BY THE MINNETONKA LAKE — There’s excitement on board as the boat speeds across the sea toward an imminent party. The three young children of Mike Conley are splashing around in life vests, searching for fish and waving to passing boats. The kids of longtime Timberwolves season ticket holder Tim Connelly are hot on their trail, suggesting a game of hide & seek aboard his 48-foot yacht.
Naz Reid, who will be one of the main attractions at a party to introduce the Wolves’ new City Edition jerseys, stands on the deck and takes it all in silently as he surveys the gigantic houses that tower over the most expensive real estate in Minnesota.
Two short months ago, he didn’t know what would become of his Minnesota life. The Wolves were about to enter free agency with two expensive big men already on the roster. He had just moved into a beautiful house in the suburbs of the Twin Cities and had just signed a three-year, $42 million contract that had won the hearts of every Wolves fan.
When club COO Ryan Tanke cites a tweet from Wolves fanatic @JakesGraphs, who quoted tweeted a fan’s photo of a shower curtain with Reid’s likeness, Reid breaks into his widest grin of the trip.
“That’s crazy,” says a delighted Reid. I mean, it’s heartwarming to watch, and it makes me feel appreciated, and I do appreciate the affection shown to me.
Anji Nyquist, a participant on “Jeopardy!” last summer, said that she had called her cat Naz Reid because of Reid’s widespread popularity in Minnesota. It’s possible that only Anthony Edwards in the area has a higher Q score than him. This was made abundantly clear on a recent Sunday afternoon, when we set out from a ritzy dockside restaurant on one side of one of Minnesota’s most famous of its 10,000 lakes and made our way across the bay to the lakeside institution, Lord Fletcher’s. Yung Gravy, a native of Minnesota and a special musical guest, was among the waiting crowd, and about halfway through the ride, Reid volunteered to drive the boat. He jumped at the chance, folding his 6-foot-9 frame into the captain’s chair. His braids twirl in the wind as a drone soars overhead, yet he seems undisturbed and relaxed.
To be a part of a jersey reveal and have it be broadcasted live would mean the world to him. After being signed as an undrafted rookie free agency in 2019, this is recognition for all of his hard work. This is the fruition of his early career visits to Iowa to play in the G League, his summers spent honing his skills in the practice facility, and his newly solidified place as a core player after signing a deal in June. He is no longer only an endearing underdog tale, a player who shrank to fit the contemporary NBA and now serves as a reserve for a mediocre team. Fans love his fluid handling and the intensity with which he plays, and his teammates appreciate and revere him for the hard effort he has put in and the talent he has earned.
“I’m not going to say I’m not a camera guy, but I’m a guy who sits in the back, for the most part,” Reid explained. So, just hearing my name at the event with all the spectators was an amazing experience, let alone the fact that the camera team wanted to get so many photos of the boat and interview me.
Reid admitted that he was envious of the players that got to take part in the curtain raisings for new jerseys during his first four seasons with the team. There were usually well-known figures involved. Towns, Anthony, Russell, and Rose are all NBA players. He saw it as a sign of status in the organization, a benchmark to achieve on his way to making a name for himself in the league. On that particular Sunday, he was with that group.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Reid said. That’s why it meant a lot to me, and I celebrated it with great joy. And then, to be one of the first to put on the uniform, was an experience unlike any other.
The location wasn’t picked at random. City Editions are released to mirror the market in which each team competes. The North Star, the Twin Cities, and Prince have all been honored in previous iterations. This latest version has the potential to be the most robust link to Minnesota’s unique qualities. Three months of summer on the lake are treasured as the payoff for five months of ice and winter. When the lakes in Minnesota thaw and the boats come out, the residents enjoy spending as much time as possible out on the water, taking in the sunshine and the crisp air.
Yes, the winters are chilly, but the summers are amazing. It’s a common refrain in these parts. The signature event of the Minnesota calendar is honored with this jersey. The new City uniforms use the Lake Blue that is an accent color on their primary kits, and the designers give it life and flare with a water texture that runs over the chest on the front of the jersey and continues on to most of the back. Embedded inside the jersey and shorts itself is the phrase “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” and there is also a word mark reading “Land of 10,000 Lakes” at the shirt’s hem.
“Those are some of the best jerseys we’ve had recently,” remarked Reid. They are unquestionably my top pick.
