Timberwolves Fan Craig Kilborn: NBA Was Right to Not Suspend Victor Wembanyama

Craig Kilborn is a Timberwolves fan. The Timberwolves are tied 2-2 with the Spurs going into Game 5. Victor Wembanyama threw an elbow at Naz Reid the night before and got ejected. The league declined to suspend him. Rich asked if Kilborn was OK with that.

He was.

"Wemby, no, he should not have gotten suspended," Kilborn told Rich. "I guess thrown out, that's good, that's fine."

Kilborn admitted the replay looked vicious. He also acknowledged the bigger truth that hangs over the rest of the Timberwolves' postseason.

"We have to steal one now in San Antonio," he said. "It's going to be rough. They're good."

The deeper question Kilborn was sitting with was whether Minnesota's current run is just rearranging deck chairs in a postseason owned by the Thunder. His answer was patient.

"Keep improving, keep improving, keep improving," Kilborn said. "If you can get to the Western Conference Finals again, do that. Make some adjustments."

He pointed to Jaden McDaniels as the player whose growth has actually moved the needle this postseason. Last year at OKC, Kilborn noted, McDaniels missed his first six shots and the Thunder spent the rest of the series leaving him open. This year, McDaniels has kept making a jump.

Kilborn also shared a small window into his friendship with Chris Finch. The two text. Kilborn does not bother Finch often, but he reached out after Game 6 of the Wolves' series against Denver, the closeout, with the team's season on the line.

"I told Finchy it was a Finchy masterpiece because of his substitutions," Kilborn said. Finch went with a large lineup, Naz Reid at the three, and somehow orchestrated from the sideline without a true point guard on the floor.

"He was probably his best game as a coach," Kilborn said. Finch, for his part, deflected and gave the credit to the players.

Kilborn closed with a story about a dinner he attended before Wembanyama was drafted, hosted by Athletic writer John Krawczynski, with members of the Spurs coaching staff present. There was a three-team tie at the time involving the Pistons, Rockets, and Spurs. One of the coaches at the table predicted, calmly, that the Spurs would land Wemby.

"They did predict that, and they were right," Kilborn said.

Rich asked whether Kilborn was a tinfoil-hat draft lottery guy. Kilborn said no, but acknowledged the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Kings and Lakers as the one historical case he can point at. Tim Donaghy aside, David Stern made no secret of preferring Lakers ratings.

"That's old news," Kilborn said.

He just wants Game 5 in San Antonio.