Minnesota’s top sports stories of 2024: Emerging superstars, teams for sale and more

MINNEAPOLIS — From deep playoff runs to disappointing seasons and superstar contracts to broken business deals, it’s been a noisy, chaotic and occasionally celebratory year for Minnesota sports.

The Timberwolves, Vikings, Lynx and Wild have all made runs this year behind top-tier talent, and the Twins tried their best. Below, WCCO has broken down all of the biggest sports stories of the year by team, with some miscellaneous news thrown in at the end for good measure. Read through to relive 2024 in all things Minnesota sports.

Timberwolves: A thrilling run, a stunning trade and a struggle for power

Perhaps no Minnesota team had a more eventful year than the Timberwolves. They were the best team in the NBA’s Western Conference for most of the 2023-2024 season, though some key late losses dropped them to the No. 3 seed entering the playoffs. Once the postseason began, the Wolves were on the warpath, earning their first-ever series sweep against the Phoenix Suns.

In the second round, the young Wolves looked to be outmatched when they went down 3-2 to the reigning champion Denver Nuggets. But two straight wins — including the largest Game 7 comeback in NBA playoff history — put them in the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2004. 

That’s where the magic ended, unfortunately, as the Wolves fell to the Dallas Mavericks in five games. But regardless of the ending, the Wolves gave fans the most exciting season in 20 years. Rudy Gobert won Defensive Player of the Year, Naz Reid won Sixth Man of the Year and head coach Chris Finch earned a contract extension.

Oh yeah, and all of this came amid an ownership dispute after Glen Taylor surprisingly reneged on a deal with e-commerce billionaire Marc Lore and baseball legend Alex Rodriguez. Taylor claimed Lore and Rodriguez missed the deadline for the final payment, which the pair disputed, and the two sides are currently in arbitration to settle the matter.

Onto next season. A week before it started, the Wolves shocked fans and the basketball world by trading franchise stalwart Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick. The long-term outcome remains to be seen, but Towns has been stellar in New York this year, while Randle and DiVincenzo have struggled while the Wolves hover in the middle of the Western Conference standings.

Vikings: New QBs, a superstar contract and a season to remember

The Vikings’ year has been defined by three quarterbacks: Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy.

After six seasons, Cousins left the Vikings in free agency to sign with the Atlanta Falcons. The Vikings made two moves to replace their longtime starter: signing Darnold, a former first-round pick who flamed out with the New York Jets and had been relegated to career backup; and drafting McCarthy in the first round out of Michigan.

All summer, the Vikings said they planned to start Darnold while McCarthy learned from the sideline. Whether that was posturing or not, their hand was forced when McCarthy suffered a meniscus injury in his first preseason game (after giving fans hope with two touchdown passes). He’ll have to wait for 2025 to take the reins.

If Darnold will surrender them, that is. Through 15 games, Darnold has led the Vikings to a 13-2 record while throwing for 3,776 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He’s been helped greatly by another outstanding season from wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who in June signed the largest non-QB contract in NFL history with the Vikings. Darnold is on a one-year deal and is likely to earn a rich contract of his own from a QB-needy team this offseason. 

The QB carousel came full circle when Darnold threw five touchdowns in the Vikings’ 42-21 win over Cousins and Atlanta. Cousins threw zero TDs and two interceptions in the loss.

Though it’s been a mostly rosy year for the Vikings, the franchise has also been touched by tragedy. In July, rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson was killed, along with two others, in a crash in Maryland. The fourth-round pick was 24 years old.

Then, in early December, franchise legend Randy Moss stepped away from his broadcasting job at ESPN due to an undisclosed health issue. Moss later revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer and spent six days in the hospital, during which time he underwent surgery. The Vikings brought out Cris Carter and Jake Reed, who formed the famous “Three Deep” receiving corps with Moss, to honor him before a Monday night win over the Chicago Bears.

Lynx: A star turn, a finals run and the return of an old friend

Buoyed by Napheesa Collier’s entrance into best-in-the-league conversations, the Lynx made an unexpected run to the WNBA Finals. They fell just short, losing to the New York Liberty in Game 5 — though if you ask head coach Cheryl Reeve, what would have been the franchise’s record fifth championship was “stolen” from them. In a postgame screed, Reeve ranted about what she believed was unbalanced officiating in the deciding matchup.

Reeve was named Coach of the Year, while Collier earned Defensive Player of the Year and finished second in MVP voting.

This offseason, Reeve added two big names to her coaching staff in hopes of making another run: former Washington Mystics coach Eric Thibault and Lindsay Whalen, one of the franchise’s best players and a Minnesota basketball icon.

Wild: Flowering under new coach as Fleury breaks records

The Wild’s previous season was one to forget, with head coach Dean Evason getting canned after 19 games and replaced with John Hynes. Now, in Hynes’ first full season at the helm, the team is thriving.

With Kirill Kaprizov playing at an MVP level, the Wild were among the NHL’s best a quarter of the way through the season. But a rash of injuries has put their dream season on pause, at least for the time being. 

Meanwhile, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury — the league’s oldest player — officially passed Patrick Roy for most games played by a goalie and is third among all players in NHL history. In January, in the middle of last season, Fleury became the second-winningest goalie of all time with 552 wins.

Twins: Home run sausage, hometown team for sale

The Twins, regrettably but not unexpectedly, followed the most exciting season in years with a real clunker. Instead of building on the success of the team’s first playoff series win since the early aughts, the Twins cut payroll and were justly rewarded with a fourth-place finish in the AL Central.

The season wasn’t without its fun moments — the team marked a midseason winning streak with a home run sausage, prompting this incredible quote from catcher Ryan Jeffers: 

“It’s the idea of the sausage. It’s the meaning behind the sausage,” Jeffers said. “We’re going to learn more about the sausage as the games go by.” 

On top of that, hometown kid and Twins legend Joe Mauer entered the Baseball Hall of Fame, saying it was “truly an honor to be a [Minnesota Twin] and represent my hometown team.”

After the season, the Pohlad family, which has owned the Twins for 40 years, announced it would “explore a sale” of the franchise. 

Minnesota brings home PWHL championship

Minnesota’s PWHL franchise — at the time unnamed, but dubbed the Frost since — won the league’s inaugural championship, bringing the Walter Cup, rightfully, to the State of Hockey. The twist came after the season, when the architect of the championship team, general manager Natalie Darwitz, was ousted following a previously unrevealed league review. The team replaced Darwitz with former AHL executive Melissa Caruso.

The team’s new moniker was unveiled in September, along with its logo and uniforms. 

St. Paul native Suni Lee wins gold with Team USA

After publicly revealing twin health challenges — eczema and a kidney condition — Lee toughed it out to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Lee won a gold medal with Team USA in the women’s gymnastics team finals, as well as bronzes in individual all-around and uneven bars.

In October, Glamour named Lee one of its Women of the Year.

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