Flip Saunders calls a Utah broadcaster's insinuation that the Wolves are tanking 'irresponsible'

Ask many NBA League Pass obsessives who their favorite local broadcasting crew is, and those of us that love to work over an 11-game Wednesday schedule will probably rank the Minnesota Timberwolves crew of Dave Benz and Jim Petersen at the top of their list. In spite of the Wolves’ decade of woes, the two remain impartial, well-studied, and an engaging listen.

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Those two weren’t behind the microphone for Monday’s rather exciting Timberwolves win over the Utah Jazz, however. Minnesota and NBA fans in general had to turn into the Jazz broadcast on League Pass in order to watch the game, a broadcast helmed by a color analyst in Matt Harpring that is, to be kind, is not as highly regarded by many coast-to-coast followers as his Minnesota counterpart in Jim Petersen.

During the contest, Harpring went into his typically boilerplate discussion about why tanking is bad, why teams should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and why the Minnesota Timberwolves are shirking, tanky-tanky-tank-tanks in deciding to sit Kevin Garnett, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, and Nikola Pekovic against the Jazz. If you’re scoring at home, that’s 80 percent of Minnesota’s hoped for starting lineup.

Following what should have been an exciting win over a dogged Utah Jazz team, Minnesota head coach Flip Saunders told the media he had received in upwards of 25 text messages from those that had heard Matt Harpring’s thoughts on the Jazz broadcast, and he was more than a little miffed.

From Jerry Zgoda at the Star-Tribune:

(Well, no, it actually takes quite a bit for you to get fired from ESPN. Provided you can ably fill up the Blather Time on their late morning and early evening basic cable slots.)

Harpring later hopped on Twitter in an attempt to brighten and clarify:

And now, our particular tanking boilerplate:

Rebuilding teams are not trying to lose games on purpose, at least not during the designated live action time. Rebuilding teams, to varying degrees, are trying to mete out what is clearly going to be a lost season, not taking chances on win-now transactions, while setting a cadre of young potential contributors up for future success by giving them all the minutes they can handle. Much in the same way that the, say, Utah Jazz did when they dealt a center in Enes Kanter that was averaging 17 and 10 last month in order to free time up for a big man in Rudy Gobert that averaged 2.3 points and 3.4 rebounds last year.

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Veterans Martin, Pekovic, and Rubio have missed extended time this year due to hamstring and ankle injuries. Kevin Garnett, some combined 55,000-plus combined regular and postseason minutes into his NBA career, probably should not be playing at this stage of his career. All four could have probably played and possibly contributed in the state they were in entering Monday night, but with the Wolves working at 15-54 entering the contest with the Jazz, there was no real point in suiting them up. Even if the Jazz do rank as one of those teams that do draw in NBA fans who are there to cheer on notable players from other teams. As someone who once paid money to watch Ricky Rubio, I can understand.

Despite the Minnesota win, what happened in Salt Lake City on Monday was not easy to watch. As has been the case all season, Zach LaVine was shoehorned in at point guard once again, and despite his passing skill he is clearly not comfortable finding cutters in the same Saunders-led offense that used to work so well for Terrell Brandon and Wally Szczerbiak. He needs time, and reps, and a game against a top-flight defensive club from Utah is exactly with that Wolves and their rookie need at this point in their formative stages. Regardless of whether or not Minnesota won or not.

All sides truly need to tone down the haughtiness. It’s understandable that there are hours-long broadcasts to fill and windmills to tilt at following the game, but we don’t have to talk this much, do we?

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Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops