpg 0.8 spg 2.0 apg 1.7 topg (74 games/70 starts - Sophomore All-Star Starter, All-Star Starter)
1995 (so far) 19.4 ppg 10.7 rpg 2.2 bpg 0.6 spg 1.9 apg 2.2 topg (27 games/26 starts)

Alonzo Mourning
1993 16.2 ppg 8.6 rpg 2.8 bpg 0.6 spg 1.9 apg 2.4 topg (79 games/79 starts - Rookie All-Star Reserve, All-Rookie 2nd Team)
1994 17.5 ppg 9.7 rpg 2.8 bpg 0.4 spg 1.7 apg 2.0 topg (82 games/79 starts - Sophomore All-Star Reserve, All-Defense Second Team)
1995 (so far) 16.8 ppg 8.9 rpg 2.6 bpg 0.4 spg 1.2 apg 2.3 topg (29 games/26 starts)

Interestingly enough, it's been Shaq who's been the most consistent in the regular season. Zo's actually a better defender and has slightly better durability, but I'd still take Shaq over him.

Take a look at their playoff numbers and things get a little more interesting.

Shaquille O'Neal
1993 20.5 ppg 10.5 rpg 2.4 bpg 0.7 spg 1.9 apg 2.3 topg (23 games/23 starts)

Alonzo Mourning
1994 19.4 ppg 12.0 rpg 2.5 bpg 0.7 spg 2.2 apg 1.8 topg (6 games/6 starts)

Take a look at those numbers. Yes, you can argue sample size from now until the day the cows come home, but it looks from this that you can make the case that the two are identical in the postseason and that Zo might even be the better player in crunch time.

If that's true, then the deal we made to land Shaq may in fact have cost us our third straight title. We may very well have won our second straight title with Alonzo in the middle and Mourning didn't get knocked out for the 1994 postseason, as you can see, thus giving us a quality big man at center and furthermore, a topnotch defensive one to shut down Hakeem with.

But we'll never know, unless I happen to have a saved game from before that draft lying around.

Funny how things work out in this game, isn't it? You make a move to grab a guy who screams Hall of Famer and sure he's the most talented guy on your team, but the best fit may have been the one we'd have taken with that #2 overall pick, even if his star isn't quite as big and shiny as the one we traded up for.

And since I'm using an out of character post to provide a sneak peek around the league, I'll spotlight Marlon Maxey for Jeeber in an FOFC exclusive. Ironically enough, Marlon was also part of that famous 1993 center class and was picked #17 overall by the New Jersey Nets, for those who don't remember.

Marlon Maxey
1993 5.4 ppg 3.4 rpg 0.4 bpg 0.4 spg 0.9 apg 0.8 topg (75 games/2 starts 13.7 mpg)
1994 4.9 ppg 3.2 rpg 0.3 bpg 0.3 spg 0.7 apg 0.8 topg (55 games/0 starts 12.7 mpg)
1995 (so far) 4.3 ppg 2.9 rpg 0.4 bpg 0.2 spg 0.9 apg 0.7 topg (21 games/0 starts 12.2 mpg)

Playoff Stats
1993 4.8 ppg 5.4 rpg 0.4 bpg 0.0 spg 0.4 apg 0.8 topg (5 games/0 starts 1.38 mpg)

Career Bests To Date
Points: 15
Assists: 5
Rebounds: 11
Blocks: 2
Steals: 3

Marlon's seen his minutes go down with each succeeding season and he'll likely never be anything more than an okay reserve guy to have. He's got some scoring ability and is a pretty good rebounder, but he's a gaping hole on defense.

Still, he's managed to stay in the Nets' rotation and with Sam Bowie out for a month and a half with a broken arm, he'll continue to get his minutes in New Jersey. Three of Jersey's frontcourt players are on the wrong side of 30, and Frank Brickowski's $9+ million dollar contract should take a hike at the end of the season. So maybe Marlon can continue to hold down a spot with the Nets as an acceptable bench contributor.

If nothing else, he should last longer in this universe than he did in real life.

[Izulde]

Ironically, during a month that I'd tried so hard to make a deal and failed, there were five trades made around the league, two of which featured a certain perennial underachieving powerhouse in the Eastern Conference.

Cleveland Cavaliers receive:
C Mike Brown
Miami Heat 1996 2nd round pick

Miami Heat receive:
C Felton Spencer

Brown gives the Cavaliers a good defender and rebounder on the bench and the 2nd round pick will help bring youth to a team that badly needs it. It's liable to be a high 2nd rounder too, putting it at about the same value as our own 1st round selection. Spencer makes for a younger, decent backup to Shawn Bradley, but the 2nd rounder plus Brown, who was an expiring deal, are too high a cost to pay.
Winner: Cleveland for getting a veteran presence to upgrade their bench, plus a free shot at getting some good youth on the team

Denver Nuggets receive:
PG Robert Pack

Los Angeles Lakers receive:
PF Tim Kempton

Pack is young and has upside, but the Nuggets already have Gary Payton, Steve Henson, and Charlie Ward who are all young as well. Furthermore, Henson and Payton are a cut above the new man in Denver. The trade makes equal lack of sense for the Lakers, who lose their heir apparent to Byron Scott at the point for an average veteran bench player in a year when the Purple and Gold have almost no chance at making the playoffs.
Winner: Denver, only because they did the least damage to their team

Cleveland Cavaliers receive:
C Eric Riley

New York Knicks receive:
SG Harold Miner

The Cavaliers know that Marcus Webb is not their future at center, so they grab the 24 year old Riley, who has potential to be a phenomenal rebounder and shotblocker and NBA starting experience (32 starts last season for the Knicks) to learn from Brad Daugherty and the recently acquired Brown. Miner is an exciting young scorer who's improved with each season he's been in the league and he looks to eventually supplant Gerald Wilkins. For now, he'll serve a bench role. The trade also lets the Knicks give Tom Copa more playing time and an extended look at filling Ewing's shoes when Patrick retires.
Winner: Knicks by the narrowest of margins

Boston Celtics receive:
PF Charles Shackleford

Philadelphia 76ers receive:
SG Reggie Lewis
Boston Celtics 1996 2nd round pick

The Celtics trade away a star guard and a pick for a mediocre bench player. This move in no way, shape, or form makes any sense for Boston, as both players involved are in the last year of their contract, for roughly the same amount of money. Philadelphia picks up a glitzy shooting guard who averages a little over 22 points a game and instantly becomes the 76ers' top option on offense. We could see Philly in the playoffs as a result of this swap. The draft pick only makes this deal all the more incredible for the 76ers.
Winner: Philadelphia in the most lopsided trade since my time in the NBA and I've seen some stunning ones

Utah Jazz receive:
SF Gundars Vetra

Boston Celtics receive:
PG Tony Bennett

Vetra may be 27, but a lot of people, including me, believe he still could turn out to be a supreme scorer and ballhandler, a valuable 6th man at minimum. Playing time will be a fight night in and night out though, as the Jazz have a glut of young swingmen behind veteran Mark Alarie. How much of an overkill? 23, 24, 24, 27. Five small forwards and that isn't even counting the two young shooting guards (24 and 25). Even despite all these kids, Utah is still 17-13 and looking like a playoff team. Bennett is never going to develop into anything more than a fairly bad backup point guard and the Celtics already have Eric Murdock and Nick Van Exel as young, quite talented athletes at point guard. The lone positive for Boston, which is quite a considerable one, is that rookie Voshon Leonard now gets more playing time.
Winner: Slight edge to Boston, for Leonard's development is not only much more likely, he'll probably turn into a better player than anyone in this trade, including a developed Vetra, should that happen

Shaq scored 24 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and posted 6 blocks in an easy win over the Grizzlies to start month three. Contributing were Mullin with 19 points and 10 rebounds and Pippen matching Shaq's 24 points. Horry got the start at power forward over Detlef due to injury and put up a respectable 7 points and 12 rebounds.

Wins over the Suns and Bobcats followed, the latter game notable for Shaq's 35 points and 20 rebounds coupling with Mullin's 33 points and 10 rebounds in a 127-97 route. Avery Johnson scored 11 from the bench in that offense fest as well. He and Jalen Rose'd been getting increased minutes as the season wore on and while Avery looked fantastic, Jalen started struggling, making me thankful after all that I hadn't succeeded in forcing freeing up more time for him.

Mullin and Shaq's talents were on display again in our next game, a 22 point victory at home against the 76ers. Mullin scored 29, Shaq 24 for O'Neal's fourth straight game of 20 points or more, his 9 rebounds breaking his streak of three straight 20+ point, 10+ point rebound lines. Detlef added 20 points and 9 rebounds and Horry put up 12 points in 14 minutes and had lately appeared to be developing some consistency.

Speaking of streaks, we went a 15-0 run to open things in Washington and doused the hot Wizards' five-game win streak. Shaq and Mullin led as you might expect, Shaq with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks and Mullin bombing the Wizards for 35 points. Our dynamic duo topped Washington's terrific two, though Jeff Malone did score 29. Grant Hill reached double digit scoring with 14, 7 below his 20 point average.

Shaq, Mullin, and Pippen all broke 20 points in a stomping of the Purple Gold, Shaq adding 10 rebounds besides. Shaquille kept his new 20 and 10 streak alive with 24 points and 10 rebounds in yet another win in a team string, as we beat the Magic. Mullin fell just short of the 20 point mark with 19, however.

19 was Mullin's point number again in a come from behind win over the Nuggets in Denver and Shaq kept his personal streak alive with 27 points and 15 rebounds, blocking 6 besides. Detlef again proved the universal praise of our front court to be worthy with a double-double of 28 points and 12 rebounds of his own.

One thing I should tell you is that during this period of Shaq's consistent dominance, Terrell Brandon didn't appear in a lot of games and if he did, it was only for a few spot minutes here and there. Gregg and the rest of his staff absolutely loved Avery Johnson's handling of the offense and Tyrone Corbin fit in at the point fairly seamlessly, too.

So I started making calls again, this time with the intent of trading Brandon while I could still get something for him.

This time I was able to make a deal and what went down in the end surprised even me.

I sent Terrell Brandon, Robert Horry, and Jalen Rose to the Los Angeles Clippers for Glenn Robinson, Doug Christie, Rodney Rogers, and the Red and White's 1996 1st round pick.

It was a deal that got talked about for quite a while in the press, on radio shows, in bars, and in offices. Essentially what it involved was a swap of the players regarded as the next generation by both teams, with an extra 1st rounder thrown in there for good measure.

Although it changed absolutely no one's starting five, the effect on the benches were considerable. Doug Christie immediately became of one our top backups at guard, Rodney Rodgers started learning from Volkov and Detlef the intracies of playing power forward in our system, and Glenn slid fairly high up on the bench himself.

Over on the Clippers, Robert Horry became their #2 guy off the bench and Terrell Brandon started off on the bottom, as the coaching staff there put him on IR. Jalen's role was as a backup as well, though where he slotted wasn't known yet, as he was injured at the time of the trade.

How did these three new young Wolves fit our philosophy? Well, Christie was a much better defender than Terrell, though his ball skills and shooting were nowhere near the match of Brandon's. In Glenn, we not only had an upgrade over Jalen in virtually all aspects, but we felt we had the heir to Chris Mullin, the same type of pure scorer and acceptable defender that Mullin was. Rodney was a good defender with some upside, but he was raw and truth be told, we saw his future role more as a backup than a replacement for Detlef.

The real key to the deal, of course, was that 1st rounder. I anticipated that the Clippers wouldn't be able to win the woeful Pacific, thus granting us a lottery pick in a draft sure to be better than the previous year's, but I'll be the first to admit it was a gamble.

Our first game with our new players was against the Trailblazers and we won, thanks to Volkov's 24 points and 13 rebounds off the bench after Shaq cramped up early in the game. Detlef scored 24 and grabbed 12 boards as well. Gregg limited the new guys' minutes, but Doug Christie had a respectable debut with 6 points and 3 assists, and Glenn scored 2 points in as many minutes.

A real test game came against the Raptors, but we blew them out in the second half to take care of Toronto easily. Mullin scored 32 and took down 10 boards and Shaq scored 23, one behind Pooh who had 24. Doug scored 5 points in his second game, dishing out a very nice 5 assists against 1 turnover.

We kept right on rolling with wins over the peasantly Purple and Gold and Tony's Sonics, the last one in Seattle. Just as we had all along, Shaq and Mullin spearheaded our offense, with 30 points and 14 rebounds and 25 points respectively. Avery Johnson played the most of our backup guards in those two games, as he and Doug went at it hard in practice for the playing time in games. Volkov had also been playing a lot better in the early stages after the trade, flourishing in the freedom that came from not having to fight Horry for time on the court.

At the traditional postgame dinner, Tony told me he admired me for the trade I'd made.

"A lot of people were pretty mad about you trading Horry after he'd stepped up for you, but that Robinson kid got game. At worst, he'll turn out to be somebody like me, who'll give you about 18-19-20 points on average a game. And honestly? Horry's not a good enough shooter or rebounder to fit in Detlef's role. Gregg'd have to adjust you guyses offense" opined my favorite former Timberwolf.

I laughed and thanked him for the support. I also said that if Glenn turned out to be a replica of him, I'd be extremely pleased. Tony, after all, had made two All-Star games and was the face of the Sonics franchise, along with Shawn Kemp.

Seattle had an excellent team and they'd recently made a daring move that rocked the entire league when it was announced. While I normally don't tell you about the trades that happened during each month until I start talking about the next month, this one I'm going to give you the story about now.

As you know, for years, the Sonics played bridesmaids to us. Time and time again, they would be rewarded the #4 seed because of having to play in our division and year in and year out, they'd win their first round series and be unable to penetrate any further.

This time, they were going for broke. Here's the deal.

Seattle Supersonics receive:
SG Magic Johnson
L.A. Lakers 1996 2nd round pick

Los Angeles Lakers receive
SG Dale Ellis
SG Mario Elie

There is no greater sign of the Purple and Gold's collapse than this. Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the face, the franchise, Mr. Showtime himself, now dons the Gold and Green. He's 35 years old and his skills have diminished, but he's still averaging 20 points a game, still masterful whenever he has the ball in his hands. Seattle's got a three-headed scoring monster in Tony, Shawn Kemp, and Magic now. The only downside to this deal is that Magic is on a one year contract, so he may only be a rental. But oh what a beautiful rental it is! Dale Ellis was immediately released following the trade, making this Magic Johnson and the Lakers' 2nd rounder next year for Elie, a 26 year old in his third season in the league who isn't a tenth of the player that Magic is even now. In fact, given that the Lakers are likely to finish among the worst records in the league, this would be a win for Seattle even if it were Elie for the 2nd rounder. Showtime is dead and will not revive for many more years.
Winner: Seattle without question. I'll have to call Tony and congratulate him.[/b

Tony, as you can imagine, was ecstactic about the deal and hoped that he'd get a chance at a ring. It wasn't going to be easy by any means. The West, arguably the best conference since our ascendancy, had leapt into the unquestionably superior conference following that offseason, at least from the top-heavy standpoint. In Houston and ourselves, you had the two best teams in the league, bar none. Seattle materialized as a contender after that trade.

Who did the East have? Oh, they had some good teams to be sure, but no team that could be called great. Many predicted it'd be a long time before the East won a title again.

But that was for the future. The current season was my immediate concern.

As if to prove my point about Western superiority, we thumped the Pistons and the Hawks in our next two games, Mullin scoring 35 and 20 points respectively, Shaq and Detlef splitting the double-doubles we got in those two contests.

A nailbiting victory over the Jazz came as a result of 20 points from Mullin, Detlef, and Volkov, but it came at a terrible price.

Shaq broke his wrist. Estimated time out: A month and a half.

This year, he would be back for the playoffs according to the doctors, but there came a growing concern in my mind that Shaquille was brittle and injury-prone.

With considerable discomfort, I recalled Duane from the IR and put Shaq there. Our former 2nd round pick was thrilled to be getting playing time at last, but Gregg warned me that his staff considered the center's skills greatly deteriorated and that I may want to look into free agency or trading to find a replacement backup to Volkov.

We eked out a win against the Kings in the month's finale, but Dikembe Mutombo schooled Volkov and Causwell for 21 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 blocks. It was Mullin's excellent all round game of 30 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists that saved us, along with Detlef's 20 points and 10 rebounds. As much as I liked Mutombo, when someone like him scores 20 points on you, you know that you need to plug in a better center and soon.

Still, at month's end, we held a 12 game lead over Tony's Sonics. The Rockets were up by 13.5 and much to my disappointment, the Clippers led the Kings by a game and a half in the Pacific.

The deadlock in the Atlantic between the Raptors and the Knicks broke slightly, with Toronto up by two games. Chicago kept Milwaukee at bay by a game and a half, but the real surprise lay in the Southeast Division.

The Wizards had surged to a 27-16 record and led the Hawks by half a game.

[Izulde]

For the second month in a row, there were a flurry of trades. Besides our own deal and the stunning Magic trade I told you about, three more player movements went down, one by my favorite franchise in the East during those years.

Atlanta Hawks receive:
SG Anfernee Hardaway
Phoenix Suns 1996 2nd round pick

Phoenix Suns receive
PF Matt Wenstrom

In Hardaway, the Hawks have a younger, better version of Doc Rivers, who has the potential to become a franchise superstar on par with Sam Cassell. He immediately takes over for Rivers in Atlanta's starting lineup and could very well be the key to the Hawks taking the Southeast from the Bobcats. Wenstrom is an unispiring backup forward who brings absolutely nothing to a franchise that features Alonzo Mourning and Isaac Austin in the frontcourt. Simply a Hardaway for Wenstrom deal would be the biggest steal I've yet to see, but the 2nd rounder, a liable high one given the Suns' 14-32 record and their likely continued plunge, takes this into a territory that defies all comprehension.
Winner: This is even more lopsided than the Lewis deal, as Anfernee is already a brilliant defender with scoring touch and has phenomenal potential at just 23 years old. Our 1992 Finals opponents stole all the money in the bank here.

