Thursday night brought a very special moment, during a National Basketball Association game, for Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball fans everywhere. Terrence Shannon Jr., currently a rookie with the Minnesota Timberwolves, scored his first NBA points in his hometown of Chicago, and he did it on Illini Night.
Yes, the Chicago Bulls, who have Illinois legend Ayo Dosunmu playing point guard for them, held their annual Illini Night promotion on Thursday when the T’Wolves came to town.
TJ RIGHT AT HOME. ? pic.twitter.com/UNbCNqk6bf
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) November 8, 2024
And as you can see from the video embedded in the tweet above, the Illini fans in attendance at the United Center on Thursday night were treated to a Terrence Shannon Jr. pick-six slam dunk during the Wolves rout over the Bulls.
While that play did not mark his first two NBA points, it was certainly a lot more exciting than the play that did.
While it was great for TJ to finally get on their scoresheet, unfortunately, these are the only points that he has scored thus far during his rookie season.
TSJ is averaging exactly 1.0 points per game, having scored four total points, and playing in just four games. While that is obviously going to change down the line, for the better, we’re not quite sure when and how.
The Timberwolves, who advanced to the Western Conference Finals last season and lost to the Dallas Mavericks, made a very surprising trade right before the season started.
They sent their superstar big man and four-time NBA All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle and shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo. Prominent pundit of the NBA, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, isn’t sold on the deal.
“I’m not sure how it’s going to work out with Randle in Minnesota,” the NBA on TNT talking head said in an exclusive with RG. “It feels very parallel. They got to the Western Conference Finals. I feel it’s parallel at best. I don’t know if it takes them over the top.”
Smith has the same questions that many Timberwolves fans have- is this team better off with Julius Randle rather than Karl-Anthony Towns? And what is their offensive identity going to be? Who are they going to run their stuff through and how does that affect the guard rotation?
That’s where we’ll need to see what changes, to see how it affects Terrence Shannon Jr. going forward. I mean there is now one less two/shooting/off the ball guard on the roster, so that’s something.
The T’Wolves drafted Terrence Shannon Jr. 27th overall for a reason. The former four-star recruit left school as one of the greatest players in both Illini basketball and Big Ten Tournament history.
His chances are going to come sooner rather than later.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.