Minnesota Timberwolves Trivia
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60 free Minnesota Timberwolves trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Minnesota Timberwolves trivia quiz covers the whole franchise: the 1986 name vote that beat 'Polars', the Metrodome season that drew a million fans, Isaiah Rider's dunk, the near-move to New Orleans, Kevin Garnett's arrival out of high school and his 2004 MVP season, the Joe Smith penalty, the Kevin Love years, the Wiggins-LaVine 'Bounce Brothers', Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, the Rudy Gobert trade and consecutive Western Conference finals. There are easy questions on the arena, the mascot and the biggest names, plenty of mid-range history, and some genuinely hard ones about Kurt Rambis's record, the Tokyo Dome opener and the two ABA teams that came before the Wolves. Uniforms, ownership and the Prince tribute jersey all get a look. Every answer was checked against primary and encyclopaedic sources before it went in, so when you miss one you can trust the explanation. Play it solo or run it as a round at your next watch party. For the wider league, our NBA trivia page is the natural next stop.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Timberwolves joined the NBA in 1989 alongside which other expansion team?
Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic: the league added Charlotte and Miami in 1988, then Minnesota and Orlando a year later, and Orlando won the coin flip to pick first in the 1989 expansion draft.
Q 02What is the name of the Timberwolves' home arena in downtown Minneapolis?
Target Center
Target Center has carried the name since it opened in 1990 because the retailer Target, founded and still based in Minneapolis, bought the naming rights before the first game.
Q 03Which name lost to 'Timberwolves' in the 1986 vote among Minnesota's 842 city councils?
Polars
Polars was the other finalist from more than 6,000 contest entries; 'Timberwolves' suited a state that is home to the largest wolf population in the lower 48.
Q 04Which NBA franchise left Minneapolis for the West Coast in 1960?
Lakers
Lakers: named for Minnesota's many lakes, the team won its first five championships in Minneapolis and kept the name after moving to far drier Los Angeles.
Q 05Which Pistons forward, the Wolves' first expansion pick, refused to report and was traded?
Rick Mahorn
Rick Mahorn had just won the 1989 title as a Detroit starter when the Pistons left him unprotected; he refused to report to the new team and was traded before the season began.
Q 06In which venue did the Timberwolves play their first season?
The Metrodome
The Metrodome, built for football and baseball, let a 22–60 expansion team draw more than a million fans in its first season, an NBA attendance record, with 49,551 at the home finale.
Q 07Which Wolves guard won the 1994 Slam Dunk Contest in Minneapolis with his 'East Bay Funk Dunk'?
Isaiah Rider
Isaiah Rider, a rookie from Oakland, named the between-the-legs dunk for his home region and won the contest on his own team's floor during a 20-62 season.
Q 08In 1994 the original owners nearly sold the Timberwolves to a group planning to move them to which city?
New Orleans
New Orleans: boxing promoter Bob Arum's group agreed to buy the team for $152.5 million, but the NBA blocked the sale and a local buyer kept the Wolves in Minneapolis.
Q 09Which owner bought the Timberwolves in 1994 and kept them for three decades?
Glen Taylor
Glen Taylor tried to call off the sale in 2024, saying the buyers had missed a deadline, but an arbitration panel ruled against him in 2025.
Q 10Which Hall of Famer ran the Timberwolves' front office when they took Garnett fifth in the 1995 draft?
Kevin McHale
Kevin McHale, newly in charge of basketball operations, spent the fifth pick on a teenager when no player had jumped straight from high school to the NBA in 20 years.
Q 11Whom did the Timberwolves trade to Milwaukee on draft night 1996 for the rights to Stephon Marbury?
Ray Allen
Ray Allen went to Milwaukee with a future first-round pick; Marbury lasted less than three seasons in Minnesota before his agent demanded a trade.
Q 12Kevin Garnett's six-year, $126 million Timberwolves contract of 1997 is widely blamed for helping to trigger which event in 1998?
An owners' lockout
An owners' lockout: they wanted to stop deals like Garnett's, and the 50-game season that followed came with a cap on individual salaries.
Q 13Which All-Star point guard did the Timberwolves receive in the 1999 three-team trade that sent Stephon Marbury to New Jersey?
Terrell Brandon
Q 21To which team did the Timberwolves trade Kevin Garnett in July 2007?
Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics: they gave up five players and two first-round picks, and Garnett won the championship in his first season there.
Q 22Whom did the Timberwolves draft third in 2008 and trade that night to Memphis for Kevin Love?
O. J. Mayo
O. J. Mayo went to Memphis in an eight-player swap, and Love became a three-time All-Star in Minnesota.
Q 23Kevin Love's 31-point, 31-rebound game in 2010 was the NBA's first 30–30 since which center's in 1982?
Moses Malone
Moses Malone had last done it, 28 years earlier; Love's 31 and 31 turned a 14-point halftime deficit against the Knicks into a win.
Terrell Brandon arrived from Milwaukee, and the first-round pick New Jersey added to the deal became Wally Szczerbiak, an All-Star for Minnesota in 2002.
Q 14Which Timberwolves swingman, killed by a drunk driver in 2000, became the first player whose number the team retired?
Malik Sealy
Malik Sealy was driving home from Kevin Garnett's 24th birthday party when a pickup truck going the wrong way hit his SUV; the Wolves retired his No. 2.
Q 15A voided deal with which forward cost the Timberwolves three first-round picks and a $3.5 million fine in 2000?
Joe Smith
Joe Smith had signed cut-price one-year deals on a secret promise of a rich contract later, which broke salary-cap rules; the league took five picks, then gave two back.
Q 16Which two veterans, acquired in 2003, helped Kevin Garnett's Wolves reach the conference finals?
Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell
Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell arrived in separate trades that summer, and the Wolves finally won a playoff series after seven straight first-round exits.
Q 17Which award did Kevin Garnett win in 2003–04, when the Timberwolves went 58–24 and took the West's top seed?
Most Valuable Player
Most Valuable Player: runner-up to Tim Duncan a year earlier, Garnett took 120 of the 123 first-place votes and left Duncan a distant second.
Q 18Which big man came to the Timberwolves in the 2007 Kevin Garnett trade and averaged over 20 points a game for them?
Al Jefferson
Al Jefferson averaged 21 points a game in his first Minnesota season and 23 in his second, until a torn knee ligament in February 2009 cut it short.
Q 19Kevin Garnett's leap onto the scorer's table in 2004 came after a Game 7 win over which team?
Sacramento Kings
Sacramento Kings: Chris Webber's tying three-pointer spun out at the buzzer, sealing an 83–80 win in which Garnett, on his birthday, had 32 points and 21 rebounds.
Q 20Which future Rookie of the Year did the Wolves draft sixth in 2006, then trade for Randy Foye?
Brandon Roy
Brandon Roy became a three-time All-Star in Portland before his knees gave out; he signed with Minnesota in 2012 for a comeback that lasted five games.
Q 24Which award did Kevin Love win in 2010–11, when he had 53 straight double-doubles for the Timberwolves?
Most Improved Player
Most Improved Player: Love led the league in rebounding and made his first All-Star team, even though the Wolves won only 17 games.
Q 25Which member of Magic Johnson's 1980s title teams coached the Timberwolves before being fired in 2011?
Kurt Rambis
Kurt Rambis won four championships as a player in Los Angeles, but in Minnesota his teams lost 132 of 164 games.
Q 26Ricky Rubio's 2012 rookie season ended with an ACL tear in a collision with which player?
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant: Rubio's knee buckled in the final seconds of a three-point loss, and the Wolves, 21–20 that night, won only five more games all season.
Q 27Which team received Kevin Love in the 2014 three-way trade that brought that year's No. 1 pick to Minnesota?
Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James had re-signed with them weeks earlier, and with Love and Kyrie Irving they won the 2016 title.
Q 28Who was the first Timberwolves player to be named NBA Rookie of the Year?
Andrew Wiggins
Andrew Wiggins won it in 2014–15 even though the Wolves lost 66 games, the worst record in the league.
Q 29What nickname did the Timberwolves' high-flying young duo of Zach LaVine and the 2015 Rookie of the Year go by?
The Bounce Brothers
The Bounce Brothers: the pair went by the name from their rookie preseason, and LaVine backed it up by winning the 2015 and 2016 Slam Dunk Contests.
Q 30Whom did the Timberwolves take with their first ever No. 1 overall pick, in 2015?
Karl-Anthony Towns
Karl-Anthony Towns spent nine seasons in Minnesota, the last ending in the team's first conference finals in 20 years, before a 2024 trade to New York.