MINNEAPOLIS — The 1998-99 NBA season was “an unmitigated disaster.” Thomas Golianopoulos wrote about the lockout-shortened circus in his Oral History of the chaotic campaign. Opening Night eventually took place on February 5, 1999. What followed was a sluggish 50 games in 90 nights.
Two decades later, there was another Opening Night in February albeit under extremely different circumstances. The Wolves used pre-game intros in front of a booming crowd at Target Center to welcome an army of new faces to Wolvesdom after POBO Gersson Rosas dedicated the trade deadline to dramatically altering a roster marred by bad system fits and players ill-suited to execute his modern style of play.