Dermot Cowley’s livelihood has been tethered to the corner of First Avenue North and 7th Street for the past 23 years. O’Donovan’s Irish Pub is right across the street from Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, and it has weathered recessions, 9/11 and every kind of Timberwolves misfortune one can imagine.
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Now, when O’Donovan’s and so many other bars and restaurants in the city are hanging on by their fingernails, Cowley is getting a boost from an unlikely source. The arena so many have avoided for so long, that has been a pit of despair and empty blue seats for the better part of two decades, is suddenly becoming the place to be again. It is the home of Anthony Edwards’ dunks, where Karl-Anthony Towns howls and where Patrick Beverley grabs a t-shirt cannon while on the bench and shoots souvenirs into the crowd.
It has been quite a transformation for one of the league’s dustiest and oldest buildings, one that had become a symbol in itself for the franchise’s annual failures. With the Wolves posting only one winning season and one playoff appearance in the past 18 years, Cowley has not been able to bank on the team drawing big crowds to the city’s Warehouse District to watch games and then hit O’Donovan’s or the Loon Cafe or any number of night spots for some drinks and food to keep the good vibes flowing.
But a franchise that has routinely ranked at the bottom of the league in attendance is now bringing more than 17,000 fans a night downtown. Those fans are seeing a young, charismatic team emerge from the rubble of the past few years and strut and smile and steal their hearts back. A challenge from D’Angelo Russell a month ago has become a rallying cry. These “quiet ass” fans are getting rowdier and rowdier with each win, and there have been quite a few of them lately.
And not a moment too soon for Cowley and the city’s struggling hospitality industry.
“I can’t even overstress enough how big it is and what a shot in the arm it is,” Cowley said on Wednesday, before the Timberwolves cruised past the Oklahoma City Thunder, 132-102, for their sixth straight win, the team’s longest winning streak since the Western Conference finals run in 2003-04.
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O’Donovan’s is seeing up to triple the business on Timberwolves game nights that it had grown accustomed to seeing, even before the pandemic started wreaking havoc on the bar and restaurant industry, Cowley said. Another loss-filled Timberwolves season would have been even more damaging. But the Wolves have emerged as the headline act downtown again. O’Donovan’s was only open for five nights in January — the four Wolves home games and one other night when there was a concert.
“It’s unbelievable,” Cowley said. “We need this so badly. For us, it’s such a breath of fresh air because we haven’t seen it in so long. The team is playing so well, and they’re so exciting to watch. It’s happy days again for us.”
Restaurant owners and bartenders aren’t the only ones smiling. In the 10 years since the Timberwolves finished 15th in the league in attendance in 2011-12 (Ricky Rubio’s first season), they have ranked 21st, 27th, 28th, 29th, 29th, 21st, 28th, 29th and 22nd, according to basketball-reference.com, as fans turned away from a team in a perpetual state of dysfunction and misery. This season, they rank 16th in total attendance, per the website’s metrics, and the building has been starting to crackle of late.
The Wolves have already eclipsed franchise mark for single-game ticket revenue with seven home games remaining, the team said. Web traffic is up 200 percent and television ratings are climbing as well. The Wolves started their season ticket promotion for next season earlier this month and set a record for sales in the first week, including selling 100 percent of the floor seats for next season.
The fans piling in have been rewarded. The Wolves are 12-2 at home since Jan. 1, a level of success that is creating a raucous atmosphere inside Target Center. Fans courtside are chirping at opponents. A younger demographic is hopping on the bandwagon and bringing a rowdy vibe to the place, serenading Jake Layman with happy birthday chants, erupting when Towns puts the team on his back, Edwards puts a body in the ground or, like on Wednesday against the Thunder, Malik Beasley sets the team record with his 11th 3-pointer in the game.
FRANCHISE RECORD pic.twitter.com/HY3B6bzBoG
— Minnesota Timberwwwwwwolves (@Timberwolves) March 10, 2022
“Seeing sellout crowds, seeing crowds getting electrified after defensive plays, offensive plays, getting on the refs, any little thing, the crowd gets hyped. I’m loving it,” said Josh Okogie, who is in his fourth season. “Because I remember when it wasn’t like that. I’m glad it’s like that now, though.”
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Momentum has been building for much of the season, with the wins — the Wolves are 38-29 and 2 1/2 games behind the Mavericks and Nuggets for the No. 6 seed in the West — and this Wolves team has connected with the fans thanks to a frenetic style of play and a chemistry with each other that is drawing people in. It culminated this week with a pair of home games against Portland and Oklahoma City, two tanking teams that normally would make for sullen, sparse crowds at Target Center.
The 124-81 win over the zombie Trail Blazers on Monday night could have been a snoozer, but it turned into a rip-roaring party in the fourth quarter when Layman, a seldom-used forward, entered the game. He had a group of young people watching in the stands from Minneapolis Young Life, an organization that helps disadvantaged kids and teen moms through fellowship, there cheering him on, and the rest of the building hopped right on board.
A massive wave broke late in the third quarter, and the crowd got behind the extended run for Layman and the rest of the reserves. The jubilation was overflowing, a fan base that has been left out in the cold for so long and a team that has taken so many lumps forming a bond through the collective struggle. They are lifting each other up, the team that is exceeding expectations and the fans who are falling back in love with NBA basketball.
