According to NBA lore, on the eve of the 2004 playoffs, former NBA commissioner David Stern joked with the media when they asked if the Los Angeles Lakers returning to the Finals would be ideal for him.
“I want the Lakers vs. the Lakers,” Stern allegedly told Dan Patrick.
I say allegedly because there is no recording of this moment. There are rumors on Reddit and mentions of the event on X. However, outside of one LA Times article from June 2004, it’s almost as if he never made the joke.
There’s no outcry from media talking heads saying AH HA! The NBA is rigged! when Tim Donaghy got busted for betting on Lakers games throughout the 2005-06 playoffs in games he was officiating. There was hardly a whisper of Stern’s comments.
However, the sentiment lives on in rumors and a Lakers bias, something Anthony Edwards acknowledged Wednesday after practice.
“Yeah, I just love it. It’s dope.” Edwards said, smiling, “I love the fact that everybody wants the Lakers to win. That’s how it’s supposed to be. They don’t want the Timberwolves to win. I get it.”
After ESPN made their staff predictions, all ten analysts had the Wolves losing to the Lakers. Rudy Gobert echoed a sentiment similar to Edwards’ when asked about the Wolves being underdogs.
“I think we are the underdogs, and it’s fine,” Gobert said. “I think we have a lot of guys in this locker room that have been underdogs their whole life. You know?”
“It’s a position that we embrace and I think we embrace it individually and collectively. It’s in a way a place where we have the opportunity to show who we are over and over.”
The Vegas odds makers have favored the Lakers -200 to win the series. However, Vegas thinks the series will go longer than 5 games, putting the odds that it goes 6 or 7 at -152. Mike Conley offered his thoughts on the Wolves playing from behind as underdogs.
“We understand it, and we understand that with our back against the wall, we’re a much more dangerous team in our minds,” he said. “We have guys like Ant, Julius, Rudy, Jaden, Naz, they all perform well under that microscope, so it’ll be fun for us.”
Despite ESPN and Vegas favoring the Lakers, and conspiracy theories thanks to past NBA commissioners, the Wolves remain confident and intent on making this series a hard-fought battle. The Wolves also have accepted that their confidence begins and ends with Edwards, something Donte DiVincenzo acknowledged Thursday.
“Insane. It doesn’t matter if [Edwards is] in Game 7 of the Finals or Game 1 of preseason, dude’s confidence is all-time high,” he said. “That goes to everybody. … It bleeds into everybody, and everybody goes out there thinking they’re the best player on the court.”
DiVincenzo acknowledged Edwards’ confidence infecting practices, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker echoed Edwards’ intensity this week.
“Intense, motivated, determined,” Alexander-Walker said. “You can see that he’s really imposing his leadership and getting guys involved. Very, very vocal and giving out confidence for what to expect.”
Edwards added that it’s vital for the Wolves to have confidence entering the series.
“I told Mike, ‘You got to be willing to shoot five straight catch-and-shoot threes,” he said. “Don’t turn nothing down. Donte, Nickeil, Naz, Jaden, gotta be willing to shoot those shots… and I got to be willing to make those passes to open the defense up for me to be able to get downhill.”
There lies the truth of the Lakers-Wolves series. The Lakers likely won’t allow Edwards alone to beat them; it will take a collective effort from all of Minnesota’s underdogs. The Wolves are confident, giving them a real chance to shock the media and betting world. They can take down the Lakers, even if conspiracy theorists still say the league is fully behind LA.