Right now, ‘nothing feels right’ in Minneapolis. An NBA basketball game is no exception

MINNEAPOLIS — There is a four-way stop in my neighborhood that pretty much serves as the defining fork in the road for this season of my life.

I am there almost every day. When I go left, it is to take my son up the hill to his school. We have an inside joke that we like to tell when we see other kids walking.

“Their parents must not love them as much as I love you,” I’ll say. He smiles and chuckles.

These days, when I drop him off in the morning, volunteers walk the perimeter and a police officer parks right across the street, there to observe should ICE descend upon the school grounds, as has happened elsewhere in the city. I watch him walk all the way in before I pull away.

Today is Sunday and there is no school. So I take a right at the intersection this time, on my way to downtown Minneapolis and another Minnesota Timberwolves game. It is a drive I have made no less than 900 times over the last 20-plus years on the beat. I try my very best not to let the frequency obscure the fortune (figuratively speaking, of course) that has befallen me in this profession. The worst, and perhaps easiest, thing I can do is follow so many of my brethren down the path of Cousin Greg from “Succession,” lounging on a super yacht and being unimpressed with this particular brand of rosé.

But it is difficult for the repetition to not breed some form mundanity, especially on the drive in. I zoom past a Dairy Queen and a Target, head over a bridge across the Mississippi River and wind through town, past dozens of bars, restaurants, breweries and other businesses without a second glance before arriving at Target Center, where I pull into a parking ramp for the night.

Today, the drive is different. The city is different. The job is different. Everything is different.

The corner by the Dairy Queen was filled with protestors the day before, speaking out after federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti this weekend. Pretti was the second Minnesota resident to be killed by federal agents this month, joining Renee Good on Jan. 7. Just last week, that Target store had Border Patrol agents all over it, and the retailer has stopped allowing Hispanic employees to deliver drive-up orders for fear of federal agents detaining them.

All of those businesses in Northeast Minneapolis and downtown? Most of them were shuttered on Friday, the day before Pretti was killed, as part of metro-wide general strike to draw attention to the weeks-long surge of immigration enforcement by the federal government.

The same streets that take me to the arena were flooded with thousands upon thousands of marchers on Friday in temperatures cold enough to deflate tires and freeze pasta. They went right past the Four Seasons Hotel while Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors watched from their rooms. The Warriors and Wolves were supposed to play on Saturday, but the NBA postponed the game after Pretti’s death that morning, moving it to Sunday. The decision was made with safety of the teams and fans in mind and consideration was given to the police and medical resources that are occupied on a game day that could have been needed elsewhere if more protests erupted in the city.

These streets are normally wide open when I arrive at the arena more than two hours before game time. But today, I alter my route because another march shutdown a long stretch of First Avenue, the street that runs right in front of Target Center.

But after I got into Ramp B, parked my car and walked through the skyway to the arena, things started to feel oddly … normal, if only for a short time. Amid all of the chaos of the last few weeks, a basketball game needed to be played. Just one of 82 on the 25th day of 365 in 2026.

Everyone came to Target Center in search of some normalcy, some community and stability while the frozen ground shook underneath their feet. But the juxtaposition of normal and abnormal was overwhelming.

Every gameday includes pregame interviews with the head coaches. They are typically dry conversations about the night’s matchup, an inside-basketball trend from the last few games and a little bit of filler for the pregame show on the local regional sports network. Today, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch, never one to stand on a soap box and preach about things beyond basketball, delivered a heartfelt statement on the impact Pretti’s death had on the team. There were tremors in his voice and a quiver in his lip as he expressed the organization’s condolences to Pretti, his family and anyone affected by his loss.

“It’s sad to watch what is happening,” Finch said. “On the human level, certainly as somebody who takes great pride in being here, I know a lot of our players feel the same. They all love being here and it’s just hard to watch what we’re going through.”

Kerr offered a distillation of the current news environment, in which consumers search for interpretations of the day’s events that fit their predisposed ideological or political leaning.

“What’s so sad about all this is we’re at each other’s throats right now,” Kerr said. “You can’t just say, ‘I’m right, and the other person’s wrong.’ Not within this current climate of nonstop news flooding at us.” He makes the air quotes motion with fingers when he says the word “news.”

Players go through their shooting routines on the court like any other day. Wolves star Anthony Edwards laughs with assistant coaches Chris Hines and James White. Joe Ingles cracks a couple of jokes in the locker room. Familiarity starts to seep into the pores.