The guys are joining in on the @TargetCenterMN wave 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/rz8dUBV6dM
— Minnesota Timberwwwwwwolves (@Timberwolves) March 8, 2022
It was a college-like atmosphere, and it was at the same time galvanizing and intoxicating for the players. Beverley grabbed a t-shirt cannon and shot one into the audience.
yes this actually happened. pic.twitter.com/p02AUuIxIJ
— Minnesota Timberwwwwwwolves (@Timberwolves) March 8, 2022
Towns, Russell and Edwards danced on the sideline while Layman, Okogie and Leandro Bolmaro did their thing on the court. And even though it was a Monday night, most in the arena stuck around rather than try to beat traffic home, reveling in the good vibes that are rolling like that wave through the building.
“Usually when you blow a team out like that, the energy fades, and people leave and try to get home,” Okogie said. “A lot of them stayed and still had the building rocking. That was fun to see.”
For some, the celebrations of beating two undermanned teams with no interest in winning may seem to be over-the-top or in bad form. I could understand if Layman felt the wild cheering on his behalf was borderline inappropriate for a player who has been in the league for six years and believes he is more than a novelty act or a victory cigar. But that would be missing the larger point, in this case.
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What we saw against Portland on Monday and Oklahoma City on Wednesday was a team and a town finding each other again. Only the die-hards found the strength to persevere through the David Kahn years, Rubio’s knee injury, Flip’s death, Jimmy’s insubordination, Thibs’ paranoia, Rosas’s ouster and seven seasons of 50 or more losses since Kevin Garnett was traded. Most times it felt like the few who were coming to Target Center were doing it out of obligation, and they felt the hockey fans in the area looking down their noses at them every step of the way.
At the same time, the players were just as downtrodden. There have been 10 head coaches and seven lead executives since Garnett was traded in 2007. Only five players in that time have stayed for more than five seasons, a revolving door that made the Timberwolves feel like a way station and nothing more. Even in the playoff season with Thibs and Butler, it was clear that the team had a short shelf life, that there wasn’t the connection to each other or the city that would give it a chance to last.
These Timberwolves cheer for each other, are invested in each other’s success and play together. And the fans are responding to that.
had to. pic.twitter.com/KE3b7DK7H3
— Minnesota Timberwwwwwwolves (@Timberwolves) March 10, 2022
How far this specific Timberwolves team can go remains to be seen. Little can be gleaned from a bunch of wins over opponents that have little talent or desire to compete. The schedule is about to get a lot more daunting and will give a far better indicator about where this team sits in the conference’s hierarchy. But it’s evident a bond is forming between this team and this fan base, for the first time since the early days of Rubio and Kevin Love.
“It’s an outstanding sports town. We’ve just got to give them a reason to keep coming out,” coach Chris Finch said. “This is a team a lot of people like to watch play. We play hard, share the ball. It’s pretty exciting. Even our mistakes are interesting.
“It feels like we got something growing here, and we just got to keep building on it. It’s our responsibility to keep giving them performances they can cheer on.”
For a long-time Twin Cities hoops observer, the joy in the air against Portland felt a lot like Feb. 16, 1994 at Williams Arena. The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers were hosting Penn State in an era when Gopher basketball really meant something. Back then, tickets were hard to come by, and my father and I had to walk around outside of the building to grab a pair from a scalper to get into the upper deck, the only seats we could afford.
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The Barn shook that evening, just like it did on most nights, when a basketball community willed a hardworking team to play above its natural talent. As the Gophers closed out a convincing win over the Nittany Lions, a popular but little-used bench player named Hosea Crittenden entered the game to a thundering chant of “Play Ho-sea!” The 5-foot-8 senior entered the game and those chants morphed into “Feed Ho-sea!” The Gophers obliged, and eventually Crittenden drilled a 3-pointer, and it was bedlam. The crowd celebrated as if the Gophers had won the national championship, an organic level of joy for an undersized Minnesota kid in the final season of his career.
After the game, my father and I climbed into his truck on a frigid night, turned on the radio and listened to the late Dark Star paint an elegant picture of the evening that captured the pure magic that rippled through the building on that night. We didn’t drive away. We sat there and listened, and the power of that moment warmed us faster than the heater in that pickup ever could.
In the days after the ownership succession plan from Glen Taylor to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez was announced, there was an immediate assumption that the Timberwolves’ days in Minnesota were numbered. This is a hockey state, right? Look at the empty seats in Target Center. Why would they stay?
Because this is a basketball city, too. Lore and Rodriguez have said they believe in this market, but few could have expected it to ignite this quickly.
“I’ve seen what this fan base can do when they’re at high octane and they’re at their best,” Towns said. “It’s a humbling and amazing thing to see, especially in the playoff series we played. Just to see the white towels and everything, it looked magical. It’s something I told Flip I wanted to get back here. I’m trying to give them that feeling again and more often than usual.”
They have never needed each other more than they do right now. The players need the fans to believe in them and get them going. The fans need the players to give them something to look forward to on another cold Minnesota night. The businesses around Target Center that have been pummeled by the pandemic need the good vibes to spill into the streets after the games.
Where is this all headed? Who knows? But together, it feels like they all have a chance.
(Photo: David Berding / Getty Images)
Jon Krawczynski is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBA and the Minnesota Vikings. Jon joined The Athletic after 16 years at The Associated Press, where he covered three Olympics, three NBA Finals, two Ryder Cups and the 2009 NFC Championship Game. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonKrawczynski
