MarkMadsen.com

This coming Thursday, every member of our team will report to a local medical facility for our “exit physicals” and then the season will officially be over. We will be left with a long summer vacation to mull over what we could have done better and how we will prepare for next season. My summers normally constitute working out with weights, running and improving on my basketball skills, as well as a few other activities that I’m looking forward to.

Last summer I did my first ever youth basketball camp in Champlin, Minn. There were about 40 kids who came to the camp, and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had. Because I do want to become a coach when I am done playing, it’s a great opportunity for me to learn about coaching and how to work with kids. One of the reasons I did the camp last summer for the first time is because of a story that my mom told me. When my mom was growing up in Long Beach, Calif., she was involved in the orchestra group at her school and she loved to play the violin. There were many devoted leaders and mentors in the area involved in music, and they sponsored summer camps, one of which was called Arrowbear. My mom says that the orchestra programs throughout Southern California were all huge and very strong, because there was so much support locally from teachers and retired musicians, who simply wanted to share their gifts and experiences. I really hope that through involvement in this camp, I can in some way help promote the game of basketball and create positive memories for the kids that attend.

Another summer activity that I hope occurs involves my basketball agent, Arn Tellem. Arn represents around 100 NBA athletes, including Kobe Bryant, Antawn Jamison, Tracy McGrady and others. Mr. Tellem is Jewish and last summer he planned a basketball trip to the Middle East where for about a week, a group of players would go to cities like Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other areas to hold clinics for Palestinian and Jewish basketball players. His vision is that there would be several camps/clinics

where he would bring together Muslims, Christians and Jews through basketball and try to build bridges between the groups. Arn invited many of the players that he represents to fly over with him. The response was overwhelming and many players committed immediately. At the last minute the trip had to be cancelled due to an escalating security issue, but there is talk of trying to make the trip this summer. I think that would be a fantastic experience.

Even though it’s been a tough season, we’ve still tried to keep it loose. A few days ago in Indianapolis, Trenton Hassell was counting out loud the number of tickets he needed to leave for family members. “Eight plus three is 11, plus three is 14, plus…” Marko Jaric thought he heard an addition mistake during the process, so he smiled and called out, “The high schools in Europe are as good as the colleges here.” Trenton laughed and reminded the whole locker room that “Marko didn’t even go to high school. He went to ‘basketball school’ instead,” which is common for young professional athletes in Europe. Then Trenton took it one step further and said, “Marko if you’re so smart, then what’s the square root of 169?” “What does that mean?” Marko said. Finally, a teammate went up to the dry-erase board and wrote it up in math lingo and Marko got it right and laughed out loud and said, “Your terminology in the states is different!”

I wanted to thank all of you for taking the time to read this diary and I especially want to thank this newspaper for publishing it. I hope it’s given you an insider’s view of the NBA. I’ll keep on writing this summer on my blog at www.markmadsen.com/blog. Have a great summer!

- Mark

This is the first time in my entire basketball career that I’ve been on a team that has no statistical chance of making the playoffs going down the stretch. However, what is encouraging is that everyone is still fighting like we’re playing in a Game 7. This weekend we beat Atlanta on a Trenton Hassell put-back shot with about two seconds to play. I thought that, given Trenton saved the day for us, I wanted to do a little spotlight on him and allow you to get to know him a little bit better.

Two years ago, Trenton Hassell married his college sweetheart, Tiffany, and the couple recently gave birth to their first child. Trenton actually lives about two minutes from me in the western suburbs, so sometimes we argue about how long it takes to get to practice or to the airport. Somehow it seems that Trenton can get to both destinations about 10 minutes faster than I can. I guess I need to find a better route.

About three weeks ago Trenton had to leave a game because he strained his knee and his ankle. I remember everyone on the team saying, “Gosh, it must really be bad because Trenton never gets hurt.” Not only is Trenton durable, but he is also very tough and always plays through pain. After about a week of rehab, he came back better than ever and now is back to his normal high level of play.

People ask me about Trenton and I tell them that he is a true student of the game. When the team is in the locker room and any of our players or coaches wants to know what players on other teams are playing well, they ask him. He also has a pulse on who all the good college players are throughout the country, even if they are from very small schools. When we are at home, I know Trenton spends his time with his wife and son. When we are on the road, he’s always watching games and film to scout the competition and prepare.

Trenton also signs a lot autographs for the fans. One time before a game, there was a man outside of our parking area who asked him to sign something unique. I remember Trenton coming into the locker and he said something like, “He asked me to sign the cover of his Bible, and I did, but I’ve never done that before and I hope it wasn’t wrong that I did that.” Trenton has a huge heart and we are very lucky to have him on the team. After his game-winning shot, I was next to Coach Casey who gave Trenton a huge hug. He plays hard, but clean.

Early this week we embark on our last road trip of the season. It will be a little bittersweet, because once the summer hits, every player goes their own way. Guys will head to various destinations to train, spend time with family, soak up some sun or heal various injuries. I will likely spend some time in Minnesota on the lakes and some time out West where most of my family members live. Fred Hoiberg will make this trip as well, and he continues to ponder the various options that he has. We’re going to go out to lunch or dinner on this road trip, so I’ll be sure to let you know what Freddie is thinking.

Have a great week. – Mark

The season is coming to an end and while all of us are very disappointed that we’re not going to the playoffs, I’ve seen some real positives lately from the team. I really think that Marcus Banks has come into his own, as he’s earned more minutes from Coach Casey. Marcus may be one of the quickest players alongside players like Earl Boykins of Denver and a few others. He has done a great job of pushing the tempo and creating easy opportunities for other people. In Sunday’s game, he drove the lane and missed a shot, only to then out-jump all of Golden State’s big men, grab the rebound and finish in the lane with his left hand. Additionally, Marcus has been great in the locker room. His sense of humor has loosened things up and he likes to get other people laughing, which is key during a long season.

Rashad McCant’s development has outpaced everyone’s expectations, especially on defense. I was reading online after a recent game and came across this quote from Dwayne Casey, “He’s continuing to improve. I never thought I’d say this, but he’s probably one of our best defenders, behind Trenton (Hassell), as far as focus, paying attention to detail.” It’s amazing the way Rashad’s dedication and hard work has paid off at the defensive end. I think right when Trenton went out with injury and Rashad began starting, the refs were calling a lot of early fouls on him because that’s what happens to rookies most of the times. He made the adjustments and has really shown people that he is a great defender. It’s obvious that he’s unbelievably talented on offense, but I’m glad people are starting to recognize his defense. A few games ago (I think against New Jersey), I was sitting next to him on the bench and he said something like, “The next play they run is going to be a post-up for their big man.” I think Rashad was right and when I asked him how he knew, he said that he watches the opposing coach and the opposing players very closely and listens to what they’re saying and reads their plays. Everyone in the NBA always talks about “basketball IQ” and Rashad’s is extremely high.

Right now is a great time for all basketball players, coaches and fans because it’s March Madness. I was particularly intrigued with the George Mason team that had such a great season. When I watched them play earlier in the season, I knew that I was looking at a group of very talented players that liked each other, passed to each other, and were a TEAM. It seems to me that basketball nowadays goes two in different directions. One way to play the game is to amass a bunch of great individual players and roll a ball out and tell them to win a game on talent. The other way is to play like a team and for everyone to complement each other. That is the way that George Mason played the game.

It will be fun to watch the NCAA National Championship. It’s always fun to hear what my teammates think of different college players. I remember when one of Tennessee’s female players dunked the basketball this year. Everyone in the locker room was talking about it and we watched it on replay a lot in the training room. At any rate, I definitely have to go with UCLA (fellow Pac-10 school) as my pick to win it all.

I am always open to suggestions as to what Timberwolves fans want me to write about. If you have a topic suggestion or a question you want me to answer, please feel free to drop me a note atmark@markmadsen.com.

Have a great week. – Mark

At our game this past weekend against Golden State, we had a pretty big name in the world of sports sitting courtside. Sugar Ray Leonard was in town to do a promotional spot with one of the team’s corporate sponsors. It was cool to see a boxing legend up close. He was a champion at five different weight classes during his 20-year career. That is pretty amazing to be that successful for that long in a very rugged profession. Two of the member’s of the dance team presented him with a personalized Wolves’ jersey during a timeout. He reciprocated by giving each of them a little peck on the cheek.

After the game, Sugar Ray came into our locker room to say hello to Kevin Garnett and the rest of the guys. He told KG that it was his second time he had visited the Twin Cities and said it seemed like a great area. Then Ricky Davis went over to say hello to him. KG introduced Ricky to Sugar Ray and said, “Ray, Ricky’s pretty good with his hands too.” Ray smiled and said, “Are you?” to Ricky and Ricky replied with a simple, “Yeah, I am.” Then Sugar Ray showed us that if he were to box against Ricky, (a taller opponent) he would try to attack his midsection with a series of jabs, rather than going for head shots. Sugar Ray really seemed like a fun guy who was friendly, outgoing and genuine.

When I was talking to Sugar Ray about boxing, he showed me a few moves and told me about how “champions are made.” He said the most important thing as a boxer to be able to take a punch. Then he asked me if it was okay for him to show me a few things to which I said, “Of course.” It was awesome to meet an athlete of that caliber and I think the entire team hopes to see him again down the road.

We have got to face Yao Ming again this week. I enjoy him as a person, as he is one of the real class acts in the NBA. Yao came into the league a few years ago and has really become a dominating force. He is 7’6”. I’m not sure that anyone can fully comprehend his height until you stand right next to him and realize that your neck is totally bent just to look up at him. In preparing for him you just try to tailor a plan to some of his strengths and try to find a way to keep him out of the post.

This season has been a little bit of a roller coaster, but in general I really believe that we are starting to come together. The players we acquired from Boston are really contributing, whether it be as starters or coming off the bench. Marcus Banks was inserted as the starting point guard and we are 3-1 with him in there. Ricky has been just phenomenal scoring 20 or more points every game. Mark Blount has been solid as the starting center and Justin Reed has given us great energy off the bench every night. I truly believe that we are going in the right direction and that we are going to make a push for the division championship and for the playoffs from here on out.

Have a great week. – Mark

I’m not sure how many of your watched our recent home game against the Denver Nuggets, but it was a thriller. Sometimes I wish the fans could have a microphone implanted in our huddle, so that you can hear the emotion and involvement from all of the players. At a point very late in the game, when things looked the bleakest, newcomer, Justin Reed entered the huddle, and starting clapping and called out, “Keep believing that we can win this game!” I think Justin’s comments gave our team new life, because Trenton Hassell, Kevin Garnett and Ricky Davis all made huge plays in the ensuing seconds. Ricky came back to the huddle after his huge steal and jump shot and called out for everyone to hear, “All we have to do is believe!” In the end, we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but I was proud of everyone on the team because of how hard we fought.

One of the things I like about Ricky is how hard he plays. I’m sure that you’ve noticed that he wears an undershirt when he is on the court. What you don’t know, is that Ricky is really wearing an assortment of pads on his hips and his back for protection. It’s almost like football pads, but just a lightweight version. He likes to fight through screens and drive the lane with so much momentum, that bigger players are constantly hitting him. Plus when you play above the rim like he does, it’s nice to have some protection for the occasional crash landing. Basketball players have hips that get beat up all the time. It seems like there’s always at least one player on the team with a bruised hip, a hip pointer, or some kind of bursitis.

I made the most of my All-Star break by making a quick trip to Utah to see my parents and some siblings. Then I flew out to Washington D.C., early (our team had a game against the Wizards the Tuesday after the break and we had the option to meet up there) to see my sister and her husband and five kids. It was a lot fun to see my twin nieces. They gave me a gift of some drawings with words that said, “I love my Mad Dog,” with a pink dog surrounded by pink flowers. I think I was supposed to be the pink dog. My sister and brother-in-law came to the game against the Wizards with some longtime friends. After the game, they all loved it when KG came by and took the time to shoot the breeze with them a little bit, even though we had just suffered a tough loss.

The day before the Washington game, I met up with some friends and we saw a lot of the museums in the area. One of my buddies out there has the last name of “Nader” and he is a distant relative of Ralph Nader. We had a good time talking about a few years back when I was with the Lakers and we beat Sacramento in a playoff series. Ralph Nader publicly stated that he wanted an independent commission to look into the officiating of Game 6 of that series which was played at the Staples Center. I guess that meant Ralph was a Kings fan. Phil Jackson, of course, felt differently about the officiating (as did our team and the rest of Los Angeles). It was fun to reminisce about those two personalities, and how for a couple of days, they exchanged friendly/pointed quotes with each other through the media about the issue. The sporting world is a lot of fun and I’m really grateful that I get to be part of it.

Have a great week.

This week there are two major events that aren’t totally related to our team. First is Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) and the other one is the NBA All-Star Weekend (Feb. 17-19). I’m kind of shy when it comes to talking about the former in this diary, but the media people upstairs tell me that fans like to read this kind of stuff, so I’ve given in.

Let me share one Valentine’s memory from my freshman year of college, when I got a surprise gift from a friend. I was in the middle of practices, conditioning, weightlifting and just generally trying to stay afloat at Stanford. I came back to the dorm room and I found a Valentine taped to my door with Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare included. I saw that it was from this girl named Kate, who my best friend on the team liked a little bit too. I know that he thought she was cool. I had just met her the week before.

I was pretty stoked that she had given me a Valentine, and I began to think about the possibility of dating her. As surprised as I was to get the card, I was equally stunned to find out that she had given out 20-30 of them around campus. She was just a thoughtful girl who cared about making people feel special. Man, I tried to get to know her better, but the competition was pretty stiff. With all the traveling we were doing, and the fact that she had some other guys after her, the best I could do was build a good friendship. To this day, I think she’s great just because she took the time to write me that note. I think the next year I tried to give out Christmas or Valentine’s cards to a bunch of people, remembering how nice Kate’s note had made me feel.

The other big event this week is the All-Star Game on Sunday and the break in the schedule that goes with it. The weekend off will give every player some much needed rest to regain strength and to take care of some aches and pains. Sometimes I wish that Kevin Garnett wasn’t an All-Star, so that he could have some time to rest his body. He plays so hard all the time dishing punishment on his defenders, but he also takes a lot of bumps and hacks from the opponents. I know that all of the other All-Stars will love seeing KG down for the game in Houston. He is one of those guys that everyone in the NBA respects and looks up to. I listened to him address the media the other day and you could just hear in his voice the pride he takes in being named an All-Star and the fact that he will do all he can to represent his family, teammates, organization and Minnesota.

A number of fans have been asking me about Fred Hoiberg’s status, so I thought that I would share a little bit of what’s going on with him. Fred is in great health and in phenomenal shape. He has been working out with the team and on his own to keep his jump shot and his basketball timing at a high level. As I understand Fred’s situation (we talk a lot about different things), he has had a strong recovery from his open-heart surgery. I know of several teams in the last few months that have expressed serious interest in trying to get Fred to play for them yet this season. Unfortunately, the Timberwolves cannot re-sign him this season, after waiving him last summer.

Without saying too much, I can state that Fred has spent a lot of time meeting with experts and deliberating over the pros and cons of his course of action. On the one hand, he loves to play the game and he’s one of the best outside shooters in the N. Conversely, there is the miniscule statistical risk that during a game, something might happen to dislodge or interrupt the pacemaker and the associated hardware he has in his chest. I think sometime in the near future we’ll hear his plans. One of the good things about Fred, is that in addition to what he does on the court, he has the abilities and the relationships to be a professional or collegiate head coach or a general manager. I think his decision-making process is looking at all the options and weighing each very carefully.

Have a great week

Today we are in Phoenix getting ready for what should be a very big game against the Pacific Division leading Suns this evening. They have an outstanding team this year, despite losing Amare Stoudemire to an injury early in the preseason. That just goes to show you what a great player Steve Nash has become while making his case for back-to-back MVP awards.

As you know, lately we have been struggling a little bit and really need to win this one tonight to snap a three-game losing streak and get the ship righted. If we get a win in the desert, we will have some momentum going back to Minnesota for a five-game home stand prior to the All-Star break. I can’t put a finger on it exactly, but I think we are struggling some because we just don’t know each other as players yet. We’ve added four new dynamic players to the team during the middle of the season, and I believe we’re still trying to get integrated with each other. I really think that as we get more games and practices under our belts, that eventually you are going to see a well-oiled machine emerge.

Our loss at Golden State was pretty tough on everyone, but the positive thing is what happened the next day. Everyone came to practice in Phoenix and went so hard, that it felt like a playoff game. I would be worried about us if everyone came to practice depressed and sad but it was just the opposite. Guys came in ready to play as hard as they possibly could.

On a personal note, it was interesting to be back in my homeland of the San Francisco Bay Area over the weekend. I grew up going to Golden State Warriors games and lived about 30 minutes from the Oakland Coliseum. Then I was at Stanford for four years, which is about 45 minutes from Oakland. After the game Saturday, one of the guys who did construction on my parents’ house growing up came out of the stands to say hello. His name is Rod, and it was just really great to see him. I left some tickets for a few of my college teammates who are still in the area. It was fun to hear about what they are each doing professionally. One of them is the head coach at a local private high school and another one started up his own brokerage business for Internet domain names, which is a booming industry. A third teammate started a clothing line. It was a blast to see old friends and to hear about the great things that they are doing.

Right now I’m about ready to order room service and then take my pregame nap. Did you all enjoy watching the Super Bowl? I thought the game was pretty entertaining, and turned on a few big Pittsburgh plays. I would assume that I’m like a lot of people who watch the game partly because the commercials will be entertaining, even if the game isn’t. I would say my favorite ad was the FedEx commercial with the cavemen trying to deliver the package with the pterodactyl and then getting stomped by a dinosaur outside the cave. Write me and let me know what your favorite ads were.

I am always open to suggestions as to what Timberwolves fans want me to write about. If you have a topic suggestion or a question you want me to answer, please feel free to drop me a note atmark@markmadsen.com. Have a great week.

Fred Hoiberg called me on my hotel phone at about 8:00 p.m. Thursday in Houston and asked, “Did you hear about the trade?” I told him that I had heard about it already, as I had just read on ESPN.com that Nikoloz Tskitishvili had been traded to the Phoenix Suns for a future second round draft choice. “There’s a lot more involved,” Fred added. “Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi and Dwayne Jones just got traded to the Celtics!”

I am going to really miss all four of them. On my personal blog, www.MarkMadsen.com, I’ve commented in a little more detail about each player and what it’s like to lose a teammate and a friend through a trade.

Fred later recounted to me that he and Wally had been at dinner at a restaurant in Houston and right as they were paying for the meal, Wally’s cell phone rang. The voice on the other end was Wally’s agent who gave him the news. I know that I was shocked about the trade. Besides losing a few games on some last second shots, I really feel like Dwayne Casey has us playing good basketball. Sometimes change can be a good thing for everyone and I think the trade is going to help both teams. After just two games together, I have already gotten to know the new players a little bit and want to share some of that with you.

I have always been a fan of Ricky Davis, ever since his days in Cleveland. He is a good defender, a great shooter and he has “swagger.” In our game at Houston Ricky had 26 points, but more importantly, whenever anyone on the team scored or did something good, you could hear Ricky yelling out “Great job A.C. or way to rebound Eddie!” In our loss to San Antonio there was a play where Ricky caught up to a San Antonio fast break after being starting about 30 feet behind the play. He is the fastest NBA player I have seen and he jumps out of the gym. More importantly, he’s very smart and he can shoot.

Everyone calls Mark Blount “M.B.” and he has a very good post-up game. Mark is one of the few seven-foot players in the NBA that can knock down the 18-footer and get past the defender with his post-up footwork. M.B. is “long” as we like to say in NBA talk (that means tall with long arms) and he has great basketball instincts. On our flight home it was interesting to hear Kevin McHale talking footwork with Mark, knowing Mac used those skills to become a Hall-of-Famer.

Justin Reed is one guy who could be playing in the either NBA or the NFL. He is 6’8,” 240 pounds and explosive. Justin played great in San Antonio going right at Tim Duncan. He scored on Tim right away and then in the fourth quarter he went into the lane to dunk over the Spurs seven-footers and was fouled. He also guarded Tony Parker who is one of the quickest players in the league. Mark Blount told me in Houston that Justin is “kind of like Ron Artest in terms of his special ability to defend.”

Unfortunately, Marcus Banks just joined the team Monday morning due to a death in his family. McHale described Marcus as a great one-on-one defender and a point guard who is unbelievable going “north and south,” which means taking the ball from one end to the other on the fast break.

I am always open to suggestions as to what Timberwolves fans want me to write about. If you have a topic suggestion or a question you want me to answer, please feel free to drop me a note atmark@markmadsen.com. Have a great week.

Have a great week. -Mark

This coming Saturday, January 28, is going to be my 30th birthday. On that day, we’ll be in San Antonio to play the Spurs. I will get to defend Tim Duncan at times. Not the best birthday gift I’ve received, but it comes with the territory. I guess turning 30 is a milestone in one’s life, so I’m going to take a few paragraphs and reminisce on a few birthday memories.

My most memorable birthday growing up came during my senior year of high school in California. We had a basketball game that night against one of our rivals, which we ended up losing in overtime. To make matters worse, I sprained my ankle during the game. When I drove home after, the lights were off and everything seemed empty. As I limped into the kitchen, I realized it was a surprise party that my parents and younger sister had planned. Most of my teammates were there along with a bunch of my other friends. The thing I remember most was sitting there with my foot in a bucket of ice water talking with my teammates late into the night.

One of my hardest birthdays was my very first year in the NBA. I wasn’t used to all of the travel and I had to get up early on road trips and deliver practice gear to everyone’s room. I think I was exhausted at the time from the many games and the late night flights. I just remember lying in my hotel room in New York thinking, “What the heck am I doing here.” I think I got bronchitis that day too, because I ended up taking a bunch of medication for it a day or two later.