Atlanta Hawks receive:
PG Derek Harper

Memphis Grizzlies receive:
SF Cliff Livingston
Atlanta Hawks 1996 2nd rounder

Harper is a respectable veteran all-around point guard who shores up the Hawks' bench considerably. He also has a $5.7 mill. expiring contract. Livingston has become a mere shadow of his former self and sits on the IR for Memphis, making this deal really a case of Harper for the 2nd rounder, not only a projected late pick, but also expendable after the Hardaway trade. The Grizzlies, in turn, get a chance to take a flyer on somebody.
Winner: Atlanta, as Harper is likely to prove far more valuable to the Hawks than whoever Memphis picks will be to the Grizzlies

Toronto Raptors receive:
PF Chris Webber

Golden State Warriors receive:
PG Ennis Whatley
Toronto Raptors 1996 1st round pick

In a season marked by blockbuster deals, this ranks right up there with them. Webber is another amazing young talent that changes addresses and represents an upgrade over Chris Gatling, who now becomes in my eyes the single best 6th man in the NBA. Ennis Whatley would be a good point guard as a starter or backup on some teams, but not the Warriors, who already have Tim Hardaway and Randy Woods. Former Timberwolf Scott Roth now becomes the starter in California. Is any of this worth a late 1st rounder? No.
Winner: The East Conference franchise I love makes another stellar move and Golden State stabs their chances at developing into a good team in the heart again

Our Shaqless month began with an embarassing 19 point road loss to the Bucks that proved even Mullin scoring his usual 20+ points a night wouldn't be enough to keep us afloat.

A defensive 30 point victory over the inept Suns assured me that we were at least likely to hang on to the divison or stay close at absolute worst. Mullin scored 27 in that game, with Duane Causwell putting up 7 points and 11 rebounds in reserve time as we got our 40th win and actually moved ahead of the Houston Rockets for the #1 overall seed in the West.

We lost that lead when Houston clobbered us at home behind Hakeem's 20 points, 17 rebounds, and 3 blocks and Mark Price's 24 points. Dream abused Volkov and Causwell all night long, which I anticipated would happen.

Mullin dropped 36 on the Celtics to key a win versus Boston, Tyrone Corbin adding 10 from the bench. Our rebounding was horrendous without Shaq, as Detlef and Mullin were asked to carry the load. Alexander Volkov, despite all that he'd done for us while wearing the Blue and Green, just wasn't fit to be the starting man in the middle for any extended length of time anymore.

That didn't mean he couldn't still reach back and find something still there, as when he scored 10 and grabbed 12 boards in a walkover of the Grizzlies. Pooh had one of his infrequent shooting nights, piling on 33 points to go with Mullin's 20 and Detlef's double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds in our most complete team performance since Shaq got hurt.

Volkov scored 17 and grabbed 7 rebounds in our next game, a win against the Nuggets, joining forces with Detlef's second straight double-double, this one for 22 and 12, and Mullin's 26 points. It reminded me that even without Shaq, we were still a very good playoff team. It's just that with Shaq, we elevated into championship contenders.

A comeback win over the playoff contending Utah Jazz proved that, Mullin once more leading the way with 30 points, Pooh contributing 20 to the cause. The notion was further reaffirmed with a comfortable victory against Jordan and Rice's Bulls, Mullin scoring 36, Volkov 20 to go with Pooh's double-rare double of 12 points and 10 assists and 12 and 10 points respectively from benchmen Glenn Robinson and Tyrone Corbin.

Those who said Mullin was the best player on our team certainly had evidence to point to as both he and we stayed hot, our win streak continuing with the Nets as our next victims. Chris scored 31 and Volkov doubled with 14 in both points and rebounds. Not even the still very good Cleveland Cavaliers could stop us or him, for Mullin scored 28, Detlef had a familiar double-double good for 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Duane Causwell poured in 13 from subland to keep our amazing win streak alive going into the All-Star break.

Our first entry in the festivities was Mullin in the 3-point contest that also featured Glen Rice. Both of them advanced to the Finals, but neither one could topple the sharpshooting Bobcats' star guard, Dell Curry. Dell had gotten to be one of those players I really enjoyed watching play after his 1995 postseason success. Just a great, great one to see, both on the court and off, as he headed a children's charity in his free time.

Even with Grant Hill, the Rookies were expected to have no chance against a Sophomores team led by Sam Cassell, Chris Webber, and Anfernee Hardaway, but the first years came out fired up and stunned the second years 112-105. Harold Ellis, the New Yorks' 1st round pick at #14, scored 20 points with 5 rebounds and 2 steals from the bench to win MVP honors.

As you might expect, Chris Mullin started for the Western Conference All-Stars and in fact scored the game's first two points on his way to 14 for the night. The West asserted firmly its superiority over the East in a 132-110 game not even as close as the scoreline indicated. Charles Barkley, who Gregg told me was absolutely loving playing for Houston, took home the MVP award with 28 points and 10 rebounds.

Our first game after the All-Star Break was against the Clippers, which made it a game we had to win if we wanted to push them closer to the lottery. They'd been playing quite competitively since the trade and that concerned me. We beat them by 20 points in a game that was a lot closer than the score suggested, behind Tyrone Corbin's 28 points, Detlef's 26, and Glenn Robinson's 14 points and 7 rebounds from the bench against his old team.

But the trade deadline win proved extremely costly.

Chris Mullin, our All-Star, our offense, broke his wrist. Like Shaq, he was estimated out a month and a half.

I continued the tradition of post-game dinners from Tony with Horry, since he said he wanted to do that. He said he wasn't happy playing for the Clippers, as they'd sliced his minutes way down from what he'd gotten in Minneapolis. He told me he understood the trade was just business though and expressed hope that maybe one day he'd be able to come back to the Timberwolves.

It was certainly a possibility, in my opinion. But just then, despite the pleasant meal and conversation, I had more pressing worries on my mind.

Namely, where would our offense come from now?

I talked it over with Gregg and the team's medical staff. Shaq would be coming back in a little over two weeks. We decided that since he'd be returning then and we still had a double digit lead over the Sonics in the division, we would ride out the storm and use it as an opportunity to get Glenn Robinson more playing time to increase his development.

Scottie Pippen moved over to his natural position of small forward, the first time he'd started there in years, and Tyrone Corbin came off the bench to take the starting shooting guard spot, with Glenn as our 6th man.

As fate would have it, we played Tony's Sonics in our very next game.. and came from behind to win 105-104 in a heartpounder. Not even Magic Johnson's 28 points and 10 rebounds nor Shawn Kemp's 18 and 10 could beat Scottie's 24 points or the 12 and 13 respective bench points we got from Glenn and Avery Johnson.

Tony, who scored 8 points in limited shooting, ruefully remarked at supper after the game that only a team that I put together could overcome the loss of its two most potent offensive options and still manage to beat really good squads. Or maybe it was what Seattleites liked to glumly call "The Sonic Curse". All those good Supersonic teams of the early-mid 90s, always having to play bridesmaids to the Timberwolves, even when the odds were stacked in their favour. Even when they got a legend in Magic Johnson and put him up against a T-wolves team missing Shaquille O'Neal and Chris Mullin on the Sonics' home court.

Alexander Volkov put up 26 points and Detlef added 24 in a win against the Trailblazers, showing to that world that no matter what happened, we would find a way to get our points from somebody out there and our team's dazzling defense would take care of the rest.

That victory not only gave us our 50th win on the year, but also closed out the month for us.

We were 14 games ahead of the crushed Sonics. Houston ruled the Southwest by 15 and a half over the Spurs. Much to my glee, the Clippers were a half-game behind the Sacramento Kings.

In the East, the Raptors-Knicks battle swung the other way, with New York on top by half a game. Cleveland's resurgance coupled with Chicago's collapse meant the Cavaliers led the Central by a game, the Bulls two and a half back and the Pistons sandwiched in between the two. In the Southeast, the Hawks rode Anfernee Hardaway to a game and a half led over the Grant Hill-led Wizards.

But the best news of the month was in the top seed race.

We led the Rockets for the #1 seed in the West by four games.

[Izulde]

You might imagine that after the spate of trades and blockbuster ones at that, made in the last two months, that the last month for dealing would prove quiet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Six exchanges went down, and although none of them had the glamour of earlier moves, they are still worth telling about.

Washington Wizards receive:
C Zeljko Rebraca

Chicago Bulls receive:
SF Don Maclean

If there's one area the Wizards needed help in, it was finding frontcourt guys who can play lockdown defense. Rebraca, while not a demon on defense yet, is a tremendous upgrade even as a rookie and the #16 overall pick in the draft has the potential to become a legitimate starting center in the league. Maclean could become a scorer, something the Bulls love to have, but it's doubtful he'll fill out his potential, particularly as he's parked on the IR. Doesn't fill a need at all for Chicago, now or in the future.
Winner: Washington as they fill a big-time need and get an excellent prospect in the same guy

Seattle Sonics receive:
PF Antonio Davis

Memphis Grizzlies receive:
SG LaPhonso Ellis
Seattle Sonics 1996 2nd rounder

With Shawn Kemp playing hurt and absolutely nobody worthy of an NBA uniform behind him, Seattle desperately needed a quality backup and former Timberwolf Davis provides that. He won't score much, but he can rebound and defend fantastically. Ellis is 25 and has pretty much reached his ceiling, which isn't any higher than the average NBA player. Thanks to the Grizzlies' glut of swingmen, he sits on the IR. The second rounder is a flyer kind of pick.
Winner: Seattle fills a gaping hole and gets the win by a fair margin

Cleveland Cavaliers receive:
SF Michael Ansley

Philadelphia 76ers receive:
PG Chris Whitney
Cleveland Cavaliers 1996 1st rounder

Ansley is a scorer and arguably the best rebounding small forward in the entire league. Even better, at 27, some say he's still got upside. He'll always be a cipher on defense, but much like the Davis trade, he fills a tremendous bench void at his position. What's more, the Cavaliers now have the heir apparent to 34 year old Terry Teagle. Chris Whitney is an unremarkable second-year point guard, but he does give the 76ers much needed youth in the backcourt and the probable late 1st rounder will help add to their rebuilding efforts.
Winner: Cleveland, though the trade does benefit both teams

Washington Wizards receive:
PF Andres Guibert
New Jersey Nets 1996 2nd rounder

New Jersey Nets receive:
SF Scott Burrell

The reason this trade happens is because the Wizards resigned legend Bernard King after Grant Hill got knocked up with a wrist injury. Guibert can rebound, but that's it. Burrell is a low ceiling guy that's already been reached, but he plays superb defense and is only 24. Is the high 2nd round pick worth trading him away? In the short term, with King and Hill on the same team, yes. In the long term, New Jersey gets the better end of the deal.
Winner: New Jersey slightly due to projected better long term effects

Houston Rockets receive:
SG Sarunas Marciulionis

Golden State Warriors receive:
PG Sleepy Floyd
Houston Rockets 1996 1st rounder

The Rockets are clearly hunting for a second straight title defense as they go out and bag sharpshooter Marciulonis, reuniting him with Mitch Richmond in Houston. At this point, I'm scared that even with Shaq we won't have the firepower to combat Houston, no matter how clampdown our defense is. There is a major downside for the Rockets, however. In losing Floyd, they lose their security blanket at point guard. 35 year old Mitchell Wiggins turns into the primary backup at point guard now and even Shaq can pass better than he can. On the Warriors' end, Sleepy is 34 and becomes just another point guard on a roster chock full of great young backcourt talent. Getting the #29 or #30 pick is not enough compensation.
Winner: Houston narrowly, as getting Sarunas at far below market value trumps the danger of not having Floyd

Washington Wizards receive:
C Bill Wennington
Golden State Warriors 1996 2nd rounder

Golden State Warriors receive:
C Corie Blount
PF Tony Massenberg

The Warriors released Massenberg after the deal, so it boils down to yet another former Timberwolf and a probable high 2nd rounder for Blount. Wennington gives Washington a solid veteran bench player who can teach fellow new Wizard Rebraca the ropes, particularly on defense. Bill's playoff experience with us, including the ring from 1992, will help the team out as a whole. Blount is young and has potential to become a very good rebounder and defender, but the Warriors are a team that already have three young big men. Thus, another trade that just doesn't make sense for Golden State
Winners: Washington gets another front court defender and a shot at some more youth. Easily the most improved team in the NBA this season

Yes, the Wizards, Raptors, and Hawks all were East teams I really enjoyed. Atlanta as you know had a sustained reputation for good teams. Toronto built itself up into one of the top teams in the conference in a way that was pleasurable to watch and Washington made excellent use of their good fortune rebuilding their team to a fearsome squad in a single season.

We played those foolish Warriors first and beat them by 36, every starter breaking double digits, Volkov in front with 19 points. Avery Johnson had a nice all-around game from the bench with 10 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds and Glenn Robinson went 3-4 for 9 points in 11 minutes on the floor.

Our juggernaut kept right on rolling with a win over the Bucks, Pooh and Scottie scoring 25 a piece, Detlef's double-double good for 15 points and 11 boards. Avery chimed in with 15 points in reserve play and Glenn once more was 3-4, this time for 8 points in 10 minutes. I couldn't wait for the day when Robinson improved enough to get even more playing time. There was little doubt in my mind that he was Mullin's heir.

Pippen hit the 20 point mark again in scoring 28 as we snacked on the Celtics. Avery put up 18 and Glenn was a perfect 3-3 for 9 points in 11 minutes. Rodney Rodgers contributed 8 points himself, continuing his improved play as of late and the coaching staff was beginning to think he might grow to be able to replace Detlef after all.

Dell Curry scored 27 on us and Rony Seikaly double-doubled with 19 points and 12 rebounds, but we still topped the Bobcats as Detlef scored 23, Scottie added 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Avery contributed 11.

As we trounced the Heat in our next game, I couldn't help but be thankful that I hadn't traded for Laettner after all. Christian had struggled through much of the season and he continued to do so against us. For the second consecutive game, all five of our starters broke into double-digit scoring, Detlef and Pooh tops with 19 a piece. Avery's own double digit streak continued with 13 points, Duane Causwell scoring 10 himself as the reserves played well all-around.

Unfortunately, Scottie pulled a hamstring and Detlef picked up a concussion during that game. This led to feature the following lineup against the Magic the next day:

PG Pooh Richardson
SG Tyrone Corbin
SF Glenn Robinson
PF Alexander Volkov
C Duane Causwell

And so at last, our streak ended as we just couldn't come back enough and fell 100-90. Glenn scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, but also had an alarming 8 turnovers. Pooh scored 22 and our bench was abysmal.

We got a big boost when Shaq returned for the next game. Detlef would still be out for this game, but come back after that and Scottie wasn't due back for another week and a half. We vowed to press on.

Although Shaq only had 15 points and 9 rebounds in his first game back and showed signs of rust, just having him in the lineup electrified the rest of the team as we got back on track by throttling the Mavericks. Tyrone Corbin scored 21, Glenn dropped in 18 and took down 8 boards while passing out 5 assists and committing just a single turnover, and Avery returned to supersub form, contributing 16 points. Rodney Rodgers scored 10 himself and nabbed 7 rebounds besides.

Detlef returned to the lineup for our next contest, also against the Mavericks, and Volkov slid over to starting small forward. This time, Dallas got revenge, beating us soundly even despite the following double-doubles: Detlef 11 points, 12 rebounds, Volkov 13 points 11 rebounds, Pooh 14 points 11 assists. Avery dropped in 11 points as well, but the truth was, everyone shot terribly that night and Shaq looked even rustier than he had in the first game.

I wasn't concerned, though. I knew it'd only be a matter of time before Shaq found his sync again, which he did against the Spurs, scoring 26 and taking 13 rebounds with emphatic authority. Glenn had 10 points in the win and Rodney Rodgers suprised even himself with a 14 point, 10 rebound double-double, both career highs.

The deal I'd made with the Clippers was one I felt really great about after we beat the Grizzlies. Glenn and Rodney popped in 12 a piece to go with a litany of double-doubles, Detlef 24 points and 11 rebounds, Shaq 13 points 14 rebounds, Corbin 14 points 11 rebounds, and Pooh with 11 points and 11 assists. While Doug Christie looked more and more like he had no future with us, Robinson and Rodgers were proving to be excellent pickups in the short-term at least and of course I was salivating over the prospect of that possible lottery pick.

Terrell and Jalen were still chained to the IR for the Clippers, Horry still stuck mid-bench. The bright side for Brandon lay in the fact that there were a bunch of old guys ahead of him at point guard, so his chance to finally be an opening day starter would likely come in a couple years.

We faced the Rockets on our turf next and absolutely flattened them. Hakeem was still bothered by a foot injury and Shaq took advantage, double-doubling with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Volkov had a superb all-around game of 17 points, 11 points, and 6 rebounds and Pooh led all scorers with 29 in the points column.

Scottie returned for our game against Hubie's Hornets and they blindsided us with a 99-80 defeat, our 10th loss on the year, that I attributed to a hangover from the euphoria of our Rockets win.

Our 60th win of the season came at the expense of the Nets, thanks to Shaq's 24 points and 14 rebounds and Detlef's 20 points. Volkov scored 11 as well, in bench duty.

Pooh bailed us out of handing the Clippers their 30th win by scoring 27, teaming up with Shaq who scored 18 to go with 13 rebounds and 4 blocks in a game that was critical to our draft hopes.

We ended the month by squashing the toothless Lakers after Shaq put up 23 to go with Corbin's 22 and three of our bench players hit double figures, with 11, 15, and 14 points respectively coming from Volkov, Avery, and Rodney.

Thus as we prepared for the last month of the year, some things had settled themselves out mathematically. We, along with the Houston Rockets, clinched our divisions, ensuring that we would be 1-2 in some combination in the West's seeding. At present, we stood five games ahead the team tipped by virtually all to defend their title from the get go.

In the Pacific, much to my happiness, the Clippers stood a game and a half behind the Kings.

Virtually nothing was certain in the East. The Knicks expanded their lead over the Raptors to a game and a half. The Central was still anyone's game, with the Pistons a game ahead of the Pacers, a mere five games in front of the Bucks and Bulls, tied for last in the NBA's most exciting division. Only the Southeast provided even a glimmer of certainty, as Atlanta commanded the forefront by seven and a half games over the Bobcats. An atrocious road record spelled a record closer to .500 than the division lead for the surprisingly swooning Wizards.

