Kilpatrick In Right Place At Right Time To Play For Timberwolves

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- NBA teams are always looking for guys with the right combination of size and strength.

But sometimes, they're just looking for a guy in the right place at the right time. That's how Sean Kilpatrick ended up with the Timberwolves.

On Thursday in New York, with five injured players, the Timberwolves didn't have enough healthy bodies to field a team. They were one short of the league's 8-man minimum.

Kilpatrick was just finishing up a D-League practice, in Delaware.

"We needed to get somebody," Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders said. "And they were close."

The Timberwolves basically picked Kilpatrick largely because he was one of the only people who could have made it to the game on time. The closest D-League affiliate just outside of New York City, the Westchester Knicks, was on the road.

The next closest team was 131 miles away -- Kilpatrick's team, in Newark, Del.

"(My coach) was like 'Hey, you've got to pack your stuff, you're about to go play in the Garden,'" Kilpatrick said. "I'm like, what are you talking about?"

He jumped in his car, which had only a half a tank of gas.

"I was thinking about stopping at the gas station," Kilpatrick said. "But then I looked at the time and I was like, oh no way."

Kilpatrick said he made the 2-and-a-half hour drive in an hour and 10 minutes.

"I was really trying to push it," he said with a laugh. "I already had a scheme ready if I was to get pulled over and everything, letting them know this is my first NBA game ever, so can you cut me some slack?"

He arrived only an hour before tip-off. As for the gas tank?

"Oh, it was on yellow," he said with a laugh. "I was on yellow."

Since Kilpatrick is actually from New York, his mom was able to be at the game. In fact, after he drove right to the loading dock, she's the one who came to get his keys to go park his car.

And then he got in the game. It was probably not the way he imagined his NBA debut, but he's vowing to make the most of this 10-day opportunity.

"Really just trying to show teams what I can do within the minutes that I'm getting out there," he said. "I'm just really blessed for the opportunity and really glad that coach Flip, he had the confidence to bring me up here."