About the Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves, is a professional basketball team and one of seven teams in the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the NBA. The Timberwolves play at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The clubs name originated with a name-the-team contest, and the timberwolf, an animal that inhabits wilderness areas of northern Minnesota, was selected as the mascot.

In 1989 the Timberwolves played their first season. Minnesotas first-ever draft pick was Jerome Pooh Richardson, who was included in the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1989-90. The Timberwolves ended the season with 22 wins and 60 losses, which was the best record that year among the NBA's four recent expansion clubs. The team posted a seven-game record improvment in its second year, but a league-record four straight seasons of 60 or more losses followed from 1991-92 through 1994-95.

Although the team was short on success during the early 1990s, individual achievement was there. Christian Laettner, college player of the year at Duke University and the first collegian ever to start in four NCAA Final Fours, made the All-Rookie First Team in 1992-93. Also that season, guard Micheal Williams made 84 consecutive free throws to break Calvin Murphys 12-year-old NBA record. Williamss .907 free-throw percentage that year set a Team record. A year later, Isaiah Rider was named to the All-Rookie First Team and won the NBA Slam-Dunk Championship at the All-Star Weekend in the Timberwolves home-town of Minneapolis.

After going 21-61 in 1994-95, the team named former Boston Celtics star Kevin McHale the vice president of basketball operations. In 1996-97 the Timberwolves made the playoffs for the first time, and in the late 1990s forward Kevin Garnett became one of the NBAs best all-around players.