In terms of who got into the playoffs, the West's top 5 seeds were more or less figured out in membership, though the ranking still had yet to be determined. It would be us, the Rockets, the Pacific "champion", the Jazz, and the Sonics in the top 5 in some order in all probability. The remaining three seeds invited something of a race, although the currently standing Hornets, Trailblazers, and Spurs all definitely had the inside edge.

Not so this certainty in the East, where everyone but the Celtics, 76ers, and Nets were poised to make noise to try and either improve their standing in the playoffs or sneak into the postseason. That's how close and competitive the East was that season.

If nothing else, the final month of regular season play would prove extremely exciting for fans of Eastern teams.

[Izulde]

I'd like to take a break now from telling you about the 1995 season to go back and look at the trades I made my first season in the league and see how they turned out five years after the fact. There were three of them and they formed the foundation for our team in a lot of ways.

A Look Back At 1990

Minnesota Timberwolves received:
SG Mitch Richmond
C Manute Bol
Golden State Warriors 1992 1st round pick

Golden State Warriors received:
C Gary Leonard
PF Scott Roth
Minnesota Timberwolves 1991 2nd rounder

Mitch as you know turned into the offensive star and franchise star we needed in the early years. He played a little over two seasons for us and led us to our first playoff berth in 1991, before he was traded to the Houston Rockets in 1992.

Manute Bol proved a good backup rebounding and blocking center for us for a little while and hung around the league for a bit more before he retired.

That 1st round selection, after a trade to move up, ended up being Terrell Brandon and you know how he turned out... A very finely performing backup point guard who unfortunately could never beat Pooh Richardson out for the starting job and ended up benched his last few games as a Timberwolf after angrily yelling at the coaching staff about his wanting more playing time.

Gary Leonard has been a horrible reserve for the Warriors the past several years.

Scott Roth made for an okay backup and is having a career year now, starting at power forward after the Webber trade. I'm sorry to say that I don't remember just who Golden State drafted with that extra second-rounder. All I know is that he's no longer with the team.

Five Year Winner: Minnesota by a tremendous margin. One of the best deals I ever made

Minnesota Timberwolves received:
PF Derrick McKey
PG Avery Johnson

Seattle Sonics received:
SG Doug West
SF Tony Campbell
Minnesota Timberwolves 1992 2nd round pick

Derrick McKey never did turn out like I hoped. He played for us for a season and a half, putting up disappointing numbers before signing with the Nets the next season and appearing in four games. 1993 proved his best year, when the Kings signed him to a one year deal and he appeared in 72 games as a top reserve, compiling a career best 8.8 points and 4.6 rebounds. Sacramento didn't resign him though, and he's played semi-pro ball since then. His chances of rejoining the NBA sadly look slim.

Avery Johnson didn't last long with us, getting traded to the Bucks the next year, but he played solidly as a reserve during that time and has now been traded back to us, where he's putting up even better minutes and numbers than before.

Doug West appeared in a total of 25 games over 2 and a 1/2 years for the Sonics and has been out of the NBA since 1992, though he's still hoping to get a call.

Tony, as I've told you often, became a star in Seattle, one of their most loved players and a two time All-Star to date. He consistently scores close to 20 points on average a year and will likely be a fixture for the Sonics until he retires, or at least I hope he is.

I'm sorry to note that much like the Warriors, I don't recall who the Sonics drafted with the second rounder, but whomever it was, they're not on the team any longer.

Five Year Winner: Seattle beat me in this deal, hands down. But it's not as bad as it looks here, for Avery Johnson turned out to be a critical piece of another trade, one that entrenched one of our starters for the last few seasons

Minnesota Timberwolves received:
SG Glen Rice
Miami Heat 1991 2nd round pick

Miami Heat received:
PF Donald Royal
SF Adrian Branch

Like Avery Johnson, Glen departed our team the next year in a deal that would prove critical to our future. In that short time, he showed flashes of ability and talent, but never developed into the top-tier guy I was hoping for. He still made the All-Rookie 1st Team in 1990, though and has turned out to be a solid player to have in your lineup, just not the upper echelon kind.

The second round pick we got was used to select Duane Causwell, who, much like Glen, never became the type of player I thought he'd be. He's been a decent backup for us, though, particularly after rejoining us in free agency this past offseason after two years in Atlanta, to whom he was dealt during the 1992 draft.

Adrian Branch had a forgettable half-year with the Heat and hasn't played in the league since the end of 1990. He's still playing semipro ball though and waiting for the phone to ring.

His fellow piece, Donald Royal, lasted much longer, playing three seasons in Miami as a reserve. While his numbers weren't phenomenal, he looked like he might finally be putting it together in 1992, averaging 6.1 points in 18 games from the bench. Unfortunately, the coaching staff didn't like him much by that point, so he wasn't resigned. Like Branch, he hasn't been in the league since that time. He's expected to formally retire soon.

Five Year Winner: Minnesota, as Rice proved a pivotal part of a trade the next season and we'd still have the edge even if Glen hadn't been dealt, because a quality starter is better than two scrub subs

Now that we've finished that little trip down memory lane, let's get back to the closing days of the 1995 regular season.

With 10 games left, we knew we'd get Mullin back right about the time the playoffs started, if not a little before. Gregg wanted him back in time to get a couple tune-up games in before the postseason to take the rust off, but only the doctors and Chris could decide that one for sure.

Pooh scored 30 and Detlef double-doubled with 17 points and 10 rebounds to carry us over the Suns in the first of the last ten. Gregg was furious, though, as we'd let a 22 point halftime lead slip away in the third quarter and we had to rely on some magical clutch shooting by Pooh to pull out the victory.

Detlef started a small double-double streak with 21 points and 12 rebounds in the next game, but nobody else came to play as we continued to struggle with our focus against subpar teams. This time, we lost to the Sacramento Kings. I wasn't too upset with the loss, if you want to know the truth. It ensured that the Clippers couldn't move into the division lead on that day at least.

Gregg, on the other hand, was livid and told the team they'd better get their collective heads out of their posteriors and start playing like a playoff team or we'd go home in the first round looking like the league's biggest donkeys. The boys responded by keeping their composure in a comeback win over the playoff-bound Jazz. Pooh broke the 30 point mark for the second time that month with 33. Shaq scored 28 and Scottie doubled this time, for 15 points and 12 boards. Volkov added 11 from the bench.

The relief proved only temporary as we dropped one against the Nuggets, Volkov's 10 points and 10 rebounds the only high point of the night. Everyone shot for garbage. It seemed to me that we were sorely missing our team captain on the floor. Or maybe it was just the team getting all the bad play out of their system, so as to be primed for the postseason. I silently hoped it'd be one or the other that would be rectified with the return of Mullin and our entry into the playoffs.

Shaq and Detlef combined for 10 points and 17 rebounds and 24 points and 10 rebounds repectively in the next game, but Shaquille couldn't hit anything from the floor that night and the Atlanta Hawks beat us at our own game, winning with solid defense and 28 points from Anfernee Hardaway and 24 from Dominique Wilkins.

For the first time in a long time, we'd lost two games in a row and I worried how it'd affect the team's morale. I began to wonder if maybe the people who considered Mullin our team's best player weren't right after all. What the issue even more critical was the fact that our star small forward was in the last year of his contract and I had some choices to make surrounding him.

And then two things happened all at once.

Our team captain came back and we played the pathetic Golden State Warriors.

Chris Mullin got a standing ovation from the home crowd as his name was announced in the starting lineup. The gleam in his eye told me that he'd come here to kick some serious Warrior tail.

And he did. 26 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and of all things, 2 dynamite blocks to net Player of the Game honors. Shaq found his rhythm again and added 21 points and 14 rebounds. Avery gleefully scored 17 from the bench as we destroyed Golden State by the amazing, new team-record score of 124-59.

A 65 point margin of victory. I don't remember if that record still holds. What I do know is that it was the most exciting, electrifying game we'd played all year and it came at just the right time.

I'd like to say we dominated and went into the playoffs on the momentum of a huge win streak after that, but we didn't. We fell to the Jazz despite Shaq's 31 points and Mullin's 20 the next game.

Then we barely withstood Tony Campbell's 29 points and nearly lost to the Sonics, only avoiding that fate thanks to Detlef's 14 and 14 and Shaq's 27 and 14. Glenn Robinson also got hurt during that game and was projected out a week and half, significantly weakening our bench.

Fortunately we squashed Hubie's Hornets by 30 behind Shaq's 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 blocks and beat the Spurs by nearly as many, San Antonio unable to withstand Shaq's 24 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 4 blocks or Mullin's 17 points and 10 assists. Volkov looked primed for the playoffs, too, in scoring 15 from the bench.

That small win streak at the end indicated we were getting our form back and starting to peak at the right time. More importantly, we clinched the top seed in the West.

But the sweetest news of all came from the Pacific Coast.

Sacramento won the division over the Clippers.

We had a lottery pick in next year's draft.

[Izulde]

The 1995 playoffs featured a lot of familiar names, but in some quite peculiar places. There was the sense on the air that anybody at all could advance out of the East, whereas nobody but the most optimistic of fans predicted anyone other than us or Houston from the West.

1995 East Conference First Round
(1) Atlanta vs (8) Chicago
(4) Toronto vs (5) Washington
(3) Detroit vs (6) Cleveland
(2) New York vs (7) Indiana

All the matchups were intriguing to me for one reason or another and in a lot of cases, picking who I thought would win proved difficult.

The Hawks looked primed to beat the Bulls. Anfernee Hardaway really elevated Atlanta to the next level with his all-round play and the Bulls were still relying on the old combination of Jordan and Rice.

It was unfortunate that the Raptors and the Wizards played each other in the first round. Without question, there was no closer pair of teams in the entire first round that season. In the end, I chose Washington. The Wizards had been to the playoffs three straight years before blipping in 1994 and they were hungry to prove themselves as a legitimate postseason team again. With Grant Hill, Jeff Malone, and Bernard King on that squad, they had more than enough firepower to combat the Raptors' trio of Sam Cassell, Chris Gatling, and Chris Webber. What really tipped it in the end was Cassell's probability of missing the first two games due to injury. In a razor-thin differential of talent between two teams in a series, a thing like that is often the difference maker.

Cleveland as underdogs. It was the first time since I'd been in the league that it'd happened that I can remember. And in all honesty, Las Vegas was right in listing them as such. Both ballclubs were veteran franchises, but the Pistons had some talented younger guys in Joe Dumars, Terry Mills and rookie Wesley Person and were a better franchise all around.

Mills was one of those players I'd never noticed much until then. Drafted in 1991 by Philadelphia with the #17 overall pick, he'd developed into a very gifted scorer with an amazing inside shot and good rebounding talents. His defense and ballhandling were passable as well and a lot of the scouts I talked to about him after that series told me that Terry reminded them of a younger Detlef. When I heard that, you can be sure I kept that piece of information tucked away in mind.

My hunch told me that Indiana was going to upset New York. The Knicks were old and had a lot of injury problems, including to their starting power forward Charles Oakley. Ewing was still one of the top 3 to 5 centers in the entire NBA, but Rik Smits would give him a stiff challenge on defense. The Pacers were simply younger and more importantly, healthier. They were hungry to win, too, as few people outside of me gave them a chance to win.

1995 West Conference First Round
(1) Minnesota vs (8) Denver
(4) Utah vs (5) Seattle
(3) Sacramento vs (6) Portland
(2) Houston vs (7) New Orleans

Tony Campbell's team once again appeared to be set for a date with us in the second round. Although the composite talent level of the Jazz and Sonics, like the Wizards and the Raptors, was relatively equal, Seattle's addition of Magic Johnson looked like the knockout punch they needed to send Utah home early.

Everyone picked the Trailblazers to win over the Kings as you can imagine. Everyone, that is, except me. Yes, Sacramento was 37-45 on the year and yes, they were only in the playoffs due to winning a terrible division, but the Kings featured a nice, balanced starting lineup as opposed to the Clyde Drexler-dependant Traiblazers and boasted a better bench than Portland's. The center matchup particularly favored the Kings and I anticipated Dikembe Mutombo was going to have a breakout series.

Concerning Hubie's Hornets and Mitch's Rockets, I'll just say that New Orleans had no chance in the most unfavourable matchup they could have gotten.

As for us, there was no question our talent level far exceeded the Nuggets', with the sole exception of point guard, where Gary Payton was better than Pooh in all honesty. I particularly wanted to win this series because Denver started Ron Harper at shooting guard and I'd never quite forgiven him for taking the ring we gave him in 1992 and refusing to even consider resigning with us.

Of course, the one thing that everyone conveniently forgot in predictions of a Minnesota sweep was that Denver beat us towards the end of the regular season and they did the same thing in Game 1 in Minneapolis. The crowd actually booed the team after the Nuggets went up by 12 in the second quarter. We caught up in the third, but Denver kept coming back themselves, and in the end, we couldn't make one last rally and fell 111-109 in a game we were truthfully dominated in.

Mullin scored 25 and Pooh had 14 points himself to go with 12 assists, but Shaq was invisible and the Nuggets ate us alive. Jerome Lane with 16 points and 17 rebounds, including the game-winning shot. Antoine Carr jumping us for 24 points and 13 rebounds. Gary Payton adding 23. The worst insult of all, Ron Harper, with 14 points and 10 assists.

After the game, Gregg locked the door to the locker room and refused to let any reporters in. I found out afterwards that he screamed at the team for an hour and a half and broke a water cooler besides. He'd gotten mad before, but as Detlef later admitted, "Chris and I'd been around the league for a long time and we'd never seen a coach get so furious as Coach Pop did that night. It was scary, man."

Frightening it may have been, but it worked as we went box-to-wire for a 10 point win in Game 2 to even the series. Mullin put in 25 for the second game in a row, Pooh contributed 14 points and 10 assists and Shaq came alive. The big man scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for a performance we needed. Oh yes, Detlef also doubled, with 13 points and 10 boards and Tyrone Corbin scored 14 from the bench.

Antoine Carr continued his masterful series with 28 points and 14 rebounds, but we shut down Gary Payton and to my pleasure, Ron Harper. The game wasn't without cost, though. Volkov injured his calf and was questionable for the rest of the series.

The blow to our bench made me nervous as we traveled to Denver for Game 3, but as he'd so often done before for us in times of crisis, Mullin came through in a big-time way, scoring 37 points as we steamrolled the Nuggets. Shaq double-doubled along with Detlef for 28 points and 12 rebounds and 11 points and 13 boards respectively. Corbin added 10 in reserve play for his second strong game. Gary Payton scored 21, but he was the lone Nugget to really do much of anything.

And then, once more, bad luck struck. Mullin got injured during that sensational performance and was estimated out for two weeks. The doctors told me that he hadn't felt the pain during the game due to an adrenaline high, but that the damage to his wrist was there and considerable.

Fired up by Mullin's absence, Denver came out to take an early lead in Game 4, highlighted by some beautiful shots by Antoine Carr, who would finish with 25 points and 10 rebounds on the night. What the Nuggets didn't count on was Shaq erupting for 32 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks or Detlef's 20 points and 9 rebounds. All five starters broke double digits in scoring in fact, including Tyrone Corbin with 18. Avery Johnson added 15 points to lead the subs in his first playoff game with double digits. We won going away, 115-103 and took home a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Avery broke that personal playoff points record the very next game as he scored 20 points in one of our finest reserve performances to that time. All of the first five hit the double-digit mark in scoring, led by Shaq's 25 points, 11 rebounds and Detlef's matching point total with one more rebound than our brilliant young center. Our defense destroyed Denver, and at the end buzzer, we stood as the series winners with a dominating 120-74 score to show for it.

We'd leapt over one hurdle in our quest to return to championship gold, but there were greater challenges lurking ahead. Regardless of who won the Utah-Seattle series, we were destined to face a much tougher opponent and the road beyond that looked certain to contain the defending champion Houston Rockets.

But I had faith in us.

[Izulde]

There were no sweeps in the first round of that 1995 season. In fact, ours was the shortest series at five games.

Detroit and Cleveland, Washington and Toronto, and Houston and New Orleans were the matchups to go for six. I was right in all three series.

Isiah Thomas's silky passing, Joe Dumars's splendid shooting, and Terry Mills's tough all-around scoring and rebounding overwhelmed the Cavaliers, who wasted a fine Curryesque performance from Kevin Johnson, he of the 25 points per game average.

An 0-2 hole proved too much for the Raptors to dig out of and even Sam Cassell's return in Game 3 couldn't save Toronto from losing the series to the Wizards. Washington's deadly one-two punch of Grant Hill and Jeff Malone combined for 50 points a game on average and the Wizards's superior bench, led by none other than former Timberwolf Bill Wennington, who averaged 10 points and 7 rebounds over the series, vastly outplayed the Raptor reserves.

Hubie's coaching wizardry was the only thing that kept the severely talent-deficient Hornets alive for six games against the Rockets. Charles Barkley and Mark Price did the same 50 point average tag-team that Hill and Malone did and Mitch Richmond electrified from the bench, averaging 17 points for the series. Add in that Price also displayed crisp and deadly passing to set up assists and Houston was looking as dangerous as advertised.

Of the four seven game series, the Bulls-Hawks one surprised me the most. Although Atlanta ultimately prevailed, they struggled to find consistency and rhythm on offense and Jordan almost singlehandedly toppled them.

One player who did beat an entire team by himself was Patrick Ewing, who carried the Knicks on his back and turned the 1-3 deficit against the Pacers into a 4-3 series win. Among his highlights were a 48 point, 20 rebound Game 3 performance and a 31 point, 20 rebound, 8 block performance in Game 6.

Ewing's line for the series: 33.9 ppg, 16.3 rpg, 3.6 bpg

It was the absolute most dominating postseason series performance in NBA history to that point and still ranks in everyone's Top 5 list at bare minimum. At 32, it was even more impressive, for many had been speculating over the last year or so that Patrick was losing a step or two. Not so according to that set of games.

I was quite smug after the Kings beat the Trailblazers. Everyone ruefully admitted my surprise pick turned out to be wise after all, as Sacramento dispatched Portland with balanced scoring and tough defense, rather like a certain other team you may have heard of from that era.

Bad luck bit the Sonics once more as they fell to the Jazz. Tony averaged 23 points for the series, including an incredible 43 in Game 2 and Magic came up with 20, but nobody else on Seattle could shoot the ball. Utah, on the other hand, rode Karl Marlone's 27 points and 14 rebounds per game average to victory, with just enough defense and contributions from everyone else to advance and complete the second round bracket.

1995 East Conference Second Round
(1) Atlanta vs (5) Washington
(3) Detroit vs (2) New York

After the first round against the Bulls, a lot of people predicted the Hawks would go down against the Wizards. I had to agree, as Washington looked extremely good and still very hungry, whereas Atlanta just didn't seem to have their focus or their offense in place.

Pistons versus Knicks was a lot tougher to call, but Detroit boasted a stronger team than the Pacers and not even Ewing could save New York in my mind, so the Pistons were my pick.

1995 West Conference Second Round
(1) Minnesota vs (4) Utah
(3) Sacramento vs (2) Houston

A rare thing when all of the top four seeds advanced to the second round, but it happened that year. Nobody thought the Kings stood a ghost of a chance against the Rockets and again, I agreed, although the series would no doubt be closer than the squash match against Hubie's Hornets.

We, on the other hand, did not enjoy such universal support. While most tipped us to advance, some prognosticators did not, pointing to the fact that we'd likely be missing Mullin for two to three games and our tendency to flounder without our team captain.

Gregg pinned some of the negative press up on the bulletin board and casually pointed it out to the team in the days before the game. Shaq and Tyrone in particular got mad and went out to be the differencemakers in Game 1, as Shaq scored 29 and took down 15 boards and rejected 5 shot shots and Corbin broke out a cool 17 points and 10 rebounds to go with some stellar defense. We shut down the Jazz, allowing Karl Malone 22 points, but the Mailman was the only one to deliver that game.

A 20 point halftime lead was all we needed in Game 2 as Shaq put up 30 points and 12 rebounds to counteract Karl Malone's impressive 20 points and 25 boards and get the win. Outside of the two titans, nobody on either team did much, though Avery did score 10 off the bench.

Terrible shooting by everyone but Shaq, who scored 28 along with his 14 rebounds, doomed us to a Game 3 loss in Utah. The Mailman led the Jazz charge with 34 points and 10 rebounds, unheralded reserve Dana Barros breaking out with a greatly unexpected 28 points.

Mullin returned in Game 4, we shot out of the gates with an 11-0 lead, and Karl Malone was the only Jazz with a hot hand. That tells the tale of our critical third win. Chris scored 23, Shaq 21 with 14 boards. While Malone scored 31 and grabbed 11 rebounds, the rest of Utah's team slumped much like we had in Game 3.

The Jazz were singing the blues after that Game 4 defeat. Their morale broken, we beat them soundly in Game 5 in Minneapolis to take the series. Mullin and Shaq led the way with 26 and 25 points respectively, Volkov contributing 10 as a reserve. Once more the Mailman tried valiantly to carry his team, but 23 points and 20 rebounds just wasn't enough to save Utah.

And so for the fourth consecutive year, we advanced to the Western Conference finals.

We were healthy for once and in pretty good form, but our greatest test and a familiar foe awaited us.

For once again, the turbocharged Houston Rockets lay in wait, ready to blast our championship hopes to the moon.

[Izulde]

As I said earlier, the Rockets were our opponents for the Western Conference crown in a rematch of 1994. They'd downed the Kings in five games behind the four-headed monster of Mark Price, Sarunas Marciulionis, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem. Our defense was going to have a lot of firepower to try and snuff out.

The Hawks beat the Wizards in six despite a masterful 30 point average series from rookie Grant Hill, relying largely on Kevin Willis and Dominique Wilkins's fantastic all-around series. That Atlanta managed to win despite losing Anfernee Hardaway for the series in Game 1 showed that this was a team that continued to be very underrated in terms of how good they were.

Detroit and New York took the full seven games to decide the winner and the Pistons came out on top thanks to their extremely talented backcourt of Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas, who each put up 20+ points on average for the series. Terry Mills, who I liked the more and more I saw of him, averaged a double-double for the round. What became clear to me as I watched the games was that the Knicks lived and died by Ewing. The 30 points and 12 rebounds a game he averaged in the series in too many cases made up the bulk of their offense. Once he retired, New York was going to crash and burn into being one of the league's worst teams.

1995 East Conference Finals
(1) Atlanta vs (3) Detroit

If Anfernee wasn't coming back, I would without question call the Pistons the winners, but his return to the lineup gave me pause for consideration. In the end though, I still couldn't go against Detroit's experienced lineup. In particular, I felt Mills was going to break out, being matched up against Tony Farmer, a late 1st round rookie who'd been having a surprisingly great first year for someone who wasn't expected to do much at all.

1995 West Conference Finals
(1) Minnesota vs (2) Houston

And so here it came again. The league's most explosive offense versus the league's most ironclad defense. Only one would survive. Most of the world, fans, press, what have you, were calling this the real NBA championship series and I couldn't blame them for that line of thinking. As I've said before, the West was clearly dominant to the East in those days.

But then a funny thing happened in Game 1 in Minneapolis. We were the ones who came out with the golden shooting touch. Shaq had 23 points by halftime alone en route to a 32 point, 14 rebound, 7 block night and everything we put up, we made just about, as we rolled to a critical 136-98 opening win. Pooh put in 16 points and 13 assists, Mullin scored 22, and Tyrone Corbin was 8-9 for 23 points from the bench.

On the Houston side, Barkley, Sarunas, and Mark Price all exceeded 20 points, but Hakeem was hampered by foul trouble and Mitch contributed just 10 points in sub time.

The jubiliance of our victory became muted, however, when we received word that Avery Johnson had torn his ACL and was going to be out for more or less the entire 1996 season. Suddenly our security blanket at point guard was gone. Shaq and Mark Price also were injured, putting the series on the Rockets' favour.

In Houston's favor until Shaq announced that he was going to keep playing, regardless of the injury to his hand. Last year's agony wouldn't happen again under his watch.

So we entered Game 2 with a fiercely optimistic spirit, Mitch Richmond taking Mark Price's place in the starting five. Our former star had his revenge, as the Rockets were the one to go box-to-wire, turning a 4-0 lead into a 20 point victory and a tied series.

Mitch had 13 points and 11 assists and Sarunas scored 27, the former Golden State teammates uniting to beat us handily in the low-scoring contest. It gave me pause then and made me wonder just how good that Warriors team might've been if they hadn't dealt away all their good players so often and repeatedly turned themselves into the laughingstocks of the NBA.

We headed to Houston for Game 3 and our offense woke up after being completely dead in Game 2. What resulted was a tense see-saw battle that saw 25 lead changes and 14 ties before we at last broke away in the waning minutes to seize the victory and the all-important 2-1 lead.

Shaq only played 11 minutes, as his hand was really bothering him, but Volkov stepped up as he often did in the postseason to put in 18 points playing the bulk of the center minutes. Detlef contributed 25 and Mullin added 20.

What most fascinated me about the early games of that series was that even when Hakeem didn't have foul trouble, as in Game 3, he still didn't factor in as a major part of the Rockets' plans. Instead, it was Sarunas scoring 20 again and Barkley leading all scorers with 27. I had the distinct sensation if Hakeem ever did snap out of his cold streak, the series would be game, set, match Rockets.

We broke out to a 6-0 lead in Game 4 and never let up, although we did have a serious fright in the second half as Houston repeatedly rallied to shave our 17 point halftime lead into single digits in the third and fourth quarter and nearly tied it several times. Fortunately we withstood their challenge and came out on top to push the Rockets to the brink of elimination.

Detlef again came through in a big way, scoring 21 points. Volkov scored 16 after stepping in at center again for Shaq, who managed to score 8 points in 12 minutes at least. Otherwise, it was a case of our balanced team scoring and solid defense that were the hallmarks of the Timberwolf Way.

That isn't to say the Rockets were totally helpless. Mitch scored 22 to match Sir Charles and Kenny Williams had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Tim McCormick and Steve Smith scored 12 and 10 points respectively as reserves. But Hakeem was once more neutralized, although he did collect double digit rebounds as he had through most of the series. Gregg and his boys really drew up their game plan with the intent of stopping Hakeem, especially with Shaq chained to restricted minutes until his hand healed.

Back home in Minneapolis for Game 5, we really wanted to slam the door on the series in front of the partisan crowds, particularly since the Eastern Conference champion was crowned in the early game that night. No, I'm not going to tell you who it was just yet. You'll have to wait and see.

As for us, our series clincher didn't happen. Sir Charles started the game with a three-pointer and Hakeem woke up. We tried again and again to rally, but we could get no closer than single digits a few times in a cruel mirror image of Game 4. Hakeem finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 7 blocks to be largely responsible for putting us away. Sarunas scored his usual 20 and Mitch added 12 from reserves, for Mark Price once again rejoined the Rockets. Detlef was the lone bright point for us, scoring 24.

With great consternation, we went to Houston for Game 6. After the game started with a 10-0 Rockets run and we were down by 17 at the half, I began thinking of plans for the offseason as we were playing horribly and getting beaten in every facet of the game.

Then the miracle happened.

We came out in the second half and went on a scoring torrent, our defense suddenly coming alive again. We pulled even early in the fourth quarter and blew the doors off of their repeat title dreams the rest of the way, winning going away.

To this day I still call it one of the greatest games in Timberwolves history. Shaq fought through the pain in his hand to play most of the game, scoring 23 points. Detlef doubled with 10 points and 11 rebounds and all five of our starters had at least 10 points in scoring. Tyrone Corbin, our most underrated sub even in the front office, scored 13 from the bench and spearheaded our stalwart second-half defense.

For the stunned Rockets, Sarunas scored 21 and Mitch added 12 in reserve time, but the rest of the squad just fell apart in that second half. They'd put up a valiant effort all series long, but our coaching staff and our players simply outsmarted and outhustled them at the end.

As our players celebrated on court and the coaches did the same in their own fashion on the sidelines, I couldn't help but smile from my seat.

We'd gotten our revenge and returned to our rightful place, the NBA Finals.

Now one team was all that stood between us and our third NBA championship.

[Izulde]

The Atlanta Hawks stunned the Detroit Pistons in five games, led by Dominique Wilkins, who averaged 23 points in the championship series, Kevin Willis of the 15 point, 13 rebound average and Anfernee Hardaway, who played the major role that I expected he would in contributing 21 points a game on average.

And so we had a rematch of the 1992 NBA Finals on tap. Each team still had a player from the Volkov trade, Alexander on our side and Tyrone Hill, who'd turned into a stopper on the Hawks bench for Atlanta.

We were universally tipped to win back our championship and go two for two against the Hawks in Finals series, but I knew Atlanta was a far more dangerous team than people gave them credit for. Certainly the 1995 Hawks were a lot better squad than the 1992 version and Anfernee made all the difference in that regard.

Game 1 showed just how right I was when the Hawks, despite missing Dominique Wilkins due to an injury, held a 6 point lead at halftime and rallied to take back the lead late in the fourth quarter after we caught them before falling 85-79 in the lowest scoring game in NBA Finals history. That scoreline should come as no real surprise, however. Both teams were built on the same model, for Atlanta had come to rely on the Timberwolf Way as their guiding principle following the 1992 Finals.

Detlef led all scorers with 19 points, including a game-opening 3 pointer. Volkov did us proud against his former team with 11 points and 7 rebounds coming off the bench.

Dominique Wilkins came back in Game 2 and although we recovered a 12 point halftime deficit to go up by four, Atlanta came charging right back and pulled away with the win to even the series, 105-98. Mini-guard Spud Webb guided the Hawks with 21 points and reserve Bison Dele, a former 1993 1st round selection of the Boston Celtics, erupted with an astonishing 21 points and 13 rebounds.

As far as we went, Shaq and Detlef doubled with 15 points and 11 rebounds and 16 points and 10 rebounds respectively. Corbin and Volkov contributed 17 and 11 points as our respective top bench players, but it just wasn't enough to prevent the Hawks from giving air to their own dreams of championship and revenge.

Game 3 in Atlanta featured what was fast becoming a trademark of the Series, namely us going into halftime behind, this time by eight points. We took the lead back midway through the fourth quarter though and this time managed to hang on for the 104-98 win and the crucial 2-1 series lead.

Shaq scored 22 points to go with his 10 rebounds and 4 blocks and Detlef double-doubled again with 16 points and 11 rebounds. One thing that greatly concerned me was that Scottie Pippen continued to struggle with his shooting as he had virtually all postseason. The one good thing about his play and it was a critical one, was that he'd shut down Anfernee Hardaway all series long.

Dominique Wilkins finally broke out for the Hawks, leading his team with 22 points, but there wasn't enough other offense to be able to topple us.

Chris Mullin snapped out of his slump in Game 4 by scoring 28 points and we at last had a halftime lead, albeit a single point. Unfortunately we fell apart in the waning minutes of the game and lost a close one, 98-94. Shaq doubled with 16 points and 14 rebounds and Corbin scored 11 in reserve time, but Detlef couldn't hit anything all night long.

Spud Webb came through for the Hawks again, scoring 22 points. Kevin Willis scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, those two combining with 6th man Doc Rivers, who scored 16, to counteract horrendous shooting nights by Anfernee Hardaway and Dominique Wilkins.

Danger came in Game 5. With the Series tied, we lost Scottie for the game after his injury in Game 4. At least we had another defensive wizard in Tyrone Corbin to put on Anfernee Hardaway. That didn't prevent him from finally busting out with 26 points, however, or from his team preventing us from rallying against a five point halftime deficit. Domique Wilkins scored 28 points as well, and Atlanta trounced us to take the imperative 3-2 series lead.

Now our backs were against the wall. We had to win the next two games or we could say goodbye to our third title.

We returned to Minneapolis for Game 6 and feverently welcomed Scottie back to the lineup. It was a dogfight right to the bitter end, our single-point halftime lead the margin of victory in a 109-108 win that was unquestionably the most thrilling game in an already exciting Finals.

Shaq exploded for 38 points, Detlef contributed 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Pooh doubled himself with 19 points, 11 assists.

Dominique Wilkins countered Shaq with 31 points of his own and Doc Rivers and Bison Dele scored 12 and 13 points respectively in reserve time, but we managed to hold the Hawks off and force a Game 7 to decide it all.

Game 7. Our third title on the line. Playing in our home court. If we won, it would be a fairytale ending.

It was an epic game. Our defense shut the Hawks down the entire first half to go into the first half up by 16. Atlanta came soaring back in the third quarter and at the start of the fourth, it was all tied up, 71-71. We battled back and forth, but in the end, a clutch shot at the buzzer by Detlef, who'd been a hero before, secured the win and we triumphed, 92-89.

The fans deleriously danced in the stands and I rushed down on the court to join the team. At last, we had the third title denied to us last year. This championship felt sweeter than the prior two. We'd beaten a top quality opponent, our mirror image, fought back from a 3-2 deficit, and overcome injuries to our top two players in the regular season.

Shaq, the Finals MVP, scored 31 points with 20 rebounds and 4 blocks that night. Our clutch man, Detlef, finished with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Dominique Wilkins scored 25 for the Hawks in a terrific effort for Atlanta.

As I made my way onto the court, big Shaq lifted me up, laughing. "Go cut down that net, Mr. Arcadia. It's because of you that I'm here today and not stuck in Phoenix, where I'd have no chance at a championship."

And so, with Shaquille, my franchise center holding me up, I reached out with shaking hands to cut away the strands of the net, the white cords falling on top of my 40 year old shoulders.

I clutched the freed net, held it aloft, and shouted, "Three-time NBA Champion Minnesota Timberwolves!" The crowd, coaches, and players roared their approval and I smiled at this dream come true, blinking back the tears of joy.

The gleaming silver globe handed to me five minutes later was more beautiful and lighter than any of its predecessors.

Three-time NBA champions. All under my watch. 1992, 1993, 1995. Three titles in four years and this with a team that was an expansion franchise in 1990. Could any other GM in the history of sports make such a claim?

Still, as I stood there under the confetti and the celebrations, I began to feel a hunger and wanderlust grow inside of me. I'd built this team from expansion franchise into an annual championship contender. But I'd had the advantage of being under the salary cap when I started, with players that teams were definitely interested in. My fellow GMs weren't as wary of being beaten by me at the negotiating table, taking me for a rookie who didn't know the NBA ropes.

And so it was right then that I first pondered the idea of leaving the Timberwolves.

[Izulde]

After several discussions with Gregg and the new owner, who was extremely pleased with the ring in his first year with the team, I decided to stay on for one more season. We had an understanding that it was by no means certain that I'd stay beyond then, even if we defended our title.

Although, truth be told, I had the feeling afterwards that if we did defend our title, I'd have to stick around to see if we could claim a third straight championship to make up for the one taken from us by Houston.

The standings and statistics for 1995:






Regular season statistics.


Playoff statistics.

The NBA Awards Ceremony likely would be short on Timberwolves, even though we'd won the title. That's how it seemed to go with us. When we were champions, we got robbed of recognition. The year the Rockets beat us, the awards poured in.

MVP
Karl Malone - Utah Jazz
27.0 ppg 3.1 apg 10.6 rpg 0.9 bpg 1.4 spg

Defensive Player of the Year
Patrick Ewing - New York Knicks
25.8 ppg 2.1 apg 11.4 rpg 2.8 bpg 1.0 spg

6th Man of the Year
Harvey Grant - Miami Heat
12.7 ppg 1.7 apg 4.6 rpg 0.5 bpg 1.1 spg

Rookie of the Year
Grant Hill - Washington Wizards
21.6 ppg 3.7 apg 6.5 rpg 0.6 bpg 1.6 spg

Coach of the Year
John Macleod - Houston Rockets

All-League First Team
PG Mark Price - Houston Rockets
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Charles Barkley - Houston Rockets
PF Karl Malone - Utah Jazz
C Patrick Ewing - New York Knicks

All-League Second Team
PG Gary Payton - Denver Nuggets
SG Magic Johnson - Seattle Sonics
SF Ricky Pierce - Milwaukee Bucks
PF Antoine Carr - Denver Nuggets
C David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs

All-League Third Team
PG Terry Porter - Portland Trailblazers
SG Reggie Lewis - Philadelphia 76ers
SF Grant Hill - Washington Wizards
PF Clarence Witherspoon - Indiana Pacers
C Hakeem Olajuwon - Houston Rockets

All-Defense First Team
PG Nate McMillan - Seattle Sonics
SG Michael Jordan - Chicago Bulls
SF Charles Barkley - Houston Rockets
PF Karl Malone - Utah Jazz
C Patrick Ewing - New York Knicks

All-Defense Second Team
PG Mark Jackson - New York Knicks
SG Clyde Drexler - Portland Trailblazers
SF Scottie Pippen - Minnesota Timberwolves
PF Clarence Weatherspoon - Indiana Pacers
C David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs

All-Rookie First Team
PG B.J. Tyler - Indiana Pacers
SG Eddie Jones - Sacramento Kings
SF Grant Hill - Washington Wizards
PF Carlos Rogers - New Orleans Hornets
C Tony Farmer - Atlanta Hawks

All-Rookie Second Team
PG Gerald Madkins - Cleveland Cavaliers
SG Wesley Person - Detroit Pistons
SF Glenn Robinson - Minnesota Timberwolves
PF Donyell Marshall - New Jersey Nets
C Dontonio Wingfield - L.A. Lakers

A second team defense mention and a second team rookie mention. That was it.

