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Minneapolis/St. Paul - The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that Life Time Fitness has...

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Minneapolis/St. Paul - The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that Life Time Fitness has secured the first-ever naming rights partnership of the Timberwolves practice facility in team history. The Timberwolves and Lynx soon-to-be-expanded practice facility, located within Life Time Fitness Target Center, has been re-named the Life Time Fitness Training Center. The training center naming rights deal is part of a larger new multi-year corporate partnership agreement between the Timberwolves and Life Time Fitness. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Life Time Fitness will also serve as the naming rights sponsor of the Wolves' practice jerseys, another team first, with the Life Time Fitness logo on the front of the jersey. Along with the branded name on the entrance to the training center, the Life Time Fitness logo/name will be present throughout the inside of the facility, including basketball court, media backdrops, basket stanchions, chair backs, walls and weight room.

From the team's presser. They will now be wearing logos on their practice uniforms. I, for one, cannot believe that the NBA hasn't already put ads on game uniforms. What say you on the topic of uniform ads?

The Bill Simmons Quote of the Week

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3. Los Angeles Here's what WILL happen: Kobe springs for 33 a game. The first wave of "Wow, the Lakers are better than we thought" start popping up in mid-December, as people realize that Odom, Grant, Butler, Divac and even Chucky Atkins are quality supporting guys. You'll hear about how Kobe has taken on a much more active leadership role, and you'll see SportsCenter features showing Kobe slapping butts and rubbing heads in slow motion. By February, Kobe will make himself cry in an extended interview with Jim Gray, just to prove to everyone that he's capable of human emotions. By March, everyone will be saying, "Maybe Kobe WAS better off without Shaq." By April, the Lakers will be losing in the first round of the playoffs... 2004-05 Record: 34-48

The Hornets have signed Joe Alexander to a partially guaranteed contract, a league source tells Y!...

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The Hornets have signed Joe Alexander to a partially guaranteed contract, a league source tells Y! Sports.

Twitter / Adrian Wojnarowski

Question for SnP, others

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The Wolves open training camp this Saturday in Mankato - what's CH's coverage of it going to be like? Are you going to be able to check out any of the practices? I think we'd all love to get some insights as to what they're working on, who looks good (or doesn't), and any notable changes in either individual's games (such as Jonny Flynn) as well as any noticeable changes in scheme or style. I know it's just training camp, but it is in your backyard, right? ;) Anyone else going to check it and would like to contribute to the coverage?

Rookie Survey

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All 2010 rookies are surveyed about their thoughts on...2010 rookies. Wes Johnson places 4th in ROY, 6th in Best Career and 4th in most athletic. Lazar was voted the 6th best shooter and 3rd best defender.

Yahoo sports top 100 NBA players...love and jefferson are on it.

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NBA's top 100 players... Love's on it (#44) as is old friend Al Jefferson (#21). Other people of interest Brandon Roy #23 Tyreke Evans #33 Rudy Gay #40 Old friend KG # 58 O.J. Mayo #68 and more see the list of top 100 .

The Timberwolves have the oddest/worst/most hilarious commercials in the history of sports

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http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/tickets/run_with_the_pack_sitelet_2010.html
The Timberwolves have the oddest/worst/most hilarious commercials in the history of sports

Interesting tweet from Best Buy CEO re: Rubio?

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@rickyrubio9 Ricky your friends and fans in Minnesota want you to come here and play for the Timberwolves! http://twitter.com/BBYCEO Interesting to me for a few different reasons: 1. During the tense Joventut negotiations in the summer of 2009, when they were trying to pull together enough endorsement $$ to pay his buyout, I speculated that Best Buy would be a perfect company to contact. HQ in MN, demographics would seem an ideal match for Ricky fans, easy to see Ricky rocking the latest iPod in a Best Buy add, etc. I wonder if that happened? Kahn did pull together enough money in the 11th hour - Ricky just chose to go to Barcelona instead. 2. This is his first Rubio-related tweet that I could find? 3. Retweeted by @ryantanke of the Wolves Probably nothing, but strange timing to say the least on the eve of training camp. If the Wolves somehow were able to convince Rubio and Barcelona to take a buyout to come to the NBA this year, it would kick about 7 different kinds of a**.

A few questions from an ignorant pack runner

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  1. Is Koufos still on the team? If so what's the plan with him?
  2. Where are the awesome clips of Pek? In the ones I see he is just making a layup over a samll guy.
  3. Is there any chance we finish 4th in the division this year?
  4. What year do you think they will sell out the target center?
  5. Who is Henk Norel?

Flip Saunders gets no respect at MSP

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A fan shares a story about seeing Flip Saunders getting some extra treatment from TSA, recently at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport.