It sounded so bold that day, when Ryan Saunders wrote down his ambition and tucked it into a drawer. By the time he was 34 years old, Saunders privately declared, he wanted to be a head coach.
Six weeks into his tenure as the Timberwolves’ interim bench boss, he still finds it hard to believe he shaved two years off that timeline.
“I always try to aim high, and this was always a goal,” said Saunders, promoted last month after Tom Thibodeau was fired. “But I didn’t think it would happen at 32.”
Though Saunders is the youngest head coach of a major sports franchise in the Twin Cities, he has plenty of fresh-faced company.