FanPost

From 1 to 35,535: I Soak Jeans

As I've reached out to former Wolves to see if they will do a short Q&A for this series, some have been quite gracious. Those who don't respond leave themselves open to having an embarrassing anagram of their name in a post's title. Such is the case for today's profilee.

Our mystery man is a 6'5, 200 lb. guard who played four years at Kansas State before signing as a free agent with the Timberwolves back in 1994. His career as a Wolf (and as an NBA player) consisted of 11 games. Minnesota's record in those 11 games? 1-10.

Let's look a little more closely:

11/4 - 16:00 against Denver, scoring a career high 8 points of 4-7 shooting. 2 rebounds, 2 steals and no assists.

11/5 - 5:00 against Houston, he got a rebound and missed three shots.

11/8 - 11:00 against Detroit. Hey, I just noticed that his "minutes played" for every game end in :00, which is either the greatest coincidence of all time or just due to the limits of box scores 20 years ago. 4 points, his first assist, and his first two turnovers.

11/9 - 9 against the Lakers, took and made his first four three throws in the NBA. Scored 6 points.

11/11 - 10 against Chicago. Four points on 4 shots.

11/12 - 15 against Boston, getting a little more burn on the court, 7 points and 2 assists. Yawn.

11/15 - WOLVES WIN! WOLVES WIN! For the only time in his NBA career, our man walks off the court a victor. In 4 minutes against Golden State, what is his box score contribution? A personal foul.

11/16 - 17 against Phoenix, a career high 4 assists along with 3 points.

11/19 - 19 against San Antonio, best game of his career: ties his highs in points (8) and assists (4) while setting a best for steals (3). GameScore of 10.3 (whatever that is).

11/22 - 23 against Cleveland, a career high in minutes as the coach gains confidence in our guy - the last three games his time has steadily increased from 17 to 19 to 23!

11/23 - Then again, maybe not. He only plays 10 minutes against Atlanta, misses all 4 shots he takes, grabs one board and before he knows it he's out of the NBA forever.

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Have you figured out that our man is Askia Jones, son of NBA player Wali Jones (who played for a dozen years in the 1960's)? If so, bravo. If not, you probably have a lot of company. This was not an easy one.

Askia is best known for scoring 62 points in an NIT game, the second-highest total in NCAA postseason history.

He played internationally for many years after his Wolves stint. Now? According to his twitter profile, Jones is a "BRAND CONSULTANT/ CHANGE AGENT/ CREATIVE DIRECTOR/ ENTREPRENEUR"

I tried to find a photo of Wali and Askia Jones together, but came up empty handed. I did, however, somehow come across a great picture of two of the greatest sports legends of all time. Let me leave you with it:

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