When I was with the Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal hosted the whole team in Orlando for Thanksgiving one year and gave us a tour of his house. When we got to his bedroom he told all of us, “Man, when I first got to the league, I had all the latest electronics and remotes all over the place.” Then pointing toward a shelf on the wall he smiled and said, “Now I’ve got diapers.” Shaq and his wife Shaunie have a great relationship and it was fun to be there to hear such a great line from a great guy.

One of the front office people with the Wolves emailed me and asked, “Where did you think you’d be when you turned 30?” The honest truth is that I thought I’d have a drawer full of diapers by now and be sitting at home with my wife and a few kids. But marriage and family haven’t happened yet, so instead I’m still single and I have to figure out all of the electronics on my own. On our current team, just about half of the guys are married. It makes for an interesting dynamic in the locker room to hear about a child taking their first step on the one hand and then on the other you have the young guys just a few years out of college that are living the singles life.

I guess more than anything else, I’m grateful that I’ve lived this long already. It’s been 30 great years so far, and I’m looking forward to the next 30. My grandpa always tells me what a gift it is to be alive. There are a lot of people that don’t get to be 30 years old, so I’m just happy to have made it this far.

This week is going to be a little bit emotional. An old friend, Flip Saunders, is coming to town with a Detroit Pistons team that is playing at a very high level. In my opinion, Flip certainly has done a great job with them and has already locked-up the coaching spot for the Eastern Conference for the All-Star Game. With that said, we also have a job to do. Our goal is to derail the Pistons and show them what kind of a team we are.

Have a great week.

-Mark

We just beat the Knicks here in New York City and now I’m back in the hotel room unwinding from the emotional contest. I really thought that Troy Hudson played a great game this afternoon. His three-pointer from deep behind the arc with just a few seconds left was an unbelievable make! It was a shot that shows just how much confidence Troy has in his game and his courage to take such a big shot. New York’s Nate Robinson, who is about 5’7” and one of my favorite players to watch, played a great game today as well.

It was a little bit strange to play at 1:00 in the afternoon. However, it was an honor to play on a holiday set aside for reflection on the life and example set by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sometimes I wish I had been around when he was alive, so that I could have met the man who brought about so much good in this country and in the world.

Our preparation for such an early game was a little bit unique. Whereas normally we go to the arena in the morning, have shoot around and then have a few hours to think about the game, this morning was different. We woke up and went straight to a breakfast meeting, where we watched some film and ate. Then we went over to a ballroom in our hotel where our staff had taken white athletic tape and created a simulated three point arc, free throw line and painted area/key. We did a walk through in our street clothes on an imaginary court in the hotel ballroom.

The points that Dwane Casey emphasized were to limit their offensive rebounding and to get back on defense. I am very proud of Rashad McCants these days. Not only is Rashad playing at a high level offensively, but also he has really picked up his defense. He hit two huge threes today in the first half. Earlier this week I told Rashad that I write a weekly diary and he let me interview him. Here are just a few things that he said.

Q. What is the biggest surprise you’ve encountered thus far in the NBA?
A. Playing games on back-to-back nights. You really have to work at preparing your body for the energy you are going to need. It’s really important to eat well and get your rest.
Q. What is your mindset when you go onto the court?
A. Win by any means necessary.
Q. Describe your relationship with Kevin Garnett.
A. I’m like his little brother and he’s my mentor. He is the vet who is passing down what he learned from others on to me. It’s kind of like passing the torch to the next generation of players. I am thankful that he has taken me under his wing like that.
Q. What was it like winning a national championship at North Carolina?
A. It was a big-time accomplishment with a lot of hard work put into it by an entire team and coaching staff. It was pretty gratifying in the end to know that you were part of something special.
Q. Do you have siblings? Are they athletes?
A. I have a younger sister (Rashanda) who is playing basketball at UNC right now.
Q. What do you do on your days off?
A. Much like I do when we’re on the road, I try to rest and eat well. I also like to play video games and shoot pool.
Q. What sort of charity or community service work interests you?
A. I enjoy talking to young kids about staying in school and doing the right thing.
Q. Where do you get your confidence in yourself?
A. I found that at a young age I wanted to make my parents proud. I knew the only way to do that was to drive myself. There were going to be roadblocks. I knew that I had to push harder and harder. I’ve lived by myself for six years now and I have had to grow up and make my own decisions. I went to prep school for two years, then Chapel Hill for three and now this year in the Twin Cities.

Have a great week.

This past week my grandmother Helen Wells passed away. My Dad’s mother had always been a great friend to me and someone with whom I often confided. She was married three times to three awesome men and outlived each husband. Imagine, she’s been to a funeral for her husband on three occasions. Each died of natural causes. That must have been tough. On Tuesday afternoon after practice, my mom called me and gave me the news. My grandmother was 91 years old, and was in great health. She got sick with pneumonia and tried to tough it out like she had so many other things. When she finally checked herself into the hospital, the sickness had taken too strong a hold, and it was too late.

When I heard the news, my mind flooded with questions. We were scheduled to play Dallas at home the next night. Maybe I could play the game and catch a red-eye to Utah and be there the next morning for the 9:30 a.m. funeral. Or maybe I could play the game and fly out at 5:00 a.m. the next morning and still make everything work. I did not want to miss the funeral, but I was torn with my commitment to the team. What should I do?

My first phone call was to Coach Dwayne Casey. He offered his condolences and told me to “take whatever time I needed with my family,” and that I could rejoin the team “whenever it was appropriate.” It was very nice that he and the entire organization were so supportive. My grandma was very connected to Minnesota, as she was born in Eveleth up on the Iron Range. Her family moved to Utah when she was eight years old. It was in Utah that she met my grandpa and where they went on their first date together and eventually got married.

The funeral was both beautiful and emotional. It gave my family and I the last bit of closure we all needed. The service turned into a true celebration of a very beautiful person and her great life. My dad was one of the speakers and shared a lot of stories about my grandma, including the one about the time she beat all the boys in her school in a long race.

The strange part was after the funeral when I got to the Salt Lake City Airport, it dawned on me that I needed to get to San Antonio and get mentally ready to play the Spurs. There were Texas Longhorn fans everywhere at the airport catching connecting flights back to the Lone Star State. My flight was the last available and it turned into a “show and tell” with Longhorn fans regaling stories about the Rose Bowl the night before, and showing off digital photos from the game. When I told a Longhorn fan I thought Vince Young would declare for the NFL draft after this, his junior year, the fan said, “Yeah, I think he’s gonna stay… I have a feeling…” I guess I was right on that one.

The next morning I joined Kevin Garnett, Trenton Hassell and Ronald Dupree for breakfast at the hotel before our morning shoot around. KG asked me all about the funeral and shared with me about one of his own family funerals years ago. Kevin is someone who really understands when someone is going through something and he always reaches out to sympathize or empathize. He told me that longevity runs in his family, as he’s had great grandparents who have lived well past 100. I think he said that one of them lived to be 107, and that his great grandpa not only lived on his own until his passing, but was still “cut” or in great shape. When I came back to the team, there were hugs, embraces and kind words from everyone. It makes my transition that much easier in such a team/family environment. More than anything, I want to thank all of my family, friends, and teammates for their support during the passing of my grandma.

I am always open to suggestions as to what Timberwolves fans want me to write about. If you have a topic suggestion or a question you want me to answer, please feel free to drop me a note atmark@markmadsen.com. Have a great week.

- Mark

Before our game against the Miami Heat, I was stretching at mid-court and watched as Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O’Neal headed to the captain’s circle for the pre-game meeting with the referees. It struck me that here were two of the greatest basketball warriors on the planet. Each over seven feet tall and able to run, jump, catch, and do things that are simply amazing. Every time they see each other, they embrace and catch up on lost time. One of the funnier interactions that I witnessed between the two happened while I was with the Lakers. We were all on the court at the time and I was jogging back on defense. I didn’t catch the whole thing, but they were joking about how one of them hadn’t returned a call promptly. Shaq said something like, “I’ll call you soon, I need your new number,” and KG replying, “I already gave you my new number [last time].” I may have that slightly wrong, but it definitely happened and it was cool to see that little interaction between friends.

I am wondering if Latrell Sprewell is going to sign with someone this season. Right after my thumb surgery last year, I hobbled in late to practice the next day and Latrell came straight over to me with his arms outstretched and gave me a huge hug. I’m not much of a hugger at all, but I will never forget how nice it was to know how much he cared and that he was feeling my pain. I really hope to see him back in the NBA soon.

On New Year’s Eve a couple of teammates and I went out to dinner on South Beach to an Italian restaurant to celebrate the coming year. We had dinner from 6:00-7:30 p.m., got a fruit smoothie, and took the 30 minute cab ride back to our hotel. By the time we got to the hotel it was 9:30pm. I stayed in the rest of the night and mostly relaxed and then watched some fireworks from my fifth floor hotel room. Pretty exciting stuff for Miami, huh?

As the year came to a close I found myself thinking about the death of a good friend and teammate. A few months ago, Jason Collier (center for the Atlanta Hawks), died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Jason was a former teammate of mine and was a great friend. The reports I read indicated the death was both heart and asthma related.

My senior year of college, it seemed like both Jason and I tried out for all of the same NBA teams together. We worked out with the Lakers, Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns together. We went to dinner a lot during that time and when I ended up on the Lakers and Jason with the Houston Rockets, our friendship and association continued. Then, two years ago he was on the Timberwolves training camp roster. Flip Saunders had a hypnotist come to training camp and Jason was so good-natured he volunteered to be hypnotized.

Last year I saw Jason somewhere with Fred Hoiberg and the first thing Jason did was talk about his wife and his new baby and showed us a photo of his newborn while beaming. When Jason died, it was tragic. Here was a guy who played like an animal on the court, but was really a gentle giant off the court and a gem of a human being. I will miss Jason Collier and will always remember him as a superb human being and a great family man.

I am always open to suggestions as to what Timberwolves fans want me to write about. If you have a topic suggestion or a question you want me to answer, please feel free to drop me a note atmark@markmadsen.com. Have a great week.

- Mark

We’re almost a third of the way through the season and here are a couple of things I’ve noticed about our team thus far. I believe that Dwane Casey is one of the best defensive teachers in the NBA. The other night against New Orleans/OKC, I looked at the scoreboard towards the end of the third quarter and realized that the Hornets had scored only 36 points to that stage. Part of our defensive success this season, is having three shot blockers on the back line in Michael Olowokandi, Eddie Griffin and Kevin Garnett. Each of them blocks shots using a different method. KG uses his long arms and good positioning, while Kandi has quick feet and uses his height and knowledge of angles to block shots. Eddie has a gift for timing the ball and he is one of the quickest players off the floor. For guys like me and Skita (Nikoloz Tskitishvili), practices in some ways are harder than games because we’re going against three near seven footers every day.

