It is not very often that you find a well-liked person in sports, especially in professional sports. Usually, a personality in sports has fans and haters both, but in the case of Phil "Flip" Saunders, it appears he was not liked by all, instead loved by all.
The Minnesota Timberwolves NBA franchise came into existence in 1989 and they didn't even have a permanent home when they started. Their inaugural season featured home games in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. It is a true story, because I went to one of those games in the 1989 season. The Timberwolves, like any expansion team, struggled tremendously for the first half decade of seasons. Right out of the gate, one of the players drafted in the expansion draft by the Wolves, Rick Mahorn of the Detroit Pistons, wanted no part of an expansion franchise. Minnesota was not a destination for any NBA player. After all, we have cold ass winters in Minnesota during the NBA season. Players wanted to make their millions and live the life in Los Angeles and play for the Lakers, or be in the media spotlight of New York City. It wasn't until Flip Saunders, who was the coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Kevin McHale, who was the President of Operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, decided to roll the dice at the NBA draft back in 1995 and bet the farm on an 18 year old named Kevin Garnett with the fifth overall pick.
Flip Saunders and Kevin McHale realized that the NBA picture was stale in Minnesota and the franchise almost was being relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, which actually failed...thank goodness. With the relocation efforts dead, the risk to shake up the Timberwolves franchise by drafting Garnett worked, and it worked well. The Timberwolves began to pick up steam. Year in and year out, Flip continued to make the franchise relevant and continued to head in the right direction. The Wolves made the playoffs for the first time in 1997 and continued their success by making the playoffs the next seven seasons after that.
By 2004, the tide had really changed. Players took notice of the Timberwolves consistent success and started to want to come to Minnesota to play. The reason is because of the cornerstone of the franchise in Kevin Garnett that Flip and McHale had brought in and took the risk on. With adding strong pieces of Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell, along with some promising young talent, Flip and the Wolves were set to make a run at the NBA Finals.
You see, Flip Saunders was the basketball genius that coached the Wolves to the NBA Playoffs in all eight of those seasons. In 2004, he took the Minnesota Timberwolves to the NBA Western Conference Finals, which was just one step away from playing for the NBA Championship. Unfortunately, the Wolves lost a tough series in the Western Conference Finals to Minnesota's former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Flip Saunders made the Timberwolves a respected NBA organization. The Minnesota fans were really prideful of Flip Saunders because Flip was also a former Minnesota Golden Gopher by playing basketball for the University of Minnesota. The success that Flip brought to Minnesota eventually led to another opportunity to coach the NBA's Detroit Pistons. Despite being coach of the the Detroit squad, he continued to call Minnesota home. He raised his family in Minnesota and made having a job in Detroit at the same time a successful challenge.
That is the true point of this story, Flip cared about people. Despite all of his success, and the millions he made, he never strayed from that personality that everyone around the country is remembering this week after Flip's passing. He still took the time to respect people and treat everyone as an equally important person. Flip also had a lot of passion for the game. Flip was in a lucky position in life to make a wonderful living at doing what he loved. If Flip were alive today, and despite being the President of Basketball Operations and dealing with NBA money and salaries, the focus of his conversation would be the passion he has for the game and the challenges in the game that he truly enjoyed taking on.
That is Phil "Flip" Saunders. A kind man, who was a role model for respect, who was beloved by anyone he encountered across the nation. Most importantly, a great man who was taken way too soon.
#r.i.p.flip
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