Last season, Kevin Love was a lone wolf - or, as fans of The Hangover might phrase it, a "one-man wolfpack" - for Minnesota, which is why it was beyond baffling that the franchise didn't sign him to a maximum contract extension in January. We're not sure what more the organization had to see from the player Charles Barkley constantly calls "the best power forward in the game." Love will have to lead the Timberwolves hunt for a post-season berth on his own again, now that rousing and radiant rookie Ricky Rubio* has torn his ACL. Ironically, the injury occurred while guarding Kobe Bryant, whom Rubio taunted in the locker room following a previous meeting between the Lakers and Wolves, regarding this year's summer Olympics, which Rubio will now miss, making it a doubly devastating injury, since he can't compete for Spain, a strong contender to capture gold in London. He's about as valuable to his NBA club as gold. The pure point guard was 5th in the league in assists per game and third overall in steals. He ranked first in both of those categories among first-year players. All it took was one game without Rubio for the T-Wolves to surrender their shaky grip on the last playoff space in the West. The sting of losing Rubio was worsened by the sting of losing to the Hornets, who entered the contest tied for the second-fewest wins in the league.
Since the T-Wolves have been terrible for over half a decade (their last winning season was 2004-05), there hasn't been much, shall we say, "northern exposure," on TV, so we first fell for Rubio when he went between-the-legs of DeMarcus Cousins on a fastbreak during the Rising Stars Challenge. He puts mustard on passes like we put it on hot dogs - and without hot dogging, differentiating him from Jason Williams, who was flashy, but not fundamentally sound^. Love and Rubio have the potential to be a level-headed version of Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury and that had to give Minnesotans non-weather-related chills. Love is an expert at rebounding, but his squad will have a tough task bouncing back from this untimely event. Maybe Love should take Rubio to a movie, to get theirs minds off of the misfortune, but probably not 21 Jump Street, since Rubio is 21, can't jump for the next three-quarters of a year and will be in street clothes watching the Wolves playoff push.
*Try saying that three times fast.
If Williams was "White Chocolate," Rubio is raw cocoa bean.
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