I’ve also noticed that overall we are a pretty close-knit team this season. After one recent game, KG reserved a table for the whole team at Bellanotte and we all went there together for steak and chicken. On more than one occasion the entire team has gotten together for a big meal or something. I’ve been to Bellanotte three or four times this season and I have been to Champps a couple of times too for a burger with friends on my own. It’s great to go out as a team, but the reality is that most nights guys are exhausted and just want to go home and crash or watch ESPN.

We watch ESPN in the locker room too, and sometimes it’s a little surreal when the TV’s on and the anchors start talking about our team. I might be there talking to Wally Szczerbiak or KG and then all of a sudden Sports Center is showing them on the court going to work. Neither of those guys pays too much attention to the media hype that surrounds them and are both pretty down to earth.

Sometimes fans will ask me where I live and if I live alone, etc. When I got to Minnesota I decided to take the big step of buying a house. I chose Eden Prairie because I wanted a quiet spot. I lived by myself in Los Angeles for a little while, but I didn’t like it, so I decided to get some roommates. I chose to go that route here as well. I met both of my roommates through mutual friends, so I knew that they were good guys. They’re probably two of my best friends as well. Having people live with me means that when I’m gone on long road trips, I know the house is going to be fine.

The prior owners of my house were a classy middle-aged couple (we still stay in contact), and they had an amazing artist come in and paint flowers and birds on the walls of the kitchen and the living room. Sometimes when people come over for the first time and see three bachelors living in a house with painted flowers and birds in the kitchen, they wonder if we did it ourselves. I think it naturally catches people off guard a little bit. The honest truth is that I really have come to even like it a little bit. The only other thing that I have considered is painting everything white, which is way too boring. I have no design or artistic ability whatsoever, so that will be one of my projects for the summertime. I need to figure out if I go to a solid blue, black, green or something a little more “in style.”

Have a great week.

- Mark

I wanted to dedicate this column to wishing everyone a Happy Holiday Season. I celebrate Christmas and when it gets close to Dec. 25, I think back to some of my family Christmas memories from growing up. On Christmas Eve, my dad would gather all of us in front of a glowing hearth, and he and my mom would read Christmas stories and sometimes we would have a little eggnog. My little sisters and I, in our excitement, would try to stay up all night talking to each other through the vents in our house. I guess we thought it was our own intercom system.

Sometimes we would go caroling to our neighbors and friends and deliver cookies. I seem to vaguely remember one year in high school when I convinced my family to go caroling to the family of the girl I was dating at the time. It’s all a little fuzzy, but I think this is what happened. When we got there I kind of got cold feet and wanted us to make a run for it. But once we all got out of the van, we couldn’t turn back. We went to the door, sang the song, delivered the cookies and rolled. I think only the parents were home at the time, so I wasn’t too embarrassed by my bad singing in front of the young lady I was trying to impress.

My worst Christmas-related memory growing up was during a rare cold front that swept through Northern California. Everything was frozen. My freshman basketball coach gave us the day off, so my brother and I went hiking in the hills behind our house. We found a frozen hillside and decided to make a few runs. We slid down and a tree root caught my leg and I seriously tore my left knee cartilage. I had to have open knee surgery as a freshman in high school. I had only played four games on the frosh team and I was so happy and then everything shattered. The doctor who did the surgery was a family friend and decided to perform a risky procedure for that time and sew up the cartilage (with stitches that disintegrate after five months) and hope the cartilage healed. If the operation didn’t work, they would probably have to do another and cut out part of the cartilage and I’d be left with the dreaded “bone on bone.” The surgery was successful and the knee has been great ever since.

One year, around this time, my sister and her husband received word that they would be able to adopt a newborn child. They had experienced complications in pregnancy for years and made the decision to adopt. Their receiving that child was one of the best gifts ever for my entire family. I don’t think words could ever express how happy my sister was. Another one of my sisters adopted as well and now there are three adopted kids in my immediate family. Growing up, I never really knew too many people who were adopted and now I think it is one of the greatest things on earth. Maybe I’ll adopt some kids someday down the road.

This summer, my dad took me coyote hunting with my little brother. We sat around hidden in the brush in camouflage for hours while my dad blew a whistle that’s supposed to sound like a dying rabbit. We didn’t see any coyotes at all. Since then my dad has gotten up at 4:00 a.m. trying to get his first coyote. I’m asking Santa to help give my dad his first success in coyote hunting.

During the holidays I reflect on what I’m grateful for. I’m probably most thankful for my mom and dad. Not only do I love them, but also I like them as great friends. I’m looking forward to seeing them and my siblings for a Christmas Eve dinner. I hope each and every one of you has an awesome, safe and healthy holiday season.

Have a great week.

- Mark

One of the new traditions that we have on our team is that after every contest, win or lose, we watch the game film with Coach Casey the next day. Watching the tape is really an interesting experience, because when we go in, we already know if we messed up or did well. So we all sit in the film room knowing when our mistakes are going to be shown. I think Coach Casey really understands the power of watching the games together. It keeps us accountable, knowing that not only are the coaches going to review it, but also the whole team is going to go over the game together. I think it makes us all want to do that much better, knowing that all of our teammates and peers will see the effort level and mental focus we each bring to a game.

It’s pretty funny though during the film session. When we watch, some of us will groan in pain and anguish before our mistake is shown. Someone might volunteer, “I totally messed this one up” as a preemptive strike. Coach Casey also makes an effort to show the good plays and stays very positive throughout, highlighting the times when someone makes a smart play, or shows extra hustle. Even when we watch mistakes, coach never berates anyone, he just calmly explains what could have been done better on that particular play.

We’ve been on a nice little five-game winning streak and it’s been something that we have taken pride in. Coach Casey only has a few team rules. Here are the main ones: 1. Be on time. 2. No cell phones in the locker room or on the team bus. 3. Show up to practice in your basketball shoes and your practice gear (you would be surprised what I’ve seen guys arrive in). If you break a rule you might get fined by the organization or after multiple offenses, you might even get suspended. He also has a system of fines for mistakes made during games that goes into a team kitty. Here is the breakdown: If we miss a block out, we owe $3. If our man goes right by us on defense we owe $3. If the other team’s point guard dribbles the length of the court and scores a layup, everyone in the game at that time chips in $25.

On the opposite side, if you take a charge, you get a little reward from the kitty. Everyone jokes with Wally that he’s taken more charges in the last 10 games than he’s taken in his entire career. In the Seattle game earlier this season, Wally took three charges in one quarter. The other guy who is taking a ton of charges is Troy Hudson. Troy claims that one of the keys to his getting charging calls is that his hair is so long, when he falls it goes into a whiplash effect making the opponent’s offensive foul look more dramatic. I think that any money left over in the kitty goes into the team’s community fund for charities.

We just got back from our shoot-around in Philadelphia. This is Eddie Griffin’s hometown, so he’s looking for quite a few tickets for his family, friends and relatives. Eddie may be one of the most unique players in the NBA right now, due to the fact that he is 6’10”, he can shoot threes, and he’s a monster shot blocker and great rebounder. He is a very soft-spoken person and is one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. Last time we played here against the 76ers he nailed seven three pointers and scored a game-high 27 points.

Have a great week. -Mark

Currently we’re on a four-game road trip and we just beat Sacramento, after defeating my old team the Lakers on Friday night. When we pulled up to Staples Center in Los Angeles, the team bus was directed down into “The Tunnel”, which is another word for the ultra-private, underground parking garage. Yes, in keeping with L.A. tradition, it is glorified valet parking. Before our bus descended the ramp leading under the arena, we saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar approaching the security checkpoint. He is a special assistant coach with the Lakers, who was brought aboard by Phil Jackson to tutor a young seven-footer the Lakers have in Andrew Bynum. Despite winning several championships with Los Angeles and being the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, Kareem got to the checkpoint and the guard gave him what seemed like the typical full airport security check. The guy even wanded Kareem. I guess it’s good that they take security seriously there. To me, getting the wand out for Kareem in that city, would be akin to patting down Michael Jordan in Chicago. Everyone on the bus looked on in amazement and it sparked a number of stories and everyone just marveling at the career he had.

When I played for the Lakers, 90% of our games were at 7:30 p.m. Coach Jackson wanted us there by 6:00 p.m. for those games. When we got stuck in traffic and arrived late (hey, it is Los Angeles traffic), we would always sneak through a back tunnel and try to act very casual when we got in the locker room. One time before a game during warm-ups, I saw Jack Nicholson in his usual seat. I waived at him and said “Hi Jack” and then he waived back and said, “What’s up Mark”. It’s kind of weird to greet someone that you have not talked to very much. I knew him from the movies, and he knew me because he never misses a game. That was about the extent of our conversations when I played out there.

Then there was Tiger Woods. I missed him by one year at Stanford, so when I saw him sitting right next to our bench for a game against Houston, I was not going to miss my chance to meet him. Shaquille O’Neal was hurt and our other big guys were in foul trouble that game, so Robert Horry and I played a lot of minutes. In the third quarter, we went on a run and the Rockets had to call a timeout. I figured that was my only chance to talk to Tiger, so on my way to the bench I got fired up and said, “Let’s go Tiger!” and we bumped fists the way everyone does now. I was happy Phil didn’t see it, but my teammate Brian Shaw did. Brian came over smiling and said, “Don’t think I didn’t just see you sneak Tiger a high five.”

We just landed in Salt Lake City and it’s 12:30 Monday morning. We play the Jazz later…today! By the time we get to our rooms and fall asleep it might be 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. When we get to the hotel, our trainer will stand up and say something like, “Breakfast meeting tomorrow at 11 a.m. in the Oaktree Room on the third floor.” It’s pretty common in the NBA that when you play two games in two nights on the road, the shoot-around at the arena is cancelled for the second game and replaced with the breakfast meeting. Most guys will go to the arena early to get some extra shots up before the game to combat missing the morning session. When Kevin McHale was the coach last year he held the breakfast meetings sometimes, but would always add with a smile, “I’ve never seen a guy improve his game standing at the omelet bar.”

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Mark

We just beat Cleveland by a few points and it’s midnight and we’re flying back to Minneapolis on our charter plane. I normally sit a few seats behind K.G., so I can hear him laughing a little bit with Rashad McCants and Eddie Griffin about some of the things that the other team was saying during the game tonight. To my right, Troy Hudson is reading a music magazine and Trenton Hassell is playing a PS2 game of tennis. Directly behind me, Wally Szczerbiak is playing PS2 football against our video coordinator.

As for me, I’m still recovering from the nutrition pep talk that Wally just gave me. On Saturday we arrived in Cleveland at 2:00 a.m. and I was hungry, so I popped open the mini-bar and downed about 1,000 calories-worth of caramel corn. I confessed this nutrition sin to Wally (I will remind you that he was featured in Men’s Fitness magazine last season) and he chastised me and gave me a talk comparing one’s body to a bonfire. “If you throw a big log on the fire, it will almost put the fire out at first. But if you put a lot of little pieces of wood in, the fire burns constantly throughout the day. Your metabolism is the same thing” Wally wants me to eat five meals a day instead of three. Every time I eat anything that’s not oatmeal, egg whites or whole wheat bread, he sounds the alarm. Hey, I’m trying to keep some weight on to be able to bang around with the big men in this league. I need to make sure I stay right in my comfort zone of 252 pounds. If I get too light, they’ll hammer me in the paint.