Much of the national press criticized the year's awards, particularly Malone as MVP, Macleod as Coach of the Year, and Grant Hill over Chris Mullin at the NBA Third Team small forward spot.

As one columnist wrote concerning the Coach of the Year controversy, "With all due respect to John Macleod, he had two All-NBA First Teamers in his starting lineup. Gregg Popovich of Minnesota had just one All-NBA player in Chris Mullin and a borderline All-NBA case in Shaquille O'Neal. To diminish the Timberwolves' title by this stunning lack of respect is appalling and if John Macleod has any sense of decency, he'll give up his award to the man who really deserves it, Coach Popovich."

Naturally, Macleod didn't, but there was an overwhelming majority opinion that the awards voters screwed up royally on a lot of things that year and I'm inclined to agree, even now, although in all honesty, a case could be made for Grant's selection over Mullin for the third team that year.

The outrage eventually died down, right about the time of the draft lottery. As always, there was much anticipation over how the balls would fall, particularly in our case.

If things held to form, we would have the 8th pick in the draft. Of course I wanted us to move up, but even staying put with a top 10 selection was fine by me.

There was no change in picks 14-9. Then our turn came up and all was tension in our offices at the Target Arena.

A moment passed, then two... then three...

And the black and blue image of the Timberwolves came up.

We'd stayed at #8.

I certainly didn't mind. It was better than falling and with two first rounders, if we saw a franchise player we wanted, we could very likely trade up to get him.

1996 Lottery Results
1. New Jersey Nets (+2)
2. Phoenix Suns (+2)
3. Philadelphia 76ers (+2)
4. Golden State Warriors (-3)
5. L.A. Lakers (-3)
6. Memphis Grizzlies (+0)
7. Boston Celtics (+0)
8. Minnesota Timberwolves (+0)
9. Dallas Mavericks (+0)
10. Orlando Magic (+0)
11. Charlotte Bobcats (+0)
12. San Antonio Spurs (+0)
13. Milwaukee Bucks (+0)
14. Miami Heat (+0)

I must confess I smiled when I saw the Lakers and the Warriors each drop three places. I've never gotten over my distaste for the Purple and Gold's arrogance or their too-long obsession with Maurice Martin in center. Dontonio Wingfield was no great shakes either, but he was a far sight better than Martin even as a rookie.

As for the Warriors, they were the most poorly run organization in the entire NBA. Every time they started building a promising foundation, they dealt away their young stars in the making for garbage.

To this day I don't feel bad for having been a part of that. Being an NBA GM is like being part of a wolfpack. Power and leadership belongs to the fittest.

And I, along with the Timberwolves, were among the fittest in the mid-90s, with the potential to ensure a level of domination that not even the old alphas, the Celtics and the Lakers, could dream of approaching.

[Izulde]

Phil Jackson - Phoenix Suns
Rudy Tomjanovich - Orlando Magic
Rex Hughes - L.A. Lakers
Larry Brown - Boston Celtics
Mike Fratello - New Jersey Nets
Willis Reed - Golden State Warriors

It was a relatively stable year as far as head coaching changes went as you can see from that list.

Larry Brown looked like a good fit to restore the Celtics to glory and Willis Reed appeared an excellent choice for the ever-young Warriors. The Magic got a big-time steal in Rudy T, but I was much less enamoured with Phil Jackson in Phoenix. While a talented coach, he needed a veteran team and I didn't really see that in the Suns, particularly not with a potential franchise player at #2 overall. Fratello made a fine coach for the Nets and Rex Hughes fascinated me for the Lakers. A rookie head coach, he looked like he had the skills to make an immediate impact on a fallen franchise.

The consensus top two players in the draft that year were 19 year old Kevin Garnett, a high schooler who had pro ball game, and Antonio McDyess out of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Scouts considered McDyess the safer pick, Garnett the sexier one. Both were power forwards, a position I no longer had my future backup in.

Projections that year indicated we would take SG Michael Finley from the neighboring state Wisconsin Badgers with the #8 pick and PF Alan Henderson, late of the Indiana Hoosiers with the last pick in the first round. They were right about my looking hard at PF and SG at least, particularly PF. I also wanted to find a suitable third PG that could potentially be groomed to replace Pooh, though given the weakness of the point guard crop in that year's draft, I didn't have that as my first priority.

After getting the reports back from the scouting team, it was clear that Kevin Garnett was the best player out of everyone we looked at. Antonio McDyess was so overrated according to our scouts that they had Michael Finley and Brent Barry ahead of him.

I called the Nets and offered them the #8 and #30 selections for the #1 overall pick in hopes of landing Garnett. With three second round picks in the draft, I had ample opportunity to go for the late 1st/early second guys I liked. But New Jersey remembered too well the lessons from the Suns and said no deal, no matter what I tried.

So I decided to sit back and see how the draft played out. There was a very strong possibility that we could end up trading down or out of the first round entirely, as after Garnett and Finley there wasn't anybody that I wanted that high up in the draft.

1996 First Round Draft Picks
1. PF Kevin Garnett - New Jersey Nets
2. PF Antonio McDyess - Phoenix Suns
3. C Greg Ostertag - Philadelphia 76ers

Garnett and McDyess went 1-2 as anticipated, but the Ostertag pick at #3 floored everyone and not in a good way. We'd brought Greg in for a look ourselves and considered him a good 2nd round pick. #3 overall? Not a snowball's chance in you know where.

4. SF Corliss Willamson - Golden State Warriors
5. SG Michael Finley - L.A. Lakers

We now had ourselves a problem. The Purple and Gold stabbed me in the back and gave me even more reason to hate them by drafting the one player I hoped would slot in where the mock draft predicted him. After we all swore and cursed the Lakers in the war room, I informed my staff that we wouldn't panic with trading right away, but instead sit tight and see what developed.

6. PG Damon Stoudamire - Memphis Grizzlies
7. SF Mark Davis - Boston Celtics

There was one guy we really, really liked, but not at #8 in the draft, so I hit the phones to discuss a deal with fellow GMs around the league. In the end, though, no one would trade with me. They didn't want to see the already rich Minnesota Timberwolves become even wealthier.

So I closed my eyes and called in the one guy left we knew we really wanted. I knew I'd be booed, but I was not going to waste a first round selection on someone I didn't want, even if he was worthy of going there talentwise. The Timberwolf Way must be adhered to at all costs.

8. PG Eric Snow - Minnesota Timberwolves

The fans were furious and the analysts called the pick an insane one, but I had faith it would turn out. Snow worked his tail off and had a terrific personality. It didn't seem then that he even had first round talent, let alone a lottery player's ability, but I had faith in him and in Gregg's staff to justify me in the end.

9. SG Jerry Stackhouse - Dallas Mavericks
10. PF Joe Smith - Orlando Magic
11. PG Trevor Ruffin - Charlotte Bobcats
12. SG Lawrence Moten - San Antonio Spurs
13. PF Alan Henderson - Milwaukee Bucks
14. PF Kurt Thomas - Miami Heat
15. PG Ryan Lorthridge - Sacramento Kings
16. PF Rasheed Wallace - Denver Nuggets
17. SF Eric Williams - New Orleans Hornets
18. C Theo Ratliff - Chicago Bulls
19. C Bryant Reeves - Portland Trailblazers
20. PG Tyus Edney - Philadelphia 76ers
21. PG Chris Childs - Indiana Pacers
22. PG Travis Best - Detroit Pistons
23. C Mario Bennett - Seattle Sonics
24. PG Darrick Martin - Washington Wizards
25. PF Reggie Slater - Golden State Warriors
26. PG Askia Jones - New York Knicks
27. PF Gary Trent - Utah Jazz
28. PF Junior Burrough - Atlanta Hawks
29. C Mark Strickland - Golden State Warriors
30. PF Jason Caffey - Minnesota Timberwolves

I knew Caffey wasn't the heir apparent to Detlef by any means, but he was the best option left out of the players we'd scouted. Brent Barry was still on the board, but he had a horrible attitude and a lousy work ethic, or we would've taken him at #8. The fans and the analysts loved the Caffey pick at least.

Barry went to Memphis with the 2nd pick in the 2nd round.

With three second rounders and all of our scouted players taken by the time the first one of ours came along, it was time to throw out three flyers. Just for the fun of it, I let Gregg pick our first second round guy and he chose C Clifford Rozier, even though I personally would have chosen Andrew DeClercq out of Florida.

DeClercq was still available with our second pick of the round, so I went ahead and grabbed him over Gregg's playful objections. The truth was we needed a new backup C anyway, as Causwell was mediocre at best and Volkov was getting up there in years. A little competition never hurt anyone to my mind. I teased Gregg considerably after the talking heads lauded my DeClercq selection after the lukewarm reception they gave to the Rozier nod.

With the last pick in the draft, we took SG Dejan Bodiroga from the Italian club Stefonel-Milan. I liked having foreign players on the team to expose the mostly American squad of ours to other cultures and we'd certainly done well with the German Detlef.

In our post-draft evaluations, Snow looked like a textbook future point guard with regards to our system. Caffey looked okay, but Rodney Rodgers was much more the heir at power forward than Jason was. In the battle between our rookie centers, Rozier was a lot more polished, but DeClercq possessed considerably more upside. Bodiroga appeared what he was, the last pick in the draft.

If we signed all of our second round draft picks, we would have the full 15 on the roster and be unable to sign Mullin, Avery Johnson, or even Doug Christie, who were all free agents. I couldn't have that, so I signed Gregg's beloved Rozier to a two year deal and left the other two unsigned.

Antonio McDyess surprised everyone by taking MVP honors in the Summer League. Of our young contingent, Eric Snow and Jason Caffey both improved tremendously, DeClercq and Rozier were mixed bags and Bodiroga washed out.

Bodiroga and DeClercq were cut following the summer league, leaving us with 13 players and the ability to re-sign Mullin and one other player, but likely not Johnson, who was going to be out for most, if not all of the season with an injury and by the time he returned, we'd hoped Snow would be more than ready to take over.

At the start of free agency, Mullin came and told us he wanted $15.4 mill a year for four years. We countered with $13 million a year for four years. He took some time to think it over, but in the end agreed to sign the contract. It really was fair to both sides in my opinion.

Our biggest signing taken care of, we were now free to pick through the free agent pile and see if anyone else looked interesting. A couple of possible guards caught my eye, but nobody that I thought it imperative to get.

As the days of free agency went by, I came to like Spudd Webb more and more. The lifelong Hawk had always played well against us and he was the perfect veteran replacement for Johnson as our top backup, so I offered him a one year mid-level exemption. He rejected it in favor of a five-year mid-level deal from the Indiana Pacers.

After that deal fell through, I became interested in Greg Anthony, a 26 year old PG who looked to be a good fit for us in terms of his skill set. Yes, he was notorious for being not the most loyal sort and he'd been unhappy in Detroit despite being a fairly integral piece on a winning franchise, but I believed him worth the gamble and so offered him a two year mid-level exemption deal.

He signed the next day.

In other notable free agency news that year, Terrell Brandon resigned with the Clippers and the Houston Rockets picked up another high quality player in PF Clarence Weatherspoon, the former Pacer coming off an All-NBA Third Team, All-Defense Second team season. Kendall Gill also joined our main West Conference rivals.

Fat Lever stayed in Toronto for another year, Magic in Seattle for the same span of time. Terrell Brandon re-upped with the Clippers, much to my surprise, and for six years at that.

Coming out of training camp, for the very first time, none of the rookies broke the rotation, but all ended up on the IR. Gregg didn't think any of them were ready and in truth I agreed with him.

The lineup didn't change at all from the prior years. We were still running the Pooh-Scottie-Chris-Detlef-Shaq starting five, but it's hard to argue with that set when you consider the rings we'd won.

A repeat title didn't seem out of reach at all and many publications predicted we would do just that.

As the season opened, I could only hope that they were right.

[Izulde]

We began our title defense against the team I loved to hate, the Purple and Gold. I especially wanted to beat them that year after they stole Michael Finley from us. The rookie was starting at shooting guard and while he didn't remind anyone of Magic, he was still a very good player.

Shaq served notice that he was better than he'd ever been in tearing about the Lakers for 24 points at halftime in a 118-75 crushing with us in the triple digits. He finished with 41 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block. Glenn Robinson scored 13 points in as many minutes and really looked improved from his rookie season. Finley finished with 6 points as the Lakers offense looked absolutely lost, James Worthy their high scorer at 14.

We romped over the Denver Nuggets in the second game, Shaq once again ripping into the offense and posting a final line of 26 points and 14 rebounds, Detlef joining him on the double-double fest with 18 points and 10 boards. All five of our starters broke into double-digit scoring and Greg Anthony added 13 from the floor, a total matched by original Timberwolf Sam Mitchell.

Our first challenge of the year came against the likewise 2-0 Utah Jazz and our overconfidence showed as Stockton and Malone's boys went into the half up by eight. Gregg made the necessary adjustments and we pounded our way back into contention fairly in the third. From that point on, it was a war, with no less than 27 lead changes and 14 ties before Pooh iced a clutch shot in the closing minutes to get us the 109-108 win.

Shaq and Pooh each scored 21 to lead us. Glenn put in 11 and Alexander Volkov 10 from the reserves to counteract the Mailman's 30 and Thurl Bailey's 21.

We'd been winning all along without Mullin's waking up, but he woke up against the next game, also against the Jazz and was one of three T-Wolves starters to hit 20 points in a fairly comfortable win. Chris scored 22 points and displayed some rare rebounding skills in taking down 13 boards. Shaq contributed 23 and Pooh's hot hand continued with 24 to lead our team in points. Volkov put in 10 to be first among our second unit.

The fun thing about that game was Utah's own 20+ point scoring triumvirate, consisting of Malone and Stockton with 24, and Elliott Perry with 25, but it wasn't enough to beat our total team effort.

Tony Campbell's Sonics were the next victims of our juggernaut, losing by 23 as Shaq doubled with 36 points and 14 rebounds, adding 5 assists in the bargain, Mullin put up 28 and Pooh broke 20 points for the third straight game with that exact number. Scottie got in on the festivities with 17 points and 14 assists, for he'd once more assumed point guard duties.

After the game Tony told me the team was struggling out of the gate to start the year. They were 1-3 after the loss and looked largely out of sync. Magic scored 33 against us, but Seattle just couldn't find offensive rhythm outside of him. Complicating matters was the addition of a phenomenal sub via a trade that'd happened the day before. The new player needed to adjust to the system and those things take time of course. No, I won't tell you who it was just yet. You'll have to wait until I review the first month's trades.

Our dazzling play and win streak continued with a blowout of the Pistons. Shaq scored 23 and grabbed 12 rebounds, Pooh second in scoring with 20. Glenn Robinson put up 17 and looked more and more as the season wore on like the at least somewhat consistent scoring threat from the bench we'd lacked for a long time.

The Kings handed us our first loss of the year with exceptional balanced scoring and tremendous rebounding as our second-half rally fell short, 86-82. Shaq's 18 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 blocks, Mullin's 21, and Glenn's 10 weren't enough on a night when everyone else on our side built brickhouses.

Things didn't get any easier when the 6-2 Toronto Raptors came to town, but we treated the home crowd to an exciting dogfight that wasn't decided until the final minutes, when we pulled away for a 105-93 win that was nowhere near to telling how close the game actually was.

All of the starting five recorded double-digit points, led by Shaq who had another monster game with 31 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Detlef and Scottie joined him on the double-double side of things with 16 points and 10 rebounds and 13 points and 10 assists respectively.

If you had told me before the season that Otis Smith would drop 41 points on us, I'd have laughed and bought you a drink for telling such a good joke. But that's exactly what happened when we played the once-mighty Cavaliers. Fortunately, our first five were uniform in double-digit scoring for the second game in a row, highlighted by the double-doubles of Shaq, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Detlef, good for 19 points and 10 boards respectively. Volkov chimed in with 13 from the bench in the heartracing 3-point nipper of a win.

Incidentally, the 32 year old Smith, who'd come close to but never succeeded in breaking the 20 point per game barrier in his nine year career, started off on fire in 1996. Through seven games, he was averaging 25.7 points.

An opening 11-0 run keyed a 42 point demolition of Dallas as our top unit unanimously scored double-digits for the third consecutive game. Mullin led the way with 29 points and Shaq and Detlef conspired for their traditional paired double-doubles, this time good for 23 points a piece, Detlef winning the rebound battle with 15 to Shaq's 13.

The much-maligned Greg Ostertag came in with his Philadelphia 76ers and walked out with 13 points and a blowout loss to his credit. Shaq's 23 points and 10 rebounds found new doubles partners in Pooh's 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Scottie's near triple double of 10 points, 11 assists, and 9 boards. Volkov and Greg Anthony sparkpluged our reserves with 16 and 13 points respectively.

Our biggest game of the young season came up next, pitting our 10-1 record against our flawless archrivals, Danny Brooklyn's team... the 12-0 Houston Rockets.

Their starting lineup:
PG Mark Price (1995 FA)
SG Kendall Gill (1996 FA)
SF Charles Barkley (1995 FA)
PF Clarence Weatherspoon (1996 FA)
C Hakeem Olajuwon (Mr. Rocket)

The brilliance of that starting five just goes to show how fine a GM Danny was in free agency at getting guys, All-NBA Team players no less, at coming to play for Houston. Although the rivalry between our respective teams was a bitter one in terms of our fans, even the casual NBA observer enjoyed our titanic battles and I was thrilled that Danny was having the kind of success that'd eluded him for so long in that miserable pit Memphis.

