What's up with Draymond Green's infatuation with the Timberwolves?
Draymond Green doesn't believe in the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The enigmatic star for the Golden State Warriors was a panelist on TNT's alternate broadcast of the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday and he had some things to say about the Wolves.
After Karl-Anthony Towns reached 40 points (he wound up scoring 50), Green chimed in with a cheap shot: "This is like the old Minnesota days. KAT got 40, they down 20."
For the record, Towns has scored 40+ points 13 times in regular season games and the Timberwolves are 7-6 in those games – and they haven't lost any of those games by 20 points. In fact, all six losses are by a combined 22 points.
That was a well-timed joke but Green's real feelings about Minnesota leaked at a different point in the broadcast after Charles Barkley said he thinks the Wolves would lose to the New Orleans Pelicans in a playoff series.
"I think a lot of people going to beat Minnesota. That's just my opinion," Green said, adding that he's only "sold" on Anthony Edwards and Kyle Anderson.
Green's disbelief in the Timberwolves may ultimately be warranted if Minnesota comes up short in the postseason. But it's a bit odd considering other NBA stars, including Pelicans guard C.J. McCollum and Lakers star Anthony Davis, raved about how good the Wolves are during their All-Star Weekend media sessions.
Minnesota is 2-0 against the Warriors this season and with just 27 games left on the regular season schedule they lead the Western Conference with a record of 39-16, 1.5 games clear of second place Oklahoma City.
It would take more than the Golden Gate Bridge for the Warriors to cross the gap between that exists between them and the Timberwolves. The Warriors enter the stretch run of the season at 27-26, good for 10th place in the West and 11 games behind Minnesota.
Maybe Green's infatuation with ripping on Minnesota has ties to his long-running feud with Rudy Gobert, which reached a boiling point in November when Green put Gobert in a headlock and was suspended five games.
"I have empathy for him," Gobert told ESPN's Tim McMahon in December after Green was suspended indefinitely for smacking Jusuf Nurkic in the head. "You see somebody that’s not well inside and suffering. You take away the game and all that, and you want somebody to be well and be able to do what we do every night and compete and be happy."
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.