As we jet back to the Twin Cities, I’m reminiscing with Troy about the first trip we were on together in June of 2003. It was on a 747 bound for Kuwait and we were on our way to visit the U.S. Military through an organization called the USO. The USO, made famous by Bob Hope, was conceived to build the morale of the U.S. Military overseas through entertainment. Through the USO, five of us from the NBA volunteered. Normally only the superstars would likely have been invited, but because there were some security concerns at the time, the opportunity trickled down to a role player like me. We were joined by a few NFL players, Kid Rock, rap groups, country music singers, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, Alyssa Milano, and a bunch of other famous people I didn’t know. Troy reminded me that “there were a lot of egos on that plane, but everyone came together like family” in an effort to show the U.S. troops how much folks at home care about them.

One of the first things we did as NBA players was go to three different bases and put on basketball clinics with the soldiers. At one of the bases in Kuwait, the soldiers beat Shawn Marion, Cherokee Parks and Troy in a three-point shootout. The gym got so loud it almost felt like a playoff game. Another day we split up and I went with a group to the former Saddam Hussein International Airport in Baghdad. Kid Rock was in the same group and he got up on the makeshift stage and sang “Sweet Home Alabama” to 5,000 troops in a hanger with tanks and helicopters in the background. Everyone there went crazy and loved it, despite the 110+ degree heat.

I think seeing the U.S. Military in action was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. Words can’t describe the respect that I have for the men and women of the armed services. I know a lot of you may have loved ones in the military serving here at home or overseas. May they have a great holiday season and most importantly, may they come home quickly and safely.

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Mark

Every month I will answer a few emails that I receive so here is our monthly installment.

“What are the off-the-court personalities like of your teammates?”

Thanks!
Kristin K.
U. of Minnesota

Kristin, I’m glad you asked me about my teammates. Let me first speak about two Europeans and then two players who go by two letters only: KG and A.C.

Marko Jaric: Six years ago I played on the same team with Marko at the NBA pre-draft workout in Chicago. Marko was such a good passer that he made everyone else on the team look like an all-star. He pretty much got two of us drafted in the first round: myself and Primoz Brezec (Charlotte Bobcats). Marko used to always joke with me that he is responsible for getting me two rings with the Lakers. He might actually be right. That’s what Marko does…he makes people better.

Michael Olowokandi: Michael was living London when he decided he wanted to go to school in the US. He picked up a college magazine, found University of Pacific at the top of the list and called the coach on the phone. Imagine if you’re a college coach of a small school in Stockton, Calif., and an athletic 7-footer comes calling! I imagine that coach focused on the word “Pacific” rather than the fact that the beach is at least two hours away! When I was on the Lakers, Phil Jackson used to always tell Brian Shaw he should go to law school because in team meetings Brian could argue any point and by the time he was done talking everyone was on his side! I put Michael in this category. Michael once told me that he subscribes to The Economist and The New Yorker. He is probably one of the smartest players in all of professional sports, and has been playing at a very high level.

KG: On every team there is a hierarchy and KG is the undisputed number one on our team. On the court, KG will expend every ounce of emotional and physical energy. But what makes KG truly great is that he gets everyone else to give their whole self as well. One time during a game, he got so excited that we almost head butted each other while he was yelling encouragement. Another time he thought I wasn’t paying attention during a shootaround so he put me on the spot and said, “Dog, how are we going to defend Sacramento’s ‘out’ play?” Luckily I had been listening because I gave the right answer. KG is a vocal leader who leads by example. After certain losses I’ve seen him call guys out in a very vocal way and I’ve also seen him walk in and pat guys on the head and say, “There are better days ahead.” One thing with KG is that when he does get on you, it’s never personal, he just wants to win. KG just donated 1.2 million dollars to rebuild homes in New Orleans. His heart is gigantic on and off the court.

Anthony Carter is a true professional. He is one of my closest friends on the team. We stayed in touch off and on over the summer and during training camp two years ago we always carpooled together to St. Johns. If you’re ever in downtown Minneapolis and you see a lime green Hummer with really shiny wheels, it could be AC. I’m not going to say it is AC because there are lots of lime green Hummers in Minnesota, but it could be him. I think AC designed a lot of that car himself. I am not a car person, but I guarantee that after seeing “The Lime” you might be thinking about getting a custom green paint job for your car. That’s how sweet the ride is. AC is always one of the first players to get to practice and games every day. I like to call him “Air Conditioner” because he plays so hard and the other team can’t turn him off. Coach Casey loves his professionalism and tenacity.

Have a great week!

Thanks,

Mark

One of the topic suggestions that I got from a reader this week was to write a little bit about Fred Hoiberg and his new/old role with the team. Obviously, Fred’s heart surgery this summer took everyone by surprise. It shakes you a little when you see a guy in great physical condition in the prime of his life going through something like that. I’m sure it was really scary for him and his family. You just never know what is going to happen in one’s journey and you have to remember that life is fragile and should never be taken for granted. I can’t put my finger on exactly how or why, but in some ways Fred’s ordeal has brought us closer together as a team.

I’m sure it was tough on Fred when the Timberwolves decided to waive him in August, but he knows that the team was looking out for his long-term health. Wolves’ owner Glen Taylor knows Fred’s competitive nature and didn’t want to see him return before his health allowed. Mr. Taylor made the decision to make him a coach for this season. It was a move to make sure that Fred would not try to risk coming back too soon. I think it shows a special foresight on Glen’s part to protect Fred from a premature return, while still keeping such a valuable person involved in the organization.

I guess Fred’s title is “special assistant coach” or something like that. He has kind of a unique perspective on things, as he is here most days both as a consultant and as a player. During practice Fred comes to watch what is going on and make suggestions to individual players as he sees necessary. Obviously our young guys can learn a lot from someone like Fred who has 10 years in the league. Once practice is done, including individual work with guys, Fred embarks on his own workout to get back in the kind of shape you need to be to compete in the NBA. He does a lot of shooting drills with Wally Szczerbiak and Marko Jaric. As of right now he needs to stay away from some of the contact stuff, so he is not involved in any of the scrimmage aspects.

I have to tell you one funny thing about Fred’s situation though. As you can imagine, a professional team’s locker room is a pretty plush place. Our locker room is no exception, with really nice wood features and the standard big-screen televisions. Since Fred is not an active player this year, he got moved from the cozy confines of the locker room to a place not so nice. If you walk into our training room you will see along the back wall some shelves jam-packed with medical equipment. If you look close enough on the bottom shelf you will see a raggedy cardboard box that is labeled “Coach Hoiberg’s Locker Room.” Sure enough his workout gear is all stored in there. I have to laugh every time I walk in and see that. Someday I will devote a diary about some of the funny things that happen in our locker room on a daily basis. I’m not going to name names, but whoever threw Fred’s stuff in that old box has a pretty good sense of humor. The best thing is Fred has shown off his new digs, and has had many laughs about it.

In closing, it has been inspirational to me to see Fred working so hard to come back and do something he loves so much. I know that when the time comes he will make the best decision for himself and his family on whether to resume playing or not. In 15 years I see Fred as a general manger of some NBA team, or coaching in the league or in college.

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Mark

I am shocked about how much publicity the new NBA dress code has received in the media. I still have the memo from NBA Commissioner David Stern, which is about three pages long. I think the dress code is a good idea, but the outcry from the players was huge. Some players felt the do-rag and chains ban was a racial statement, while others were already dressing up anyway. I fall into the camp of indifference on the dress rules. I think the biggest concern about the new code for me was that we would have to dress up every time we got on a private plane, even if it is well after midnight. Luckily they decided not to make it uncomfortably strict. We can still wear whatever we want to practice. For me that’s sweats and sandals.

I had a great summer. My little sister married a guy from Berkeley and the wedding was in California. At the reception, both sets of parents were on the dance floor shaking it with the bride and groom. It was cool to see some 50 and 60 year olds out there dancing like crazy. I didn’t realize my parents were such good dancers. Before I knew it, I was out there doing my thing. I was a little startled when I looked over and my 15-year-old brother was dancing with a 22-year-old woman (good thing she was a long time family friend). Now, five out of the 10 kids in my family are married and five of us are single. Maybe later in the year I will write a little bit about being single in the NBA and what it’s like. I think anyone who is single knows it would take more copy space than a paragraph or two to describe what it’s like on the dating scene.

In general, my summer was pretty good. Even though we were raised in the San Francisco-Oakland area, my parents recently moved to Utah. I have a lot of family there, so I spent a good portion of my summer in the Salt Lake City area. I did some rehab on my wrist and a lot of running in high altitude. I spent some time here at my home in Minnesota and some time in Northern California. I made it to Orange County once and took a trip to Jackson Hole with some friends.

One of the highlights this summer was running my basketball camp for the first time in Champlin. I enjoyed it so much, that I am definitely going to do a camp again next summer, either in Champlin or Eden Prairie. When I was with the Lakers, Robert Horry told me that when he ran his camp in Alabama, he was there from 9-5 every day. There are a lot of NBA player’s camps where they show up for an hour on one or two days. My goal is to do my camp the way Robert did his. I was able to be there every day and it was a blast to work with kids. I am thinking about doing a camp in Rapid City, South Dakota too. I’m not sure if I can make it work, but when we had our preseason game there this fall, everyone was so excited and the gym was so loud. I just thought that’s a city that enjoys the game.

Last week we played at Seattle on Friday and against the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night. We arrived in our hotel in L.A. at about 2:45 a.m. Saturday. One of the hardest things is being able to relax and sleep after a tough game. I’ve tried counting sheep, counting numbers, counting my breath pattern and finally I’ve just realized sometimes it just takes time. There are times you just have to watch a movie like Bourne Identity or my personal favorite, The Natural. Earlier this season I was reading a book about Special Forces. My problem was that it was so exciting, I couldn’t put it down.

I am always open to suggestions as to what Timberwolves fans want me to write about. If you have a topic suggestion or a question you want me to answer, please feel free to drop me a note atmark@markmadsen.com. Have a great week.

Thanks,

Mark

2005-06 Mark Madsen/Timberwolves Diary Week 1 (Oct. 31)
We have a lot of rookies on the team right now. One of the their jobs is to bring Krispy Kreme doughnuts to practice every morning for the staff, coaches and the occasional player who is trying to gain weight. Recently, as a few of us changed in the locker room and speculated on how hard practice was going to be that day, one of the rookies looked at another rookie and said with a very serious tone, “Hey, we’ve got bigger problems than that, where are the Krispy Kremes?” Kevin Garnett wasn’t there yet, but if he arrived at practice and saw that the rookies had failed there would be problems. With KG, it’s not about having doughnuts at practice, it’s about respecting seniority, learning responsibility and coming through. The rookies made some hasty calls and propped open a Target Center exit door to make sure that the goods arrived. The Krispy Kremes weren’t fresh that day; they were the day-old kind you can buy at a normal supermarket. I think they’ve worked-out a whole new plan to make sure they get the fresh ones from here on out.

