Just when Minnesota Timberwolves fans got over the sting of watching Andrew Wiggins become an NBA champion, Mychal Thompson decided to throw salt in the wound.
The Gophers basketball legend is the father of Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson, and he tweeted that the Timberwolves should get a ring for their contributions to the Warriors’ 2021-22 champion. If you know your Timberwolves history, you know where Thompson is going with his tweet.
Ya no the Warriors gotta send a ring to Minesota…Y…Well,they PASSED on Steff and Klay in the draft AND they traded Wiggins to G State…So yeah…Minesota shud get a ring too
— Mychal Thompson (@champagnennuts) June 21, 2022
It started in the 2009 NBA Draft when six teams passed on Steph Curry, but the Timberwolves were the only team to do it twice. Then-GM David Kahn took Ricky Rubio with the fifth pick and then ran it back with Jonny Flynn with the next pick. Curry went seventh to the Warriors. Ouch.
During a 2018 episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Curry said there was a rumor that Kahn didn’t draft him because he believed Curry didn’t like the cold and that Minnesota’s golf seasons were too short.
“I hope it’s true,” Curry said. “Because that’s hilarious.”
Even if that was the case, Kahn showed his general manager chops two years later when he selected Arizona forward Derrick Williams with the second overall pick. Nine picks later, the Warriors selected Klay Thompson and the “Splash Brothers” were born.
Thompson and Curry went on to lead Golden State to three NBA titles in four seasons from 2015-18. But this isn’t just a story about Kahn’s legacy as one of the worst GMs in NBA history.
The icing on the Warriors’ cake came in February 2020 when the Timberwolves traded Andrew Wiggins and a 2021 first-round pick to Golden State in exchange for D’Angelo Russell.
After Timberwolves fans spent more than five seasons begging Wiggins to crash the glass, he transformed into Dennis Rodman during the NBA Finals, averaging 8.8 rebounds per game and pulling down 29 boards between Games 4 and 5.
Can it get worse? Well, Jonathan Kuminga, who the Warriors selected with the Timberwolves’ pick in that trade, is only 19 years old and could terrorize Minnesota and the rest of the league for years to come.
So why not give the Timberwolves a piece of the championship? Maybe they can raise a banner next to the Lynx’s four titles in Target Center. Retire Curry and Thompson’s number while you’re at it. We’ll take anything we can get.
Let’s just hope the new Timberwolves regime has a little better luck in finding (and getting the most out of) generational talent.
