How you like me now?

And with the fourth pick of the 2010 NBA draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves choose . . . another season of striving—in vain—to achieve mediocrity.

As predicted here earlier, the Wolves chose another skinny 6'8" swingman last night. Another NBA career 12.6 ppg scorer. Another Orangeman who's known nothing but 2-3 zone his adult life. In other words, another sixth man.

The Timberwolves now have the largest collection of sixth men in the league. Looked at another way, the team that would have finished second or third in the SEC last year put themselves in excellent position to win 20 games in 2010-11.

Count me among those who thought the Pups should have selected a starter: DeMarcus Cousins. A risk? Sure, but there's nowhere for this team to go but up. Might as well let it ride. One thing the Wolves did not do last night is give any fan a new reason to buy a ticket. Again this season, the Wolves will be out-talled by Western Conference teams that sport three bigs (L.A., Utah, Portland, Dallas, San Antonio). No matter how good Johnson becomes, he will never be 6'11", 290 lbs.

As for the rest of the Wolves moves last night: [crickets]

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Overheard at a suburban watering hole last night: A gaggle of parents raving about their iPhones, and especially how wonderful it is for the kids to be iPhone-equipped.

"Our daughter uses it to check the weather before she goes out," a father gushed.

Of the top of my head I counted eight ways you could check the weather forecast before stepping out of our house without spending $400: TV (24-hour weather on channel 11.2), radio, three computers, the newspaper, the Wii weather channel, KARE-11s free phone-in weather line. Also you could look out the window. All data plans unlimited.

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You're probably wondering about last week's NBA Finals trivia challenge, right? Allow me to recap the questions and provide answers:

1. True or false: Phil Jackson has never coached an NBA Finals game 7.

True. Prior to last Thursday's game, Jackson-coached teams had taken only three series to seven games EVER. Last week's was his first game seven in the Finals.

2. Bill Russell has the most NBA championship rings (11). Who has the second-most?

Answer: Sam Jones, who played alongside Russell in Boston for all but one of Russell's championships.

3. Twenty-eight different coaches have won NBA championships. Five of those coaches have losing NBA records. Which of the following is not one of them?

Answer: Don Nelson not only has a career .557 record, he has never won a championship as a coach.

4. Who is the only 3-time NCAA college player of the year not to win an NBA championship?

Answer: Also a bit of a trick question. There has been only one three-time college player of the year: Ralph Sampson, who never won a championship. (Sampson was the AP Player of the Year, an award given since 1961. Both Sampson and Bill Walton were three-time Naismith Players of the Year, that award having been given since 1969. Walton won championships with both Portland and Boston.)

5. True or false: You will be at St. John for hoops tomorrow.

Answer: True. Prove it by updating your Doodle status. Remember, if we have 6 commitments by 10:00 p.m. tonight, then we're on. If we have fewer than 6, then hoops is cancelled.

Track meet

The Belmont Stakes is this weekend. As fate would have it, I was there last weekend.

Belmont is on the verge of liquidation and looked it, which conversely made it an emminently desirable locale for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Our private picnic area was right on the fence, and the 30 minutes between each race provided numerous opportunities for exploration.

The track was built for large crowds that no longer come. Today whole sections of the grandstand are closed off. Hundreds of betting windows formerly staffed by human beings are now occupied by ATM-like betting machines. The sparse crowd clusters toward the middle of the grandstand above the finish line. I wandered up to the second deck and situated myself within earshot of a group of older New Yawkers drinking Bud and talking New Yawk talk: "I tol' my boss f--- your overtime, I'm going to da track. Lookadat! That f---in' horse is a f---in' nag!"

A barbershop still operates on ground level under the grandstand. Amazingly, a patron was getting his hair cut as I passed. You have to think someone who gets their hair cut at the track is either at the track a lot, or has been getting their hair cut there since 1962, or both.

Wikipedia says Belmont is "considered one of the elite racetracks in the sport." If that's true the sport is in very sad shape indeed. For my part, I lost everything (i.e., $10) by betting in each race on the horse whose name most sounded like a cocktail. But I did come away with this conversation, overheard on the bus out through Queens:

Son: “Where’s Mike’s sister?”

Father: “She went home early. Her partner just had a baby.”

[Pause.]

Son: “Howzzat possible?”

Father: “They bought sperm.”

[Long, considered pause.]

Son: “Huh.”

Father: “I’d like to get into THAT business.”

A funny comment, I thought, on the way to a racetrack.

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Please let me know if you will or will not be playing hoops at St. John tomorrow. Post time is at 8:00 a.m.