Timberwolves interim head coach Ryan Saunders earned a win in his first game in charge last night against the Thunder. It was an emotional moment not only for the 32-year-old veteran assistant coach but for the whole Minnesota team.
Saunders has been with the Wolves since 2014, when he joined his father Flip’s coaching staff, and has grown close to the team’s core of young players. Andrew Wiggins even came to his wedding.
Flip Saunders’s presence is still felt in Minnesota, over four years after the coach, executive and part-owner died of cancer. Karl-Anthony Towns, whose rookie season began immediately after Saunders’s death, tweeted after the game “THIS ONE WAS FOR FLIP.