The Timberwolves are about to embark on season 37 in their franchise history, while the Wild are headed for a milestone 25th season.
Neither franchise has won a championship; in fact, they haven’t even played in an NBA or NHL finals in their previous 60 combined years.
You might think that would make both the Wolves and Wild leery about leaning into their history.
And you would be wrong, as evidenced by back-to-back days of vintage jersey announcements.
On Wednesday it was the Wolves bringing back the black “tree” jerseys made popular during the Kevin Garnett era. They’ll wear them 28 times this season, including 21 at home (a nod to KG’s old number, which one gets the feeling might finally be retired by the team soon now that Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have taken ownership of the franchise).
On Thursday, the Wild announced they will wear 25th anniversary jerseys on four occasions this season, with the intent of “paying homage to the team’s inaugural season.”
Here are a few thoughts about both organizations at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
- Wild fans had a generally positive reaction to the special edition old school jerseys, though some also had a predictable response on social media: “Classic? Bring back the North Stars jerseys or shut up already.” A considerable (though not majority) portion of Minnesota hockey fans will never get over the departure of the North Stars and won’t be happy until the Wild become the North Stars again.
- When you have only won four playoff series in your existence, and half of those series wins came in your third season as they did for the Wild, maybe nostalgia works. It’s better than thinking about Kirill Kaprizov’s contract situation.
- Wolves fans have been clamoring for those tree jerseys for years. While I like a lot of iterations of old Wolves jerseys better than the trees, I know that I am on the wrong side of history. The fact that Minnesota will wear the uniforms for more than half of its home games tells you something about the new owners’ understanding of the market.
- Both the Wolves and Wild are clawing for market share in a crowded space. The Vikings have been the clear No. 1 team in terms of attention since at least the 1998 arrival of Randy Moss. No. 2 is a rotating position, and one could argue the Wolves are there right now by virtue of back-to-back conference title series appearances.
- No team has grown its share of the market more in the last 15 years than the Lynx. They have a huge Game 3 in the WNBA semifinals on Friday in Phoenix, something I previewed with the Star Tribune’s Cassidy Hettesheimer during Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
- The Twins lost their 90th game of the season Wednesday. Will that trigger a batch of 90-loss seasons as it did for the 1997-2000 Twins and/or the 2011-14 teams? Or will they be able to turn things around more quickly?
- Will Rocco Baldelli still be the Twins’ manager in 2026? La Velle E. Neal III will talk about that on Friday’s podcast.
- Jordan Addison established a great rapport with J.J. McCarthy during the offseason. Now that he’s returning to the lineup following a three-game suspension, it will be Carson Wentz throwing him the ball.
- The Guardians are a game up on the Tigers in the AL Central, a stunning turnaround from the start of the month. Cleveland has won the first two games of this week’s series against Detroit, with one more slated for Thursday night.
- ESPN ranks Anthony Edwards as the sixth best player in the NBA.