My first interaction with Dwane Casey was over the summer when he reached out and called me on my cell phone. We talked for 20 minutes about last season and the Timberwolves’ game film he had already broken down and analyzed. He relayed to me that he had studied each of our games from last season at that point. After one preseason game this year we were on the plane flying home and I walked by the coaches to get to the restroom. Coach Casey was there making notes as he watched that night’s game DVD on his laptop. The next day we watched the tape as a team and he pointed out our lapses or mistakes, but also made sure we knew when we had done things correctly. Coach Casey demands defensive concentration, effort and perfection. He has told us that if we miss shots it’s fine, but not playing defense is inexcusable.

I want to introduce all of you to an outstanding player and person, Rashad McCants. On our first day of training camp, we were taking our physicals and a few of us were talking about how excited we were to be back after a long summer. I looked at Rashad and told him something like, “I’ve been waiting all summer for this.” He replied back, “I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.”

We got Rashad with the 14th pick in the draft this summer and I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed getting to know him so far. When we played at Indiana, Rashad posted up Ron Artest, demanded the ball and then lofted a soft jump hook right over one of the NBA’s toughest defender. I think Rashad is kind of like a boxer who goes into the ring believing he will win every fight. Most days after practice Garnett works with Rashad and they do drill after drill together with KG challenging, tutoring and encouraging the rookie. To have Garnett as a mentor is something that he will surely benefit from.

Away from the court, I wish I could have taped some of the comments Rashad was making at our annual “Business of Basketball” meeting the other day. He studied business at North Carolina, but it sounded like he could have studied law with the insightful comments he was making.

I am excited to be doing the diary for a second season and look forward to giving some insight into this year’s team. If you have suggestions about what you want me to write, or to give me a grammar lesson, come let me know before a game at Target Center.

Thanks, Mark

As I write this the chances of us making the playoffs are pretty bleak. I can tell you that I am personally quite disappointed. Every player, coach and front office staffer, up to owner Glen Taylor is very upset about the way this season has gone thus far. Trying to put a finger on what exactly went wrong is hard to do. Unfortunately, we as players are responsible in the end for getting the job done on the court, and we didn’t. It cost a coach his job and it cost the fans and us a playoff appearance. I certainly can understand the frustration coming from our fans. So we are going to keep the hope alive, as we’re not out of it yet. The chances are slim, but we are going to fight and try to find a way to make it in. That’s what we’re still hoping for.

After our loss to Atlanta, Kevin McHale came in and really gave it to us. A coach has to be able to get on people at times, and we as players need to have thick skin and be responsive. Coach was upset that we weren’t passing the ball and we were playing selfish basketball. He told us two things about passing the ball and being unselfish that hit home. The first one came from the legendary University of Minnesota hockey coach Herb Brooks who told him, “Passes don’t come from the hands, they come from the heart.” Then he told us something his high school coach used to say, “If you have to think about passing the ball, then something is wrong.” He reminded us how we grew up playing the game—for fun and for pride in trying to kick someone’s tail every time you stepped onto the court. The thing about him is that he’s a basketball purist and when the effort and unselfishness isn’t there (on offense and defense) he’s very upset. I also think it legitimately hurts him to see the game played the wrong way. The truth is that everyone on the team can be unselfish and give great energy. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of that fact. I know we will bounce back in a decisive fashion.

Now that I can’t really work out as much, I have been doing a lot of walking around the lakes in Minneapolis and in the western suburbs. I am really trying to get out with friends and enjoy nature and take in the sun. Maybe get a little Vitamin D back into the system after a long winter. Minnesota is a great state, and particularly attractive if you enjoy the outdoors. Maybe this summer I will be lucky enough to get out on a boat and do some tubing. I have heard so many good things about Lake Minnetonka, maybe I will hang out there a little bit and soak up some rays and enjoy one of the 10,000 lakes.

Every once in a while when I’m walking around people will recognize me and say hello. They have all been very supportive. I had a few people come up during a recent walk and wish myself and the team the very best. They reached out on a personal note to ask me about my surgery and wish me well in the recovery process. They were hoping that I can recover on all levels and it was very much appreciated.

I am fortunate as part of this organization to be able to work with Dan Zeman, who is a local exercise physiologist. He used to work with Greg LeMond and has been talking to me about cardiovascular conditioning. When I combine his expertise and knowledge with that of Wolves’ strength coach Thomas McKinney, they offer up quite a source of knowledge. I hope to build on conditioning and hopefully be stronger when I return from my surgery. I look forward to writing again next week. Thanks, Mark.

Thanks, Mark

As you know, I had hand surgery again last week. The process this time is they went in with a two- to three-inch incision into the topside of the right wrist. They found the ruptured ligament and re-attached it to the bone with a suture and some other constructive tissue in the area. I am going to get a briefing on the operation in the next few days, so I will have a better understanding of the procedure on a more technical level after that meeting.

Right now my arm is completely immobilized and it has been an adjustment being able to use just one hand. Tuesday was my first day back to practice and I went upstairs to the athletic club and tried to do some running, in addition to getting on the elliptical machine and the bike. I am just trying to stay in some kind of cardio fitness. The problem with athletes is that they eat so much because they are burning it off rapidly, but the minute you stop the activity, you can put on a quick 10-30 pounds. I am going to try to stay in the 250-pound range.

I really don’t have a timeline for getting back on the court at this point. The reason I say that is that I need to be able to do the everyday things, like take a normal shower, before I can worry about basketball things. After practice, the training staff took a big plastic bag and taped-off my arm before I got into the shower. It was a process and made me think how lucky I am when everything is normal with my health. I am hoping the 3-6 month range the doctor has told me for recovery will be more like two and a half to three months for me.

Prior to this season I had had two surgeries in my life. One as a freshman in high school, the other in the summer with the Lakers. To have two surgeries in one season leads to a little bit of frustration. You ask yourself, “Why is this happening to me.” I’ve come to the realization that I am going to look at this as a positive. I really believe that some very positive things will come of it. I can’t see completely what they are, but I know they are out there. I think that is the way you have to look at everything. Nobody has great things happening to them 100% of the time. We all have ups and downs in life. I am going to try to deal with this so-called “down” as a positive and a stepping-stone to something good.

I am still going to try to do everything I can to contribute to this team, just in a different way than before. You have to look at a guy like Anthony Carter, who played a ton while some guys were hurt, now he’s not on the floor as much. He’s calling out encouraging things and telling guys what he’s seeing from the bench. I am going to try to be very supportive and positive at the games. When guys are coming of the court, I’m going to be the first one at to high-five them. I’ll get people towels and Gatorade if I have to. My thing is a team is a team. Every member is very important. Even though I’ll be in street clothes, I’ll find some small way to contribute.

Thanks,

Mark

This last week was a tough one for me. The Stanford Cardinal, my alma mater, was bounced from the NCAA Tournament in the first round by Mississippi State. However, our women’s hoops team is still alive and is led by a Minnesota native, guard Susan King Borchardt. Susan attended Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, and married Curtis Borchardt, who was a teammate of mine at Stanford. Curtis now plays center for the Utah Jazz.

March Madness is a fun time for all of us in the NBA, because it gives us a chance to talk some trash to each other (for fun of course) about how everyone’s college team is doing and how far they go, or quickly they get bounced. We spend a lot of time together on buses and planes, so inevitably there is going to be plenty of opportunities for good-natured ribbing. And I certainly got my share last week when my squad went down.

In 1998, our Stanford team made it to the Final Four in San Antonio. When we left our hotel for the game, they made us sneak out of the kitchen because there were so many wild fans in the lobby. Coach Mike Montgomery put a password on the phones in the players’ rooms, so that only family and friends could call us. As a side note, many NBA players use aliases when they check into hotels so that people can’t reach them on the phone in their rooms. I use my own name because no crazy people ever try to get a hold of me. Shaquille O’Neal’s old alias was something like Henry

Perot (not using it anymore, so don’t try), but Phil Jackson always used his real name. Kevin Garnett’s alias is… well he probably doesn’t want me to share it, sorry.

At the Final Four we lost a semifinal game to Kentucky by one point in overtime. The only consolation was that they wound up winning the whole thing. When we got back to school it was like a circus. Someone had circulated a fake e-mail that our point guard, Arthur Lee, was going to leave early for the NBA and a lot of the fans on campus were going berserk, because they loved the way he played. Now that Stanford is out, I think I’m going to cheer for Washington. I love the way guard Nate Robinson plays and how fearless he is.

Last week in the Dallas game, I fouled Dirk Nowitzki and did something to my wrist. I took myself out of the game immediately, because I knew something was wrong. They took X-rays on the wrist at the arena during halftime and told me it was fine. They taped it up like a boxing glove and I finished the game. Injuries are part of basketball and this one is pretty severe because I can’t really catch or use my right hand very much at this point. On Monday, they injected my wrist with dye and then took an MRI to see exactly what happened. I am going to a hand specialist in the Twin Cities this week, so I’m hoping to see all of you at the Target center soon. I’ll talk to you next week.

– Mark Madsen

After playing against Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat last week, a lot of old memories came to mind and I’ll share a few. Back in 2000, as a rookie on the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaq told me he wanted me to be at his contract extension press conference. Afterwards he said to me, “Are you ready to go shopping?” I was a little shocked, because I really didn’t know what was going on. When I arrived in L.A. a few months earlier, I came with the car that my parents gave me as a college graduation gift. The car was an old Toyota Previa and it even sported a nice little dent in the side that one of my older siblings left. One thing Shaq told me right at the start of training camp was, “You can’t be driving into the Staples Center in that thing.”

I went shopping with him and it was a pretty fun day. First he took me to a car dealership and marched right in to the CEO (whom he knew) and told him to give me a great deal on a Chevy Tahoe (that was the car I had mentioned I thought was nice). Then he offered to put a down payment down for me to lease the car. After that he drove us up to Beverly Hills and we went to a Big and Tall clothing store. I found a pair of jeans that fit and Shaq said to the store worker, “He’ll take eight of each color!” I said, “All I need is one of each color.” When Shaq kept piling on Italian sweaters, I told him I didn’t need all the stuff, but he told me it was a welcome gift and to relax while he paid the $2,500 bill.

Then we went to the Beverly Center (a big L.A. mall). First he took me to a trendy store that sold suits. He picked out a nice one and when I asked the store worker how it looked, the worker said it looked “really fly.” That was the first time I had ever heard the word fly in that context before. I took it to mean it looked good. The last stop was the Rolex store in the mall. Right before we walked in, we ran into our teammate J.R. Rider and his friend in the same mall. Shaq told J.R. to pick out a Rolex then he told me to pick one out as well. He then picked out about 20 more. The bill was about $75,000. The next day Shaq came in and gave a Rolex to each teammate, coach and staff member. He told the team thank you and that he wouldn’t be the player he was without their help. I still remember driving around L.A. that day with Shaq, everywhere he drove, people were honking at him and saying hi and stopping alongside to congratulate him.

