Updated February 13th, 2019

Like Father, Like Son

Ryan Saunders is the spitting image of his late father Flip Saunders, head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves for over a decade.

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A slight neck twitch, a squat onto the toes of his polished dress shoes, a pointed finger as he calls out the next play–Ryan Saunders is the spitting image of his late father, Flip. The head coach of the Timberwolves for a decade starting in 1995, Flip died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015 at the age of 60, but his legacy continues to live on in his son Ryan. Like so many who have lost people close to them to cancer, Ryan and his story reminds us how we continue to honor those we’ve lost through our own lives.

Flip Saunders began his coaching career as an assistant for the University of Minnesota, the same school where he played for four years as their star point guard. After a brief stint coaching at the University of Tulsa and then the CBA, Flip became the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1995. Ryan was ten years old at the time and the team’s ball boy. Over time, he would watch as his father built up a struggling franchise and molded a lanky high school draft pick, Kevin Garnett, into one of the NBA’s most dominant power forwards and an MVP.

In early footage of team pre-game shootarounds, Ryan can be seen playfully matching up against 6’9″ Garnett. Soon after, he would follow in his father’s footsteps and walk on as a guard at the University of Minnesota, then as a graduate manager, and finally as an assistant coach in the NBA under his father. After his initial decade tenure with the Wolves ended, Flip returned to the team in 2014 to once again lead a rebuild of the franchise following the trade of cornerstone Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers. And who would he once again have with him on the sidelines? His son Ryan. A year later, Saunders would ultimately succumb to Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and the league remembered him as one of its most impactful people.

Flip’s death in 2015 reverberated around the NBA and Minnesota community. To many who knew him, he was not only a great coach, but an even better friend and mentor. Soon after his passing, former players and colleagues spoke out to mourn over the loss of one of the league’s most special individuals. Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg, who played for Saunders with the Timberwolves for two years, said he was in “a little bit of shock” after learning of his death, according to ESPN. He said, “Flip played a huge part in my life. Everything from bringing me in and giving me a chance, to taking a lot of the philosophy that he had. He was a great mentor, a great leader … a special, special person. The year after his death, fellow NBA coaches wore a lapel every game to honor the life of Saunders.

Ryan stayed on as an assistant coach for the team after his father’s death, his love for the organization akin to his father’s own fervent passion. After the firing of head coach Tom Thibodeau, the organization called upon Ryan to fill the same shoes his father had worn for so many years. Coming full circle, from his early days as the team’s ball boy to now the head coach, Ryan’s life has paralleled Flip’s.

In a profession marked by hot heads and disgruntled yells, Ryan, like his father before him, is more understated. As young All-Star and Timberwolves center Karl Anthony-Towns puts it, “Ryan’s more of like [sic] a father that says it very lightly, but he more sounds disappointed, and you never want to disappoint your father.”

In an interview with NBA Champion Kevin Garnett, Ryan spoke about what it meant to now be in his father’s shoes. “[My mom, my sisters, and I] had some conversations. We said that we weren’t going to just live our lives, we were going to live his life too.” Garnett, who has been outspoken about how pivotal Flip Saunders was to his own growth, both as a person and a player, sees the clear resemblance in Ryan. “I see a lot of his father in him…I can hear his father in just how he talks and how he presents himself.”

As homage to his dad, Ryan called out Flip’s signature set ‘452 twist’ as his first play as head coach. "I only told my mother before the game," Saunders said. "I had an idea that we might be able to get something off of it. I didn't know if it was necessarily going to work out, but I had to, just in an ode to him. I'd feel good about myself if I ran his favorite play, first play of the game." Although the play ended in a missed shot, the team won their first game under the newly minted head coach. In the locker room, Ryan was greeted by a shower of water bottle sprays from the team he had grown so close to over the years.

Flip Saunders's presence is still felt in Minnesota and continues to live on in Ryan, reminding us that we never completely lose people to cancer–their legacy keeps going in those close to them. Karl-Anthony Towns, whose rookie season began immediately after Saunders's death, summarized the emotion after Ryan’s first game and win as head coach in a tweet, "THIS ONE WAS FOR FLIP."

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