Matt Lloyd counted afterwards. The general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves said his wife had asked him how many times Jonathan Kuminga’s agent had called him, and that he went to check his phone.
“My wife asked me at one point, ‘How many times has he called you?’ She was referencing Jonathan Kuminga’s agent. ‘How many times have you been on the phone with him since the middle of July?’ So I said, ‘Okay, I will look, and we went through my phone,’ and we had 94 phone calls between July 15th to the day we signed Jonathan,” he said in an interview with the Minnesota Star-Tribune.
At the end of the 94 calls, a two-year, 13 million dollar contract. Kuminga had become an unrestricted free agent after Atlanta declined his team option for 2026-27. Last season, in 36 games between Atlanta and Golden State, he averaged 12.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists, shooting 46.3% from the field and 33.3% from three.
Lloyd also names Anthony Edwards, “really instrumental in recruiting him to come here”, then Chris Finch, Tim Connelly and Alonzo Gee, who is on the staff. Kuminga signed in Minnesota even though a more generous offer from the Lakers was reported.
Ninety-four calls, and nobody had counted them until someone asked. That is the part that interests me. At our table we write it down while it happens: the minute, the foul, the time-out, and at the end the two captains sign, and after that nobody goes back over it. He reopened his phone the way you reopen a folder in June. I am not saying it is false. I am saying it is not a sheet, it is a memory. I will note it anyway: ninety-four calls, one contract signed, no dispute. It’s on the sheet.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
