Flip Saunders emerged from the war room on NBA draft night in 2015 looking for someone interested in what he was selling.
The Timberwolves coach and president of basketball operations was responsible for the big news of the night, having selected Karl-Anthony Towns with the No. 1 pick, but he wasn’t done yet. Saunders — a marketer at heart — had a big idea, one he knew the Wolves’ marketing and public relations people would appreciate more than anyone in the war room, and he had to share it.
“He would come out of the draft room and he would tease, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea. I’ve got something. I think it’s going to be big. I think it’s going to be really fun,’ ” recalled Ted Johnson, the Wolves’ Chief Strategy Officer. “He lets a little bit out and forces us to beg him, ‘What do you mean? What are you talking about? What are you thinking?’ ”
Saunders allowed for a pregnant pause, to build the anticipation. Finally, he shared the news: Saunders was looking to trade back into the first round to target Tyus Jones, the son of Minnesota basketball.
“Then (he just) sort of stares at you for your reaction, because he’s just convinced that your eyes are going to light up,” Johnson said. “That’s just kind of the way he was, and it just made it so much fun working with him, seeing him put it all together. It made you excited to be part of it, for sure.”
After trying for about 10 picks, Saunders finally was able to make a deal with Cleveland for the No. 24 pick in the draft, which Minnesota used to bring Jones, an Apple Valley native, home — a fitting cap to a night that would redirect the course of the Timberwolves franchise.
“Even though (Saunders) wasn’t from here, he had become the quintessential Minnesotan,” Johnson said. “He just knew how people were going to react and how much fun it was going to be, and then he couldn’t wait to get out of the draft room war room.”
Saunders had somewhere to be. He was well aware that Jones was holding his draft party just down the street at the 508 Bar & Restaurant, and couldn’t wait to get down there to meet him. That couple-of-blocks walk with Saunders from the Wolves’ new practice facility to Jones’ party is one Johnson won’t soon forget.
“People were high-fiving him on the street because they’d gotten the news, and he was just in his element and he had this grin on his face like a cat that had just caught a mouse,” Johnson said. “That sort of embodied who Flip was. He pulled off a creative move, he knew it was going to be something that people here in the community were going to be excited about, not necessarily because Tyus was going to be a stats machine, but he knew it was an important part of who and what we were here in Minnesota, and it was one of our own.
“He was so excited to get out and to share it with the world.”
Jones called that night “crazy,” adding he still remembers it “very vividly, and will for the rest of my life.”
“One of the biggest moments of my life,” Jones said with a smile. “A very sentimental moment for me, and something that I’ll never forget.”
Debbie Saunders has said draft night in 2015 was the happiest she saw her husband during his time in basketball. Shortly thereafter, Flip Saunders was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and he died a few months later.
“But boy, that was such a fun night,” Johnson said. “And it was sort of the coming together of a lot of different elements and a lot of hard work from the training center to getting the No. 1 pick, and you could tell (Saunders) envisioned, he knew where this team was going to go, he saw the pieces falling into place. We were moving on with the renovation at that point, and he was just so excited about what the future held.”