Rudy Gobert and Anthony Edwards helped Minnesota to tis second straight berth in the NBA West … More finals. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
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The Minnesota Timberwolves already have made franchise history. They are using that as a starting point.
“The stomach is not full,” center Rudy Gobert said. “Not at all. It’s just one step.”
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The Timberwolves made the Western Conference finals for a team-record second consecutive season last week after finishing off the Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors in five games, giving them five days’ rest before meeting the Oklahoma City-Denver winner in the West finals that begin Tuesday.
The next step is to avenge a loss to Dallas in the West finals a year ago.
The T-Wolves’ repeat trip seemed almost inevitable once the Warriors lost Curry in their Game 1 victory. They won the final four games of the series by an average of almost 12 points.
“We were the better team,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “We felt we were the better team. We just had to go out and play like it every night.”
The Wolves similarly punished the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round, winning four of five while outscoring LeBron James, Luka Doncic et al by an average of almost nine points a game. It was especially satisfying, inasmuch as Doncic was the ringleader in Dallas’ series win a year ago.
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No. 6 seed Minnesota did not have home court advantage in either of its first two 2024 playoff series will not have it in any round this year.
A Denver series would be a rematch of the 2024 West semifinals, when the T-Wolves overcame a 15-point halftime deficit Denver for a 98-90 Game 7 victory.
The Wolves’ made history then, too. They had the largest the comeback in an NBA Game 7, and the series win seemed to solidify their status as a continuing title contender.
“It’s to make it to the (NBA) finals,” Jaden McDaniels said of the mission. “I think we’re super confident. We’re all together, being a good team, and we’re just ready for whoever we play next already. We just got to stay the course.”
Renewing the legacy of Kevin Garnett
In one way, these Wolves have taken the glory days of the Garnett Era one step further.
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The Garnett-led teams of the late 1990-early 2000s made seven straight playoff appearances but only one trip to the conference finals, at the end of the run in 2004. These Wolves are on a four-season playoff run.
The current franchise turnaround began in 2020, with a succession timely of front office and player personnel decisions after an ugly stretch in which they had 15 losing seasons in 16 and played under nine full-time or interim coaches.
It began with a bit of a break in the 2020 NBA lottery, when they won the first overall pick despite the third-worst record in the league and a 14 percent chance at No. 1.
Anthony Edwards, prize of the 2020 draft
The Wolves took Anthony “Ant” Edwards, considered the consensus best player in the class, with first pick. He has become the face of the franchise and is closing in on being the new face of the NBA with his combination of skill and exuberance.
Edwards’ scoring average has increased in every season, to 27.6 points per game this year, fourth in the league.
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Minnesota also acquired McDaniels in a three-team trade two days after the 2020 draft, and both he and Edwards have been cornerstones of the resurgence as McDaniels — always a long, athletic defender — has honed offensive game.
The front office makeover began shortly thereafter. Finch replace Ryan Saunders as head coach in February, 2021, and general manager Tim Connelly was hired from a similar position in Denver in May of 2022.
Less than two months later, Connelly acquired defensive presence Gobert, a decisive move that still resonates. While much of the league was trending small, Connelly added Gobert in a massive trade package that sent five players and four first-round draft picks to the Utah Jazz.
Gobert and all the right moves
Gobert, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, has averaged a double-double for the last nine seasons, and his length in the paint keeps opponents wary. He had nine blocked shots in the Warriors’ series and has averaged 2.4 blocks per season in his career.
Veteran point guard Michael Conley and guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker were acquired in another three-team deal involving Utah late in the 2023 season.
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Connelly put the finishing touch on the roster over the summer, when he traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo Randle has averaged 23.9 points per game in the playoffs, five points above his regular-season average, and like Towns has the green light from three-point range.
With Edwards, DiVincenzo and 2019 draft pick Naz Reid doing much of the work, the Timberwolves made 37.7 percent of their three-point attempts, fourth in the league.
The Wolves got this far a year ago, and Finch has counseled them to remember what happened in the West finals then, when they lost all three three home games.
“It’s about staying level-headed,” Gobert said. “After a win like we had last year against Denver in Game 7, I felt like you get the whole world praising you. We weren’t mature enough to handle that yet.
“This year, we’re mature enough. I feel like we understand where we’re at. That’s the lesson. It’s about us and our approach. It’s not about who we face. It’s about mindset, our work, our attention to details. When our level of urgency is right, we know we can play with anyone.”
BREWSTER, Minn. — Lots of hugs were shared, tears were shed and utter shock was witnessed as a rural Minnesota family was surprised with the Best Christmas Ever early Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14.
More than two dozen people caravaned behind a Brewster Fire Truck to deliver gifts to Austin and Stephanie VandeKamp and their 6-year-old daughter, Callee, in Brewster, Minnesota, in Nobles County.
Friends and family join Best Christmas Ever committee members for a group photo before leaving the Brewster Fire Hall to deliver gifts to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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“We just came to bring some joy to your life,” said Sue Hagen, one of the local coordinators for the nationwide nonprofit
Best Christmas Ever organization,
which surprises families who have experienced hard times. “Last year, with the loss of Jaelee, none of these gifts we’re bringing to you will ever replace her, but we just thought that your family deserved a little joy this Christmas.”