I still remember when I drove my car out here from California. It was a little scary going from the state where I had lived my entire life and coming to a place where I hardly knew anyone. One of the stops I made along the way was Kearney, Nebraska, where my older sister and her husband and their kids live. The day I left for Minneapolis I woke up early and the thought that came into my mind was something like, “What have I gotten myself into?” After a year and a half of being here in Minneapolis I am so glad I made the decision to come to this awesome state. L.A. was a great three years, but coming to Minnesota has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ll talk to you next week.

– Mark Madsen

The Boston game this past weekend was a great example of the need to “always stay ready.” Toward the end of the game the score got closer and closer and the rotation tightened up. Latrell Sprewell, who had started the game, sat on the bench for most of the fourth quarter. Sometimes when you sit too long you can get tight and your mind can start thinking any one of a million things if you let it. But Latrell stayed focused on the game and he was still involved by cheering his teammates on and staying positive throughout. Ervin Johnson always tells us, “You can’t control how much you’re going to play, but if the coach calls your name, be ready.” Spree was ready to go and he knocked in the game-winning shot.

It was good to see my old college coach, Mike Montgomery, last week when we played Golden State. We talked before the game for quite a while and he shared what he loved and the hard things about being an NBA head coach. Mike was one of the big reasons that I chose to attend Stanford over UCLA when I came out of high school. He’s a total family man and as a side note, his wife, Sarah, is from Minnesota. I remember early on in my conversations with coach, he talked about the goal to make it to the Final Four. Finally in 1998 with Arthur Lee and Jarron and Jason Collins, we made it to the Final Four before losing to the eventual champions Kentucky in overtime.

People ask me all the time how athletes at Stanford can go to class and compete in their sport. I studied Economics and there were some classes that were incredibly hard with an unbelievably tough grading curve, and of course some classes that were easier. The trick was to balance things so that you didn’t have more than two of those hard classes during the season.

One year I remember taking two finals on the road in St. Louis during the NCAA tournament. A teammate and I were so worried about this macroeconomics class that we studied on the plane, on the team bus, and pretty much everywhere else during that trip. We both studied so hard we almost got sick. I don’t think I’ve ever studied that hard before or after that class. Our professor arranged for the test to be administered in a conference room at our hotel.

One interesting thing I learned from that class is this: There was an economist named Malthus back in the day who said that the world couldn’t produce enough food for it’s growing population. He added that there would be food shortages and vast numbers of people would die from starvation and that the world’s population growth would stagnate. On one hand it makes sense–there’s a finite amount of land that can be farmed. In this macro class, we actually studied a mathematical model called the Solow Model that showed how the world has been able to grow enough crops to keep up with an exploding population rate. The variable that Malthus did not account for was technological/scientific advances in growing crops. Economists sometimes refer to technological advances as “manna from heaven” because such advances keep happening every year and crop production continues to expand and develop annually.

Well, I figured I’d get at least one economics lesson in too while I had the chance to write this diary. If I forgot anything on that explanation hopefully all the econ majors out there will write me and set me straight. I’ll talk to you next week!

– Mark Madsen

On a game day, everyone on the Timberwolves prepares in a different way. The team itself puts us through the same routine every time, however. We have a shootaround – a mini-practice – the morning of the game. There, our coaches and scouts tell us what the other team runs and the hand signals and calls for their plays. The team issues us a written scouting report, which if we don’t turn back in that night before the game carries a $100 fine. In the NBA everyone knows each other’s plays. But the crazy thing is that even when you know what’s coming, sometimes it’s still hard to stop. After our shootaround, the players go home and rest for the next few hours, in addition to eating a solid pregame meal. I think all the players try to sleep for a few hours. We may have arrived in town the night before at 2:00 a.m., or maybe we couldn’t sleep the previous night after being so wound up from a game. On our team, some players do things differently every game day and others do things exactly the same way. Here are a few examples.

Ervin Johnson — No matter if we have a home game or an away game, Ervin will lift weights before our shootaround. He doesn’t lift really heavy weights and won’t lift for more than a half hour, but he always does it. If we’re on the road, you know you can find Erv in the hotel gym; and if we’re at home, he’ll be in our workout complex that morning.

Fred Hoiberg — If it’s a road game, when we get to the other team’s arena for the game, Fred will always turn around from his seat on the bus (yes, we all sit in the same bus seat EVERY time) and say to me “Go ahead, Mad Dog.” I then get up and go in front of him and he gets off right behind me.

KG — KG is probably the one who has the most consistent pregame ritual. After shootaround, KG stays after and lifts weights and then shoots to maintain his shot for the game. If you watch KG in pregame warm-ups you can write down the shots he takes and the spots he takes them from. You can note when he dunks in our warm-up lines and when he does a reverse layup, or when he just does a routine finger roll. Write down what order he does it in too. It will be exactly the same every time.

When I played with Shaquille O’Neal, he seemed to do something different every time in warm-ups. Shaq used to laugh and play around a lot before the game, but once they threw the opening tip up, he zeroed in on putting the ball in the basket.

My game day ritual has very few constants. I always try to shoot a few extra shots in the shootaround and end with a few perfect shots in a row. I go home and make sure to eat a solid meal and try to sleep and then mentally think about what to do and where to go in the upcoming game. Once I get to the arena, I pretty much do something different every time. The one constant is that I try to talk to the fans that are there early on the sides of the tunnel leading to the court. I’ve been playing basketball for over twenty years and I’ve played in a lot of games, but I still get a little nervous before every game. Talking to the fans and my teammates helps me relax and stay loose for the game. I’ll talk to you next week!

– Mark Madsen

It was fun to watch the All-Star festivities from Denver this past weekend. I’m happy for the Suns’ Quentin Richardson, who won the Three-Point Shootout, but I still think that Fred Hoiberg would have had a great showing had he been invited. Every year the criteria for being invited to the Shootout are different. This year, to be included, you needed to have made 100 three pointers by the deadline and have a good shooting percentage. Right now, Fred leads the NBA, knocking down 52-of-100 from beyond the arc. At 52% shooting, Fred’s next closest competitor is Dallas’ Jason Terry at 47%. What makes Fred’s shooting percentage all the more meaningful, is that a lot of his makes come in the fourth quarter when the game is on the line. I still think Freddy can win the Shootout and I hope he gets that chance in the coming years.

I was able to complete a full practice on Tuesday for the first time since breaking my thumb. It was AWESOME to be able to work with my teammates again. The only hard thing is wearing a splint while I play to protect the bone. I think I’ll have to wear the protective brace for about two weeks and during that time I’ll just have to make some adjustments in the way that I play.

On Tuesday when we arrived at practice our old friend Dan Zeman was there, and that means it was time to get our body fat tested. Zeman is an exercise physiologist and has worked with a number of local athletes. In the process, every player has to weigh himself and then Dan pinches our stomach, chest and thigh with a caliper to measure our body fat. We get tested three times a year. Dan has worked closely with cyclist Greg LeMond in the past. Greg’s success in the Tour de France is established and when Dan gives us tips on keeping fit and lean during the season, we pay close attention.

We are taking off for the West Coast this week for a three-game trip that includes stops in Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland. After practice on Tuesday, Kevin McHale said, “Everyone needs to be on the plane by 3:45. If you’re not there in your seat at 3:45, the plane is taking off without you and if I’m not there, the plane is taking off too.” One time when I was playing for the Lakers one of my teammates was a few minutes late and they closed the doors and off we went. If you do miss the plane, you have to schedule your own flight and meet the team out in the city where you are playing. You do not want that to happen and have to face everyone later on.

Well, right now we are gearing up for the “unofficial” second half of the season. We need to win a few games and make a little run to better position ourselves for the playoffs. We’ve won a couple of games in a row now and I really think we can build on it. I’ll talk to you next week!

– Mark Madsen

If there’s one phrase about the NBA I never liked it’s this one: “It’s a business.” Unfortunately as players and coaches we know the phrase is true. We know that we can get traded, released or let go. This week the organization made a business move and relieved Flip Saunders of his coaching duties. I think that all of us players feel partially responsible and we’re very sorry to see Flip gone.

Flip coached me for a year and a half and during that time I learned a tremendous amount about the game of basketball. I reached Flip on his cell phone right after practice when they announced he wouldn’t be our coach and we had a good talk. He said he was going to find the positive in the situation and enjoy spending time with his wife and kids. Believe me, there are only a few people out there that have what it takes to be an NBA head coach. You have to know how to handle and communicate with today’s athlete, which is no small task. You must know the X’s and O’s and be resilient. Flip has all of those qualities and he is passionate about the game. I’m looking forward to the next time I see Flip so that I can thank him in person for a great two years.

Every coach is different. I still remember my rookie year in the NBA with Los Angeles losing our home opener. After we all got to the locker room, Phil Jackson walked in and said, “The dogs bark and the caravan moves on… practice at 10:00 tomorrow.” Then everyone just got up and wrapped ice on their knees and stepped into the shower.

Kevin McHale will coach us from now on. Mac (as everyone calls him) will be different than Phil and Flip. I think as far as the offense goes, Mac is going to run a lot of the old Boston Celtics’ sets which rely on setting hard picks, making crisp passes and throwing the occasional “dribble weave” into the mix. The “dribble weave” is where a post player dribbles the ball toward a guard, hands it to him and then knocks the living daylight of the guard’s defender with a screen. Prior to being named head coach, Mac always worked out with players after practice and taught us post moves. I think the transition should be smooth.

All-Star Weekend is here already and Ervin Johnson (player representative) and Kevin Garnett will be going to Denver in different capacities. Erv will go to Denver to help out with negotiations between the owners and the National Basketball Players Association, while KG will be appearing in his eighth All-Star game. Hopefully the owners and players representatives can make progress in working toward a new collective bargaining agreement to avoid what hockey is going through right now. Erv is someone who is always involved in helping others. He loves to do things in a quiet way to help out folks and he’d probably hit me with a forearm to the chest if I told any of the things he’s done (just kidding). Let me share just one thing: Erv rounded up donations from our locker room and from players on other teams, in addition to digging in his own pocket, to help pay for the NBA chaplains from each team to attend All-Star Weekend in Colorado.

Hopefully you are enjoying this journal. If you have any questions you want me to answer, you can send them to me on my website: www.madsen35.com. Have a great week!

– Mark Madsen

On Thursday my hand doctor decided it was time to pull the pins out of my wrist. I have to describe the process to you, so skip this paragraph if you are squeamish. They took a pair of sterilized pliers and grabbed the end of the metal (which was sticking out of my wrist) and pulled the two pins out, one by one. They were both about two inches long. It felt great to get rid of the hunks of metal sticking out of my hand. The bonus is now I won’t beep if I go through a metal detector at the airport. More importantly, I think I’m probably about two weeks away from returning to action on the court, so I’m excited to renew practicing with my teammates.

