Flip Saunders had been hospitalized for more than a month, with complications from Hodgkin’s lymphoma leaving him unable to communicate with the Minnesota Timberwolves team he rebuilt from the ground up.
Each day that went by without a positive report on their leader raised concern and dread. And still, each day, many in the organization expected Saunders to burst through the doors on the shiny new $25 million practice facility he helped design, blow the whistle around his neck and start coaching the roster he assembled with the staff he hired.
“I’m going to keep thinking about that moment,” point guard Ricky Rubio said Monday, one day after Saunders died at the age of 60.