On the heels of a winning season that lifted a 20-year curse, united Minnesotans and activated downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly has been selected by Twin Cities Business as Person of the Year, 2024.

Connelly was hired as Timberwolves president of basketball operations in mid-2022 and quickly engineered major trades which changed the nature of the Wolves roster. Those changes catapulted the team from decades of underperformance to among the league’s elite and brought the Wolves only their second deep playoff run in their history.

The Wolves are among the favorites to win the NBA’s Western Conference for the coming ’24-’25 season.

Connelly will be featured in the December/January print issue of Twin Cities Business. His leadership will also be recognized during an event on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at the Metropolitan in Golden Valley. At the same event, TCB will reveal the people selected for the TCB 100 list for 2025 (see the TCB 100 for 2024). These are the leaders expected to make news in and around business in the year ahead.

Last year, nVent CEO Beth Wozniak was honored as TCB’s Person of the Year.