Joe Ingles is in the twilight of his NBA career. After a very successful eight-year run with the Utah Jazz ended with a torn ACL, he has spent the past three years as a journeyman. After a year each with the Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic, he is now a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and entering Friday, he had played only 108 minutes across 18 appearances on the season.
Yet when the Timberwolves tipped off against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, Ingles was in the starting lineup. That wasn’t due to injury. Minnesota’s standard starters were all available and participated in the 134-93 blowout over the Pelicans. This wasn’t a basketball decision either. Minnesota has won nine of its last 11 games and has not reason to force a change. No, the decision to start Ingles was made by head coach Chris Finch for a more wholesome reason.
According to The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski, the Ingles family has stayed behind in Orlando this season while Joe was playing in Minnesota. They are in town at the moment, though, and a week ago, a member of the family reached an important milestone. Ingles’ son Jacob, who is autistic, made it through his first ever NBA game in an arena last week. The only problem was that his father didn’t take the floor. With the Ingles family in attendance again on Friday, Finch made sure that Jacob got to see his dad by putting him in the starting lineup. When asked about the decision after the game, Finch got emotional.
“It was emotional,” Finch said. “Sometimes you’ve gotta do the human thing. We always talk about, all of these minutes matter, those minutes matter for another reason. Someone put it in my head today as an idea to make sure that Joe could see the floor. I figured if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it in style. Guys were behind it, and I think it gave us just the right boost that we needed, and change of energy. It’s not often that you get to do those things but we’re really happy that we could.”
Ingles was very appreciative of the gesture. “People get fired every day. You see coaches on three, four-year deals, players getting traded. It’s a brutal business. The fact that it even crossed his mind shows a lot,” he said. Ingles is one of the most popular teammates in the NBA, so his teammates were surely happy to give him such an important moment. Ingles has been an advocate for autism awareness since his son’s diagnosis, and on Friday, the Timberwolves helped not only give him and his son a memory that will last a lifetime, but spread awareness that could help and inspire plenty of other families who follow the NBA.
