What I Watched Sunday: Wolves @ Spurs 1998
With sports on an indefinite hiatus, I have taken to YouTube to check out one game every day. On Sunday, I checked out a regular season game between the Spurs and Timberwolves from 1998.
This was a game I just clicked on because I was kind of getting bored browsing.
I was a huge Wolves fan during this era, and I was excited to watch a game I had no idea who won. Also, let's be honest, I'd watch two kittens playing with a ball of yarn if they kept score and I could order the broadcast at a reasonable price.
Spurs broadcaster Greg Papa drops some bombs early in the broadcast, first proclaiming the Timberwolves as "the sorriest franchise in the history of professional sports" before Flip turned them around.
Early in the first quarter, Wolves center Stanley Roberts (he started!) is at the free throw line, and Papa calls being a weight problem "as insidious for athletes as drugs or alcohol... and Stanley Roberts has eaten his way to the end of the bench." Oof.
The Wolves starting lineup was...not the best. With Tom Gugliotta and Chris Carr out due to injury, Sam Mitchell started at small forward and Terry Porter started at the two alongside Steph Marbury.
Anyway, this was one of the first big battles between KG and Duncan that set the tone for what would be a great personal and team rivalry between the two.