Tonight, all eyes will be on the Minnesota Timberwolves as they make the first overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Reporters and analysts have been trying to figure out for weeks who the Wolves will select with the No. 1 pick—most settling on either Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns—both excellent players who would improve the struggling Timberwolves. Okafor is a 19-year-old center for Duke who has won multiple National Player of the Year awards at the collegiate and high school levels. Towns, just one month older than Okafor, is a center for Kentucky who doesn’t fall short when it comes to his list of awards and accolades. However, the two have one key difference heading into the 2015 draft—Okafor has no interest playing for Minnesota and Towns does.

Now, it’s not really fair to say that Okafor has absolutely no interest in playing for Minnesota. However, multiple reports have surfaced that Okafor would ideally like to be bypassed by the Timberwolves and instead be drafted second by the Los Angeles Lakers. While he’s denied the reports, it’s not hard to see why he could have that opinion. We Minnesotans will support the Timberwolves through and through, but it’s no secret how they have faired over the past few years. Duke’s a perennial champion and so are the Lakers, so it’s not far-fetched that he would want to continue on that path. On the other hand, Mr. Towns has expressed his delight for possibly playing in Minnesota:

“It would be a blessing and an honor to even have a chance to play for Minnesota and be able to have the chance to play for a great organization and learn from a great mentor like Kevin Garnett,” he said to SNY.tv just over a month ago.

Towns’ desire to play for the Timberwolves makes him someone fans will want to root for. He’s a name you want on the back of your jersey. He’s someone you’ll want to head to Target Center to cheer on. Bringing back that fan connection is extremely important to a struggling team—especially since you could recently get four tickets to a Timberwolves game for under $50 which not only includes a free popcorn/ice cream but also includes free tickets to shoot a free throw on the court after the game.

So, there are two potential draft picks: Jahlil Okafor and Karl-Anthony Towns. Both are 19. Both are centers. Both will be great additions to any NBA team. Towns would love to play in Minnesota, Okafor’s not dead-set on the Twin Cities.

Who do you want for the Wolves?

Horseracing’s Triple Crown has only been achieved eleven times since its first winner in 1919. Of those twelve, only four have occurred since 1948—3 in the mid 1970s and then American Pharoah this past weekend. The media has been talking about how rare the Triple Crown is, but just how rare is it? Compared to other sports, is winning the Triple Crown really as profound as we all make it out to be?

Horseracing

The Triple Crown has been won 12 times in 97 years, or once every 8.0833 years.

Baseball

In Major League Baseball’s modern era, (1900-present) pitchers have thrown only 21 perfect games. That’s 21 perfect games in 115 years, or once every 5.476 years. Think about it this way, there are 4,860 chances for a perfect game in each year that has 162 games, meaning that there have only been 21 out of approximately 780,000 chances, or 0.00269% of the time.

Hockey

Only 60 times (44 players) has someone scored at least five goals in a single NHL game. Over the NHL’s existence, that’s one every 1.324 years.

Golf

With four major tournaments each year, you’d think this would occur more often, but only 25 times has a golfer won back-to-back majors. That’s 25 since 1860, or once every 6.16 years. 

Basketball

The NBA quadruple double, or when a player records at least 10 in four of these categories—points, assists, rebounds, steals, or blocked shots—in a single game has only been achieved four times since steals and blocked shots began being recorded in 1974. This is one quadruple double every 10.25 years.

Football

The Heisman trophy has been awarded each year since 1935, but only once did the same player win it in multiple years. Archie Griffin, who ended up playing for the Cincinnati Bengals, won it twice—1974 and 1975.

Achieving any of these feats would require different time, talents, and skill, and no one team or athlete is guaranteed at having equal chances of them occurring. We should consider the perceived rarity of this one incredible endeavor—the Triple Crown—and perhaps lend some of that awe, spectacle, and inspiration to others.

Congratulations to American Pharoah and his team on winning the Triple Crown!

What’s the secret to athletic success? People attribute their success to many things and it’s a helpful query to keep in mind when pondering greatness on a playing field. Kemba Walker, the University of Connecticut’s superstar point guard who helped win this year’s NCAA Championship, isn’t just a fantastic basketball player. Ask Kemba’s father, Kenya, the secret to his son’s success on the basketball court and he has an unusual answer, writes Aditi Kinkhabwala in a recent Wall Street Journal article: “The dancing.”

Kemba danced throughout his childhood, taking modern, jazz, and hip-hop classes as a youngster, and performing with his dance troupe throughout high school. Watch him move on the basketball court, and look for the dancer within. “It shows up in the way Walker contorts his body on reverses, shimmies through traffic and tap-steps around picks. It’s partly the net result of thousands of hours of practice, but it’s also a byproduct of his lithe feet and the flexibility that allows him to do the splits—something Walker always hated practicing in Patterson’s dance class,” writes Kinkhabwala.

Maybe you won’t rush out and sign up for ballet to improve your tennis game. But this is a point to ponder. What creates athletic success? While Kemba’s dancing had an impact on his success, we have to look deeper at his dancing to see what was really going on through it that contributed to his success. For Kemba, it appears his dancing was a path to helping him build his core fundamentals. We know that core fundamentals influence elite performance: hard work, good balance, intrinsic motivation, perfect practice, and confidence. Dancing for Kemba wasn’t just about the footwork and physical flexibility, it was also about the mental side of performance. While people want to attribute success to many things, and there is no doubt those things play a role, success for elite performers is truly about building the core fundamentals.