Bill Musselman, the first Minnesota Timberwolves coach in 1989, built his reputation on defense. He called his defense a “Hyperbolic Paraboloid Transitional Floating Zone,” Kevin Wilson said last week.

Bill Musselman, Head Coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves shouts instructions to Power Forward #42 Sam Mitchell and Shooting Guard #19 Tony Campbell during the NBA Midwest Division basketball game against the Denver Nuggets on 15th November 1990 at the McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, Colorado, United States. The Nuggets won the game 121 – 108. (Photo by Tim DeFrisco/Allsport/Getty Images)

Wilson played for Musselman at Ashland College in Ohio, then became an assistant to Bill with the Timberwolves.

“At Ashland in the 1968-69 season, we set the college defense record, holding teams to an average of 33.9 points a game,” Wilson said. “It’s still the record. It never will be broken.”

Musselman was so crazed about defense that before games at Ashland, on a chalkboard in the locker room, he would write the number of points he wanted his team to hold the opponent to. If the opposition scored more than that number, they would be required to practice after the game. Some practices started at 10 p.m.

Before one game against Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Musselman wrote “zero” on the chalkboard. He wasn’t joking.

“We didn’t shut them out, but we led 29-5 at halftime,” Wilson recalled.

“Bill would be proud of the Timberwolves’ defense this season,” Wilson said.

But not for Friday night’s 117-90 West semifinal playoff loss to Denver.

—These days, Wilson, 75, runs the academic study hall for athletes at Texas Christian University. Ashland teammate Jimmy Williams, 76, who became a popular assistant with the Gophers, remains in grave health in Tampa, Fla.

—Bill Musselman died at age 59 this month 24 years ago from heart and kidney failure. Son Eric, the high-energy new University of Southern California coach whose teams also play stifling defense, was a Timberwolves assistant to his father in 1990-91.

Eric, a two-time head NBA coach, has watched from afar the current Timberwolves — except for Friday — play a suffocating defense.

“Dad would have loved the way they’re competing,” Musselman, 59, said. “Every possession matters defensively — they have defensive competence. Everyone always talks about competence on offense, but they have a defensive disposition and competence that’s on another level.”

—Eric hasn’t been to Williams Arena since the glory days when his father coached the Gophers to rousing overflow crowds. He was just a youngster then, 7 or 8 years old. Now that USC has joined the Big Ten, he’ll return as coach of the Trojans.

“The schedule hasn’t come out, so I don’t know if we play there or they come here, but we’ll either be there this year or next year,” he said. “It’ll be surreal, absolutely incredible.”

—That was Gersson Rosas, now a vice president for the New York Knicks, when he was president of the Timberwolves, choosing Anthony Edwards, then 19, with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft out of Georgia.

“We are excited to add this young talent to our roster and continue his development to make him the best player he can be,” Rosas said at the time.

As a pro, Edwards has improved dramatically. In his one season at Georgia, he shot 40.2 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three-point range while averaging 19.1 points.

For the Timberwolves this season, the 6-4, 225-pound guard averaged 25.9 points while shooting 46.1 percent from the floor and 35.7 percent with three-pointers.

—An Edwards rookie trading card purchased for $900 the other day already has increased 35 percent in value.

—That was Edwards driving up in a stainless steel Tesla Cybertruck at Target Center the other day.

—It will be announced that the Timberwolves will play the Philadelphia 76ers in an exhibition game next Oct. 11 in Des Moines, Iowa.

—That was Hastings grad Pat Fraher officiating in the 106-80 Wolves victory over the Nuggets in Game 2 in Denver.

—The multi-year head coaching contract Jason Kidd signed with Dallas last week is good news for Cretin-Derham grad Sean Sweeney, who is Kidd’s top assistant in charge of defense. Meanwhile, Sweeney, who could end up as an assistant for Slovenia in the Paris Olympics this summer, has also been mentioned for the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coaching job.

—The richest person in Minnesota this year is Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor at $2.9 billion, per Forbes, which lists the wealthiest billionaires in every state.

—Joe Mauer, who with brothers Billy and Jake will be inducted into the Mancini’s St. Paul Athletic Hall of Fame on Monday evening at a sold-out Char House banquet, and into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 21, the other day at alma mater Cretin-Derham Hall, wearing a purple Raiders cap, was filmed in an interview for a July 1 induction into the National High School Hall of Fame in Boston.

