There are stages to a sports teams’ notoriety in the public’s collective conscious. First, there’s acceptance and buzz among local sports fans. Then there’s acceptance and buzz among the local community at large, both from sports fans and from non-sports fans. The next stage is notice on the national stage from sports fans. Finally, before moving into the international stage, there is notoriety at the national level even among non-sports fans. Think popular culture, for example, say, the Lakers or Yankees every year, the Packers in the 2011 playoffs, or the 2010-11 Miami Heat. Well, the Wolves are getting noticed at the national stage in non-sports circles. This is a sign of how far we’ve come this season, right? We’ll let you be the judge.
Recently, our Minnesota Timberwolves have been nationally noticed at the Huffington Post. Not really known for its sports knowledge, HuffPost could certainly be a good thing for a team working to expand market awareness. Not in this case. The first time we hit the HuffPost spotlight was about a week ago when Darko Milicic tipped the ball into the Wizards basket from about the free throw line. The second time was only a few days later when the lights went out during the Magic-Wolves game. Not exactly the pinnacle of national attention. Unfortunately, the news at the local level isn’t much better during this stagnant stretch. There is, well, the fact you should now be able to have an easier time using your iPhone at the Target Center. The Wolves have a new sponsorship with AT&T. Too bad this news comes just days after Verizon was announced to be added as a new carrier for the iPhone. This could mean AT&T quickly slipping down the list of “preferred” carriers. The Wolves can’t seem to get anything right.
Hmmm…what else? Well, Kevin Love’s streak of consecutive double doubles continued last night against the Clippers. The highlight of the night, however, was an amazing Blake Griffin alley-opp. And just in case you were worried that you couldn’t feel any lower as a Wolves fan, HoopsWorld decided to run a piece on the Top 5 Lottery Trades. Coming in at #4 was the Marbury-Allen draft day trade from 1996. Here we thought we wouldn’t have to think about Marbury again. Things seem so low right now that some people are wondering if Kevin Love would be an MVP candidate if he played for a contender.
We are at the halfway point and halftime analysis is coming. We aren’t completely sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. We enjoyed M&M’s halfway breakdown for FSNorth. Brian McKitish of ESPN talks about Beasley’s first half breakout as well. He also has Kevin Love currently ranked as the 16th best player in the NBA and Beasley as the 51st, which is good to see if you can ignore the fact that these are fantasy basketball rankings and have nothing to do with the reality of our team at all.
Dear David Kahn- patience is wearing thin. Sincerely, TC Huddle.
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