Our Kyle Ratke was able to speak with former Timberwolf Doug West in part to promote the Apr. 9 replay of the 1997 Timberwolves win over the Bulls but also touched on the early years of the franchise, the Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury duo and more.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Ratke: A lot of people reading this probably don’t know what it was like watching Michael Jordan in his prime or obviously being on the court with him. What was it like playing against those Bulls teams and Michael in particular?
West: Oh wow. Well for me, basically because that was my matchup every time we played them, it was a nightmare. (laughs) I mean, it was definitely exciting, arguably the greatest player who’s ever played, great competitor.
The hard part for guys like myself as I said, every time he came or their team came into your arena, the fans were really there to see him. It was like, they introduced Michael Jordan and he got a standing ovation from the fans at Target Center. It was like, “Wow.” So this guy is coming in, he’s kicking our butt — at that time I think he was averaging like 36 points a game — and the fans wanted to see spectacular plays from him. But on the other side, you wanted to compete, you wanted to give your all and you wanted to try to win the games so you had to try to do what was necessary to try to take away some of that fanfare.
Ratke: I think (the Timberwolves) started 0-16 against the Bulls before you guys beat them in ’97. You only played them twice a year, and it wasn’t like they were a rival, but were you guys aware that you hadn’t beaten them yet?
West: Well for me, because I had been there since the inception of the Timberwolves in 1989, I knew very well that we had not won.
What I didn’t realize until we watched the game was that Scottie Pippen didn’t even play in that game. So there’s probably an asterisk because Pippen didn’t play, but of course it was definitely a great accomplishment for us. I think Kevin was in his third year, Steph was probably in his second year, so it was a big accomplishment for us. But just as I was re-watching the game a few days ago, I didn’t even realize Pippen didn’t even play.
Ratke: Going from being a guy who averaged four points per game in his second year to jump to 19 in your fourth year, that’s a real good run as a player. What was it about Minnesota early on that allowed you to develop as a player? What are some of your early memories of the Timberwolves?
West: I thought we had a good flow of players coming through. We unfortunately didn’t win a lot of games. We changed over coaches a lot, so that was always difficult. But I thought the year that I averaged 19 points a game, I always tell people nowadays, “Yeah, I averaged 19 points a game, but we only won 16 games.” So you had to bring some more firepower in there.
As Kevin McHale took over and Flip came into the forefront, you could see the development of a team of some chemistry coming in. I can recall when we were drafting Kevin Garnett, thinking to myself, “We’re finally turning the corner, and we’re drafting a kid from high school.” I’m thinking, “What don’t I know about this high school player?” Well, fortunately for him and fortunately for us, he was an outstanding talent, outstanding teammate, outstanding competitor and he was able to put 20-plus years in the NBA and is now a Hall of Famer.
I think that the Wolves were always going in the right direction. I just think that it was building blocks slowly through players, through drafts, trying to figure out the draft picks, trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t work.
But the great thing about Minnesota was that we always had passionate fans. We had fans that came out every night. I heard you guys had a pretty mild winter, but you know what those winters can be like trying to come to those games. We had a good fanbase, great support from the city, and even to this day I tell people one of the nicest places I’ve ever lived or been in my life was Minnesota. They always talk about it being cold, but those summer months were just amazing as well.
Ratke: As far as KG goes, I don’t think anybody knew just what he’d become. Do you have any KG PG-13 stories that you can tell us?
West: I always think of one of the best KG stories. It was probably from his rookie year. Spud was on the team and we were in Dallas to play a game, and I think the Super Bowl or some football game was on. Spud had everyone over to his house — I’m almost positive it was Spud — and we were there watching the game, doing what we do, and all of a sudden, Kevin disappears. Well, Kevin’s outside playing basketball with the kids in the neighborhood, just shooting hoops with the kids in the neighborhood, just being always attuned to playing basketball and working on his game.
Ratke: With him and Steph, I think that’s like the question Timberwolves fans will probably hold on to maybe what could have been with those two. How special were those two in the first two or three seasons of them playing together?
West: Well of course, KG coming in he was a spectacular player on the defensive end. He could score, but Steph brought out a new pace to our team being able to push the ball, being able to find guys wide open. You always had to be prepared for the basketball coming to you at any time. Steph was also a great finisher. Unfortunately those two just couldn’t get it together to continue on, because I think that if they would have played together for many years, a lot of good things would have come for both of them as teammates. It’s just unfortunate.
Ratke: Obviously the league has changed a lot since you guys have played. I was watching that Bulls game and Steph hit that 3 in the third quarter and it was the only 3 that the Wolves made that game, and the Bulls only made 5 so it wasn’t like they were making it rain either. When you look at how the game has changed, do you think about how maybe your game would have changed if you were a young player today?
West: I never think back on how my game would have changed. I came into college before the 3-pointer was in college. The 3-pointer got put into college my last two years in college. So the 3 wasn’t a big part of our game coming up. Every era has something different. I actually enjoy the game now, though. Even though we didn’t shoot a lot of 3s back then, I thought the flow of the game was a lot better back then. It’s pretty similar to what it is now. I thought there was a point for about eight or nine years where it just became one-on-one basketball. I just think there’s a lot of great shooters and a lot of guys who’ve learned how to play the game off the ball. Fortunately, the game isn’t as physical as it was when we played. It was a very physical game back in the ‘80s, ‘90s.