Back In The Day NBA

Karl-Anthony Towns The Latest Minnesota Timberwolves Player To Show Love For Malik Sealy

Shandel Richardson

Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

It was the fitting thing for Kevin Garnett to do when he was first traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

He chose the jersey No. 2 as a way pay to respect to his friend Malik Sealy. They were teammates with the Minnesota Timberwolves before Sealy was killed in a car accident in 2000. Twenty-four years later, the tributes are still coming for Sealy within the Timberwolves organization.

On Wednesday, T-Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns wore a Sealy jersey as he walked into the arena for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks.


"In Malik's first year, we weren't really that close," Garnett told NBA TV in 2016. "One day he asked me to go to dinner and went to dinner and that's where the friendship started."

Sealy was drafted by the Indiana Pacers out of St. John's in 1992. He had stops with the Los Angeles Clippers and Detroit Pistons before teaming with Garnett in Minnesota in 1998. In their two seasons together, they formed a strong friendship. Sealy averaged 11.3 points during the final of his eight seasons.




"I identified with Malik because I thought he had a little flair, some swag," Garnett said. "I mimicked that."

Garnett was with Sealy on the night of the fatal accident. They were hanging out for Garnett's birthday party. On the way home, Sealy was hit by a car driving the wrong way.

It was the right thing for Towns to do to honor Sealy before the biggest game in T-Wolves history in 20 years.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day NBA. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson

SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com