'Celebrating' the Timberwolves?

Posted at 4:21 PM on June 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Sports

As the NBA draft nears, there is an overwhelming sense of doom among fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Judging draft talent is not the team's forte, as Patrick Reusse artfully pointed out yesterday.

Update 6:45 p.m. Minnesota's on the clock. Prayer beads getting a workout.

6:46 p.m. - Presuming the choice will be O.J. Mayo. I fear gleeful anchors announcing, "it was the Mayo Clinic at Target Center tonight," thinking it was the best lede ever written. MinnPost's David Brauer says if they take him and then don't trade him, we'll wake up to "Timberwolves hold the Mayo." It's a no-win situation here.

6:48 p.m. - Timberwolves select O.J. Mayo. Experts say he's the most NBA-ready player. He better be. "I'm going to bring some leadership, and determination," he tells ESPN. Plans to play point guard. Move over Randy Foye.

Update Friday 7:04 a.m. - Ugh. The Timberwolves did it again. They've traded Mayo to Memphis along with Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker and received Kevin Love (whom they considered drafting) in return. It appears to be another trade to get rid of high-priced players.)

With any luck at all, the team's new logo and uniforms won't be the highlight Timberwolves story of the day, but you never know.

The Minneapolis Business Journal analyzes the fashion:

The team's primary logo received a relatively modest facelift, including a splash of white on the wolf's face and sleeker trees. The word Timberwolves also gets a different font and converts from blue to white.

The Wolves first introduced that logo for the 1996-97 season.

The Timberwolves also unveiled a completely redesigned secondary logo that celebrates the team's 20th anniversary. The new logo features a wolf howling at the moon. The moon, however, is depicted as a basketball, paying homage to the team's original logo that featured a wolf's head in front of a ball.

"The secondary logo really throws us back to the logo we used initially and celebrates the history of the Timberwolves in this market," (TWolves marketing boss Chris ) Wright said.

The team is still selling merchandise with the old logo on its Web site. It's gear that screams Ndudi Ebi

(H/T: doodledee)

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Comments (8)

I can say, Bob, that I'm relieved with the Timberwolves drafting Mayo. I was out to eat while the early stages of the draft were going on, and just before our pick, I stepped up to the TV by the bar and said to the guy next to me, "Moment of truth." The sound was off, but I could read Stern's lips -- "O.J. Mayo". Both of us heaved a sigh of relief. This was the pick the Timberwolves simply needed to make. Kevin Love kind of screams 'Shawn Bradley', and I wasn't sold on either Gallinari or Lopez.

Since when did we get a new logo? I remember the breathless buildup to the Gopher football team's new unis, but this thing seemingly came out of nowhere. I remember watching in 1996 when the team unveiled their new logo at Mall of America, and thinking what a great step up it was.

I would buy an early T-Wolves throwback in a heartbeat. You know, from the Pooh Richardson era.

Posted by Mac Wilson | June 26, 2008 11:22 PM

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I spoke too soon:

Memphis gets:
OJ Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker, Greg Buckner

Minnesota gets:
Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, Jason Collins

Good to see one of your relatives will be coming to town, Bob!

BTW, this trade makes me sick to my stomach. I didn't think this franchise could sink any lower.

Posted by Mac Wilson | June 27, 2008 12:23 AM

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Well Bob, we were spared from the "Timberwolves hold the Mayo" headline. But Kare11 decided to make up for that with "Where's the Love?"

Posted by JenniferB | June 27, 2008 12:17 PM

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Oh, dear. Love. Yes, well that will certainly lead to years and years of bad puns, which makes this whole situation even worse.

All Things Considered asked me to come on tonight to take about the Timberwolves organization, assuming I'd write about it today. I told them I CAN'T write about; too personally invested, again. And too furious that Lucy (McHale) pulled the football out again.

OK, so I WILL write about it, for just a second. A listen to KFAN on the way in sounds like Timberwolves country is in full revolt. It even sounded like Boston sportstalk radio.... and you have to know what that sounds like, I guess.

Posted by Bob Collins | June 27, 2008 12:32 PM

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Ugh. KFAN Web site headline: Love Shack.

This is going to be worse than losing 60 games a season.

Posted by Bob Collins | June 27, 2008 12:57 PM

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That KFAN headline is pretty awful. Seriously, do they make most news reporters pass a pun proficiency test? This could be painful.
Here's what could be coming...

Love will find a way
Love is all you need
Rollercoaster of Love
Or if things go really badly:
Love is just a four letter word

One could make a bingo card of puns to use throughout the season.

Posted by JenniferB | June 27, 2008 2:57 PM

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KFAN is winning the bad headline war. They also have a podcast today titled Tainted Love. This is already painful.

Posted by JenniferB | June 27, 2008 4:09 PM

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Nevermind. KSTP may have just won with this gem:
Hold the Mayo! Can you feel the Love?

Posted by JenniferB | June 27, 2008 4:54 PM

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