I was reminded of just how potent that Rockets team was after they began the game with a 7-0 run. We rallied back and closed to within three at the half, then took the lead in the third. Only this wasn't the usual running away. No, the Rockets came charging right back at us and knotted things up in the closing seconds of the game.

Then Detlef was fouled going up for a shot as the buzzer sounded.

Swish.
Swish.

101-99 Timberwolves.

Despite Detlef's heroics, it was Shaq who made the real difference in the game for us with his 18 points and 10 rebounds, a scoring output matched by Mullin and Pooh. In fact, it was just good old textbook Timberwolf Way total team scoring that guided us to the victory.

That isn't to say the Rockets weren't impressive, though. Hakeem, Weatherspoon, and Price all scored 20 points, with Dream and Clarence making it a double-double special on account of their 10 and 15 respective rebounds.

After that emotional victory against the Rockets, we secured a surprisingly easy win over the Spurs, due largely to our bench stepping it up. Volkov and Tyrone Corbin each scored 12 and Greg Anthony added 10 to buttress our starters, led by Shaq's doubling of 18 points and 12 boards.

Hubie Brown, our original coach, had his Hornets at a stunning 10-2 record when we faced off against them near the end of the month, but we ruthlessly gave them loss number three in a yawner. Shaq feasted on New Orleans, scoring 27 points and grabbing 15 boards to go with his lovely 3 assists, 4 steals, and no less than 7 blocks. Add in Mullin's 30 points and Greg's second straight strong bench game with 17 points and you have the recipe for a bigtime blowout.

It was a fitting end to the first month and I felt quite proud of our 13-1 record, but we were not the only ones with just one loss after the first 30 days.

Out in the East, the New York Knicks were also 13-1, three and a half up on my favorite East Conference Team, the Raptors. Patrick Ewing was having another breathtaking start, averaging 26.9 points and 12.4 rebounds a game. Youngster Harold Miner in his first month as a starter was turning heads with his near 19 points a game. It certainly looked like a breakout season for the fourth-year former UTEP Miner and Cavalier.

The Pacers held a game and a half edge over Detroit in the Central and our old friends the Atlanta Hawks held a relatively commanding four and half game lead over the Washington Wizards, who were struggling in the early going.

Closer to home, Houston had lost another game and stood at 14-2, good for a two game advantage over Hubie's Hornets. We led the Jazz by five and the Pacific was a nip-and-tuck affair between the Clippers and the Kings, with the Red and White half a game in front. What's worth noting is that unlike 1995, this year both teams considered in contention were safely above the .500 mark.

Overall, I was ecstatic about the first month. Shaq appeared to have blossomed into the next level, Glenn Robinson was showing flashes of developing into an authentic heir to Mullin, and Greg Anthony looked to have been a great free agent pickup.

Enough talk. I'm thirsty. What do you say we go down to Happy's Diner? I'm in the mood for one of those gourmet sodas they serve there. Probably green apple.

Naturally it'll be my treat. A young man like you listening to an old geezer like me deserves something for it now and then.

[Izulde]

As I told you yesterday, there was a recent trade with the Sonics that required some getting used to. One thing I had to say for Seattle, they always tried their best to improve enough to beat us in those years and I liked their front office for that.

In fact, it was the first trade of a surprisingly busy first month.

Seattle Sonics receive:
SG Reggie Miller

Memphis Grizzlies receive:
PG Sedale Threatt

The Sonics pick up 30 year old Reggie Miller, who's worthy of being a starter somewhere and his increasing anger about not being one of the first five is certainly justified, particularly with his breathtaking scorer's touch. He's one of the top subs in Seattle and the heir apparent to Magic Johnson. Threatt is 34 and not a bad player, but nowhere near Miller's caliber, as evidenced by his failure to be more than midtier bench guy for the Grizzlies. His role also sharply declined with Tony's team this season compared to prior years.

Winner: Seattle by a good margin, particularly if they sign Miller to an extension and start him after Magic retires

Chicago Bulls receive:
SF James Worthy
L.A. Lakers 1997 2nd round pick

L.A. Lakers receive:
PG Grant Gondrezick
SF Craig Hodges

The dismantling of Showtime continues as the legendary Worthy packs his bags for Chicago. The Bulls have a major new offensive weapon to pair with Jordan and a huge upgrade over Glen Rice, who gets moved down to the 6th man spot. Also, that second rounder is more like a late first rounder, as the Purple and Gold is an awful 4-12 thus far and not likely to get much better. Gondrezick is old and feeble with only his status as an expiring contract of $7 mill his value. Hodges was released by the Lakers, making this a sweet deal for the Bulls.

Winner: Chicago, who gave up very little for some vital pieces and may finally have enough diversity on offense to punch deeper in the playoffs again.

Philadelphia 76ers receive:
PF Vin Baker

Chicago Bulls receive:
PG Chris Whitney

Chicago continues their wheeling and dealing here and pick up Whitney, a 24 year old point guard who is a fine backup and could become a great one with time. He's definitely an improvement over Anthony Goldwire, the second year second rounder who he replaces. Baker didn't really pan out with the Bulls, but has enough upside to become a very quality all-around forward. He's got more playing time with the 76ers, which will help him reach that potential, particularly in pushing Greg Ostertag, the rookie who presently starts.

Winner: Slight edge to Chicago, as Whitney is much more polished right now

New Orleans Hornets receive:
SF Lamond Murray

Milwaukee Bucks receive:
PG Terry Dehere
New Orleans Hornets 1997 2nd rounder

Murray is a lot like Baker. Young and raw with good all-around potential who wasn't getting all that much opportunity with his old team. He's being viewed as the heir to 32 year old Ed Pickney, a recent free agent signing. Dehere is another young guy with not much polish or upside, but he gives the Bucks another greenhorn point guard to fight it out for the eventual replacement to veteran Jay Humphries. The pick is worth more than the Hornets' 11-3 record indicates, as I think it's a smoke and mirrors mark, but it's not going to be more than a mid-late 2nd rounder.

Winner: New Orleans by a fair bit, for Murray holds more promise and shores up the Hornets' weakest position

New Orleans Hornets receive:
PG Nick Van Exel
Boston Celtics 1997 2nd rounder

Boston Celtics receive:
SF Eric Williams
SF Cliff Rozier

The Hornets get the second round pick back and one that's going to be much higher than their original selection. Van Exel is a beautiful pickup as he instantly becomes the legitimate starting point guard of the future, ready to replace John Starks when the combo guard retires. I like Van Exel a lot and I wouldn't mind having him on the Timberwolves myself. Rozier was released following the trade so this makes it a deal for the rookie Williams, who is okay in terms of ability, but he doesn't have much upside and will never be mistaken for Larry Bird. Van Exel was expendable with the C's signing of Robert Pack in free agency, but Boston should have gotten a lot more for him.

Winner: No doubt here that New Orleans just committed highway robbery and win this going away. Hubie's Hornets got a lot better following these deals.

We faced one of the two greatly improved Eastern teams from those trades in our first game that second month, the Chicago Bulls. James Worthy's impact in red and black was immediately noticeable, as he scored 14 points in the first quarter alone to compensate for Jordan's horrible shooting night, but his eventual 28 points wasn't enough when the rest of his new teammates clanged every shot they threw up and we won handily. Shaq doubled with 19 points and 11 boards, all five starters reached the double digit scoring mark, and Greg Anthony exploded for 18 points from the bench.

Our titanic defense dominated again in a demolishing of our two-time Finals foes, the Hawks. Detlef double-doubled with 15 points vs. 16 rebounds, Shaq scored 28, and Mullin added in 21. Glenn Robinson was the leader of the subs that game with 12.

We toppled the Magic next in a game so lopsided, our second units played the entire final quarter and we still won 111-63. Just two Orlando players even broke double digits and none came close to Shaq's game high of 23 points.

Our winning streak finally came to an end against the one East Conference team that had the firepower to break down our defense, the Washington Wizards. Grant Hill sank the buzzer-beater to steal the win, 124-122, for his 35th and 36th points of the night. All ten starters on the court had at least 11 points in an extremely entertaining display of fireworks and offense from both sides. Although we lost, I have to say that's one of the most enjoyable regular season games I've ever watched. Just really exceptional play from everyone on both teams.

In our next game, we beat another Eastern powerhouse in my personal favourites, the Toronto Raptors. A hard-fought defensive battle wasn't decided until the waning minutes of the game when we broke away. Our starters all hit 10 points or more and Shaq doubled his pleasure with 14 points and 18 rebounds. Volkov and Anthony combined for a critical 23 points, 10 and 13 respectively on an evening when we really needed our reserves to combat the 28 and 21 points from Ricky Pierce and Fat Lever, two guys who'd come to Toronto on one year rentals in free agency. I've always admired Fat as you know and although he was in his twilight years those seasons he played in Canada, he gave the young Raptors veteran leadership and playoff tested experience that they really needed.

Our schedule didn't get any lighter as we faced the 17-2 Knicks, but we still beat them soundly in spite of Shaq's foul trouble limiting his minutes. Pooh, Detlef, and Mullin conspired for a three-headed monster of 22, 26, and 24 points a piece that not even the amazing Ewing's 23 points and 20 rebounds, nor sidekick Harold Miner's 19 points could combat. Miner's breakout season was one of my favourite things to keep tabs on in that year. Originally the last pick in the first round by the Cavaliers in the 1993 draft, he wasn't expected to be more than a solid 6th man in his career, and there he was, a stellar starter shooting guard with the Knicks.

Shaq got back into the scoring rhythm with 25 points and 15 rebounds in a squash of the Nets, though Mullin topped him in points with 28. Greg Anthony came off the bench to put in 12 points. His steady contributions from the reserves made him one of my favourite free agent signings to that point that I'd made.

The Celtics received a whipping similiar to that we gave the Magic earlier in the month and once more our subs played all of the last quarter in topping the once mighty Boston franchise 113-63. Shaq did his usual damage with 27 points and 15 rebounds and much to my pleasant suprise, the greybearded original Timberwolves Sam Mitchell and Tyrone Corbin scored 13 and 15 respectively.

Sam still badly wanted out of Minneapolis and he constantly complained to the press that he needed to go somewhere where he'd play more often. Tyrone, on the other hand, knew it was probably his last season in the Blue and Grey and simply decided to go in loving every moment of it.

After Mitchell's tirade to the papers about how he should either play more or be traded following the Celtics win, I finally had enough and began inquiring around the league. The disrepect to myself and the organization had gone on long enough. Since he was in the last year of his contract, he looked much more attractive to other teams than he had in seasons past when I tried to deal him at his request.

I shipped him to Indiana along with our own and Golden State's 1997 2nd rounder for center LaSalle Thompson, a 34 year old high quality rebounder also in the last year of his contract who didn't much care about playing time.

Thompson allowed Gregg to shove Duane further down the depth chart like he wanted to and in return, Sam became the 7th man for a Pacers bench that welcomed him with open arms, so both teams benefitted from the exchange. I privately was also glad to be rid of the glut of 2nd rounders, as the 1996 three second rounders proved a pain when it came to our roster. I've always been of the opinion that second rounders are little more than bargaining chips anyway.

I privately wondered if I'd upset the delicate balance of our team chemistry in trading our old captain away after the Hawks trounced us by 25 in a low-scoring affair and my fears of having made a mistake only grew after the same Orlando Magic we'd lowered the boom on earlier in the month reversed that role in our next contest.

Even worse, we lost our current captain, Chris Mullin, for 6 days following that debacle in Orlando.

My concerns were alleviated somewhat after we sent the Warriors packing, Shaq scoring 33 points to go with his 10 boards and 5 blocks and Tyrone Corbin, Mullin's replacement in the lineup, scored 20, as did Pooh.

Shaq bailed us out the next game as well, with 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks to send Tony's Sonics to a .500 record. Rodney Rodgers recorded a rare quality game as well with 16 points from the reserves.

Tony admitted at dinner that the team just couldn't find a rhythm and privately told me it felt like the coaching staff had no idea of how to run the team. Players were starting to get discontent and the playoffs were beginning to look less than the sure thing they'd been in seasons past.

Mullin came back the next game and we celebrated by blowing out the Mavericks 37-10 in the first quarter and coasting from there to have another all-reserves fourth quarter. Detlef scored 20 by halftime alone and finished with 34 points. Shaq doubled as per usual, this time with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Pooh doubled as well, for 14 points and 10 assists and Tyrone Corbin contributed 11 as the fill-in guard.

I realized just how important Shaq was to our team after he missed the next game against the Suns and we had to rely on a furious fourth quarter comback and Scottie's timely 27 point eruption to knock off Phoenix.

You'll be happy to know that Shaq's toe injury healed in time for our last game of the month against the Nets and he led the way in a defensively-charged smackdown of New Jersey with 29 points and 13 rebounds, his partner in doubles Scottie, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

We'd recovered from our mid-month hiccup of two straight losses to stand at 25-4, still the best record in the league and a leisurely seven games in front of the Portland Trailblazers.

Elsewhere in the West, Hubie's Hornets were revealed as not being as good as their record, as I predicted and sat with a 16-12 record, seven and a half games behind the powerhouse Houston Rockets in the Southwest. Sacramento was up on the Red and White by three and a half games.

The Hawks showed they were for real once again, out in front of the Southeast by seven and a half over the Wizards, who'd picked up their play enough to be two games above .500. Patrick Ewing's Knicks led Toronto by five in an Atlantic Division that was all about New York and the Raptors, for the third place team was 14.5 games back of the leaders.

In fact the only genuine race was in the Central, with the Pacers up by one over the Pistons, the Bulls and Cavs five and a half and six back respectively.

As I surveyed Indiana's 21-7 record, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe there wasn't something special about Sam Mitchell after all.

Since acquring him, the Pacers had gone a Timberwolf-like 6-1.

That's a mark that champions like us played for.

[Izulde]

Just one trade occurred in that second month and involved a team who'd already been quite active in revamping their roster.

New Orleans Hornets receive:
PF Randy White

Boston Celtics receive:
PF Carlos Rogers

A straight-up swap of power forwards breaks down like this: Randy White is a solid bench player and the perfect team guy with a nice all-around skill set, including a fantastic inside shot. He turns into the new 6th man. Rogers is a second-year player who is extremely raw, but has the potential to become a better version of White. For now he'll sit on the IR. Hubie's guys are in the thick of a playoff spot and the Celtics have officially gone into rebuilding mode.

Winner: New Orleans by the tiniest bit as it's uncertain if Rogers will fulfill his potential and White helps out his new employers right away

We trounced the Lakers by 44 in our opening game. Shaq scored 23 and pulled down 10 boards, Scottie chimed in with 24, and Volkov headed up the reserves with 11 points as our starters all broke the double-digit barrier.

Minor injuries to Detlef and Robinson caused them to miss our next game against the Clippers and I almost lifted Eric Snow from the IR to give him some playing time but decided against it for that game. I was rewarded with a hammering of the Red and White as Mullin scored 33, Scottie broke the 20 point mark for the second game in a row, and even with Volkov in the starting lineup, everyone in the first five hit 10 points or better. From the bench, Corbin scored 11 and LaSalle Thompson grabbed 8 rebounds in his best showing since coming to Minneapolis.

When Duane Causwell twisted his ankle bad enough to be held out for two weeks, I put him on the IR until he healed and brought up Eric Snow. Three injured players we could not do without making use of our listed people.

We took on the Rockets next and went box-to-wire in a 95-91 win. Shaq punished Hakeem for 18 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal, and 5 blocks while limiting Dream Olajuwon to just 8 points. Mullin led all scorers with 24 and Greg Anthony continued to show my brilliance in signing him with 11 points of his own. Eric Snow made his Timberwolves debut and played 5 minutes, scoring 2 points with an assist and a rebound.

One thing I'd noticed was that Rodney Rogers had gone from bad to worse and there was some indication from Gregg and his staff that he shouldn't be resigned after his contract expired that year. I wasn't quite ready to give up on him though and decided to take a wait and see approach.

San Antonio came to town and we flattened them 99-68 behind Shaq's 26 points and 17 rebounds. Scottie scored 20 and LaSalle yanked down 10 boards, a stunning amount for a reserve. We in fact played so much better when he was in that Gregg told me he'd like to see Duane stay on the IR and have us run with Shaq, Detlef, Volkov, and Thompson as our four big men for the rest of the season. I had no problem at all with this and agreed, particularly since it meant Snow would get more playing time.

This especially became important after the early season evaluations on our three rookies came back from the coaches. Snow and Jason Caffey both looked markedly improved in practice, particularly our hopeful future backup point guard. Eric constantly probed Pooh for advice and help on how to improve his game and Pooh quite willingly obliged.

Jason's motivation, on the other hand, primarily centered around individual effort, as he wanted desperately to replace Detlef when the German retired. Not so the good news for Clifford Rozier, however. Gregg was irritated with his pet project's slacking off and constantly harped at him to try and get him to perform better.

Detlef returned the next game and we finally swatted the pesky Kings in the fourth quarter, following it up with a blowout of the Purple and Gold in which Shaq scored an incredible 40 points to go with his 17 rebounds and 5 blocks. Not to be outdone completely, Mullin provided a deadly 1-2 combo with 27 points himself. Volkov contributed 10 points and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes to head up the second unit.

Against Denver, Mullin scored 22 points by halftime alone, finishing with 38 points in a blowout of the Nuggets. Shaq put up 25 and Tyrone added 10 points to the mix from the bench. Pooh had the most curious line ever in his double-doubling affair. He scored just 4 points, but had 12 assists and 10 rebounds.

Our powerhouse rolled on with a wiping out of the Suns before taking down a vastly improved Seattle side in a defensive affair, 94-81. Shaq and Mullin starred in that game with 24 points and 15 rebounds and 19 points and 11 rebounds respectively.

At supper afterwards, Tony said things had gotten a lot better after they'd had a long team meeting. The players aired out their grievances with the coaches and the coaches explained where they were coming from. As a result, the Sonics were now 20-17 after the loss to us and playing much better.

