DALLAS – Minnesota Timberwolves guard Mike Conley Jr. was ecstatic to finally see his No. 7 written on his jersey in the upper right corner of the whiteboard in the visitors' locker room at American Airlines Center on Tuesday night.
The number 7 represents the number of wins the Timberwolves need to win their first NBA championship. The number was updated after Minnesota avoided elimination with a 105-100 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals after surviving a 3-0 deficit in the best-of-seven series. The Timberwolves will need to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs for the first time in NBA history to advance.
This was Conley's first career conference finals win and the closest he'd come to a finals game in 17 seasons, so he was willing to face the toughest of odds.
“This is the biggest game of my career,” Conley, 36, told Andscape after Game 4. “The next game is the biggest game of my career. The biggest win. Honestly, yeah. When you look at the board and you see it says seven, that tells you how many more games we have to win. That tells you how many games we're away from winning a championship.”
“We were in training camp and now we're wearing the No. 7 jersey. It doesn't get any bigger than that to me. Every game means more and more.”
Gareth Patterson/AP Photo
Conley is the 12th-oldest player on the NBA's roughly 450-player field. Timberwolves All-Star guard Anthony Edwards was 6 years old when Conley made his NBA debut with the Memphis Grizzlies on Nov. 7, 2007. The average age of Minnesota's roster is 26.3 years old, and the second-oldest player on the team, Rudy Gobert, is six years younger than Conley.
So what's it like for Conley, who is married and the father of three sons, playing alongside younger players in a young NBA?
“I [an OG] “For the team, for the league, but not for me personally,” Conley said. “I feel like I'm still young and I'm still running around with these guys and having a good time and loving the game, so my teammates are definitely keeping me young.”
Comedian Edwards also expressed his gratitude and respect while describing Conley's performance in Game 4 in his own way. The man he affectionately calls “Mike Mike” and “O.G.” had 14 points, seven assists, zero turnovers and four steals in 34 minutes on Tuesday.
“Mike Mike [expletive]”And he was coming down the hill passing the ball, so cheers for Mike Mike,” Edwards, 22, said in his press conference after Game 4. “And he came in here with his clown pants on, so you're going to see him right away. He's my OG. He's my point guard. I couldn't ask for anything more from him. So thank you, Mike Conley.”
Conley called the Game 4 victory the best of his NBA career. Why?
This is the first time a 2021 NBA All-Star has won a conference finals. Conley has played in 1,011 NBA regular season games and 91 postseason games. The last time he played in a conference finals was in 2013 when he was 26 years old and playing for a young Grizzlies team. The “tough San Antonio Spurs” defeated Conley and the Grizzlies in four games in 2013. The Grizzlies have not appeared in the Western Conference Finals since then.
Being part of that 2012-13 Grizzlies team gave Conley a taste of what it was like to be a young player now in the playoffs with the Timberwolves, and he said he didn't get the sage advice he does now during that playoff run in Memphis.
“In 2013, most of us were young,” Conley said. “Of our veterans, the only one who was older was probably Tayshaun Prince. Looking back, I think everyone would have told me we were going to come back the next year and the year after. We just got better from there.”
“But you never know what's going to happen. Coaches get fired. New coaches come in. Players get traded. Players get signed. Players get injured. It's really about taking chances.”
Jeff Chiu/AP Photo
Conley is completing the first year of a two-year, $20.7 million contract. Older NBA players in the final years of their contracts are often tipped as attractive trade targets due to expiring deals, but the Timberwolves can't afford to lose their humble elder statesman, floor commander and calm captain in any storm.
Whether it's Game 5 or next season, Conley is invaluable to a Timberland-based team with three stars in Edwards, Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns regularly garnering attention. Timberland coach Chris Finch told AndCap that Conley is “everything to our team.”
“I can't tell you how important he was in every aspect,” Finch said. “The adult in the room. He connected with Rudy right away. He was always whispering in Ant's ear. And then when KAT got hurt, he really stepped up in scoring, which we needed. Now he's become a key scorer for us.”
“Most of the season, he was just trying to make things happen. And he's actually one of our best closers when he has the ball in his hands. He makes a lot of the right plays. But he also does a great job of helping Ant in those situations. But I wish he'd been with us when he was 25.”
“He's a real asset,” Gobert said. “His maturity, his leadership. The way he competes and plays is infectious. The younger guys look up to Mike. He's 36 years old, but he makes every play.”
As you may know, Conley isn't playing to retire anytime soon. In fact, his goal is to play 20 or more seasons. This mindset came after advice from former Grizzlies teammate Vince Carter. The soon-to-be Hall of Famer announced his retirement at age 43 in 2020 after playing 22 seasons in the NBA.
“One of the pieces of advice I got from Vince Carter was, don't set a number. Just keep going until you can't,” Conley said. “Obviously, I want to hit certain milestones. I want to go to 20 (seasons). When you get that close, there's no reason not to do it. But at the same time, you just try to go for as many as you can.”
Conley also has a “why not” approach to the Timberwolves' need to win four straight games to qualify for the Finals. The thinking comes after a hard-fought Western Conference Finals where each game was decided by single digits, including a combined 18-point win over Dallas, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The Timberwolves are 3-0 in games where they faced elimination, including wins over the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets in Games 6 and 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. Conley doesn't think the Timberwolves had a single all-around solid game in the Western Conference Finals.
“This is our chance,” Conley told Edwards and Towns. Above all, Conley believes Minnesota is — with all due respect — the better team, and considering how much Conley has improved in his NBA career, there's no reason to stop believing until the Mavericks prove otherwise.
“This is one game. Game 5 is Game 7,” Conley said. “This is what we're all about. Let's keep that mentality. Don't look at the circus that's around us and everything we're hearing. Above all else, keep the faith. The testimony of our players tonight is that they didn't think this was their last game…
“Opportunities like this don't come around often, so when you get this chance, give it your all. Don't be afraid to fail.”