Mauer will be the NHS Hall of Fame’s first inductee. Also, the other day he was inducted into the Catholic Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame dinner at a 500-ticket sellout.

—When he’s not being inducted into a hall of fame, Mauer and pal Tony Leseman are coaching their 10-year-old daughters in fast-pitch softball.

—A room at the Schenectady, N.Y. Marriott Mohawk Harbor hotel, which is 70 miles from Cooperstown, for the Hall of Fame weekend (July 19-21) costs $1,486.99.

—Dave Winfield has been added to the Hall of Fame Legends game with another ex-Twin, Jim Kaat, on May 25 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.

—Saturday was the anniversary of the death of one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, who died at age 74 in 2011. He would have been 87 today.

—The Twins have a guy at Double-A Wichita, 6-foot-8, 250-pound Carson McCusker, 25, who last week against the Arkansas Travelers hit three home runs that traveled 432 feet, 439 feet and 504 feet.

—Paul Molitor, Brian Raabe and Rob Fornasiere will honor retiring Gophers baseball coach John Anderson on Tuesday at a Dunkers breakfast at Interlachen Country Club.

Anderson on this, his 43rd season as the Gophers coach: “It’s time — I’ve done my part here. I’ll be 69 in May (Thursday) — I don’t want to die with my spikes on.”

—Frankie Capan of North Oaks is No. 22 on the Korn Ferry money list with $119,564.

—The Minnesota Lynx have 13 nationally-televised WNBA games this season. The Indiana Fever, with rookie Caitlin Clark, has 40 nationally-televised games.

—The University of Connecticut, winner of this year’s NCAA men’s basketball championship, has won six national titles since 1999, which was the season the school was led by Minneapolis North point guard legend Khalid El-Amin.

El-Amin, now 44 and coach at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, the night before the recent championship game gave a motivational speech to UConn players, who then decimated Purdue 75-60 in Glendale, Ariz. He reminded the players of the UConn legacy.

“I told them they had an opportunity to make history,” El-Amin told the Pioneer Press. “We play this game because we want to be remembered, and you all have a chance to do that. Only two other teams ever have gone back to back (championships). This is an opportunity that you have to take advantage of.’

—El-Amin, who teaches physical education at the East African Elementary Magnet School in St. Paul, said his first choice when choosing a college was Minnesota, not UConn. He committed to Minnesota as a high school sophomore.

Clem Haskins was the Minnesota coach.

“I’m from Minnesota, I love the U, I love Clem Haskins — they went to the Final Four in 1996-97,” El-Amin said. “Unfortunately, the majority of those players were going to leave after that year. I want to win, and I didn’t feel we were going to be able to compete for a national championship.

“That was the reason why UConn came into the picture. When I took my (recruiting) visit, I saw we had what it took to reach the Final Four and win a national championship. As far as winning, I think I made the right decision. But Minnesota definitely was my first choice.”

—If El-Amin were playing in college today, his name, image and likeness (NIL) would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I can’t say how much I would have made, but I’m confident I would have been very comfortable, and that would have allowed me to stay all four years in college.” he said. “These guys (today) are making good money, and they should — they’re doing a lot for the university. It’s just a sign of the times. It’s the state of college basketball now — you have to pay the players, and whoever can pay the most will have the opportunity to get the best players.”

—Purdue and Illinois are said to have the Big Ten’s largest men’s basketball NIL budgets, about $2.5 million a year. Insiders say the Gophers’ men’s basketball NIL budget is barely one-fourth of that.

—The University of St. Thomas has started a NIL collective, but only for men’s basketball.

Don’t print that

—Under the circumstances, the Vikings did as well as they could with their two first-round picks in the recent draft — quarterback J.J. McCarthy and edge rusher Dallas Turner — but moving up to do it could cost them in next year’s draft. Currently, the Vikings have only three picks in 2025, and two are in the fifth round. The other is their first-round pick, which could be a top-10.

It does appear the Vikings will get a third-round pick as compensation for losing free agent QB Kirk Cousins to Atlanta. But that’s expected to be late in the round, almost tantamount to a high fourth-round pick.