Tenacious defense overcame cold shooting in a walkover of the Grizzlies. Shaq was the one player who was truly on fire for us, scoring 37 points to go along with his ferocious 18 boards. Scottie doubled as well with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

A second-half surge and stellar play from our centers Shaq and Volkov who finished with 23 and 12 and 10 and 7 a piece in points and rebounds keyed a comeback over the Dallas Mavericks.

Shaq again rescued us with his 31 points and 14 rebounds in a narrow win over the Cavaliers. We needed every one of Detlef and Mullin's 24 and 22 points as well after Scottie fouled out early and Otis Smith, a familiar foe, dropped 28 points on us. Although he was now at 19.3 points per game, 20 points a game was certainly still within reach and Smith had the sharpshooting skills to do it.

All five starters scored at least 12 points as we trampled the Pistons in our next game. Shaq was once more the roaring lion in the middle with 29 points, 20 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks, Mullin his sidekick with a beautiful 23 to the score.

After we manhandled the Bucks and beat a very good Pacers team to close out the month with our starting five all breaking the double-digit mark in both games, championed by Shaq and team captain Chrus Mullin in both instances, the papers began to wonder aloud if this squad might be even better than the record-setting 1994 squad, who finished 74-8 before falling to the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals without Shaq.

It was a good question and one I was inclined at the time to privately agree with, though I didn't say so publicly. There was a high team chemistry between the starters and the staff for having been together so long and our bench was the strongest it'd been since I'd arrived.

At 40-4, we were 13 games ahead of Portland in the Northwest. The Rockets commanded the Southwest by 12.5 games over Hubie's Hornets, who were just a game over .500. New Orleans was the opposite of us. With all the trades they'd made, they were having a hard time coming up with any sort of cohesion. The Kings barely held advantage over the Clippers, only good for half a game.

The Knicks still led the Raptors by five in the Atlantic and the Hawks lorded over the Wizards by six and a half, though it must be said that Washington, like Seattle, finally appeared to have it together after early season struggles.

Without a doubt, the most exciting race still lay in the Central. Detroit had taken the lead by a game over the Pacers and the Bulls had closed the gap, now just a game a half behind the Pistons and Indiana. Cleveland, too, was narrowing in, now just three games back. As you might expect, the one team that looked out of the equation was the Bucks, a full 16 games back.

But the sweetest thing of all in that month for me was this:

Los Angeles Lakers 8-34 (.190)

The Purple and Gold with a 19% winning percentage and the worst record in the league.

[Izulde]

As in the month before, only one trade broke headlines in that third month.

Chicago Bulls receive:
PG Keith Jennings

Dallas Mavericks receive:
SF Tracy Murray
Chicago Bulls 1997 2nd round pick

Chicago's 27-17 and have rebounded, but they've lacked a passing backup PG for Negele Knight until now. Jennings is the perfect fit here and the 24 year-old third-year player has the potential to become starter quality. Murray would be a good pickup for some teams with his scorer's mentality, but not so on the Mavericks, which has both scorers and a glut of small forwards, including Toni Kukoc and Byron Russell. The second rounder is a throwaway.

Winner: Chicago by a hefty margin. The Bulls improved in a critical area and the Mavericks only got more of what they already had

Our first game was against Greg Anthony's former team, the New York Knicks. He also started that game because Mullin was out with a leg injury, necessitating a shift of Scottie to small forward and Greg inserted at SG. My favorite free agent pickup went on to score 23 points and take player of the game honors in a convincing Timberwolf win.

Greg started again at SG against the Trailblazers and lit Portland up for 21 points, one of three starters to score more than 20 points. Detlef contributed 22 and Shaq led all scorers with 25 as we pulled away in the second half. Unfortunately for us, the German banged up his calf and he wasn't expected to recover fully for almost three weeks.

Mullin returned with a venegance against the Suns, blistering Phoenix for 31 points and 11 rebounds. Shaq revived other aspects of his game in grabbing 15 rebounds and blocking 4 shots on his way to posting 25 points for the cause. Tyrone Corbin led the reserves with 10 points for his second straight double-digit game. Although Greg was limited to 3 points on a 1-5 shooting night, he maintained his beautiful playmaking, with 3 assists and 2 steals versus 0 turnovers. Having him on the team meant I could sleep a lot easier at night about our backup SG position.

We crushed the Jazz behind Shaq's 30 points and 12 rebounds and a particularly nasty Timberwolf defense, as Karl Malone was the lone Utah starter to break double digits in scoring and he finished with 25. Mullin matched up fairly well with the Mailman in adding 23 points before leaving the game late in the fourth with a minor knock to his arm.

Chris was held out of the game against the Nuggets the next night and foul trouble to Shaq limited him to just 8 points as we fell 92-89 to end our winning streak. Greg once again had a marvelous game, scoring 17 points and setting a Minnesota record for steals in a game with 7. LaSalle Thompson woke up to put in 15 points from the bench as Shaq's sub, but it just wasn't enough.

Making things worse, Thompson wounded his foot and expected to be out a week and a half. We were once more having trouble with big man bodies. This led to LaSalle's being placed on the IR and Duane Causwell finding himself on the active roster again.

A two-star show played out in Chicago against the Bulls a few nights later. Michael Jordan torched us for 32 points in a dazzling shooting display, but he was outdone by Shaq. The big man in the middle scored a jaw-dropping 47 points as his large arms grabbed 16 rebounds and denied 4 shots in the most breathtaking display anyone had ever seen from a Timberwolf. The second team Glen R's also provided entertainment, as Rice scored 19 for the Buls and Robinson tallied 13 for us in the win.

Chris Mullin's return was somewhat mitigated by Scottie's injury, the end result of which was that Greg Anthony picked up another start, this time against the 76ers. We overcome a horrendous shooting night from Mullin to escape with a 95-93 nailbiter of a win thanks to Shaq's 23 and 17 and Tyrone Corbin's 18 on a sparkling 8-10 performance from the sub unit. Greg himself fell to injury in that tense game, out about a week with a knee knock.

Thus we had the patchwork lineup of Pooh-Tyrone-Chris-Alexander-Shaq against the Heat. Despite Miami's advantage, they collapsed with barely a whimper as we returned to the old stalwarts of the Timberwolf Way, balanced scoring and titanium defense. Shaq came through in a big way with his 31 points and 13 rebounds, Mullin his second with 21 points as all five starters scored at least 10 points.

The bleeding continued with Pooh Richardson's injury and yet more shuffling had to be done. Scottie, still out for two days, was put on the IR to make way for Jason Caffey, who at 6'8" was best suited for SF anyway. And so the 8-41 Charlotte Bobcats greeted our starting five of Corbin-Snow-Mullin-Volkov-Shaq. I don't mind telling you I was absolutely flabbergasted to see the Bobcats doing so poorly that year after their recent years of success and I was even more stunned when Rodney Rodgers broke out with a career-high 20 points off the bench, just behind Shaq's 22, who also took down 15 boards in the easy win.

After that game, I began to wonder if maybe Rodney couldn't eventually replace Detlef after all. He'd certainly looked good in practice, terrific even. It was just a question of whether he could consistently produce when it counted. When Rodgers put up that 20 points, I started to hope that maybe he'd turned the corner at last.

The All-Star Break came mid-month and we celebrated by watching Glenn Robinson score 8 points for the winning side in the Rookies-Sophomores game. Despite the Rooks' loss, Jerry Stackhouse took player of the game honors in a sensational 21 point, 8 rebound performance. He was a real sparkplug for the Mavericks, scoring 18.7 points to date for Dallas in a torrid rookie campaign.

Shaq started at center for the West in the real All-Star game and Mullin joined him as a reserve. Chris outscored Shaq with 16 points versus 14, though that was due largely to Shaq's amazingly awful 8-18 from the free throw line, which earned him quite a bit of ribbing both in the press and in the locker room. The West demolished the East 135-100, but it was the Eastern Conference All-Star Michael Jordan of the 25 points who took home player of the game honors.

Most of our wounded came back after the All-Star Break, allowing us to start a five of Pippen-Anthony-Mullin-Schrempf-O'Neal in our first game after the vacation. Nobody on the Timberwolves scored 20 that game, but we still steamrolled the Celtics 101-61, Scottie leading our side in points with 18. It was nice to see us show the hallmarks of our team philosophy so repeatedly in that injury-ridden month.

Of course, we were hit with another injury immediately following the game. Glenn Robinson projected to be out two weeks with a knock of his own. We just couldn't field a fully healthy squad that season it seemed.

In spite of our medical difficulties, I refused to make a move at the trade deadline. We were playing extremely well even with the bugs biting us and our team chemistry was as sterling as it'd ever been.

Pooh rejoined us and dished out 10 assists as we squashed the Grizzlies. Shaq doubled with 25 points and 12 rebounds, Mullin emphatically filling the box score with a game high 29 points. Volkov headed the reserves with 10 points of his own. Our most popular blue-collar player was 33 and having the worst statistical year since he came to Minneapolis, but he was still a vital part of the team. His contract expired following the season and I knew I had a tough decision ahead of me with regards to whether or not to resign him.

That victory marked our 50th win of the season and we nearly lost to Hubie's Hornets in our second-to-last game of the month, escaping with a 120-117 OT miracle that we frankly deserved to lose. Horrible shooting and mediocre defense was only bailed out by Mullin's 27 points as the lone sharpshooter of the evening and some fantastic rebounding by Detlef and Shaq, who both double-doubled.

For our final contest that month, we were missing both Mullin and Thompson, who'd picked up small injuries in the New Orleans struggle. Just like before, we manhandled the Heat and just as happened so many times earlier that month, Greg Anthony broke 20 points as a starter, chiming in with 21 points, just behind Shaq's 24 points and 14 rebounds. Detlef also scored 21 and Pooh provided a rare, but beautiful double-double of 18 points and 12 assists.

It'd been a stormy 30 days, but when the clouds cleared, the sun shined on our 52-5 record, 16 games ahead of the Trailblazers. Even the Houston Rockets, they of the 17 game lead in their own division, were five back of us for the #1 overall seed in the West.

The only real division crown excitement in the West lay in the Pacific, where the Clippers barely fended off the Kings, the margin just two and a half games.

In the East Conference, Ewing's Knicks stood five and a half games above the still legitimate Raptors. The Central was exciting, with the Pistons a mere half game in front of the Pacers, the Bulls and Cavs three and five and a half back respectively. Atlanta ruled the Southeast roost by seven and a half over the Wizards.

More than ever I believed that this team was unquestionably the single best one I'd ever had. The press believed it too, calling it one of the greatest teams ever to be assembled and compared it to the Celtics' and Lakers' dynastic squads of earlier decades.

But it would all be much ado about nothing and a whole lot of empty sound and fury if we didn't win the title again.

[Izulde]

Before I tell you about the trades that occurred near the deadline, I need to inform you of something very important, something that shocked the league and caused no end of woe, particularly to the global conglomerate Nike.

Michael Jordan, the Star, the Legend, the Hero, Mr. Bull and Mr. NBA himself, tore his MCL towards the end of that last month. The damage was so great that doctors gravely announced he'd be out for a full year and probably would not return until the All-Star Break the next year.

The league and fans were absolutely devastated. I felt a pang myself, for although the Bulls were not considered royalty in the NBA, Jordan was without equal as a player. Our greatest icon was gone, and who knew how he would fare when he returned?

The quiet dealing months proved the calm before a storm of trades in the last eligible month of that year. Of the six exchanges that occurred, four of them were at the trade deadline. As always, I'll list things in chronological order.

Denver Nuggets receive:
PF Vin Baker
Philadelphia 76ers 1997 2nd round pick

Philadelphia 76ers receive:
PG Steve Henson

Baker's traded for the second time this season as I anticipated, his numbers drastically improved in Philadelphia. In Denver, he wrestles the starting PF job away from J.R. Reid, as Vin's a better all-around player, one who's improving considerably with the increased time and exposure. The 76ers are a bad team, so the 2nd rounder has some worth. Henson, a former 2nd rounder (2nd round, #6, Golden State 1991 draft), has blossomed into a surprisingly nice backup guard to have. He's a marked upgrade from rookie PG Tyus Edney, who is still quite raw.
Winner: Denver by a fair margin, for they get a starter and a pick. Even were this a straight Baker-Henson deal, the Nuggets would have the slight edge

Chicago Bulls receive
PG Charles Thomas

Charlotte Bobcats receive
PG Anthony Goldwire
Chicago Bulls 1997 1st round pick

Jordan's loss demanded the picking up of another guard, hence Thomas. Unfortunately, according to the Timberwolf Way philosophy, Thomas is even worse than Goldwire and offering next year's #1 pick besides is simply insanity. The Bulls will be lucky to make the playoffs now, so they just traded a potential lottery pick away for someone who isn't worthy of being drafted period. Goldwire gets a few more minutes per game in Charlotte and is better than Thomas, but he's only a minor character to the real story here.
Winner: Charlotte, as Chicago makes the worst trade in the history of the NBA. O, what madness fair Jordan's fall hath wrought in Ophelian Chicago!

Chicago Bulls receive:
SG Gary Grant

Toronto Raptors receive:
C Theo Ratliff

Grant is better suited as a PG than a SG, so he's not going to be mistaken for Jordan's replacement. Even worse, the Bulls now have a glut of essential point guards and they trade away their top backup at C for this inadequate band-aid. Ratliff gives the Raptors a hard-nosed defender and shotblocker, and a player of vast potential for the future, even though he's raw right now in most aspects of his game. He's the heir apparent to minor star C Matt Geiger.
Winner: Toronto plunders weeping Chicago in a big way, securing their future at center for a player that didn't mean all that much to their system

Atlanta Hawks receive:
SF Chris Morris
Dallas Mavericks 1997 2nd round pick

Dallas Mavericks receive:
SF Paul Graham

Morris is a very solid all-around versatile veteran who can play SG, SF, and PF and bolsters the Hawks' bench significantly. Graham is four years younger at 26 and a better scorer, but has maxed out his potential and is weaker than Morris in every other area. The Mavs likely won't make the playoffs this year, making the 2nd round pick a nice bonus.
Winner: Atlanta by a good bit as they improve their bench much more for their anticipated playoff run and get a free pick besides

Houston Rockets receive:
PG Sam Vincent

Orlando Magic receive:
C Tim McCormick
Houston Rockets 1997 1st round pick

Vincent is a fantastic point guard with good offensive skills, textbook floor generalship, and passable defense. The 32 year old gives the Rockets a much-needed partner for Mark Price as he takes over the starting SG slot. Signed to a multi-year deal, Sam also provides Houston a security blanket in case Price goes elsewhere in free agency after this season. Furthermore, although McCormick was a major part of the Rockets' success in recent years, his departure allows Houston to further develop 28 year old Kenny Williams, in his 6th year and with still some unrealized upside, as the backup to Hakeem. Orlando gets a quality veteran for their bench and a mentor for their three promising, but quite young centers and a late 1st round pick to also enhance their youth movement
Winner: Houston, narrowly, as Danny Brooklyn gets more bang for his buck, but the trade greatly benefits both teams' directions and plans

Atlanta Hawks receive:
PF Otis Thorpe

Boston Celtics receive:
SG James Robinson
Atlanta Hawks 1997 2nd rounder

Thorpe was miserable in Boston after the Celtics have imploded this year and demanded out despite signing there just this free agency and so he goes to the Hawks. The 33 year old can do it all. He can score, rebound, and defend and has acceptable ball-handling skills for a big man. Suddenly Atlanta has a new starter at the 4 and their frontcourt just went from being very good with Wilkins and Willis to downright deadly with Wilkins-Thorpe-Willis. Robinson is young, but has no upside to speak of and the 2nd rounder is worthless.
Winner: Atlanta undoubtedly hits the jackpot and the Hawks have brought in precisely the pieces they need to make a run at defending their Eastern Conference title and challenge for the NBA title

It was one of the most eventful and thrilling months the NBA had experienced since I entered the league and it's one that a lot of people still talk about.

As for the Timberwolves, we were feeling extremely comfortable after the trade deadline. Like I said last time, we had a commanding lead in the West, were playing well, and our team chemistry was perhaps the best it'd ever been.

The Pacers came to town to open the month, hoping to knock us off our stride. They crawled out of the building, on the bad end of a 136-89 whipping. Detlef scored 25 points and Volkov played most of the game in Shaq's place, scoring 24 points as our main man played just 9 minutes due to foul trouble. Tyrone Corbin added 12 from the bench and LaSalle Thompson put in a pleasant near-double-double with 9 points and 10 rebounds as a reserve.

Greg Anthony bailed us out of a terrible shooting night with 13 points from the reserves as we barely beat the Clippers. All five starters hit double-digit scoring, but it wasn't with any degree of sharpshooting.

A 10-0 opening run in our favor evaporated against the Trailblazers and only some timely shooting by Shaq and Mullin allowed us to escape with a 109-102 victory that was a lot closer than the line indicates. Mullin led all scorers with 31 points and Shaq had 15 points and 15 rebounds, most of his point tally coming in the second half.

Pooh Richardson went down in the Portland game with back spasms so severe, the medical staff said he'd be gone a week and a half. This worried me, for our offense always struggled when Pooh was out and our next game was against our biggest challengers, the 50-11 Houston Rockets.

Scottie started at point guard and Greg Anthony slotted in at shooting guard, faced with the unenviable task of going up against new Rocket Sam Vincent. Just as I feared, we floundered without Pooh and went down hard in an eight point loss.

Even more vexing, Houston beat us at our own game, as all five of their starters had at least 14 points and Mitch Richmond poured salt into the wounds by leading the Rockets with 21 points off the bench. Our bench in contrast played terribly, negating Shaq's 33 points and and 12 rebounds, and the double-digit scoring lines from our own entire first unit.

When he was interviewed by the press after the game, Mitch said he was ecstactic be in Houston and that he looked forward to winning the NBA title back from us. As I watched the session on television, I couldn't help but think that was only partially right. I didn't doubt that he was happy in Houston, but I knew that he never would forgive me for dealing him away, nor would he forgive our multiplicity of rings, when he had only one. It made me quite sad, for I always try to stay on good terms with my former players as you know. But as I've said before concerning Mitch, such is the way that life goes.

Our depth further took a hit when Rodney Rodgers wrecked his back as well, estimated out the same amount of time as Pooh.