Thursday was a big day, as I helped out at a Timberwolves’ basketball clinic at Jefferson Elementary School in Minneapolis. The team’s community relations department sets up a number of events around town and we can help out if it fits into our schedules. Everyone on the team likes to do different things in the community. I especially liked this clinic because at the end, the principal asked me to answer some questions in Spanish from the largely Latino group of students that were gathered for the clinic. I learned Spanish while on a church mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints in Spain from 1994-1996. Doing a clinic like this helps me to keep my language skills polished. It’s been a huge privilege to be involved with basketball over the years and so if I can share some fun drills or stories with kids, I feel like it’s a small way to give back to the game and to the community.

People ask me all the time about life on the road in the NBA. The Timberwolves always put us up in very nice hotels and each of us has his own room with one king size bed. Even though the beds are pretty big, sometimes my legs dangle over the end, or I’ll have to lie diagonally. The only time I have a real problem is when there’s an end board and I can’t stretch out all the way (Imagine what it must be like for KG, Candyman and Erv). If we are on the tail end of a back-to-back and get into a city late, sometimes instead of going over to the arena the next morning for a shoot-around we will have a team breakfast. At those breakfasts, I always know what Wally Szczerbiak is going to eat. He will take a bagel and cut it in half, then hollow out the extra bread on the inside and fill it up with egg whites and a tiny bit of cheese. Then he’ll have one package of instant oatmeal. I keep telling him that I’ll need to follow exactly what he eats because our body fat test is coming up. A big fitness magazine recently put Wally on the cover of it because he has such a great nutrition and workout regimen. I believe Wally, KG and Spree have the lowest body fat percentages on the team. I think they’re all around five percent. We get tested three times during the season.

Last week I went to lunch at an Italian restaurant in the Minneapolis skyway. I must admit that it was probably my first time going through the skyway system during the lunch hour and I couldn’t believe how many people were up there! It felt like NYC! I usually eat at Biagi’s in Eden Prairie and I always call ahead and pick up the food there and then bring it home to eat. My usual is spaghetti and two grilled chicken pieces.

Well, we’ve been losing lately, but sometimes when things look bleak it means there’s sunshine right around the corner. I always remember what Tex Winter used to say. “Everything can turn on a trifle.”

Thanks for reading this journal and I hope to have some more inside information for you next week.

– Mark Madsen

We needed a couple of wins on our West Coast trip and we got them over the weekend in Seattle and Portland. We felt like we should have gone 3-0 out there, but we had a tough loss in Los Angeles. It’s been a little frustrating in some ways this year, in that we have dropped some games that we were right there in the fourth quarter. Some games we just couldn’t put our opponent away, or others we couldn’t climb all the way back from a deficit.

So it was nice to put together a couple of wins against division rivals on their home floors. We feel that we are capable of not only competing in the Western Conference, but also winning a championship this season. I believe that we have the pieces to do it; it’s just about stringing some wins together and getting a little confidence and momentum going our way.

I’m sure many of you heard or read about our travel troubles on this last trip, but we don’t want to make excuses for not picking up a W in Southern California. We were supposed to fly to Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon of last week, but due to mechanical difficulties with our charter plane, the flight got pushed back until that evening and then eventually to the next day. We did not leave Minnesota until mid-morning on the day of the game versus the Lakers. We arrived in Los Angeles in the early afternoon, only hours before the tip-off. I know many of you fly for business all the time, so I am not going to complain about the way we travel. However, getting off a cross-country flight and playing is not ideal.

After the game against the Lakers we were in the air for about 10 minutes when the pilot came over the loudspeakers and announced that they could not retract the landing gear. He said that it was unstable and that we were heading back to Los Angeles to figure it out. After circling the airport for 90 minutes or so, they decided to do a fly-by past the control tower. I guess the folks in the tower got out their binoculars as we buzzed by at 300 feet to see if the gear was set for a landing. The flight attendants said to prepare for the worst, so obviously there was a little concern on everyone’s face. Needless to say we were all buckled in pretty tight as we came in for a safe landing back where we started.

Normally a flight is the time when we as players can kind of sit back, relax and unwind. In the players’ section you can normally find a group of guys playing dominoes or cards. Last year there were a few guys that were really into chess. Latrell Sprewell is a great player and Gary Trent was just phenomenal as well. Jerry Sichting represents the coaching staff, as he dabbles in the game a little. There are a lot of guys that just want to unwind by watching a DVD. Recently, Fred Hoiberg and Wally Szczerbiak had not seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, so I brought it along. They both gave their critique of it. I will say one liked it way more than the other, but I won’t reveal the bigger fan. There are a few guys that like to play computer games against each other. The thing that I enjoy most is when we get in a cabin-wide discussion of a variety of topics, or when KG, Erv Johnson or Sam Cassell tell stories about different guys they have played against during their careers.

One of the memorable events from this last trip was that KG had food catered on the plane from an upscale restaurant. We got to have steak and chicken and all the good things that go with them. While KG’s gesture was very generous, it is even more so when he is the one who is serving the food to everyone. He doesn’t get his own plate until everyone else has eaten and is situated and comfortable for the flight. The thing that really stands out is the way Kevin treats people. On every team or in every organization there is a hierarchy of players or workers and usually everyone knows where they stand. In our hierarchy, KG is definitely the top dog. He demands the best from everyone in our locker room, but he is also outstanding at communicating with everyone on the team and he really just wants to see us all succeed. I truly believe that he is one of the best leaders in professional sports.

I look forward to writing this diary every week and will do my best to give you readers an inside glimpse into an NBA season. Until next week take care.

– Mark Madsen

Sometimes if the team makes a one-day trip, the players on the Injured List stay at home. So right now, I’m at my house recovering from our practice while the rest of the team is on a flight to Milwaukee.

Even though I don’t practice in the conventional sense, they still work me very hard. Today our strength coach put me through a pretty intense, full-body weight room workout. My broken thumb is getting better slowly. Right now there are two pins sticking out of my thumb about a quarter-inch that are drilled another inch or so into the bone to hold everything together. On either Thursday or Friday of this week the doctors are going to remove them. I will gradually start doing some rehabilitation and hope to be on the court in three to four weeks.

On a more personal note, I celebrated my 29th birthday last Friday. I didn’t do anything too out of the norm, as we had a morning shoot-around and then a game against Utah that night. After the game some friends of mine took me out to dinner in uptown Minneapolis. These are people that I’ve gotten to know since arriving in Minnesota, and have become good friends in the last year. It was a little bit different then the birthdays I celebrated as a kid with nine siblings (four brothers and five sisters). We had the same family traditions that everyone else has, the cake, ice cream and gifts, but with one twist.

The only difference is that my parents would have us go around the table and have everyone say one nice thing about the person celebrating the birthday. It’s always fun to hear the different comments that everyone makes. That’s how we did it growing up and that’s how we do it to this day when we get together as a family.

With me not traveling this week, I’ll go in to practice tomorrow with Ndudi Ebi and we’ll both lift weights and maybe ride the bike. When we both get healthy enough, Kevin McHale will work us out and put us through a bunch of really hard drills on the court. I think Kevin is one of the few GMs in the NBA who really works with players constantly. Some of us watched him play when we were growing up (although I don’t think Ndudi was born yet) and I can definitely remember when he seemed to leave his man in the dust in the post.

When I was a free agent trying to decide between Minnesota and Dallas, I remember when Kevin told me on the phone that he works with players after practice. When I told my Dad how he gets involved in the teaching process, my Dad was so excited because he was a Celtics fan for quite a while.

Today’s practice was pretty intense. I think everyone was a little bit frustrated that we lost the game against Sacramento yesterday. But after a loss, most teammates and coaches just come the next day with more resolve and ready to work hard. Once you start working out and start to practice it’s a lot easier to let go of the mistakes of the previous game. I still remember what Sam Cassell said to me early last year after a game we lost. I think he saw that I was down and said, “Don’t worry about it Mad Dog…just remember Annie.”

I tried to figure out who Annie was and I really couldn’t figure out what Sam was talking about. Then he added, “She’s the one who has the song, ‘The sun will come out tomorrow.’ ” Sam is someone who never lets anything get him down and he’s a teammate who cares about everyone in the locker room.

Thanks for reading this journal and I hope to have some more inside information for you next week.

– Mark Madsen

I’m very excited to share with Timberwolves fans in Greater Minnesota and the Upper Midwest a glimpse into what life is like for an NBA player on a weekly basis. I want to show people the rigors of the NBA, the ups and the downs and all that comes in between. Hopefully this weekly diary will give people an insider’s view into what our team is going through in the good times and the bad.

Unfortunately, just as I was gearing up for this project, I had a little bit of a setback in that I fractured my left thumb in a game against Philadelphia on January 7. I was trying to draw a charging call on Samuel Dalembert and hit the deck. From the way the thumb swelled up right away, I knew that probably was not a good sign – but at least I drew the foul! I had surgery the next day and during that process had a couple of pins implanted in my thumb. Additionally, I had my hand placed in a cast. The doctors are telling me that it likely will be a four-to-eight week healing process, obviously I’m hoping for the short end.

In the mean time I’m trying my best to stay in shape. I’m working out every day with our strength and conditioning coach Thomas McKinney. He is putting me through cardiovascular routines and working on quickstep and explosive squat drills. My hope is to come back with better stamina and endurance then I had prior to the injury.

As I write this I can’t help but think how excited I am to be traveling with the team this week for the three-game road trip out west to Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland. It is always a lot of fun to go back to Los Angeles where I played three years for the Lakers. Obviously, I have a ton of good memories from my days there. Additionally, I will get to see my grandfather and a lot of close friends.

I suppose I should talk a little bit about basketball and what our team is going through right now. We entered the season with our team intact from the one that went to the Western Conference Finals a year ago. Plus, we were able to add good players in Anthony Carter and Eddie Griffin. I think right now one of the big things for our team has been the lineup change and the fact that everyone, coaches and players alike are working hard in finding combinations to put on the floor.

We have had a lot of success with one lineup in the past and I think Flip (Saunders) made a decision to bring scoring and firepower off the bench and start the game with a more defensive group. It’s nice to have a player like Trenton Hassell in there because he is such a great defender. To me he brings a dimension to the game where he can lock up such a wide variety of players. Then the other team is going to have to adjust to a great scorer in Wally Szczerbiak coming off the bench. Wally has been so selfless in coming off the bench and has really put up some big numbers in this role. He can score from so many different areas on the court.

After my injury we went out and added a new player in John Thomas. He was with us in camp and was one of the final cuts. John adds a unique dimension to the team as he can bang and scrap and claw down low, but then he can step out and has a soft touch on the perimeter and in the slot area. John has the ability to defend seven-footers because of his strength, in addition to being able to step-out and defend the pick-and-roll.

I’m looking forward to writing this diary each week and will let you know how it goes on the trip out west.

– Mark Madsen