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From the column: Defining diversity out loud would be a bold first step toward achieving it.
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P.A. Jensen | ×
San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon questions a call from official Derek Richardson (63) in the third quarter Dec. 30, 2020 against the Los Angeles Lakers at AT&T Center. Scott Wachter / USA TODAY Sports
Ben Johnson is the new men’s basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, and he is Black. Before he was hired, article after article outlined why the university should hire a person of color, especially considering that so many men’s basketball players are Black. Presumably, Black coaches can better relate to players who resemble them. Also presumably, former players make good coaches because they understand the complexities and speed of elite men’s basketball.
This is home, and since 1983, in a sturdy first-tier suburb.
Love to joke about Minnesota, love to agitate Gophers football fans, never got into devouring hockey, but I wouldn t pay taxes anywhere else.
Bud Grant, Jerry Burns and Page, Marshall and Eller. Tony Oliva, Kirby Puckett, Tom Kelly and Gene Mauch. Clem Haskins, Willie Burton and Bobby Jackson. Glen Sonmor, Lou Nanne and Henry Boucha.
Natalie Darwitz, Krissy Wendell and Lindsay Whalen. Maya Moore, Samantha Seliger-Swenson and Amber Fiser.
And on and on. A sportswriter has been blessed with rich material in Minnesota.
Championships? Few enough to appreciate them.
Those four Super Bowl losses the last of which has been fermenting since January 1977 remain our badge of honor. If you can t laugh about Gary Anderson, Blair Walsh and short-tempered Mike Zimmer cutting one of the NFL s best kickers, Daniel Carlson, after two games, you re not trying.
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Among the many interesting story lines that followed Dave Thorson to Minnesota when he took an assistant coaching job under his former player and new Gophers head coach Ben Johnson is the unique position he will have as a builder of relationships and evaluator of talent in Minnesota.
Thorson was an assistant coach with the Gophers in the early 1990s under Clem Haskins, then spent 23 years at DeLaSalle from 1994-2017 before becoming a college assistant again and eventually winding up back with the Gophers.
On Tuesday s Daily Delivery podcast, Thorson talked about a lot of the qualities he brings to this job and on more than one occasion expressed just how excited he is about the opportunity.