—Most likely, the Vikings next year will end up trading down in the first-round to recoup a second- or third-round pick.

—There’s whispering that the Vikings have strongly appealed a Falcons tampering charge in the signing of Cousins that’s expected to end up in arbitration.

—In an ideal world, McCarthy would play the whole season in a development year, but placeholder Sam Darnold, 26, with a $10 million, one-year contract, will start the season unless something unexpected occurs.

—Former Vikings first-round safety bust Lewis Cine, because he’s guaranteed $4 million over the next two seasons, is untradeable. It’s likely he’ll get waived in training camp. If a team were to claim him, it would be responsible for the $4 million. After clearing waivers, some team might be willing to sign him as a free agent.

A second-round pick, cornerback Andrew Booth, who is guaranteed $900,000 next season, seems close to being done as a Viking.

—McCarthy, who just turned 21, can expect a four-year contract worth nearly $23 million. Joe Alt, the Totino Grace grad drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers, will get a deal worth nearly $35 million over four years.

—The Vikings, who finished 7-10 last season, have a 75 percent chance of NOT making the playoffs next season, per BetOnline.ag.

—If the Vikings add any veterans at this point, they likely will be just one-year veteran minimum deals.

—Dallas Turner, asked via Instagram his plans for his first purchases since the draft: “I have a couple equity deals going on right now, but probably F1. I’m already invested in F1, but probably a lot more.”

—If Timberwolves President Tim Connelly exercises his contract out-clause after the season, word in basketball circles is that his successor could be ex-Timberwolf Calvin Booth, who is general manager of the Nuggets.

—A little birdie says incoming sophomore Cam Christie’s decision to enter the NCAA transfer portal was made two weeks before the basketball portal deadline. The 6-6 guard can expect a NIL deal of about $75,000 a month over 10 months.

—There’s buzz that ex-Gopher Pharrel Payne will get $40,000 a month over two years in NIL money from Texas A&M, plus use of a new Mercedes automobile. Another Gophers transfer, Elijah Hawkins, reportedly is getting $30,000 from Texas Tech.

—Incoming Gophers guard Caleb Williams, the 6-2 transfer who on Saturday was to graduate from Macalester with a double-major in mathematics and physics, is considering a masters program emphasizing mathematics and business for his final season at Minnesota. He had several transfer opportunities out of the NCAA portal.

“When I was on campus, everybody I talked to was really down to earth, and that made it easy to make a decision,” said Williams, 22, who scored 41 points against the Gophers in an exhibition game last season. “You automatically trust the people you’re talking to — it was a sense of comfort. And, wanting to stay home. It’s a great area and great basketball state.”

A NIL deal isn’t expected to be part of Williams’ transfer.

—The Gophers men’s basketball program is seeking a director of player development. Advertised salary: $42,870.

—Rehabbing Twin Royce Lewis is donning sparkling green cleats during workouts. “I like the color,” he said, adding he still doesn’t know when he’ll be able to return after the quad injury he suffered in the season opener.

—An estimated 100,000 Comcast households have been unable to view Twins games due to its contract dispute with Bally Sports.

“I hate it — it’s immensely disappointing,” inimitable play-by-play voice Cory Provus said. “It’s a shame. I feel terrible — the team went on this historic (12-game) win streak and I feel they got short changed a little bit — (viewers) didn’t get a chance to see the end of it. The timing is terrible. It caught me by surprise, and it caught a lot of people by surprise.”

Any guess on a settlement?

“I have no idea,” he said. “I think the bankruptcy hearing in mid-June is a pretty significant date.”

It won’t be surprising if Twins games end up on a streaming platform.

—Cheapest cost for a four-ticket package to a Lynx game this season is $204.60, per a bookies.com survey. The WNBA’s average for four tickets is $182.49. One of the cheapest, surprisingly, is for the Indiana Fever starring rookie Caitlin Clark: $117.80.

Overheard

—Ex-Vikings QB Tommy Kramer on social media X, recently noting that “none of us” wanted the 1989 trade that brought Herschel Walker to Minnesota, “including the coaches.”

Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy speaks to the media during the NFL football team’s rookie minicamp in Eagan, Minn, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
New Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly answers questions during a news conference at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer, left, with Mike Schepis in Blaine in July 2020. Schepis, of Watertown, N.Y., put together the two Green Bay Packers urinals that have been in the Blaine home where Kramer lives. (Courtesy of Mike Schepis)

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Game 3 on Friday marked one of the worst playoff performances of Anthony Edwards’ young career.

