Minnesota wears a new backcourt this fall, built around a trade for LaMelo Ball and five days from a season opener in Miami. History offers two reminders: the only number this franchise has retired, and a game on this same date in 2018 that marked the start of its last step backward.
The Only Number Retired
Minnesota has retired exactly one jersey number. No. 2 belonged to Malik Sealy, killed by a drunk driver in the summer of 2000, and no Timberwolf has worn it since. Twenty-six years later, the roster is full of fresh numbers again, LaMelo Ball in No. 1, Jonathan Kuminga in No. 24, none of them carrying that kind of weight yet. The franchise's other defining number, Kevin Garnett's No. 21, went unworn the moment he left for Boston in 2007 and came right back to him when he returned in 2015. History here is not casually retired.
Same Date, Different Arc
Eight years ago today, Minnesota opened a road trip in San Antonio and lost, 108-112. That 2018-19 season came right after the Timberwolves finally snapped a 14-year playoff drought, and it unraveled anyway, the start of the Jimmy Butler fallout that undid the roster within months. This team knows a good season can be followed by a bad one. Five days from the opener at Miami, after a preseason that has included a 133-116 loss in Chicago this week, Minnesota is trying to prove last year's trip to the second round and the new trade for LaMelo Ball point the other way.
Getting Past the Wall
The standard here is 2003-04, when Kevin Garnett won MVP and Minnesota reached its only Western Conference finals before this decade. The current era has already matched that height twice, falling to Dallas in 2024 and Oklahoma City in 2025, before a second-round exit to San Antonio last season ended 4-2. The July trade that sent Julius Randle to Brooklyn and brought back LaMelo Ball was built to clear that wall. Whether it does starts to show Wednesday in Miami, with Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and a 34-year-old Rudy Gobert carrying the same defensive identity that got them this far.
Has Minnesota ever reached the NBA Finals?
No. The franchise's three trips to the Western Conference finals, in 2004, 2024 and 2025, all ended short of the title round.
What jersey number has Minnesota retired?
Only No. 2, worn by Malik Sealy, who died in a drunk-driving crash in the summer of 2000.
