Logo of professional basketball’s Minnesota Timberwolves, used from their inaugural season in the National Basketball Association in 1989 until 1996. They joined the league as an expansion team along with Miami, Orlando and the Charlotte (now New Orleans) Hornets, and the birth of the franchise meant that the NBA was returning to the Twin Cities for the first time since the Lakers were based there. In their early years, some of their notable players included Sam Mitchell, Isiah Rider, Doug West, Christian Laettner, Tony Campbell and Pooh Richardson.