Blizzard: Dreams, Lottery, and other nonsense.

Buzz
It's that time of year again: I'm having dreams about the start of the Vikings' season. Last night I dreamt that the Vikes lost to Detroit week one 14-13, but beat Baltimore 41-6 week 2. Of course, the Vikes open with Atlanta and then Detroit, so it's just a pointless dream. I always have recurring dreams in the summer about the upcoming Viking season, to match my recurring dreams that I am a stage actor (and often don't really understand what play I'm in).

It's lottery time tonight, and if the Minnesota Timberwolves get the first or second pick, I will be living anxiously until the draft to see if Kevin McHale botches the pick anyway. If they get the pick right, I'll wonder if Wittman will botch it by starting one of the studs on the bench. But mostly I'll be ecstatic--getting the first or second pick in tonight's lottery is the closest thing to ecstasy I'm ever going to have as a Wolves and Vikings fan.

And since it's becoming the trend for cities and fanbases to whine about how much they deserve and/or need sports success, let me make the pitch for Minnesota.

Since the Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles (where they won 9 of their 14 titles), pro teams in the Twin Cities have won exactly two championships. No pro teams have even been to the final round of a league since '91, when the North Stars (who two years later moved to Dallas of all places) lost in the Stanley Cup Finals and the Twins won the World Series. So that's two championships in the last 50 years, two franchise relocations (and constant threats of relocation or contraction with the other teams), and no trips to the championship level since 1991.

In '92, the draft featured Shaq at #1 and Alonzo at #2; the T-Wolves, coming off the worst record in the league, got pick #3 and took Christian Laettner. In '93, Jamal Mashburn went #4; the Wolves got J.R. Rider at #5. In '94, the top three picks were Glenn Robinson, Jason Kidd, and Grant Hill; the Wolves got Donyell Marshall at #4. Until the Wolves got KG in '95, the draft was a miserable experience. Since then, the draft has been a horrible experience. Kevin McHale has hosed us bad; let us win something despite him.

We're desperate. We need this.

Links
Via Kansas Viking, the Ppress reports stud cornerback Antoine Winfield is isn't attending offseason activities, suggests the Vikes are looking for ways to play both Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor, and notes other current RB tandems.

Shoals gives "A Brief History of the NBA Headband."

CHFF gives us more reason to appreciate Peyton Manning.

Marty Burns looks at the lottery.

By the way, more and more I'm using Ballhype to see what stories people are talking about. You probably should check it out, too.