At the awards banquet Sunday night Mark Madsen encouraged the Mr. and Miss Basketball finalists to think about how they want to be remembered on and off the court. The Timberwolves center gave an inspiring talk to the 10 players and the audience as the banquet’s featured speaker at the Minneapolis Marriott West.
Madsen, who has played six seasons in the NBA for the Lakers and Wolves, shared his observations about players he’s known, offering on and off-court impressions. He admires Kevin Garnett’s caring for people including the $2 million check he wrote to help with the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Garnett’s weight lifting commitment, including on game days, is impressive, too. “I don’t know if you’ll find a man who works harder,” Madsen said.
Madsen said legendary center Shaquille O’Neal, once a teammate with the Lakers, is an extraordinary family man, and he made a surprising comment about controversial Latrell Sprewell. The latter has been known as an NBA bad boy but Madsen praised Sprewell for the respect he showed teammates and ability to bring them closer together when he played for the Wolves.
Madsen talked about fate and keeping your word when he read a story about hall of fame coach John Wooden. Almost 60 years ago both Minnesota and UCLA were in pursuit of Wooden. A Midwesterner, Wooden favored coming to Minnesota, according to the book “Wooden: A lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court.” He was hoping to be officially offered the Minnesota job at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night but a blizzard knocked out the phone lines in Minneapolis. When the 6 p.m. call didn’t come, Wooden thought Minnesota wasn’t going to hire him and he took a 7 p.m. call from UCLA and accepted the job as Bruins coach where he eventually won 10 national championships. Minnesota called later that evening but it was too late; Wooden honored his commitment to UCLA.
Blake Hoffarber of Hopkins, who will play for the Gophers, won the Mr. Basketball award and Angel Robinson of St. Paul Central, headed to Marquette, won the Miss Basketball. Both were emotional as they expressed their appreciation to the crowd. The boys’ finalists included Cole Aldrich of Bloomington Jefferson, Noah Dahlman of Braham, Trevor Mbakwe of St. Bernard’s and Alex Rubin of Armstromg. The girls’ finalists included Kachine Alexander of Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Alyssa Karel of Cretin-Derham Hall, Macie Michelson of Marshall and Janessa Wolff of Park Rapids.
Noah’s brother Isaiah, now at Michigan State, won the Mr. Basketball award last year. Jenna Smith of Bloomington Kennedy, now at Illinois, was the Miss Basketball.
The Mr. Basketball award dates back to 1975, the Miss Basketball to 1979. The finalists for the 2003 Mr. Basketball award included Kris Humphries and Dan Coleman of Hopkins, Lawrence McKenzie of Patrick Henry and Kammron Taylor of North. Humphries is now with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, while Coleman and McKenzie play for the Gophers, and Taylor finished his career at Wisconsin in March.