"On his way out from work last Saturday, Chris Wright stepped onto the sidewalk outside Target Center and joined the downstream flow of humanity exiting the arena after the fourth basketball sellout of this young season.

The Timberwolves president crossed the street and passed the First Avenue nightclub, where an early concert had just ended. Then he walked down the block and met the confluence of the theater crowd leaving the Orpheum.

"To see all these people ... it's the way downtown Minneapolis on a Saturday night should be," he said. "It was breathtaking."

This from a guy whose job -- selling Timberwolves tickets -- was, not long ago, not all that far up the list from Brazilian mosquito researcher.

After seven losing seasons, the Timberwolves have lost one more game than they have won (13-14) so far with a promising, star-driven team that people from Europe to 1st Avenue N. want to see play.

They've sold out four times as many games as they did each of the last two seasons (one), sold more merchandise in their first 13 home games than they did in 41 last year and have the NBA's largest increase in year-over-year attendance: 10.9 percent. They're averaging 16,912 a game, and drew 17,119 Friday night.

And they've done it despite a labor lockout that shut down the league's operations from July to December, delayed the season by two months and shortened it from 82 games to a condensed, hectic 66-game schedule.

"Well, who woulda thunk?" Wright asked. "Suddenly, we've become the place to be again.""