The Vande Kamps gave birth to their daughter, Jaelee, on Feb. 4, 2024. Shortly thereafter, Jaelee was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, TAPVR (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return). She spent her first eight months in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she had 10 surgeries and ultimately required continuous dialysis.
Stephanie didn’t get to hold Jaelee until she was 50 days old, and stayed with Jaelee for much of her hospitalization. When she did come home, Austin would go to the hospital to stay with their youngest daughter.
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They were finally able to bring Jaelee home on Sept. 23, 2024. Because she was dependent on respiratory support, someone had to be awake with her 24/7, so Stephanie got very little sleep, family friend Ashley Prins detailed in the nomination letter she sent to Best Christmas Ever.
People wait in line bearing gifts to deliver to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025, in rural Brewster.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
Jaelee died unexpectedly on Dec. 9, 2024, while attending regular follow-up appointments in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jaelee’s death compounded the loss the family was still feeling from the sudden death of Stephanie’s dad from a heart attack on Easter morning 2022.
“The community just rallies around a family and they don’t even know who it will be,” Hagen said, noting that Bedford Industries, Sanford Worthington and District 518 were among employers who stepped up alongside community members to “help uplift a family.”
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Locally, the Best Christmas Ever program is sponsored by the Astrup Family Foundation, owner of Sterling Pharmacy stores, which provides $5,000 toward a life-changing gift for a local family who has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. Business partners included Worthington Federal Savings Bank and Runnings who, along with Sterling Pharmacy, had giving trees set up at their businesses in recent weeks to accept gifts and monetary donations for the recipients.
The VandeKamps were nominated for the Best Christmas Ever program by family friend Ashley Prins.
“I would love to make this year a joyous season again for them in regards to holidays and I would love to see the three of them be able to get away on a vacation and enjoy their time together as they missed out on so much of that during this life struggle,” Prins wrote in her letter.
Stephanie, left, and Austin VandeKamp share a look as daughter, Callee, stands between them as they listen to Sue Hagen talk about the Best Christmas Ever program Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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In addition to a mound of neatly wrapped gifts — most of which were for Callee — the family was presented with a monetary gift of $7,403.07. The local Best Christmas Ever committee will work with the family on how the gift may be used.
“I don’t know what to say,” Austin said after accepting the money.
“Merry Christmas,” replied Chad Nixon, representing Worthington Federal Savings Bank.
Callee opened her largest box, which contained a child-sized recliner just for her, as well as two stuffed animals to match the chair. Stephanie and Austin received Minnesota Twins jerseys reflecting their favorite current Twins players.
Among the people on hand Sunday were last year’s recipients, the Adrian and Melissa Gonzalez family, of Worthington. The Gonzalezes lost their son, Emmitt, to cancer in September 2023.
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Hagen also presented the family with over $1,000 in gift cards to local businesses, and noted that donations are still coming in. The Best Christmas Ever committee will meet again with the Vande Kamps after Christmas, she said.
The VandeKamps were completely surprised by the gesture — after admitting a bit of fear as to why a fire truck with lights on and siren blaring pulled into their rural Brewster farmyard.
“I thought right away my barn was on fire, my lambs were running everywhere, then I saw a big wad of cars and I thought, ‘what’?” Austin said.
Julie Buntjer became editor of The Globe in July 2021, after working as a beat reporter at the Worthington newspaper since December 2003. She has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture journalism from South Dakota State University.
So Minnesota: Lego King of Minneapolis builds Minnesota landmarks one brick at a time
Many kids will find Lego sets under the Christmas tree this holiday season, but the popular toy isn’t just for children.
Jeff Esler fell in love with Legos as a child, and that love affair has never ended.
“I am the Lego king of Minneapolis,” Esler said. “So my friends call me.”
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A decade ago, Esler immortalized Nye’s Polonaise Room in Legos and posted it on Facebook.
“That one, it kind of went really viral,” Esler said. “I think I got 100,000 shares.”
Esler’s fame grew after he went on to use toy bricks to build mini masterpieces of Minnesota landmarks.
“I did Matt’s, and then I did Gluek’s,” Elser said. “I did the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station in Cloquet. Then, probably the Split Rock Lighthouse. The Grain Belt sign.”
Each project costs from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. They take a ton of bricks and days to build. Esler has sold some models and given others away.
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“I do the landmarks, because they click with people,” Esler said.
Esler plans to keep building some of Minnesota’s most recognizable places one brick at a time.
Federal prosecutorsannounce indictments against two Philadelphia men they say submitted up to $3.5 million in fake and inflated bills to Minnesota Medicaid programs, WCCO-TV reports. “Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said.
State Rep. Kristin Robbins alleges – without sharing a name or other evidence – that the Minnesota Department of Human Services paid state money to a Feeding Our Future defendant while they were awaiting trial, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Robbins, who chairs a legislative fraud oversight committee and is running for governor, says she has collected hundreds of whistleblower tips, but she has not shared them with the department’s inspector general.
The state has suspended or delayed payments to several social service providers as part of an effort to catch and prevent fraud, and now one of those providers says the crackdown had deadly consequences, KARE 11 reports. A service provider says a vulnerable adult client was found dead in his St. Paul apartment after the state froze payments that had been covering his care.
Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick, who spent time with Melissa Hortman while covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential campaign, writes about the life of the late Minnesota House Speaker in a 7,000-word profile based on interviews with dozens of family, friends and colleagues.
