A couple of legends are in the making

FORT MYERS, FLA. – What is legendary?

There are three varieties that touch sports in this country: national, regional and local.

An individual must be preeminent as a competitor and also build enormous fame in a sport. There have been a select few national legends in the Twin Cities since we became a major league metropolis in 1960 — losing the Minneapolis Lakers, while gaining the Twins and Vikings for their 1961 seasons.

There have been two legendary coaches: Bud Grant with the Vikings, and Herb Brooks with Gophers hockey and then the Minnesota-strong U.S. hockey team of 1980.

There have been three Twins for certain: Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and Kirby Puckett. I would also put Tony Oliva in that category, for he was a fabled American Leaguer with three batting titles from 1964 to 1971.

There have been four Vikings: Fran Tarkenton, Alan Page, Randy Moss and now Adrian Peterson. Others are close — Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, John Randle, Cris Carter, Randall McDaniel — but it's a mighty standard … to be legendary.

There has been one legendary player in men's basketball: Da Kid, Kevin Garnett of the Timberwolves. For all the hockey players, the North Stars, Wild and Gophers, there has been no player of such a mythic proportion.

Lindsey Vonn has long been a Coloradoan, but she learned to ski at Buck Hill, so we still put in a claim to her, and she is a legendary without question in her international sport of downhill skiing.

I believe the Twin Cities sports scene now has two athletes just getting started and destined to be legendary:

Karl-Anthony Towns, the Wolves rookie, and Miguel Sano, entering his first full season with the Twins.

Towns has what Garnett had, with better shooting. Baseball people watch Sano hit and see the power and the hands, and they have visions of the magnificent Miguel in Detroit … Mr. Cabrera.

Legendary. It's an elite group. Towns and Sano have big chances to be included.