Minnesota Timberwolves, professional basketball team and one of seven teams in the Midwest Division of the Western meeting of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Minnesota Timberwolves play at the Target Center in Minneapolis , Minnesota , and wear uniforms of white, blue, silver, and green. The club’s name originated with a name-the-team contest, and the timberwolf, an animal that inhabits wilderness areas of northern Minnesota , was chosen as the team’s mascot.

On January 12, 1984, Minnesota Timberwolves governor Rudy Perpich assembled a 30-member panel led by legendary Minneapolis Lakers center George Mikan to bring NBA basketball back to the state. (The Minneapolis Lakers had moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1960.) After -attempt to purchase the Milwaukee Bucks, San Antonio Spurs, and Utah Jazz failed, the NBA award Minnesota a new franchise in 1987.

In 1989 the Minnesota Timberwolves began their first season. Minnesota ’s first-ever draft pick was Jerome “Pooh” Richardson, who went on to be named to the NBA All-Rookie initial Team in 1989-90. The Minnesota Timberwolves finished the season with 22 wins and 60 losses, which was the best record that year among the NBA's four recent growth clubs. The team posted a seven-game development in its second year, but a league-record four straight seasons of 60 or more losses followed from 1991-92 through 1994-95.

Though the Minnesota Timberwolves team was short on success during the early 1990s, person achievement was not as rare. Christian Laettner, college player of the year at Duke University and the initial collegian ever to start in four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Final Fours, made the All-Rookie First Minnesota Timberwolves Team in 1992-93. In addition that season, guard Micheal Williams made 84 successive foul shots to break Calvin Murphy’s 12-year-old NBA record. Williams’s .907 free-throw percentage that year set a Minnesota Timberwolves record. A year later, Isaiah Rider was named to the All-Rookie First Minnesota Timberwolves Team and won the NBA Slam-Dunk Championship at the All-Star Weekend in Minneapolis .

After going 21-61 in 1994-95, the Minnesota Timberwolves team named former Boston Celtics star Kevin McHale to replace a retiring Jack McCloskey as vice president of basketball operation. In 1996-97 the Minnesota Timberwolves made the playoffs for the first time, and in the late 1990s onward Kevin Garnett emerged as one of the NBA’s best all-around players.