Mike Grahl, the Wolves’ CMO, remarked, “What’s more quintessentially Minnesota than lakes and lake life?” As the team’s slogan puts it, “We want to celebrate and bring that out and give something to the fans to celebrate in terms of the vibe that lake life brings to Minnesota.”
The arrival of the ship at Lord Fletcher’s was met with loud shouts from several hundred supporters and club staff. For many of the passengers, the uniforms represented a type of greeting to their new home. Last summer, Connelly and his family relocated from Denver to Minnesota, but he has been so busy running the Timberwolves’ front office that he hasn’t had much opportunity to see the finest the city has to offer. He made the controversial Rudy Gobert deal in July of last year and saw through an injury-plagued, trade-filled season to lead his team to its first consecutive postseason berths since 2004. The relative calm of this summer has given him and his family the opportunity to begin putting down permanent roots.
Conley was acquired from the Jazz in a February deal and immediately thrown into a frantic effort to make the playoffs. His family stayed in Utah, so he had to spend part of the season living in a motel. The Conleys were able to take a deep breath once the season concluded with the playoff loss to Denver, and they began making preparations to relocate to Minnesota. In a way, the timing worked out, as the Conleys were able to experience Minnesota in milder weather than usual. They has recently bought a house and are preparing their kids for kindergarten.
“Much more at ease,” Conley said. It’s been much simpler for us since on each of our summer visits back to Minnesota we’ve brought the kids along so they can make new friends and settle into their new school.
The longest-term Minnesota resident is Reid. After completing last season on the bench with a fractured wrist, he signed a deal with the Wolves and will begin this season with high hopes. He is tied with Jordan McLaughlin for the second-longest tenured Wolves player after Karl-Anthony Towns. He was swarmed by admirers when he entered the stage at Lord Fletcher’s to trade jerseys with Yung Gravy. The intimacy of the venue, which just a fraction of the capacity of Target Center’s 19,000 seats, made a significant impression.
“It was just like crazy because, even though it was a small crowd, it was like a big ball of energy just coming from everyone, just the excitement, the readiness for everybody, from everybody to watch us play,” Reid said. “Even for me, it’s just the next stage in my development, and everyone’s eager to witness it. So, it’s just this inexplicable sensation.”
Reid has always gone into the summer trying to improve his all-around game, but this year he is particularly focused on defense and rebounding, two areas that he needs to be effective in if this three-big roster construction is going to work. Reid averaged a career-high 4.9 rebounds in 18 minutes per game last season, but that’s going to have to be considerably higher to help a team that was one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. If he wants to play with Towns or Rudy Gobert, he’ll need to be able to defend both centers and power forwards. He is aware of the additional responsibilities that come with wealth. He is no longer an undrafted rookie making the pittance that usually comes with such a deal.
“Bigger role, bigger expectations,” Reid remarked. “So I’m definitely going to show I’ve improved, in every facet of the game, maturity, basketball or whatever the case may be. More money means more responsibilities. This is what comes with it. So I’m ready for it.”
Reid has been working out everywhere this offseason, including Minnesota with Jaden McDaniels, Josh Minott, Wendell Moore and Nate Knight, Los Angeles with Towns and Chet Holmgren and in Las Vegas as part of the Team USA Select group that practiced against Edwards and the rest of the Americans who are competing in the FIBA World Cup.
He may not be in the starting lineup this season, but Reid represents a lot of the potential for how far the Wolves can go. When he comes off the bench, his combination of penetration from the perimeter, shooting and dunking make him a tough matchup for any big in the league, but especially for second unit defenders. To this day, bring up the Nuggets series with anyone on the Wolves and they grit their teeth and mutter about Reid and Jaden McDaniels being out with injuries. Would that have swung the series? Maybe not, given at how impressive Denver was in steamrolling to the championship. But the Wolves believe it would have been different, and that illustrates how important Reid is to their identity.
“At least one of us,” Reid said of he and McDaniels watching the series from the bench. “I think it really, really, really would have been different.”
At Lord Fletcher, Reid gave a few remarks to the gathered crowd, none that carried more significance for him or the fans than six words that encapsulated the entire day, from the jerseys to the boat ride to the party to the training camp that looms less than two months away.
“I feel,” he said, “like Minnesota is home.”
That feeling of belonging has been a long time coming for Reid, and he is savoring the moment. It has been four years of scratching and clawing his way to where he sat on Sunday afternoon, with water rippling beneath the boat he was piloting and flowing through the jersey he debuted. For the first time in his professional career, Naz Reid had his hands on the steering wheel.