The Terrace of the Stillwater Public Library will host the Ninth Annual World Tai Chi Day event from 10:15 am to noon on Saturday. This is a free and family-friendly event that is practiced on the last Saturday in April in cities around the world.

The roots of this Stillwater event trace back nearly a decade. “Nine years ago, another instructor and I thought, ‘Why don’t we get our students together?’ And that began the whole thing,” said Aimee Van Ostrand, the Stillwater-based Healing Within Acupuncture owner.

Each year, they have had more instructors join in the experience, but what sets this year apart is the debut of a traditional Chinese dancing dragon, a nod to 2024 being the Year of the Dragon.

Volunteers and instructors from the Healing Within Acupuncture Studio, have been crafting the dragon with the community for months and during the event, several volunteers will help move the dragon during the finale, orchestrating its dance to the beats of the Women’s Drum Center from St. Paul.

Attendees can expect to participate in and watch an array of tai chi styles and extended energy forms, including cane form, staff form, and the fan form. Leading the movements will be tai chi instructors from both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Van Ostrand said the event’s significance is more than simply practicing tai chi, “it’s a part of a global movement for world peace and unity, with thousands of cities participating, and it’s important for us to act locally, even when thinking globally.”

The event is free but donations from t-shirt sales will be given to The Urban Village in St. Paul, a local nonprofit dedicated to global humanitarian efforts.

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Wild wing Matt Boldy is among the first 15 players 2024 U.S. Men’s National Team that will compete in the IIHF Men’s World Championship, May 10-26, in Ostrava and Prague, Czechia.

Boldy, who finished last season with 29 goals and 69 points in 75 games, is joined by D Seth Jones, F Brady Tkachuk, D Zach Werenski, F Trevor Zegras, F Luke Kunin, F Johnny Gaudreau, F Dylan Larkin, F Cole Caufield, G Alex Lyon, D Luke Hughes, F Shane Pinto, D Alex Vlasic, D Jake Sanderson and F Joel Farabee.

Wild head coach John Hynes was named the team’s coach last week.

“We’ve got an outstanding start to our roster,” said general manager Brett Peterson, assistant GM of the Florida Panthers. “There’s a lot of excitement among our players, and everyone is looking forward to representing our country in the world championship.”

The question has defined the past couple of months for the Vikings: Will they trade up to draft a quarterback?

The answer will finally come on Thursday night when the Vikings are on the clock in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Whether it ends up being LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, UNC quarterback Drake Maye, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, Washington quarterback Michael Penix, or Oregon quarterback Bo Nix remains to be seen. The only thing that feels certain at this point is that the Vikings will be leaving the first round with a new quarterback.

The decision ultimately will define the tenures of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell. If they get it right, they will be royalty in Minnesota. If they get it wrong, they will be run out of town sooner rather than later.

The magnitude of the task at hand isn’t lost on either of them. They have been preparing for this moment since they joined forces in the name of collaboration. They are ready to live with the results.

“Just because something is risky doesn’t mean we’re scared of it,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We’ve got to take our swing.”

The risk involved doesn’t give the Vikings any sort of pause, nor should it, especially considering the pieces they already have in place. Frankly, there isn’t a more desirable landing spot for a rookie quarterback. Not with all the offensive weapons the Vikings have a their disposal.

“The path is not the same for every player,” O’Connell said. “We just happen to have a really good situation.”

Everything a rookie quarterback needs to succeed seems to be in place at TCO Performance Center, even if he ends up watching from the sidelines this season with journeyman quarterback Sam Darnold under center.

Not only do the Vikings have a pair of dynamic playmakers in star receiver Justin Jefferson and young receiver Jordan Addison, a security blanket in star tight end T.J. Hockenson, and a workhorse in veteran running back Aaron Jones, they have an offensive mastermind in O’Connell running the show.

“If we gave truth serum to the quarterbacks and the agents of all the top guys, every single one of them would say they would love nothing more than to go to the Vikings,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said. “That would be the No. 1 choice. That is by far the best landing spot for a quarterback to go into. It’s all set up.”

It’s a perfect example of how the concept of “Nature vs. Nurture” can go a long way in determining success.

The pre-draft process is rooted in determining how good a particular player can be based on his talent alone. It does not take into account the situation a particular player is walking into. Sometimes that can make all the difference in development.

“That’s the interesting part,” Adofo-Mensah said. “You go back and look at some of these historical things and everybody talks about the low hit rates. Is that because the player wasn’t good, or because the situation wasn’t great? I’m not saying I know the answer to that.”

The infrastructure the Vikings have built should be able support whichever rookie quarterback they decide to take. The same thing can’t be said about, say, the Washington Commanders, who own the No. 2 pick, or the New England Patriots, who own the No. 3 pick.

