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Make no mistake, the toughness, the drive, the refusal to give in to an injury that would keep most players out for weeks, that was more Jordan than any turnaround jumper or soaring dunk could ever be. “I mean, nobody expected him to play,” said guard Mike Conley, who scored 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range. “Just his level of commitment to the game, not only to the game, but to his teammates. That just showed a lot.”
Michael Scotto: Anthony Edwards on Mike Conley: “Mike Conley was an All-Star in the NBA. I think people forget about that. Once upon a time, he was one of the best point guards in the league. I always tell him that you used to be one of my favorite players. When I played 2K, I played with you.”
Dane Moore: Here's Mike Conley when asked about Donte DiVincenzo being back around the team four days after surgery. "Him coming back after just having surgery to support us says a lot about who he is. He could be anywhere right now, doing other things, and he's right back with the team. And it's good to just brighten up the day a little bit."
Dane Moore: Asked Mike Conley about his new role with Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo out of the lineup and how he assesses success for himself in that role. "If I can find a way to continue to keep our pace up, get guys the ball in places where they can be effective... I think when our offense is rollin really good, when we just have a free flowing motion, I think that's a lot of things that I bring as a point guard. Just the stability of all that. And for myself, just knocking down shots when I get em, making plays when I can, be more aggressive when I can. I feel like I've been playin pretty good the last month or so of the season and feel real confident in the game. So I think I need to be more aggressive when it comes to just making plays and looking for opportunities."
Andrew Dukowitz: Mike Conley on how the team reacted to the Anthony Edwards injury news, and if he had talked to Ant “With the two injuries we had in one game it’s as positive as it can get, after seeing Donte... I called him that night driving home from the game, checking on him, seeing how he’s doing and he’s still the same dude man. Positive, anxious… upset about not being out there but excited for our opportunity”
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“I think Rudy’s probably the most misunderstood player in the history of the game,” said Wolves point guard Mike Conley, who has played 7 1/2 seasons with Gobert in Minnesota and Utah. “The way that he impacts winning, just because it doesn’t look pretty all the time or is not the sexiest thing, people bypass the other 95 things he does for our team.”
Run It Back: Jaden McDaniels knew Mike Conley would get back to Minnesota quickly 💯 "When he got traded, we were sick...he ain't even leave the group chat. ... I opened his locker...he still had shoes in there. I'm like 'OK, we got hope.'"
Conley says that the correlation between kindness and professional longevity has never been more evident. “I’m not any more talented or better than some of these guys that played 10, 11, 12 years and are retired right now. But I know that as far as my mindset and my professionalism, the way I approach every day, the people that I have relationships with and how I treat them, that has played a huge role in me having more opportunities.”
Nice is vanilla. To call someone nice is to blunt the teeth of the dog in them. Entire marketing campaigns have been built around players not being nice. Mamba Mentality, which redefined Kobe Bryant’s image and influenced a generation of players, was based on being a solitary, selfish, singular asshole. Nice, we hear over and over, is antithetical to winning. It won’t get you a signature shoe, and it’s not going to get you paid. But Mike Conley calls bullshit (in probably the nicest way possible). “People grow up thinking you have to have this certain type of edge in order to be labeled whatever star you wanna be or whatever type of player you need to be, to feel success,” Conley says. “But I find it quite the opposite.”
The only person who might quibble with the designation is Edwards, who gave Conley the nickname “Bite Bite” because when he’s locked in, he looks “ready to bite something.” Conley isn’t a huge fan of the moniker, but it does capture something important alongside his niceness: his competitive drive. “It’s a false narrative, in a sense, that people think you have to be the asshole,” Conley says. “In my mind, inside every bone in my body, I want to go and score 40 points and dominate you and be as ruthless as I can on the court.”
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Timberwolves PR: UPDATED Minnesota @Timberwolves Status Report in advance of tonight’s game at Orlando Magic: QUESTIONABLE McDaniels- L Knee Patella Tendinopathy OUT: Mike Conley- Rest, Ayo Dosunmu- R Calf Injury Maintenance, Anthony Edwards- R Knee Injury Maintenance , Rudy Gobert- Rest, Julius Randle- R Hand Soreness
Mike Conley is a guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves in his 19th season. He has played more than 37,000 minutes in the NBA and has never been called for a technical foul. Mike Conley: At least 15 times a year I get the questions from other players: “Are you going to get a tech tonight? Are you going to finally do it?” There have been a few games where I’ve reacted right away and jumped up and down after a missed call, and everybody else gets kind of excited: We thought you were going to get a tech! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more receptive to the streak. I used to think: Maybe I should just get a technical foul because people are going to think I don’t care. But the older I get the more I realize it’s a super power.
Mike Conley: I’m a big Indianapolis Colts fan. I watched Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne score a million touchdowns. And not one time did they score and start dancing. It was just business as usual. It was just like: We scored, what’s next? I wanted to adopt that approach to the game. I liked that kind of mindset way better, and I wanted to be like those guys. It really had a profound impact on my outlook. I tried to approach the game the way they did, and when you start approaching things that way, you start falling into an identity: This is who I am. This is my standard. This is who I want to be when I play.
Minnesota star guard Anthony Edwards scored 17 points playing 23 minutes in the Timberwolves' 124-94 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night coming off the bench, though that wasn't the original plan. Edwards was penciled in the starting lineup and announced to the crowd, but he was nowhere to be seen, replaced at the opening tip by Mike Conley. Edwards finally made his way to the court and checked in 2:01 into play. Wolves coach Chris Finch provided the simple explanation. "Nature calls," he said. "Mike had my back," Edwards said with a grin. He said he was "miserable" sitting out, feeling "like a kid in a candy store" upon his return.
