Wolves 2015-16: Growing Pains

The current Minnesota Timberwolves logo (2008-present) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Timberwolves, in their first game since the week-long All Star break, lost to the Grizzlies in Memphis 109-104.  The Wolves are 17-38, and will once again not be playoff-bound.  That doesn't really matter because everyone seems to be pointing to the big future the team supposedly has, what with the presence of Number One draft picks Anthony Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns.  But sometimes the future can be a mirage, not turning out the way you wanted.  The Wolves have had plenty of experience with that.

As the recent NBA All Star Weekend in Toronto showed, Wiggins, Towns and Zach LaVine impressed enough souls around the league to convince them that all is not lost in the American North.  What's holding the Wolves back is not just the strength of the Western Conference (though the dominance of the defending league champion Golden State Warriors is an exception), but also the questions surrounding the supporting cast.

Ricky Rubio is a good NBA player, but hasn't been the same since a serious knee injury took him down a few years ago.  Kevin Martin doesn't seem to be the answer either, though the Wolves tried and failed to move him before the trade deadline.  And Kevin Garnett is just biding his time before announcing his retirement.

In the months since the death of Phil "Flip" Saunders, this season has been more or less an audition for interim coach Sam Mitchell.  With the record the Wolves have this season compared to last, anything could be considered an improvement.  But there are the rumors that owner Glen Taylor would toss aside Mitchell and general manager Milt Newton in favor of a bigger name who would love the challenge of turning the Wolves into a legitimate winner, which would be a far cry from when Saunders took the coaching job for the second time when no one else wanted it.  Or if Garnett and his teammates have anything to say about it. Mitchell would be the permanent coach.

For the rest of the season, the audition continues.  Will Towns and Wiggins improve enough to start becoming leaders?  Do the Wolves have the pieces to at least be a .500 team, or do they need more pieces that fit?  How much longer can Rubio justify his presence?  Is Mitchell really the right coach?  And how much longer will it be before the Timberwolves and the NBA are relevant again in Minnesota?

Super Bowl 50: Peyton Manning Rides Into the Bay Area Sunset

Denver Broncos logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On this golden anniversary of the Super Bowl at a football stadium named for a jeans manufacturer near San Francisco, the Denver Broncos' defense ruled over the Carolina Panthers 24-10, easing the way for quarterback Peyton Manning to retire in style should he choose to do so.

The Broncos' D held Cam Newton and company's explosive offense in the same manner that they handled Pittsburgh and New England during the playoffs, limiting the Panthers to ten points and causing five turnovers--one of which resulted in a touchdown.  Not for nothing was Von Miller named the Super Bowl MVP.

Manning didn't have a great game either, having thrown for 104 yards and getting sacked five times.  But the way his team's defense had been playing, it wasn't a problem.  Now, with adding to the Manning family's total of four Super Bowl victories (both Peyton and Eli have two each), he can just sit back, sip the brew he holds a distributorship in, collect the money on all those TV endorsements, and decide what to do next.

That's the game, such as it was.  As for everything else that makes up a Super Bowl . . .

• We expect this at every major sporting event now.  The ruthless crackdown on "undesirables" to put on a shiny, happy show for the visitors.  The super-patriotic pregame show with the celebrity singer who screws up the national anthem, all paid for with "your" tax dollars.  Only those with oodles of money get to see the Big Game while the rest of us peasants watched on TV (nearly 112 million, according to CBS).  All this to show the rest of the world that America is still The Greatest Country On The Planet, and that's no Donald Trump hyperbole.
• Whose bright idea was it to schedule Coldplay as the headline act for the Super Bowl halftime show?  (Wasn't Taylor Swift available?)  Fortunately, Beyonce (who used the occasion not only to figuratively raise a middle finger to racist police, but to promote her upcoming tour) and Bruno Mars were around to keep things from flatlining.  But the whole show still seemed like an extended commercial for next week's Grammy awards, which just happen to be on CBS.
• Companies pay exorbitant amounts of money to get their ads into the Super Bowl telecast.  So how come most of them turn out to be boring, confusing, imitative, insensitive, or just plain stupid?  ("Puppymonkeybaby"?  Really?)  Oh well, they got what they paid for.
• Can we please end the new postgame tradition of Hall of Famers like Joe Namath parading the Vince Lombardi Trophy through the gauntlet of players from the winning team, who then put their paws and saliva on it before it's even officially awarded?  Gross.  Yuck.  Eww.  This makes the Stanley Cup ceremony seem classier by comparison.