Jonah Ballow
Wolves Editor/Writer
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For one weekend, the brightest stars of the NBA convene in a central location to provide fans with a spectacular showcase. On Wednesday morning, Wolves rookie Jonny Flynn and Kevin Love were pleasantly surprised to find out they were selected to play in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge during All-Star Weekend.

"I was very happy, they brought Jonny and I to the front of the plane, and we thought we were in trouble after the Knicks game; Kurt announced it to us, everybody was happy for us and we gave everybody high fives. It's cool, I'm very excited for Dallas, it's going to be a lot of fun," Love said.

The two players will participate in the first of many All-Star events that pits young players dueling for pride on Friday, February 12 at the American Airlines Center. Love feels a sense of vindication after not receiving an invitation to the contest last season.

"Yeah definitely, especially after last year that I came back and played well this season even after missing twenty games but you have to give a lot credit to my teammates, especially Jonny for giving me that ball, you know just working together," Love reacted

The second-year forward out of UCLA certainly deserved a roster spot in 2009 but the assistant coaches could simply not ignore the impact from Love this year. A broken finger in his left hand sidelined the 21-year old for the first 18 games. While wearing an MMA-style of glove, Love battled back to show his rookie season was no fluke and he is a serious double-double machine. Love is averaging 15 points and 11.8 boards per game in his sophomore year as he competes statistically with the best rebounders in the league.

"In a way, if you think about it, people noticed I came back and I've been playing well, and I think the injury helped me in a way, people were saying Oh he's back from injury and he's playing real well people started noticing," Love added. "I just kept that rolling, I was getting double doubles, playing with Jonny, getting assists, Big Al making shots for me, and just rebounding the basketball."

Love has turned rebounding into an art form, similar to Dennis Rodman or more recently, Dwight Howard. With an uncanny knack for snatching any ball off the glass, Love posts more offensive rebounds (4.7) per game than any other NBA player. Unfortunately, Love does not qualify for the top spot on the stats page because of the injury that kept him off the floor for the first month.

As part of the sophomore squad, Love is one of several extremely talented big men on the roster. Nets center Brook Lopez, Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, Knicks forward Danillo Gallinari, and Heat forward Michael Beasley will present quite a challenge to the rookies. The actual game is over two weeks away and Love has ignited the trash talk with a bold prediction.

"We're going to whoop-up on the rookies, it's not even going to be a contest; we are probably going to beat them by 37 points or something like that," Love boasted.

Flynn did not back down from Love's challenge, "I'm probably going to go out there just to clown around and probably check him one time at post, or something like that. Hopefully I sneak a block or a steal so I can talk some trash."

Even star center Al Jefferson jumped into the mix after Thursday's practice. The Wolves leading scorer was proud of his young teammates but Jefferson is leaning towards the other post player on this Minnesota squad.

"Don't tell Jonny, but the sophomores have a better chance of winning; the big men just have to pound them in the inside. So I'm going for the sophomores," Jefferson jokingly stated.

Somehow, Flynn found out and replied, "That's two big men, talking right there. Al, he's always going to side with the big men. But I think the underdogs prevail sometimes. We're the huge underdogs in this game, but we have the quickness, we have the quick little guys, so it's going to be a pretty fun game."

On a serious note, Flynn earned the spot after starting every single game this year at the point guard position. His infectious smile and leadership qualities have been on full display throughout the first half of the season. The former Syracuse star has already notched a game-winner against Jazz All-Star Deron Williams along with a variety of dazzling highlights. This year, Flynn averages 14.1 points and 4.1 assists per game including hitting 82 percent from the charity stripe.

"The assistant coaches get to see you in the games that you play against them, and it shows that you've been playing pretty well up to this point in the season. To have them vote me in shows that I've been doing a pretty good job up to this point," Flynn said.

In the midst of a difficult season for the Wolves, a shining light will be placed on two of the crucial pieces to the rebuilding process. The trash talk and excitement will continue to intensify over the next couple of weeks between two ascending starts of the league.

Timberwolves.com will follow Flynn and Love on their journey to the Lone Star state with comprehensive coverage from Dallas.

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