The Minnesota Timberwolves demolished the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of their Western Conference Finals series on Saturday night, but before tipoff, Minnesota rookie and former Illinois basketball star Terrence Shannon Jr. paid tribute to his college coach.
Shannon entered the Target Center that night wearing the popular “Bradimir” t-shirt that references Brad Underwood's penchant for pulling in talent from eastern Europe.
The rookie played two seasons for the Illini after transferring from Texas Tech. In his final season, 2023-24, he averaged 23.0 points per game and led Illinois to the Elite Eight. As a pro, he played 32 regular season games for Minnesota in year one, averaging 4.3 points and 1.5 rebounds per game.
He had one of the best games of his NBA career so far in Game 3, a 143-101 Timberwolves win, scoring 15 points in 13 minutes. He did his damage on 5-8 shooting and added two rebounds, an assist and a steal.
“We needed some physicality out there,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said after the game. “Just kind of a different type of player than we have in other positions. So we kind of knew coming into the game that we were gonna get to him. I think that's what we're gonna do.”
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The Bradimir meme took off when Illinois brought in Cal basketball transfer Andrej Stojakovic earlier this month. As CBS Sports' Matt Norlander noted at the time, it gave the Illini five players on their roster with a last name ending in -ic.
Underwood himself appears in on the joke. After Stojakovic committed, he changed his profile picture on X to an AI version of himself that made him look like a character straight out of Grand Theft Auto IV.
“Today in college basketball: The head coach of Illinois is posting AI-rendered images of himself in Balkan Cold War-era aesthetic after he landed a fifth commitment from player whose last name ends in ‘ic,'” Norlander wrote in a quoted post of Underwood's new pic.
Illinois also added Arkansas transfer Zvonimir Ivisic, or “Big Z” as the Croatia native is known, earlier in the offseason.
The Illini have made five straight trips to the NCAA Tournament under Underwood (and it would have been six if the 2020 tournament wasn't canceled). The Illinois administration rewarded their men's basketball coach with a six-year contract extension on May 13.
