Called out previously by Pat Riley in Miami, three-time NBA All-Star Antoine Walker reported to the Timberwolves after last week's trade and declared himself neither fat nor old.
Just don't remind him that teammate Corey Brewer fondly remembers watching Walker play for Kentucky when Brewer was a child.
"I loved those Kentucky teams," Brewer said.
More precisely, Brewer loved Wildcats star Ron Mercer, who, like him, was raised in middle Tennessee and played for the same AAU team. Mercer, from Nashville while Brewer grew up 35 miles away in the little town of Portland, played on Kentucky's 1996 team alongside Walker, Derek Anderson, Tony Delk and Walter McCarty.
"Ron Mercer was The Man," said Brewer, who was 10. "He did some incredible stuff, crazy dunks. He was a great player."
Michael Doleac, acquired from Miami along with Walker, also knew that Kentucky team well. Doleac's Utah team played the Wildcats in a Midwest regional semifinal at the Metrodome that year, and lost by 31 points. The Utes had prepared for the NCAA tournament by playing a tough schedule that included Kansas and Wake Forest. After the Kentucky game, coach Rick Majerus called the night's opponent "the likes of which we have not seen."They beat the doors off us that game," Doleac said. "They had two NBA teams on that team."
Deadline day
The Wolves need to submit their final roster to the NBA by 5 p.m. today. A buyout of veteran forward Juwan Howard's contract is expected to get them to the maximum number of 15 players, unless they make any other moves before today's deadline. The NBA regular season begins Tuesday night; the Wolves open at home against Denver on Friday.
On Saturday, Walker was asked if he might be a candidate for a contract buyout.
"Not right now, that's not been discussed with me," he said. "I just got here. I want to see if it can work. I want to play basketball. Everywhere I go, I try to make a home for myself and play to the best of my ability and hopefully I can be a part of this team. I don't know what role that will be yet, but hopefully a good one."
Priorities
Doleac was a bit delayed in reporting to the Wolves on Friday because he and his wife went for an ultrasound to learn the sex of their first child, due in March. "A little boy," he said. "Very excited."
At 30, Doleac is still a young man, except when he looks around the Wolves locker room. "I tell you what, it's weird," he said. "At 30, you do think it's young. But by NBA years, it's getting up there."
Jerry Zgoda • jzgoda@startribune.com
wolves/nba
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