Photo: Bleacher Report via YouTube
It’s a premise befitting a new Bill Lawrence sitcom: A middling sports team and its underachieving would-be star player are stuck in a rut, prompting team management to shake things up by drafting a cocky young player with a flashy game, penchant for shit talk, and boundless charisma. The players develop an unlikely rapport and, together, reverse their team’s fortunes. If you’ve watched any number of sports comedies, you can probably imagine it — or you can just tune in to the Minnesota Timberwolves, whose pairing of unsteady former No. 1 overall draft pick (Karl Anthony Towns) with shiny new hope (Anthony Edwards) has yielded some of the most electric moments of the NBA season. And by that, I’m referring to their post-game press conferences.
NBA pressers have a tendency to be staid: Players go through the motions responding to every question with non-answers about how they need to “continue to get better” simply because they’re contractually obligated to do media. Not so following Timberwolves games, owing to the effortless buddy-comedy chemistry between its two leads. Consider this perfect patter from the pair’s joint media availability following their game-seven upset over the defending champion Denver Nuggets on May 19:
Reporter: Usually in NBA history, it says you have to lose and lose big before you win. What is about this team that says —
Towns: We lost last year!
Reporter: But that’s different. You have to lose at a bigger stage. Usually.
Towns: It’s the playoffs. We lost last year!
Edwards: We lost the last two years, shit!
Towns: Goddamn! How much more we gotta lose?!
Edwards: How much you want us to lose?!
Towns: We’ve been losing for 20 years!
Edwards: I mean, that’s just the truth, dog.
Towns: Goddamn!
Prior to knocking off the Denver Nuggets, they swept the Phoenix Suns and their trio of superstars on April 28. That victory, too, was followed by a tour de force joint press conference headlined by Towns and Edwards’s breezy banter. After Edwards goes on a long, impassioned rant about how the team is unstoppable when Towns stays out of foul trouble because of Towns’s offensive dominance, Towns sheepishly chimes in that he was only fouling because he was “trying to play more defense.” Then, with pitch-perfect comic timing, Edwards cuts him off: “I mean, just stop fucking fouling.”
Modern NBA players are media trained within an inch of their lives and often forced to diligently answer inane questions that seek to find intellectual or philosophical explanations for why one team had the misfortune of shooting more poorly than the other. You just don’t see this sort of unguarded candor from players of Edwards and Towns’s stature. With their palpable joy, swagger, and intuition for playing off one another, they’ve elevated their press conferences to performance art full of viral moments, genuine camaraderie, and persuasive reasons for hopping aboard the Timberwolves bandwagon. Tonight, Minnesota will begin its Western Conference Finals series against the Dallas Mavericks, representing the furthest that the Timberwolves have made it in the postseason since 2004. Whatever happens in the game, you can count on the post-game presser — if Edwards and Towns are paired together — being must-see TV.
Timberwolves Press Conferences Are TV’s Best Buddy Comedy
- Advertisment - 
Recent Comments
on CONCEPT ART: New Details Revealed for Disney Cruise Line Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point Destination
on “Completely Knocked Me Out”: Rob Lowe Recalls Boxing Match With Tom Cruise On 1983 Brat Pack Classic
on CBS Sports announces Matt Ryan will join NFL studio show. Longtime analysts Simms and Esiason depart
on Carlos Sainz’s Soccer Fanboy Emerges as Spaniard Shares Defining Moment With This Real Madrid Legend
on Biden: ‘At this point I’m not’ planning to visit East Palestine, Ohio, after toxic train derailment
on ‘Best Intention’: Chris Kirk Has Absolute Trust in Jay Monahan and PGA Tour’s Widely Debated Model
on Ahead of big sports weekend, dispute with Disney leaves millions of cable subscribers in the dark
on A heavy wave of Russian missile attacks pounds areas across Ukraine, killing at least 4 civilians
on 2024 Super Bowl: CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports HQ to combine for 115 hours of weeklong coverage
on 2023 NFL All-Rookie Team: CBS Sports draft expert, former GM unveil league’s best first-year players
on Army vs. Coastal Carolina live stream, how to watch online, CBS Sports Network channel finder, odds
on AL Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez Spreads Joy and Sportsmanship to the Youth of Loma de Cabrera
on After UFC Fallout, Conor McGregor Offers a Valuable Piece of Advice to Free Agent Francis Ngannou
on Dubai International Airport sees 41.6 million passengers in first half of year, more than in 2019
on Devout athletes find strength in their faith. But practicing it and elite sports can pose hurdles
on Despite strong Lunar New Year holiday data, consumer spending in China isn’t roaring back just yet
on Dave Portnoy: Taylor Swift’s security should ‘drag Kim Kardashian to jail’ if she attends Eras Tour
on CONCEPT ART: New Details Revealed for Disney Cruise Line Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point Destination
on “Completely Knocked Me Out”: Rob Lowe Recalls Boxing Match With Tom Cruise On 1983 Brat Pack Classic
on CBS Sports, Serie A announce new TV rights deal; Paramount+ to air over 400 Italian soccer matches
on Cam Newton’s Violent Public Incident Draws Hilarious Reaction From 3x All-Star: “Where Do I Sign Up
on Boston College vs. Army live stream, how to watch online, CBS Sports Network channel finder, odds
on Angel Reese Launches Foundation Dedicated To Empowering Women Through Sports & Financial Literacy
on A weaker dollar, skyrocketing prices and ‘record’ visitor numbers: Good luck in Europe this summer