To be fair, that speaks more to the 22-year-old’s general postseason excellence. He has been the best player when he steps onto the playoff floor more times than not in his four-year NBA career.

But that was certainly not the case Friday, as Edwards looked somewhat lifeless, which set the tone for Minnesota in its blowout defeat at Target Center.

Edwards finished with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists Friday, but also committed five turnovers. Denver doesn’t have a great defensive option to contain the soon-to-be All-NBA guard, but he made himself guardable via a lack of aggression in the loss. Even on the defensive end, Edwards never truly made his presence felt. The guard didn’t even shoot a free-throw in the contest.

“Yeah, it’s all good. I wasn’t aggressive,” Edwards said. “I blame myself.”

Both for his performance, and the team’s. Minnesota had a chance to essentially put the defending champs away at home on Friday. But after the Game 3 stinker, the Nuggets are alive and well, and Game 4 is suddenly of the utmost importance.

“That’s on me. I’ll take the blame for this loss. I came out with no energy at all. I can’t afford to do that for my team,” Edwards said. “I let my team down, coaches down, fans down.”

In the hours leading up to Friday’s tip, Edwards felt as though he had energy. But it dissipated once the game began. The guard said he was “flat” all night, and never found his burst. Even when Edwards did make a mini personal run in the third quarter Friday, it was just the result of a couple made jumpers.

To his credit, tracking data showed Edwards had 10 potential assists Friday, but that only resulted in the five actual dimes as Minnesota struggled to knock down shots. But shotmaking is generally a product of how well an offense is humming. And the Wolves appeared to be stuck in the mud throughout much of Game 3.

Edwards has the ability to throw his game into a higher gear to lift Minnesota out of such stagnancy. He just didn’t do so on Friday.

That doesn’t mean he won’t moving forward.

“I’ll be ready Sunday,” Edwards said.

That’s a good bet. Minnesota hasn’t followed up one awful performance with a second this season. And Edwards is the type of player to react to poor play with a rousing response his next time out.

“He’s going to be fine. He is as confident as anybody you meet. He takes every loss personal, whether he played good or bad,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “He’s going to take it personal and be ready to go Sunday. Our team will be. This is a series. We’re going to have to fight for this one.”

That was Edwards’ message, as well. Even on the bench in the closing minutes Friday – after all the starters had been pulled from the blowout defeat – Edwards was reminding all of his teammates that the series is a race to four wins. And he plans on helping Minnesota earn victory No. 3 on Sunday.

“I like the fact that they punched tonight, and we didn’t punch back. That’s the thing about basketball – that’s fun. We love to compete. It should be very competitive Sunday, and we’re going to be here for it,” Edwards said. “There’s no reason to be negative. They won one game, and we’re going to try to win the next game.”

Shoulder issues

Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s shoulder took a beating Friday as he was clipped trying to wiggle around a couple of screens on defense.

The guard was in clear pain in the locker room post game, as he struggled to even remove his jersey.

(There is) adrenaline in a game. So right now, it hurts,” Alexander-Walker said. “We’ll see what happens (Saturday) when I wake up and everything’s settled. (I’ll do) whatever I gotta do to stay ready, stay focused and be ready for Game 4.”

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The first job Chris Finch accepted out of college was that of professional basketball player – for the Washington Generals. Yes, the current Timberwolves head coach who hates losing with a passion signed up to go lose games on a nightly basis.

His contract featured a number of six-week tours around the world where he’d make roughly $2,000 a month to play.

“I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to just play basketball and see the world,’” said Finch, who’d just wrapped a Division-III basketball career in his home state of Pennsylvania.

It never came to fruition. The Globetrotters went bankrupt in 1992, the tour was canceled and Finch was out of a job.

By now, Finch’s path to the NBA is fairly well known. He coached overseas for 13 years – both professionally and at the international level – and then was hired by the Houston Rockets to coach in the G-League. Then Finch became an NBA assistant coach for 10 years before he was tabbed to be the Wolves’ head man.

