The Star Tribune sports staff gathered for its weekly pandemic-coping Virtual Happy Hour on Wednesday and set about drafting the Top 20 draft choices by Minnesota teams.
Top 20 Minnesota draft picks: We chose them during our Virtual Happy Hour
April 23, 2020 at 12:32PM
Had to be a team taking a player, not a Minnesota player being drafted by an out-of-state team. Sorry, Kevin McHale. (And we could have argued well into the night about whether Dave Winfield would have counted, considering that he was taken by the Vikings in the 17th round of the 1973 NFL draft before going on to his Hall of Fame baseball career.)
You knew who was going to get drafted near the top. But the order among the best of the best was upon to question. Randy Moss of the Vikings? Joe Mauer or Kirby Puckett of the Twins? Maya Moore of the Lynx?
No, it was Kevin Garnett of the Timberwolves.
By the end of the draft, we had six Vikings in our Top 20, with a bit of a surprise about the last among the six. The group also dips into the American basketball Association, in which a Minnesota team has a brief run, and includes a player who has yet to make an appearance in Minnesota.
Here's the list. And you can see the reactions to those picks and all of our Virtual happy Hour conversation, by clicking here.
No. 1: Kevin Garnett, Timberwolves, 1995. (Michael Rand, senior digital writer)
No. 2: Joe Mauer, Twins, 2001. (Jeff Day, copy editor)
No. 3: Randy Moss, Vikings, 1998. (Ken Chia, copy editor)
No. 4: Alan Page, Vikings, 1967. (Chip Scoggins, columnist)
No. 5: Kirby Puckett, Twins, 1982. (Marcus Fuller, college basketball writer)
No. 6: Maya Moore, Lynx, 2011. (Jerry Zgoda, soccer and golf writer)
No. 7: Mike Modano, North Stars, 1988. (Chris Miller, pro sports editor)
No. 8: Fran Tarkenton, Vikings, 1961. (Randy Johnson, Puck Drop editor)
No. 9: Neal Broten, North Stars, 1979. (Howard Sinker, digital sports editor)
No. 10: Elgin Baylor, Minneapolis Lakers, 1958.(Sinker)
No. 11: Randall McDaniel, Vikings, 1988. (Johnson)
No. 12: Justin Morneau, Twins, 1999. (Miller)
No. 13: Mel Daniels, Minnesota Muskies, 1967. (Zgoda)
No. 14: Carl Eller, Vikings, 1964. (Fuller)
No. 15: Kent Hrbek, Twins, 1978. (Scoggins)
No. 16: Matt Birk, Vikings, 1998. (Chia)
No. 17: Ricky Rubio, Timberwolves, 2009. (Day)
No. 18: Kirill Kaprizov, Wild, 2016. (Rand)
No. 19: Adrian Peterson, Vikings, 2007. (Rand)
No. 20: Brent Burns, Wild, 2003. (Miller)
about the writer
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
