is to sell tickets to the Wolves' fan base, which is overwhelmingly short and does not want to watch bad basketball played by short people with zero game. "Patently false,'' said David Kahn, Wolves president of basketball operations. He and other Timberwolves executives instead call it a purposeful plan to scour the globe for the best large humans they can possibly obtain. They will start the season with tall players from Russia, Montenegro, Spain and Puerto Rico, a total of five international players among a group that also includes several tall American-born players. Included is injured All-Star Kevin Love, a great American-born tall rebounder -- a commonplace species in the league -- but not in the general population. When everyone's healthy, the Wolves will start Love alongside tall Europeans Ricky Rubio, Andrei Kirilenko , Nikola Pekovic and tall American Brandon Roy, a three-time former All-Star who in attempting a retirement comeback on degenerative knees is their only tall starter without fully functional lower extremities. Roy said he never noticed the distinction until a friend mentioned it after he signed as a free agent with the Wolves in July. "It's just basketball," Roy said. "I never really had to feel like I'm the only tall guy out here without functional leg joints. I've played on teams that maybe had all tall guys with operational cartilage and the feeling is just the same when I'm out there on the floor playing with these guys. "The only problem we have is in the