But before all of that, there were numerous “almosts” and “neverminds” that led Finch to where he stands today, as one of the premier coaches in the NBA, guiding a 56-win Timberwolves team that leads the defending-champion Denver Nuggets 2-1 in the Western Conference semifinals ahead of Sunday’s Game 4 at Target Center.

“So, at the last moment, I’ve got to get a real job,” Finch said.

Which wasn’t easy at the time for those just coming out of college. A recession was taking place, and desirable job openings were few and far between. A friend who knew somebody got Finch placed into a management training program at a local bank, where he worked while also coaching high school basketball in a rural town at the junior varsity level.

But Finch quickly realized he didn’t want to be in banking, and he latched onto a food brokerage company that negotiated shelf space for brands within stores.

Finally, two basketball opportunities presented themselves – to play for the Sheffield Sharks in the British Basketball League, or take a graduate assistant position at the University of South Florida. The latter lent itself more to a coaching career path, but Finch chose the former. It wasn’t so much because he had an insatiable appetite to continue playing as he wanted to see another part of the world. Frankly, Finch didn’t assume that opportunity would last more than a year. So even upon his arrival in England, he was considering options for his next steps.

All of his education was in politics, and the idea of running a campaign – the competitive side of that realm – intrigued him. But he never ventured to put himself in such circles.

Whenever someone would ask Finch what he planned to do, law school was his response.

Why?

“I think it’s one of those things when you’re growing up, you’re going through college and you’re like, ‘Well, I don’t want to be a doctor, so maybe I should be a lawyer,’ ” Finch said. “You’re going through the professional checklist.”

So, even before heading to England, Finch scheduled a Law School Admission Test. And then proceeded to hardly study. So while he was always a good test taker, Finch knew within the first 30 minutes of his testing time that he was toast.

“Have you seen those questions? The questions are like, ‘Marcy and Bob and Susie and Jane and Robert are sitting on a bus, and Marcie is driving, and so and so is by the door. Who’s sitting next to this?’ And now you have to rotate everybody else one seat over, and now who are the two people in the back?” he recalled. “They’re fun, but if you’re not in the right mindset, you’re not doing a good job.”

On the bright side, Finch took the test in the morning, and he had the rest of the day to enjoy his first trip to London. He noted it’s possible a few pubs were passed through.

Finch noted you cannot technically fail the LSATs. So perhaps “bombed” is a more apt term to describe his performance?

“Yeah,” he said.

He finished in the 11th percentile, as confirmed when he dug his results out of a file cabinet this week.

“I was like, ‘Oof,’ ” Finch said. “But I wasn’t expecting anything out of it.”

In retrospect, all that experience did was confirm to Finch that he didn’t want to be a lawyer. If he did, he would’ve studied. He doesn’t think there was a high enough score that would’ve led to him going to law school. None of the people he knew who took that route enjoyed it, anyway.

He performed far better on the GREs, because he prepared for those. But it was all about leaving doors open in the face of an uncertain future.

Even with the knowledge that he didn’t want to be a lawyer, he didn’t fully “shelf” that idea until he went from player to coach for Sheffield at the ripe age of 27 in 1997. At that point, he assumed coaching basketball would be his career path. But the where was still a major unknown.

Finch was doing well for himself in the British Basketball League. And yet he still was constantly searching out opportunities to return home. Most of those came in the form of Division-III college or high school gigs.

He thought he struck gold when the chance to be the varsity coach at Reading High School popped up. Finch knew that area well – Reading was less than five miles from Wilson High School, which Finch attended. The two schools were rivals.

The familiarity seemed to work in Finch’s favor. He got the job. He would coach the boys basketball team, and the school would pay for him to get his teaching certificate and pursue a masters degree to aid in his plunge into the education field.

Reading had never won a state title, but the school – with prominent basketball alums such as Donyell Marshall and Lonnie Walker IV – had a large talent pool and was invested in athletic success.

“It’s like being a Texas High School football coach,” Finch said. “I was doing it. I was excited. I was all in. I didn’t know if I wanted to really teach, but teaching was a pathway to coaching. They’re the same thing, really. What was important to me was basketball had to be important to the school. Basketball was more important to Reading HIgh School than it was to some of the colleges where I tried to get jobs.”

At that time, successful high school coaches had more opportunities to move up in the ranks, so Finch viewed the job and a potential springboard with endless possibilities. And it was his.

