The Artistic Doppelgängers of Your Favorite Wolves

Matching players with art using Google’s Arts and Culture App

By Scott Olstad Jan 19, 2018, 8:00am CST

Paint me like one of your mascots — Crunch is his own work of art.

This week’s hot new distraction from our impending self-made mutual destruction is Google’s Arts and Culture app. More specifically, it’s a feature that matches selfies with (theoretically) similar works of art. Since the sport of basketball is a beautiful work of art, it seems only natural to run our favorite Timberwolves players through the app and see what we find.

Tom Thibodeau

Thibs was an assistant basketball coach at Harvard from 1985 to 1989. He only missed coaching his doppelganger, Rt. Reverend William Lawrence, by 100 years! Lawrence was known for preaching to his congregation about their “need to improve.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

Wow! This guy’s name is Wolf! Talk about an appropriate match. Here’s hoping Towns grows matching facial hair as he matures.

Jimmy Butler

Mama Plastic would be a good nickname.

Andrew Wiggins

This isn’t the best resemblance but it’s hard to deny the spot-on smile.

Taj Gibson

Nothing to see here but two fellas you don’t want to mess with in the paint. (See what I did there?)

Jeff Teague

Is … is this a mural of Jeff Teague?

Nemanja Bjelica

We found several great matches when we ran Belly’s face through the app. Is he a muse for great artists throughout history?

Tyus Jones

I know one of these photos is technically a match for Bjelica’s face, but look at those brows! They scream “Tyus!”

Gorgui Dieng

This photo reflects Gorgui’s essence both visually and spiritually.

Cole Aldrich

Why aren’t there more artistic portraits of people missing a tooth? That’s a museum that I would visit.

Ricky Rubio

In this parallel universe, Ravi Rubio led India to Olympic basketball fame.

Kevin Love

This is what it would look like if GQ hired Paul Cézanne for one of Kevin Love’s photo shoots.

Glen Taylor

The similarity is all in the forehead. The spitting image of a younger Papa Glen.

Scott Layden

Did you know the Wolves have a general manager that ISN’T Tom Thibodeau? It’s true! This match captures his unmistakably boyish visage.

Crunch

Wow! What a stunning piece of art! This match is almost too perfect …