Some 25 years after he first played for Flip Saunders in the Continental Basketball Association, former Timberwolves player and coach Sidney Lowe reunited with the team's new head coach once again on Friday, when Lowe officially was named to Saunders' staff.
This will be his fourth time working for Saunders as an assistant coach. He worked for him twice before with the Wolves more than a decade ago, and they spent one season together in Detroit as well.
Lowe is the first officially named assistant to a staff that also will include former Wolves player Sam Mitchell and Saunders' son, Ryan.
Lowe, 54, was an NBA head coach for nearly four full seasons with the Wolves and Vancouver/Memphis and coached alma mater North Carolina State for five seasons, too.
He spent last season as an assistant to former Wolves teammate Ty Corbin in Utah. In December, Lowe pleaded guilty to tax-evasion charges in North Carolina, where he was placed on 36 months of unsupervised probation and ordered to pay $81,000 in restitution and a fine.
Lowe said Friday the chance to work again with Saunders trumped any other opportunities he had.
"He asked me what did I think, and I said I'm coming, no matter what," Lowe said. "It doesn't matter who calls, I'm coming. That's my belief in him, my trust in him, my loyalty to him and our friendship.
''It doesn't matter what was out there. When he called me back, it was done."