“It’s not just getting the quarterback right,” Adofo-Mensah said. “It’s getting the quarterback right and the team around it.”

Should that deter the Commanders from taking Daniels or the Patriots from taking Maye? It depends on who’s being asked the question.

“I’m a fan of taking the quarterback and figuring out the rest at a later date,” ESPN analyst Field Yates said. “It’s such a tricky line to be toeing when a team is expecting to have the chance to draft a quarterback.”

That’s precisely why the Vikings should be aggressive in their pursuit of a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft. There’s no guarantee they are going to be in a better position to make a splash in the coming years. They have never drafted a quarterback in the Top 10, and this might be their best opportunity to do so.

“We’re not the only team that may want to select one of these guys,” O’Connell said. “We’re working through making sure we know the landscape of the whole class at that position, as we are many, many positions throughout the draft that we think we can help our team win.”

2024 draft picks

Here’s a look at where the Vikings are picking in the 2024 NFL Draft. Notably, they have a couple of selections on Day 1, barring a trade, and no selections on Day 2.

No. 11 (first round)
No. 23 (first round)
No. 108 (fourth round)
No. 129 (fourth round)
No. 157 (fifth round)
No. 167 (fifth round)
No. 177 (sixth round)
No. 230 (seventh round)
No. 232 (seventh round)

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After Minnesota shredded the Phoenix Suns in Game 2 of their first-round NBA playoff series on Tuesday, Suns players and coach Frank Vogel made comments that would sound alarms for any willing ear.

They were no surprise for anyone who had watched the game, because the Suns’ collective composure visibly unraveled in the second half. As the turnovers and missed defensive assignments piled up, players were bickering with officials and throwing their arms up in conspicuous exasperation.

“My frustration is just within the team. We need to execute,” Phoenix guard Devin Booker said. “We play well when we’re playing, and then we need to stick together once things turn bad. We’ve done that throughout the season. (It’s) something that has to be corrected.”

It feels a little late for that. As then-Timberwolves guard D’Angelo Russell said during the Timberwolves’ first-round series loss to Memphis in 2022: “We’re in the playoffs now. Nobody is going to change. You pretty much are who you are.”

The Timberwolves hold a 2-0 lead on the Suns in their best-of-seven series that resumes Friday night in Phoenix. Tip off is set for 9:30 p.m. Central Time.

Epiphanies generally aren’t made in the postseason; that’s what an 82-game regular season is for. The postseason tends to reveal who you are — which isn’t exactly a mystery to those who have followed your journey for the previous seven months leading up to this point. In the regular season, you establish an identity the team can lean on when times get tough in the playoffs.

For instance, it was no surprise when rebounding and late-game offense sank Minnesota against Memphis in 2022. A year ago, Minnesota was essentially a shape-shifter, changing identity depending on who was available on a nightly basis. The Wolves flexed that muscle against Denver as bodies continued to drop but ultimately were unable to do anything more than test the eventual NBA champion.

You can’t win a title if you don’t really know who you are as a team, and with a bevy of roster changes a year ago — highlighted by the major offseason acquisition of Rudy Gobert — it seemed to take Minnesota a full season to figure out which direction it would consistently lean.

The Wolves needed something to hang their hat on, and they knew it.

“When we sat down in training camp and said, ‘What team do we want to be?’ We said we wanted to be a defensive-minded team and be the best in the league,” Gobert said. “We can be unique, but it comes with a price. It comes with doing the dirty work, it comes with doing the things you don’t see on the stats sheet and doing it consistently. I really felt like from Day 1 of training camp, everyone really bought in to be that team.”

That’s never really wavered. Minnesota — which won 56 regular-season games this season, second-most in franchise history — was the No. 1 defense in the NBA by a comfortable margin. Now in the playoffs, that defense is winning the team games with relative ease. When the offense struggles, the defense keeps the ship afloat. It’s why Phoenix has never felt in control for any stretch of either of the first two games.

The Wolves are playing their game. They are who they want to be.

“We’ve been a defensive team all season,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said.

And Phoenix has been an inconsistent team all season, with a series of stops, starts and spurts of good play but no consistency. That’s been on full display over the past three weeks, with the Suns shelling Minnesota twice in the regular season only to look powerless in the first two matchups of this series.

When times get tough, as they are right now for the Suns, what can they rely upon? Devin Booker is the only member of Phoenix’s current rotation who was even on the team 15 months ago.

In many ways, Phoenix is in a similar spot Minnesota was this time a year ago, searching for solutions that aren’t quite yet apparent.

“We’re all trying to fight out there, and so far this series, once it has turned to (bad), we’ve kind of separated instead of being together, and that’s everybody — top to bottom,” Booker said. “We’ve got to figure it out.”

In the NBA, the playoffs are the test, and there is no cheat sheet allowed. By now, you either know the answers or you don’t.

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