On Tuesday afternoon, Jefferson and the American Heart Association partnered to launch the “Get Healthy with Big Al” event at Anderson Elementary School in Minneapolis. The initiative was postponed last season due to the timing of Jefferson’s knee injury.
Jefferson weighed 293 pounds when his season ended in February because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. A few days after surgery, he began his diet of ham or turkey sandwiches from Subway — complete with lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables. For dinner, he had salads and soups.
Convinced he needed to lose weight to help rehabilitate his knee, Jefferson stuck with the diet after a “tough first couple of weeks.” He reported to the Wolves’ training camp weighing 262 pounds.
“When you start to notice the weight coming off, you get more motivated and you work harder at it,” Jefferson said. “I can really feel the difference. It’s a lot easier for me running up and down the court with these young guys we have.”
It may be tough for Mr. Jefferson — who already endorses Reebok — to extract a big endorsement deal when he’s already extolling the virtues of Subway for free, but it seems only fair that the chain starts comping some of those ham-and-turkey subs, no?
“That’s something he couldn’t have done a week ago,” Rambis said. “He can do that now. I’ve said it before, he has a chance to be a very special player.”
Flynn has played 49 minutes in the first two preseason games — he started both — with mixed results. He didn’t make a field goal until the third quarter of his second game, but made 14 of 15 free throws and had seven assists in the preseason-opening victory over Milwaukee. He scored 14 points in each game, but had one assist and five turnovers in Friday’s ugly loss to Toronto and didn’t gather any steam until Raptors reserve Marcus Banks took over for starter Jose Calderon.
Pecherov, recovering from a broken bone in his left hand, has practiced this week. Rambis said he might play Pecherov, depending on the recommendation from team doctors. The Ukraine native came to the Wolves from Washington in the trade for Randy Foye and Mike Miller.
# Rookie shooting guard Wayne Ellington (sprained ankle) practiced Tuesday but did not compete in the entire scrimmage. His availability tonight is uncertain.
# Rambis plans to wait until after the next three exhibition games before making any roster cuts. The Wolves have 16 players on the roster, one over the NBA maximum for the regular season.
Percy Harvin has a big fan here in Minnesota. Former Florida basketball player and current Timberwolves guard Cory Brewer.
“I knew him a little bit. We were on campus together for a whole year. Percy is a good guy … he’s helping us right now, you see the Vikings are rolling right now,” said Brewer.
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