It's been 21 years since the Timberwolves drafted Kevin Garnett straight out of high school and made him the cornerstone of their burgeoning franchise. It's been nine years since they traded him to the Boston Celtics. And it's been 17 months since they picked him up via trade from the Nets.
Garnett is still with the team, but at age 40, his basketball days are numbered.
Luckily for the struggling Timberwolves, their next savior appears to be in the fold as their first one fades off into the sunlight of the Twin Cities.
MORE: Rookies eager to watch in Rio
Karl-Anthony Towns, the first overall pick in last year's NBA Draft and the reigning NBA Rookie of The Year, sounds like he's in Minnesota for the long haul.
"I love being here," Towns said Wednesday (via The Associated Press). "Hopefully I can spend the rest of my career here."
Towns isn't the first athlete, particularly a young one, to say he wants to spend his career in one place, but that's a rarity for this often-frigid NBA outpost.
Take Garnett's first running partner with the Timberwolves, Stephon Marbury. The fourth overall pick of the 1996 NBA Draft looked like the perfect compliment to a young Garnett as the pair led the team to their first playoff appearances in 1997 and 1998. But money became an issue and the franchise's location wasn't exactly a selling point, so Marbury forced a trade to the Nets in 1999.
Garnett on the other hand, stood firmly with Minnesota for more than a decade, even as the team built around him began to sink into the mire it remained in to this point, missing the playoffs every year since making the Western Conference finals in 2004.
"A lot of people tend to think we're the Timberwolves and we're at the bottom of the barrel," Towns said. "Just remember us, because where we were the last 13 years — things are about to change."
Changing that stigma around the franchise is easier said than done, but with a building block like Towns in the picture, it's possible that change is around the corner.
So whenever Garnett does decided to call it quits, he can take solace in knowing the franchise he loves is in good, young hands.