In making the announcement, NBA executive vice-president Stu Jackson said the incident had been upgraded by the league office to a flagrant foul two.

The incident occurred with 8:34 to play in the third quarter of Minnesota’s 100-91 victory over Houston in Minneapolis.

Scola and Love had tangled first on the Timberwolves’ offensive end, wrangling for a rebound. The tussle between the two physical players continued in the Rockets’ end, with Scola posting up Love.

Scola first had the ball swiped by a hard whack from Love, then tumbled to the floor. Love stomped on Scola, in the throat/upper shoulder area, before heading back up the floor. No foul was called on the play, with Love credited for a steal.

At the other end, the Rockets bench was called for a technical foul, and the contest became increasingly physical from that point onwards.

On Saturday, Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman said he was pleased his players didn’t back down from a physical challenge.

“You have to be mentally tough to play through anything,” Adelman said.

Love said via Twitter on Monday, however, that he had gone too far.

“I want to publicly apologise to Luis Scola and the Houston Rockets,” he said. “My intention is to never hurt another player on the basketball court. … I’ve always had the utmost respect for the game of basketball and all of my opponents.”

Due to the suspension, Love – who is averaging 25.0 points and 13.7 rebounds per contest this season – will miss Tuesday’s home game against the Sacramento Kings and Wednesday’s game at the Memphis Grizzlies.

Here is a video clip of Kevin Love stomping on Luis Scola’s face:

Have you lost any respect for Kevin Love after the Scola face stomp incident? Do you think a 2 game suspension was enough punishment for the forward’s actions?

Kevin Love Suspended Two Games for Luis Scola Face Stomp [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

There is a universal rule that covers all sports. That is bad teams make bad decisions on draft day. Two years ago the Minnesota Timberwolves used the fifth overall pick on Point Guard Ricky Rubio. Rubio was playing professionally in Europe and declined to come to the States and play for the Timberwolves. Instead of getting an impact player with the fifth pick the T’ Wolves got nothing. Now it looks like Rubio will finally be coming to town, but his impact will not be great.

Rubio strikes me as one of these selfish, me first kind of players that makes decisions solely based on money. Sure as a professional money is a key factor but as a point guard with no jump shot being a me first kind of guy just isn’t going to work. The T’Wolves drafted him because he is a big guy to play the one spot, but I don’t think his skill level will translate to the NBA very well.

His last year with FC Barcelona he averaged 6.5 points per game, with a shooting percent of just 39. Read that again folks, because there is no way anyone can justify those kind of numbers for a fifth overall pick. Seriously 6.5 PPG and 39% shooting is what it is, and that means he will not do well with Minnesota.

Bad teams do bad thing on draft day and for two years this has been bad for the Timberwolves, I wonder how bad it will get when Rubio actually show up to pay. Not a great way to rebuild a franchise.

Ricky Rubio is finally coming to Minnesota and the NBA is a post from: The Inquisitr

ESPN is reporting that some talks are going down on a trade that would severely alter three team’s roster and shake up the NBA draft order as well. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavilers, and Detroit Pistons are working on a deal that would help each team, while may not exactly be the fairest for all parties involved. For now let us take a look at that each team would be giving up and getting:

• Detroit Pistons- would send Rip Hamilton and the 8th overall pick to Cleveland for a big portion of their massive trade exception they got in the Lebron James affair last summer
• Cleveland Cavaliers- the Cavs send the 8th overall pick from Detroit and their own fourth pick to Minnesota for the second over all pick. Giving the Cavs the first two picks in the draft
• Minnesota Timberwolves- Would end up with the fourth and eight overall picks

Why this trade makes no sense is the Pistons are essentially trading a guy and a high draft pick for nothing. So the T Wolves or the Cavs would have to throw in a player or two for them to save a little face. It does make sense for the Pistons to do whatever is necessary to dump Hamilton who has been a locker room cancer.

For the Cavs, who would likely buy out Hamilton and use the first two picks to begin a rebuild project for their team this trade makes perfect sense. For the T Wolves it gets them out of a position to draft Derrick Williams and gives them a great shot at Enes Kanter with the 4th pick and many options at pick #8.

Cavs, T Wolves, and Pistons working on NBA blockbuster trade is a post from: The Inquisitr

I am all for professional sports team making improvements to existing stadiums, when it is reasonable to do so. I am all for improving the fan experience at games. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who play in a city owned facility, would like to see a number of very expensive improvements made. The price tag is right around 150 million dollars. Of course the team would like the public to pick up a big piece of the expense, and that has me thinking if their owner, Glen Taylor, out of his mind.

The Timberwolves are a bad team, have been a bad organization and the last time I checked the city of Minneapolis is on the verge of losing its NFL franchise. I hate to break it to everyone but a NFL team is a far better thing for a city to invest in that a poorly run NBA team. Sure Taylor is trying to make seeing a NBA game more pleasurable for his fans, and I commend him on that, but I wonder how much money Minnesota taxpayers would like to shell out for a 11-36 NBA team.

More to the point the Target Center is just 21 years old. It was built in 1990, and I find it hard to believe a stadium 20 years old is past its prime. Taylor says he would like a new stadium but as a former member of the Minnesota Government he knows that is not going to happen, especially given the Vikings situation.

I think the better way to raise the attendance at Timberwolves games would be to build a better team. Currently this team ranks 23rd in NBA attendance and given the economic situation I don’t think they are worthy of any pubic money to improve their stadium. If Taylor wants to use his own money that is a different story.

The Minnesota Timberwolves would like improvements made to the Target Center is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is one of those stories that shows how poorly the Minnesota Timberwolves organization is run. Their First round draft pick, Ricky Rubio, has decided to stay in Spain for at least two more years with a Barcelona. Barcelona bought out Rubio’s contract for 5 million dollars and that will keep Rubio out of the NBA until at least 2011.

As for the Timberwolves who drafted a player who had no desire to play for them and that isn’t even the mistake. If a player comes out and says he does not want to play for a certain team, as Rubio did, then the team should draft him anyways. After drafting the team should work out a trade with another club to insure they get fair value in return.

The problem here is NBA rules got in the way, and the Timberwolves organization should have been aware of these rules and their limitations. Under NBA rules a NBA team may only pay 500,000 dollars to another team for a contract buyout. Since Barcelona had no limitations they were easily able to out bid the Wolves, and because of this rule the T-Wolves had virtually no chance to deal Rubio to another NBA team.

Why the NBA would limit something like that is beyond me, but it probably limits the amount of money bigger market teams could use to buy out European players. For the Timberwolves this is a bad loss, losing a top five draft pick is never a good thing especially for a team that needs all the help it can get.

Ricky Rubio to stay in Spain is a post from: The Inquisitr

Stunning Adriana Lima is “officially” engaged, much to the disappointment of, I don’t know, every guy around and probably a lot of women as well. Rumors circulated at the end of the week that she had gotten a hefty sparkler from Marko Jaric of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and then Jaric’s rep confirmed reports with a rote little ditty on Friday: “He asked and she said yes. They are both incredibly happy and couldn’t be more in love.” Wowie, don’t get all flowery or anything; I don’t think that we can take it anymore.

Jaric had told People mag that he is “not the person to fall in love easily,” and “Now, that’s a little different situation.” It’s Adriana Lima. . . of course it’s different!

And the Men Weep: Adriana Lima Engaged is a post from: The Inquisitr