Then the players line up for the “Star Spangled Banner” and the lights dim, just as they have in the previous 22 home games for Minnesota. Then, a moment of silence is held for Pretti, punctuated by “F–k ICE!” chants and you realize that this is something different. Or is it? After all, the same thing happened after Good was killed earlier this month.

The Minnesota Timberwolves held a moment of silence for Alex Pretti, the man who was shot and killed by federal agents on Saturday.

(Warning: NSFW language)

🎥 @jrborman13pic.twitter.com/WvWcJrD7kf

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 25, 2026

The game begins with the same theatrics as it always does. This is a City Edition uniform night, meaning the court and the game are Prince-themed in honor of perhaps Minnesota’s most famous son. There are a few ICE-related signs, but there is no hostility in the air, only hope for a two-hour reprieve from the chaos outside.

“It’s kind of nice to come and try to forget everything for a couple of hours, because otherwise you’re confronted with it all of the time,” said Roger, a longtime season ticket holder, who spoke on condition that The Athletic only use his first name, given the hostile climate.

Did it feel like a real game?

“Not really,” he said.

As soon as the game begins, something just feels … off.

The Timberwolves fall behind 12-2 before they can even blink. They have been struggling lately, but this is a different level of hapless. They have seven turnovers in the first six minutes, four of them from Edwards. The Wolves have had their issues with turnovers this season, but nothing like this. Eleven turnovers in the first 14 minutes. Thirteen in the first 18 minutes. Sixteen before the first half is over.

Despite the game being pushed back a day, most of the nearly 19,000 seats in the arena are full. But the crowd cannot seem to muster the fervor it normally would. Warriors star Draymond Green is Public Enemy No. 1 in these parts for his longtime tormenting of Rudy Gobert and former Wolf Karl-Anthony Towns, but the fans can only muster half-hearted boos when he touches the ball.

Edwards starts the game 8 for 10 from the field, but he turns it over eight times. After dominating the Warriors in the playoffs last season, Julius Randle goes 3 for 11. Naz Reid goes scoreless for the first time since November 2022. Jaden McDaniels is 1 for 8 with four turnovers. Donte DiVincenzo misses a wide open layup. The Wolves dunk team that performs acrobatic slams off trampolines wears “ICE OUT” T-shirts.

At one point, as the Warriors were pulling away in a 38-17 third quarter, Kerr approached one Wolves veteran and said he was sorry that the game was even being played. The vibes were that out of whack.

“Honestly what I felt is their group was suffering,” Kerr said. “The vibe in the stands, it was one of the most bizarre, sad games I’ve ever been a part of.”

One Timberwolves employee walked the concourse at halftime and said he couldn’t muster the energy to show the same enthusiasm he normally has.

“Nothing feels right,” the employee said. “Our hearts aren’t in it.”

The crowd mustered up a couple of boos as the turnovers and missed shots piled up, but nothing that it could sustain like it would under the usual circumstances. The Wolves were awful in a 111-85 loss, their fifth straight defeat. But maybe the in-person reaction was muted because everyone was together in their misery. There was something to be said for being in the arena with 18,000 other fans, gnashing their teeth over their stumbling team.

“Tough game, but good to feel a bit of normalcy,” Wolves fan Reid Peifer posted on Reddit.

The word “versus” permeates the Twin Cities right now. Federal vs. local. Protestors vs. Border Patrol. Right vs. Left.

There was a time when Warriors vs Timberwolves was one of the more heated matchups in the league. But none of that edge was there on Sunday evening.

And while there were a few chants and a sign here or there against ICE, the atmosphere did not feel charged. It felt like a gathering of people who, collectively, needed a break.

The night did not go how most in the audience would have hoped, but at least they were there together. Undoubtedly, there were folks of all different political persuasions seated side by side. They wore the same colors. Cheered for the same players and pulled their hair out at the same time when things did not go their way. That is what this game offers right now. Afterward, some of the players hint at a malaise from the heartbreak and the anger that sits right outside their doors. Some of them do not want to make excuses and say they just need to be better than they have been.

An NBA game is not going to solve any of the problems confronting the Twin Cities right now. It won’t bridge the deep divisions that exist in this country. The only thing the game can do is keep coming, night after night, to give the community something else to look at besides the rancor on their phones or their televisions.

No one knows what is going to happen on Monday. It seems like there are only two things we can count on:

It will be very cold.
The Timberwolves and Warriors will play again.

“Well,” said Don, the security guard posted outside the Timberwolves locker room, “we’ll see you tomorrow night.”

It’s not much. But it’s a start.