Phil "Flip" Saunders (1955-2015): Leaving a Basketball Legacy

Flip Saunders, head coach of the Washington Wizards Washington Wizards v/s Cleveland Cavaliers November 18, 2009 at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Phil "Flip" Saunders, general manager and coach of the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves, died at the age of sixty days before the team was to start its 2015-16 regular season.  It had been only a few months since Saunders said he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphona, then took a leave of absence from the team for treatment.

Saunders first came to Minnesota from his native Ohio in the 1970s to play on the men's Gopher basketball team.  After graduation, he coached community college and minor league ball before breaking into the NBA with the Wolves.  His first stint with the team ran from 1995-2005, leading them to playoff appearances for eight consecutive seasons beginning in 1997 and ending with the Western Conference finals in 2004.  Of course, having players like Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell and Latrelle Sprewell didn't hurt either.

With the Wolves in decline after that, Saunders was let go.  After coaching stops with the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards, he returned to the Wolves as President of Basketball Operations.  When coach Rick Adelman announced his retirement following the 2013-14 season and no one else wanted to coach a team with an uncertain future, Saunders stepped in to coach a second time in addition to his other duties.

In his other job as President of Basketball Operations (another way of saying he was a general manager), Saunders moved disgruntled Wolf Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 for (among other players) Andrew Wiggins, who turned out to be last season's NBA Rookie of the Year.  Then, with the first-ever Number One pick in the 2015 Draft, Karl-Anthony Towns of Kentucky was chosen along with local hero Tyus Jones of NCAA men's champion Duke.  Now, people were expecting big things from the Wolves that they never did before.  Oh yes, and Garnett returned too.

Saunders will not have the chance to coach this squad of promising starters and mentoring veterans, so what you'll see on the floor this season and in the future is his legacy.  How the players will react to Saunders' passing on and off the court is another matter.  Sam Mitchell, who used to play under Saunders, takes over as the head coach.  Milt Newton is the general manager.

Phil "Flip" Saunders will go down as one of the most influential figures in Minnesota sports history, through his leadership as the winningest coach in Timberwolves' history with a record of 411-326 over 737 games, and as an executive.  If the current Wolves team Saunders helped create eventually become winners, then that should be tribute enough for him.