Minnesota Adopts Anthony Edwards' Viral Message to Charles Barkley as Tourism Magnet

Stephen Douglas | May 21, 2024

May 19, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) reacts in the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets in game seven of the second round for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Timberwolves have home court advantage in the Western Conference Finals, which begin on Wednesday. That means that the Dallas Mavericks and Turner Sports will both be sending teams to Minneapolis this week. It will be the Mavericks third trip to Minnesota this season, but the Inside the NBA crew's first trip since, well, forever.

Minnesota has only made the conference finals once in the franchise's history and they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. It was the last time that Inside the NBA made the trip to Minnesota.

Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley were all at TNT at the time (with Steve Kerr and Magic Johnson) and Shaquille O'Neal was there as a player, averaging 20 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks for LA. That is apparently the last time that Barkley set foot in Minnesota, as he revealed in the postgame interview with Anthony Edwards on Sunday. This prompted Edwards to say the now-infamous line, "bring ya ass."

According to Axios, this comment was an immdiate spark of inspriation for the state's Explore Minnesota Tourism Council. Explore Minnesota immediately put together some graphics utilizing Ant's quote. Even if they do need more asterisks than Michael Malone's resume.

Minnesota is ready for you, basketball fans! 🏀 Let's go, @Timberwolves! 🐺 pic.twitter.com/AXz4RR1tdW

— Explore Minnesota (@exploreminn) May 20, 2024

Not that those are any old astersisks. According to Axios they are "Minnesota's Etoile-du-Nord eight-pointed star symbol." They also used the slogan in posts on Instagram and Facebook.

It is abundantly clear that the entire state of Minnesota is behind Edwards and the Wolves right now. Between politicians on both sides of the aisle taking time out of a tense legislative session to applaud the team's victory to the state using a NSFW comment to seize on a viral moment and promote tourism. With Ant's help and few beautiful scenic shots from the TNT broadcast this week they shouldn't have much trouble becoming the Land of 10,000 Likes.