Until it wasn’t.

“It’s funny how it worked out,” Finch said.

Maybe funny isn’t the right word.

“Weird how it worked out,” he said.

Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril – who gained his fame by guiding Princeton for 30 years – first coached at Reading High School. Carril had a lot of family in the area, and they – nor many others – were pleased when they learned Finch was the program’s new hire.

What didn’t they like about Finch? Well, in their eyes, he was still a rival, same as he was in his high school playing days. Most of Reading’s hires were internal – or at least from the general family. Finch was not that.

“I went to the leafy suburb school. And that’s literally what it was,” Finch said. “It was a city school vs. suburb school.”

People made their displeasures known. Finch said the offer was essentially pulled at the school board meeting originally meant to confirm the hiring.

“Man, I was crushed,” Finch said. “I thought to myself, ‘Alright, well that’s not meant to be.’”

So, still aiming to move back to the States, he spent the next couple years chasing Division-III coaching jobs with little luck. Until he became a finalist at SUNY New Paltz – a New York state school that, frankly, wasn’t all that invested in athletics. But, at this point – even while thriving as Sheffield’s coach – Finch seemed desperate to move back.

“The money was so low. I mean, so low. It was like less than a quarter of what I was making (with Sheffield),” Finch said. “But I just wanted to go home and start a new path. But I was having success in England, and I remember the AD called me, it was on the eve of when they were going to make their decision, and he said, ‘There’s been a change in the salary.’”

It was lowered by a few thousand dollars.

“He said, ‘Would this affect your willingness to come if we offered you the job?’” Finch recalled.

Surely, that was the end of that pursuit.

“I was like, ‘At this point it doesn’t matter. I’m taking such a pay cut to come do this, what’s another couple grand?’” Finch said. “I said, ‘If you want me, just offer me the job and we’ll figure something out.’”

And he still didn’t get the gig. Finch said the school instead went with someone who was an assistant coach within the state system at the time.

Not getting that job caused Finch to finally ask himself an important question.

“What am I doing?” he asked. “I’m selling my soul to get these opportunities.”

Opportunities that, frankly, sounded like dead-end jobs.

“No doubt about it,” Finch said. “One thing I have learned is all these jobs, when they’re open, for the most part, they’re not great – that’s why they’re open.”

There would be no more doors left open, no more Plan Bs. He was going all on his path. He was finally planted where his feet were.

“I’m on a good path here, I need to focus on my path here, maximize my opportunities in Europe and forget about trying to go home. That’ll be what it’ll be,” Finch said. “And that’s really when I kind of made the mindset switch to do that.”

He hired an agent, who helped him get a job in Germany. From there, he went to Belgium, where he experienced more success. He coached Great Britain in the Olympics.

And, eventually, he was in the NBA.

As it turned out, he was as fortunate for the jobs he didn’t get as the ones he did. And while not getting the  SUNY New Paltz job was the true turning point for Finch, Reading is still the one he thinks about most often.

“The one that would’ve been life changing is the high school opportunity. You’re basically a high school coach, going to move back to your hometown. You settle in there. You could predict your earnings in 25 years. Life becomes extremely mapped out for you,” Finch said. “That one I always think about. I was really devastated to have that one pulled from me at the last second.”

In retrospect, he probably owes those outraged locals a “Thank you.”

“Yeah, I do now. I should now,” Finch said. “I’m sorry that you couldn’t get over our rivalry.”

Timberwolves fans are forever grateful.

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has appointed two women to fill judge vacancies in the Second Judicial District, which covers Ramsey County.

On Friday, the governor announced that Veena Iyer and Jennifer Verdeja would fill those roles.

The two will fill the vacancies created when JaPaul Harris moved up to the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Elena Ostby retired, according to a news release.

Verdeja is assistant director of the Trial and Pretrial Justice Division in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. She was previously an assistant public defender in the Second Judicial District , a community corrections worker for Ramsey County, and served on the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force and the Second District Ethics Committee.

Iyer is the executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. She was previously a shareholder at Nilan Johnson Lewis, an Equal Justice Works fellow at Legal Aid Chicago, a law clerk for Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Natalie Hudson, Fourth Judicial District Judge Susan Burke and U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Judge Matthew Kennelly.

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