Reusse: A search for parallels to Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards leads to Randy Moss — without the snarl

There are few comparables in Minnesota’s modern pro sports history to the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards. That combination of immediate excellence, dynamic moments followed by bad decisions, and a team built around him that must ride the waves.

We’re talking enigmatic greatness here, and the equivalent that comes to mind would be the first seven seasons of Randy Moss with the Vikings from 1998 to 2004.

You’re right: It’s impossible accurately to compare a great athlete playing 16-game seasons and another playing 82-game seasons.

And there’s another big difference: By all accounts, Edwards’ instinct is to get along with outsiders in a professional setting (other than occasional refs), and Moss took pleasure in treating many people poorly during his playing days.

When coach Chris Finch has had a public moment of unhappiness with Edwards, Ant has shrugged it off and said, “That’s Finchy.” Moss’ attitude toward authority often was 180 degrees from that.

The fact Randy was able to transform his personae into a contributor on ESPN football panels is an enormous upset for a large share of media people who dealt with him as a Viking. This covered both Twin Cities and other reporters, including the amazing Thanksgiving Day in his rookie season of 1998.

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That still was a time when major newspapers had national football writers — meaning, they would cover the biggest games around the country in the regular season.

Moss caught his long touchdown passes in Dallas that day, and reporters from L.A., New York, Washington, etc., assembled at Randy’s locker to ask a few questions before paying homage to this phenomenal rookie in print.

He blew ’em off in crude fashion.

Go forward in time a quarter-century and put Edwards in that situation, after a hellacious, winning performance, he would entertain with Ant-isms.

This is where it must be pointed out that Moss left his ESPN duties this season for cancer treatment, and he’s now back. Watching an athlete perform amazing feats and then turn miserable in a postgame locker room has no carryover in rooting for a youngish man (Randy is 48) to defeat cancer.

The theory here often has been that Vikings fandom can be divided into two segments:

A: The old-timers who went through four Super Bowl losses in the 1970s and have been pessimists by training.

B: The younger folks, even the kids, who fell in love with Moss and the ’98 Vikings, and matured into perpetual Purple optimists, as well as apologists when the situation requires.

There is very early evidence that Edwards is having the same impact with the Timberwolves audience.

Kevin Garnett was the team’s first superstar and by far the franchise’s most popular player until Ant came along. Garnett took the Wolves to the Western Conference finals in 2004 and was voted as the league’s MVP.

The next home season opened with an announced crowd of 17,295 vs. the New York Knicks and then two games in the 15,000s.

Edwards’ stardom became official last season when he led the Wolves to their second Western Conference finals. There have been bargain promotions at times this season, but the team has been able to announce an 18,978 sellout for the 31 home games.

Ant has his issues, for sure. There is the problem with referees that now has started costing him games. There are those threes at the end of winnable games that by now we expect him to miss.

What you won’t see, though, would be Edwards mailing it in during a conference final, as did Moss in the infamous “41-Donut” game against a very beatable New York Giants team in January 2001.

Finch played and then coached for years in Europe. He was an NBA assistant after that. He’s a 56-year-old basketball lifer and was asked Tuesday if he had coached a player who brings the attitude to a team as does Edwards.

The coach was given permission to put someone playing for him in England or Belgium in that category.

Finch thought for a moment, gave a negative nod and said:

“Not someone as joyous. He’s always in a good mood. Especially once the basketball starts.”

Ant and the Wolves found themselves in another of those battles against an undermanned opponent in the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday at Target Center.

There were some empty seats up high, but it was another sellout and the pregame clatter was considerable.

Then, the Wolves lineup was introduced and the roar for Edwards was the loudest by double. He’s our Second Coming of Randy Moss, without the youthful snarl.