The game I'll never forget: the Timberwolves' first go-to guy had his career day on the expansion franchise's biggest stage yet

Basketball Digest, Jan, 2003 by Tony Campbell

PLAYING WITH THE EXPANSION Minnesota Timberwolves was a learning experience. You knew you were going to lose a lot of games just because of the fact you didn't have a lot of good players. That's how it is with expansion teams. But we tried every night, gave it our all, and once in a while, we would sneak up and beat a good team.

There was one game in our first year that really helped put us on the map and helped us form some kind of a positive identity. We played the Boston Celtics, and I believe it was a nationally-televised game, on February 2, 1990, at the Hubert H. Humphrey Dome in Minneapolis.

There were more than 35,000 people there that night, probably one of the biggest crowds in NBA history. It was the biggest crowd in the short history of the Timberwolves, and I think it was the biggest crowd ever to see a basketball game in the state. The fans were loud and really into the game. You could feel how much they were into the game.

That night, not only did we end up blowing out the Celtics, but I had my career-highs with 44 points and 14 rebounds. That was the game I'll never forget.

We were a very young team that needed some veteran leadership. I was one of the team leaders along with Sidney Lowe and Sam Mitchell. Basically, my prowess was scoring. I've always felt comfortable trying to put the ball in the basket and I think coach Bill Musselman saw that. Going to Minnesota to play for coach Musselman pretty much gave me the opportunity I had always wanted. I hadn't gotten much of a chance to play in my earlier stops with the Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Lakers, but with the Timberwolves I was one of the first guys we would go to when we had the ball. That was a welcome change.

I'm from New Jersey, and having played in Detroit and Los Angeles before going to the Timberwolves, you could imagine what a big-time change it was for me to go to Minnesota. But each city has its own personality. You can pretty much make whatever you want happen in any city you go to, whether it is Tupelo, Miss. or New York City. And that's pretty much what happened.

At first I thought Minnesota was going to be some very remote place, unwelcoming and inhospitable. But once I got there and began learning about the development of downtown Minneapolis, I started learning about the people who lived in Minnesota, like music producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I met some Vikings while I was out there. Chris Doleman was a friend of mine. Cris Carter was a friend of mine, too. Once you got there, you realized Minneapolis had a heartbeat of its own. I began to enjoy and appreciate Minnesota. I really settled in and enjoyed myself there.

For a franchise like the Timberwolves in those formative years, every game was important. It was really funny because we seemed to play excellent basketball against the top teams and then against the mediocre or below-mediocre teams, we would just get our butts beat. We would accept the challenge against teams like the Lakers, Celtics, and Philadelphia 76ers. Then we would lose to the others. What a weird team it was.

Going into that game against the Celtics, I really had no idea that I was in store for a big game. I've always had a routine before a game. In the afternoon, I would have an early lunch and take an afternoon nap. Then I would get up about four or five hours before the game. I would get to the arena early, say two hours before the game. I would shoot around, get a good workout, then go back into the locker room to get my thoughts together. Then the whole team would go back out to shoot around, then come back in again. We would have a coach's meeting, a strategy meeting, and then go back out to play.

As a player, it's weird. Sometimes you feel really bad and end up having a big game. There are some players who are sick with the flu or have sore ankles and they will come out and concentrate on a higher level and have great games. With me, there were times when I felt good, and the games weren't that successful. There were times when I was feeling bad and I would have a great game.

I came out against Boston and I was having a pretty good game. As I kept hitting shots and began to heat up, the Celtics tried to mix it up a little. They had Reggie Lewis on me. They had Larry Bird on me. You really get up for a game when you're playing against guys who are that good. You just try to elevate your game that much more.

Then the Celtics tried putting Kevin McHale on me for a while, and he was a power forward and much bigger than me. They pretty much had everyone on me for a while. They ran a lot of players at me that night, but it didn't really seem to matter. Everything was falling for me that night. We just kept playing hard, and the crowd kept going crazy.

I don't know what happened, but I had a really big fourth quarter. I don't know why. I scored 12 straight points late in the fourth quarter. We were just trying to tough it out, just trying to hold Boston off. I hit a jumper on the baseline--something like a 15-footer with a minute or two to go--that proved to be a big basket. It gave us a one-point lead and that was it. I made a whole bunch of free throws down the stretch and we held on to win.