"I'm 60 years old," he said, laughing. "I don't know if I'm going to live to be 95. But in answer to your question, do I think? Yeah, I think it every year. Maybe this is the year. It's what keeps me coming back."

A healthy sense of optimism is a requisite when it comes to being a Wolves fan.

With eight playoff appearances and just one trip beyond the first round, the Wolves' 20-year history has provided far more spills than thrills. At times, even their most loyal supporters have been close to abandoning ship.

But they keep coming back.

Take Dan Lipschultz, a season-ticket holder since 1996-97 who grew up in Chicago rooting for the Bulls and, yes, the Cubs.

"So I know suffering," he said.

The arrival of Kevin Garnett in 1995 persuaded the Little Canada resident to buy in, and over the years Lipschultz started using his two tickets to entertain clients of his law firm.

In recent seasons, though, it became a case of diminishing returns.

"This was going to be my last year," he said. "You ask clients to go to a Wolves game, and several years ago the answer would have been 'yes.' Now you get, 'Well, I'm busy. I'm sorry.' Even a free Timberwolves game doesn't interest them. It's one thing to watch a team lose, but for quite a while there, especially early this year, they were just playing so poorly. At some point, I thought it's not worth the money or the time to watch that quality of play and then endure the ridicule at the same time."

That was then, though, and this is now.

After a 4-15 start under Randy Wittman, the Wolves won some of their wavering fans back with a 10-4 January under Western Conference coach of the month Kevin McHale.

"I was elated when the change happened, but I never expected it to be this good," Lipschutz said. "The Wolves have turned into a team that is a lot of fun to watch, even when they lose. They are not only playing much better, they are also playing a more fun brand of Basketball with a faster pace, more running and a lot more ball movement. Unless something really weird happens, I'll renew next year just based on what I've seen so far."

Same for Deb Larson, who had the foresight to buy her two seasons tickets before the 2003-04 season, when the Wolves advanced all the way to the Western Conference finals.

Like Lipschultz, the Plymouth resident and lifelong Minnesotan was on the fence heading into this make-or-break season.

"This was going to be the year for me," she said. "I sort of told myself at the beginning of the season that the team was going to have to do two things: one, to get better in the standings and win more games, and second of all, play some watchable Basketball before I would renew again. And I'll tell you, the first 19, 20 games of the season, it sure looked like this was going to be it for me. But I really do like them now. It's just a completely different team."

All three hard-core fans are in agreement that they would like to see McHale return as coach next season.

Where they split is whether he should be allowed to return to his former role of vice president of Basketball operations if he decides to hang up his clipboard.

"I have a feeling that I'm going to be in the minority here," Larson said. "I think he's done an OK job there. I'm sure you could probably nail him on some of his drafts and trades, but I was delighted, for example, when they traded O.J. Mayo's draft rights for Kevin Love and Mike Miller. That was causing me to dance around my house. I still have faith in Miller, and I like the composition of this team. I probably sound like I work for the PR department, but I'm kind of excited about this."

So is Burt, a huge Garnett fan who often wears a Boston Celtics shirt bearing Garnett's No. 5 to Wolves games.

But when it comes to McHale returning to the front office, Burt couldn't disagree more strongly.

"I'm not sure what Kevin McHale should do, but absolutely, positively, he should not go back to the front office," he said. "I've listened to Kevin McHale. I've been to three dinners and two luncheons and talked to Kevin personally and he's a great man, but I don't think he has the ability to build a Basketball organization and club of the caliber that we're trying to get to. I don't think he's capable of putting the whole package together all at one time."

Owner Glen Taylor will have the final say on that, but at the moment McHale the coach has all three Wolves fans feeling good about their team again and at least cautiously optimistic about the future.

Caution is another requisite when it comes to rooting for this franchise, which Burt has been doing unashamedly since Tony Campbell, Sam Mitchell and Pooh Richardson were running around the Metrodome for coach Bill Musselman during the Wolves' inaugural season.

"I'm a Timberwolves fan," Burt said. "People give me a rash of (grief) about it, but I don't care. I got over that a long time ago. If I go somewhere and they've lost 11 in a row, it's still fun. Sometimes that feels embarrassing, but they're still my team."