Fortunately we played the ever-inept Golden State Warriors next and hammered them behind Shaq's 32 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks and Mullin's double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds. Volkov made an appearance good for 14 points and 8 rebounds as he appeared determined to prove himself worthy of a new contract.

Alexander continued his strong play with 13 points and 7 rebounds, benchmates Tyrone Corbin and LaSalle Thompson scoring 10 a piece as well in our steamrolling of the Bobcats. Shaq ravaged Charlotte for 38 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 blocks in another of his vintage performances in that 1996 season I considered his year of true arrival.

Pooh returned the next game and Shaq celebrated by ripping the Clips for 35 points. The whole team partied on-court versus the Bucks, with the starting five all scoring 19 points or better, save for Scottie, who doubled his pleasure with a matching 10 points and 10 rebounds. Shaq again led the festivities, this time with 28 points and 14 rebounds, 7 ahead of Pooh on the scoresheet, as our point guard contributed 21.

By the time we played Grant Hill's Wizards, our giddiness had abated, but our winning didn't as Mount Shaq erupted for 35 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 6 blocks and we lava'ed our 60th victory of the season. Pardon the pun. I just couldn't resist it.

It was not all good fortune, however. Pooh again sustained a week and a half injury, requiring Greg Anthony to once more step into the lineup. With as many times as Greg started that year, I became happier than ever that I'd signed him in free agency.

Still, we simply didn't function as well without Pooh, as had been proven time and time again. Another example came against the Purple and Gold, when everyone went cold except for Mullin, he of the 32 points, and Shaq, who muscled his way to 26 points and 11 rebounds in the narrow win. Eric Snow hit double digit scoring for the first time in his NBA career, finishing with 11 points.

Shaq sprained his wrist but insisted on playing versus the Kings anyway. His limited minutes actually disrupted the flow of our offense and Mullin's 27 points, nor Detlef's recovery from double-double drought with 15 points and 13 rebounds could counteract a 15 point halftime deficit in a particularly frustrating defeat.

In search of a cure for our woes, we trekked to California, where Scottie scored 23 points in the first half alone en route to 33, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists for the night in a crushing of the Warriors. Mullin added 26 and our bench played the finest it had in a long time. Tyrone Corbin put up 20 points, Volkov chimed in with 10 points and 7 rebounds, and LaSalle Thompson had his best game since becoming a Timberwolf, amassing 15 points and 9 rebounds.

Our hands turned to ice in the last seconds against Utah, causing us to drop a heartbreaker to the always-dangerous Jazz and render Shaq's 30 point return to form all for naught.

That sour note proved the final chord played in the occasionally jarring song of the month. I hated the taste it left in my mouth and the players and coaching staff were unhappy about it as well.

Still, there were some bright spots in the gloom. We were 62-8 and secure of the division title and at least the #2 seed in the West. For the moment, we were two and a half games ahead of our archrivals, the Houston Rockets, for the top seed in the conference.

Like us, Houston already clinched their division and a bare minimum of the #2 seed. The Kings and the Clippers still battled for the Pacific, with the Red and White owning a game and a half advantage over the Purple and Black, but both looked poised to make the postseason.

The East looked far more interesting, given its rampant uncertainty. In fact, so cloudy was it, that the lone assurance was Atlanta as division champions in the Southeast. Ewing's Knicks were barely holding off my beloved Raptors by a game and a half in the Atlantic.

In the Central, four teams were nominally still in it, though in truth the Pistons and Pacers were the true contenders, with Detroit a game up. The Cavaliers sat 5 back and the Bulls, who'd relied on James Worthy's stellar play and Rice's sufficient enough approximation of Jordan in Michael's absence, were 7 behind and holding a .500 record that for the moment gave them the last seed in the East.

12 games remained and much hung in the balance during those last days. Seedings and division titles were waiting to be claimed and their settlement would dictate the course of the playoffs.

And the road we had to take to defend our title.

[Izulde]

Our first game of the last set came at home against the Rockets. Scottie, Detlef, and Shaq all got hot early as we went box-to-wire in a commanding 111-99 victory that went a long way towards our goal of the #1 seed. Shaq dominated the contest, scoring 31 points with 17 rebounds and 4 blocks, the leader among our five starters, who all finished in double digit scoring. More importantly, he got Hakeem in foul trouble, as Olajuwon played just 15 minutes and ended up fouling out besides.

The euphoria of that victory vanished immediately after an embarassing defeat at the hands of the Trailblazers. Clyde Drexler scorched us for 31 points and 11 rebounds and Terry Porter reamed us for 25 on the scoreboard. Most nauseating of all, we let rookie Bryant "Big Country" Reeves put up a career high 18 points.

My disgust and Gregg's fury grew when the players' hands turned to ice in the fourth quarter against the Grizzlies and a 20 point third quarter lead evaporated into a 5 point loss. Despite Shaq's 23 points and 11 rebounds, we allowed 31 points from 4th year man Todd Day, one off his career high.

Our losing streak finally ended with a gritty win over Hubie's Hornets. Shaq scored 28 and pulled 10 boards while denying 4 shots, Mullin and Pippen joining him in the 20+ club with 22 and 23 respectively. One thing that concerned me was that Pooh and Detlef's play had both been off lately, to the degree that I was starting to seriously reconsider whether or not I should resign the German who'd been such a big part of our championship rings.

We were playing terribly, our win notwithstanding, and our awful performances continued as we dropped one to the Denver Nuggets, Gary Payton the Wolfslayer with 25 points. I, along with the coaching staff, the media, and the fans were at a loss to explain why we were doing so poorly all of a sudden.

At long last, our offense and defense both came together in the same game as we toppled Tony's Sonics. Shaq scored 31 to go with his 19 rebounds and Mullin and Detlef both broke 20. Greg Anthony led the reserves with 11 points and I hoped our rough patch was over. Tony said over lasagna afterwards that he was surprised as anyone with how we'd struggled, but reminded me that if we were going to have a tough period, the regular season was the time to do it.

Alexander Volkov got his first start in a long time against the Suns, as Detlef missed a few days due to an injury. We beat Phoenix soundly in a molasses game, where neither offense took off, but the teams just played solid, slow-paced games and tough defense. Shaq led us with 27 points and 18 rebounds, but the real surprise came from the bench. No, not Anthony's 11 points, but Jason Caffey's 14.

Caffey had really worked hard on improving his game in his rookie year, so hard that the coaching staff believed he could be another Detlef when he finished developing. Of course, there was a corresponding problem in that Jason felt he deserved more playing time as a result and with just 16 games played in to that point of the season, it hadn't been forthcoming.

In an effort to get Jason more playing time, I put Rodney Rodgers on IR when Detlef came back the next game. Rodney, though disappointed, understood and accepted his relegated role. The end result was that our team played its most complete game all month in smashing Hubie's Hornets. Shaq exploded for 37 points and 11 rebounds and the rest of the squad fell into support behind him.

Shaq took command again in our next game, with 31 points and 14 rebounds in a squash of the Grizzlies. Detlef recorded his first double-double in ages with 15 points and 12 rebounds and Volkov chimed in with 11 points. Alexander and Detlef both knew they were fighting for a new contract, particularly with Jason developing beyond what we'd anticipated.

Detlef doubled again, this time for 16 points and 10 rebounds as we ground out a hard win against the Spurs. Shaq was the real hero of the game though, with 24 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 4 blocks in one of his more complete all-around games of the year.

Pooh missed the next game after injuring his ankle, but I'm sure it won't surprise you when I tell you that Greg Anthony scored 11 points in the first quarter to spark us a start-to-finish victory. He finished with 17, surpassed in that category by Shaq's 24 and Detlef's 18. Our top two scorers also doubled with 14 and 12 rebounds respectively. Glenn Robinson added 12 points from the bench in our 70th win.

We won our last game of the regular season over Portland by a much easier margin than the final score indicated. Detlef rang up his fourth straight double-double for 19 points and 13 rebounds and Volkov contributed 11 points in reserve time, as the veteran power forwards looked determined to prove their worthiness of a new deal.

But the real test of their value would come in the playoffs.

[Izulde]

The postseason that year felt particularly emotional to me, if only because I knew at the end of it I may have to cut ties with two of the men that I'd come to regard as quintissential Timberwolves. Detlef and Volkov both played hard and had become quite popular with the blue-collar segment of our fans.

But all things must come to an end eventually. If this was to be their final sendoff, then I hoped we could bless them with another ring before they left.

1996 Eastern Conference First Round
(1) New York vs (8) Chicago
(4) Toronto vs (5) Indiana
(3) Detroit vs (6) Washington
(2) Atlanta vs (7) Cleveland

The East hosted four very intriguing matchups in its first round. Upsets were quite possible in each pairing except for one, in my opinion.

Trading for Harold Miner in 1995 had turned out a smarter move on New York's part than the Knicks could have ever realized themselves. Since winning the starting SG spot out of training camp that year, he'd dazzled, averaging 17.9 points a game and giving his team an electrifying young player who made for another offensive weapon to take the pressure off of Ewing.

In contrast, although the Bulls squeaked into the playoffs even without Jordan, they were playing on the fumes of emotion and emotion just wasn't going to be enough to beat the Knicks. New York was bound to win.

Despite Toronto's status as a four seed, they had the talent of a top seed and were certain to take out the Pacers. Sam Cassell-Fat Lever-Ricky Pierce-Chris Webber-Matt Geiger was one of the best starting fives in the entire NBA, the right mix of youth and veterans who all shared the scoring load and played the Timberwolf Way. They had a fearsome bench as well. The only thing that could potentially knock them offstride was Chris Gatling's anger at having been demoted to the middle of the bench. Truthfully, if his contract wasn't so terrible, I'd have considered trading for him myself, for I'd long coveted the former Old Dominion Monarch.

The Detroit Pistons relied on Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, and Terry Mills for their offense. Mills had taken his postseason heroics of the previous year and parlayed them into a career high 18.8 point regular season average. He was in the final year of his deal and I salivated at the thought of capturing him on the open market as a potential replacement for Detlef. The Pistons' bench was mediocre at best, however.

Washington more than had the firepower to match Detroit's triangle in Jeff Malone and Grant Hill. The Wizards also featured a tougher, more talented bench than Detroit and were my pick for the upset. I'll admit to a little bias since Bill Wennington played for the Double Ws.

Atlanta, as I've mentioned repeatedly before, copied the Timberwolf Way blueprint and applied it wholesale. The Hawks had a terrific starting five, highlighted by Anfernee Hardaway and the ageless Dominique Wilkins and boasted a deep reserves. By contrast, the Cavs really only went seven deep and needed to win a short series to have any hope. I didn't see that for Cleveland and predicted a win for our old friendly rivals.

1996 Western Conference First Round
(1) Minnesota vs (8) L.A. Clippers
(4) Utah vs (5) Portland
(3) Sacramento vs (6) Seattle
(2) Houston vs (7) New Orleans

The West possessed much less exciting matchups. Nearly everyone predicted squashes by us, the Sonics and the Rockets in the opening round. The lone spot of contention was the Jazz and the Trailblazers, where I favored Portland, who had the much more balanced and deeper team over Utah.

You shouldn't regard the near universal acceptance of the Sonics beating the Kings as an upset. Sacramento played in the weakest division in the league, the Sonics the strongest. Besides which, Seattle was a playoff-tested team, frequent winners of their first round battles and hungry to advance beyond the second round while they still had the players to do so.

As for us, I agreed with the press and the fans that we should beat the Clippers easily. We were just too talented for the Red and White to compete.

When the Clippers arrived in Minneapolis for Game 1, I was pleased to see that Robert Horry had cracked the starting lineup at PF. The media made much of the fact that Horry had once been Detlef's heir apparent and they ran a continuous storyline about the Master versus the former Apprentice in the days leading up to the contest.

Detlef won Game 1 with 14 points and 11 rebounds versus Horry's 9 points and 3 rebounds as we went box-to-wire in a 103-95 victory that was nowhere near as close as the score indicates. Shaq rampaged as he was wont to do, this time for 35 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 blocks. A minor note of concern was Volkov's 1-7 performance. His main value to us in recent years had been in the postseason and this chilliness boded ill for his future in Minneapolis.

Seeking to gain a psychological advantage, the Clippers started Terrell Brandon, Pooh's once upon a time heir at shooting guard in Game 2. It worked to the extent that we struggled early and often, but our trademark defense proved the difference as we shut them down 81-65 in a game of gritty defenses. Shaq saved us as you might expect with his 25 points and 18 rebounds.

We opened Game 3 with a 15-4 run and Shaq scored 27 points by halftime. That right there tells the tale of the tape in the demolition that we laid on the Clippers on their own court. To be more specific, our star center concluded the game with 34 points and 15 rebounds and 4 blocks besides, Mullin his accomplice with 26 points. The 111-80 victory was so great that supersub Greg Anthony's 15 points would've been the second highest team tally had he played for the Red and White.

The Clippers, desparate to avoid the sweep, came out firing in Game 4 and it looked like we might lose, until Shaq slammed a dunk home just before halftime to put us up by a single point. That single bucket and subsequent loss of lead at the buzzer sucked all the morale and energy out of the best team in L.A. and they went down with barely a sound, 116-81. Mullin ripped through their porous defense for 33 points and all five starters hit double digits in scoring. Glenn Robinson topped the reserves with 10 points himself.

In short, it was a swift, neat, expected sweep. But it was not without its cost.

Chris Mullin, Game's 4 general, wounded his toe and was out a week and a half.

We would be missing a major component for part of our next series, against a much more capable opponent.

[Izulde]

Three series went down to the final game in that first round: Atlanta/Cleveland, Washington/Detroit, and Indiana/Toronto.

The Hawks used their duo of Anfernee Hardaway and Dominique Wilkins to put away the pesky Cavaliers and the Pistons rode Joe Dumars' 31 points to knock off the Wizards. Dumars averaged 33.3 points in that first round and gave Detroit a flickering hope that the old team might not be done yet. Balanced scoring in the Minnesota style enabled the Raptors to dispatch the Pacers. The key to the series to me was PF Chris Webber, who averaged a double-double for the round.

1996 East Conference Second Round
(1) New York vs (4) Toronto
(2) Atlanta vs (3) Detroit

The Bulls actually won a couple games off of the Knicks but New York was still very much on fire and the Raptors' struggle to beat Indiana, coupled with Matt Geiger's injury meant that Ewing's boys were my pick to move on to the conference finals.

In the Hawks versus the Pistons, you had two very solid teams, but Atlanta was younger and better and much more likely to rebound faster from the grueling seven game series than Detroit.

1996 West Conference Second Round
(1) Minnesota vs (4) Utah
(2) Houston vs (6) Seattle

The Jazz pounded the Trailblazers, taking them down in five games behind their usual magic of Stockton to Malone. It was going to be a rougher series than the Clippers, but we were still expected to win.

As I said last time, nobody imagined a Sonics victory in round one over the Kings to be an upset, so the six game didn't set off any shockwaves. Houston swept Hubie's Hornets as I figured and they looked ready to do close to the same to Tony's Seattle squad.

We played Game 1 Mullinless and it showed as we had trouble getting shots to fall. Only our defense kept us in the thick of things. Shaq started out 2-9 and so Gregg ordered the team to start feeding it to Greg Anthony, who'd been so clutch before. The stalwart shooting guard responded by sinking four buckets in a row to put us down by just one at the half. Then in the second, Shaq and Detlef took over when they rediscovered their scoring touches and we won going away, 112-103.

Shaq scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and all five of our first unit wound up in double-digit scoring. Volkov woke up to provide 10 points from the bench.

The Jazz were extremely frustrated that Mark Alarie's 21 points and Karl Malone's 28 points and 11 rebounds weren't enough to give them the crucial opening game victory and we took advantage by starting Game 2 with a 16-8 run, keyed by Scottie Pippen's three buckets. Utah bounced back to tie it up at the half and it was a dogfight throughout the entire third quarter. Then we broke them open in the fourth as Shaq abused Barry Stevens and Dan Godfread in the paint and we once more pulled away, winning 99-85.

Shaq proved the key again with 27 points and 14 rebounds and Pooh assisted him with a very quiet 23 points of his own. Karl Malone was the big man for the Jazz again, scoring 26 and yanking down an incredible 20 boards. So often the Mailman had brought his best against us and so often it just wasn't enough.

Gregg stressed to the team that each win in this series was important, for it not only brought us closer to advancing, but it bought us precious time for Mullin to come back. This worked for the first two games, but in Game 3, our defense took the night off and we lost 111-105 in a game that wasn't even that close. This despite the fact that all five starters reached double-digit points, three of them hitting 20. Malone was the hero of the day for the Jazz again, with 31 points and 14 rebounds.

The letdown made Gregg angry and he lambasted the players in the locker room after the game and sternly reminded them of the importance of defense before Game 4. He pointed out that the Timberwolf Way was built with defense as its founding principle and they needed to stick to that if they wanted to win.

The players listened and Chris Mullin returned to the lineup.

End result, we won 102-95. Mullin raced us out to an early lead with a quick 8 points and finished with 31 on the night, the equal to the Mailman's repeat performance of 31. There was no answer for Shaq's 24 points and 10 rebounds from the Jazz and just like that, we held a commanding 3-1 series lead.

We returned home to Minneapolis for Game 5, confident we would win. This assurance turned into overconfidence as we dug ourselves into an 11 point hole by halftime. I found out later that Gregg ripped into the men so viciously during the intermission that Detlef's cheeks were still burning three hours afterwards. The tactic worked though as we made up the deficit and put them away in the final quarter to win game and series 97-88.

Shaq and Mullin scored 25 a piece, with O'Neal adding 13 rebounds and 5 blocks to his line, finally outdueling Karl Malone, who finished the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Another series, another fairly easy win for us all things considered. We were coasting through the postseason and the repeat title looked very much assured.

But of course, nothing is a certainty in life and the occasional lapses we'd had against the Jazz worried me.

We could not lose. I wanted that fourth ring and the repeat, if not for me, then for Detlef and Volkov. I was still undecided on our German, but I'd already decided on one thing.

Alexander Volkov would not return next season.

[Izulde]

Bumping this to keep it on the first page.

I'm still slow-releasing the dynasty over on the Wolverine Studios boards, so it'll probably be about another week or so before I get an actual gameplay update in.