Question: in what year did the Minnesota Pipers become the Minnesota Timberwolves?

Context articles: 1967–68 Minnesota Muskies season
George Sutor
1989 NBA Expansion Draft
1968–69 Minnesota Pipers season
Jim Kissane
Minnesota Timberwolves all-time roster
Willie Porter
Karl-Anthony Towns
1968–69 ABA season
Minnesota Timberwolves

The 1967–68 Minnesota Muskies season was the first and only season of the Muskies in the newly created American Basketball Association.
 The team was created on February 2, 1967 for the price of $30,000 to L.P. Shields and Fred Jefferson.
 The team was named after a nickname for the Muskellunge, which is a fish found in Minnesota.
 The team did well on the court, finishing 2nd to the Pipers in the Eastern Division.
 In the playoffs, they made it to the Division Finals, but the Muskies lost in 5 games to the Pipers.
 However, this proved to be the only season for the Muskies due to losing money (reportedly $400,000) with middling attendance with minimal season tickets purchased (In the five playoff games played in Minnesota, they averaged 3,511 in attendance, with the highest being 8,357 for Game 3 of the Division Finals and the lowest being 661 for Game 1 of the Semifinals).
 A plan to play 9 games of next season in places around Minnesota and a television contract were curtailed, and the Muskies moved to Miami on May 24, 1968.
 However, basketball in Minnesota would not be curtailed for long, as the Pittsburgh Pipers moved to play in the same location
George Joseph Sutor (September 14, 1943 – August 29, 2011) was a professional basketball center who played three seasons in the American Basketball Association as a member of the Kentucky Colonels (1967–68), the Minnesota Pipers (1968–69), the Carolina Cougars (1969–70), and the Miami Floridians (1969–70).
 He attended La Salle University.
The 1989 NBA Expansion Draft was the ninth expansion draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
 The draft was held on June 15, 1989, so that the newly founded Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic could acquire players for the upcoming 1989–90 season.
 Minnesota and Orlando had been awarded the expansion teams on April 22, 1987.
 In an NBA expansion draft, new NBA teams are allowed to acquire players from the previously established teams in the league.
 Not all players on a given team are available during an expansion draft, since each team can protect a certain number of players from being selected.
 In this draft, each of the twenty-three other NBA teams had protected eight players from their roster and the Timberwolves and the Magic selected eleven and twelve unprotected players respectively, one from each team.
 Last year's expansion teams, the Charlotte Hornets and the Miami Heat, were not involved in the expansion draft and did not lose any player.
 Prior to the draft, the league conducted a coin flip between the Timberwolves and the Magic to decide their draft order in this expansion draft and in the 1989 NBA draft.
 The Magic won the coin flip and chose to have the first selection and the right to select twelve players in this expansion draft, thus allowing the Timberwolves to receive the higher pick in the 1989 Draft.
The 1968–69 Minnesota Pipers season was the only season of the Pipers in Minnesota and second overall season in the American Basketball Association.
 The previous season, the Pipers had won the ABA Finals, but moved the team from Pittsburgh to Minnesota (which had just lost the Muskies) after the season.
 But the Pipers were not any more successful in Minnesota, and they moved back to Pittsburgh before next season.
 The team went through three coaches: Harding, who was fired after attacking the Pipers Chairman Gabe Rubin at the banquet of the All-Star Game.
 Mikkelsen (the general manager) took over for a while before Verl Young took the job permanently.
 Hawkins, Williams, Vaughn, and Heyman were nagged by injuries due to long practices, which affected the team, which fell in the Semifinals to the Miami Floridians.
 Minnesota would not have a pro basketball team again until 1989 with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
James J. Kissane, Jr. (born August 17, 1946) is an American former professional basketball player.
 He played in the American Basketball Association for the Minnesota Pipers in just two games during the 1968–69 season.
 He scored six points and grabbed three rebounds total.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
 They are a member of the Northwest Division of the NBA's Western Conference.
 In order to persuade the NBA to give Minnesota a team, Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner, the future owners of the organization, conducted a "name the team" contest and eventually selected two finalists, the "Timberwolves" and the "Polars", in December 1986.
 The team then asked the 842 city councils in Minnesota to select the winner, as the "Timberwolves" prevailed.
 Minnesota was given a team, and took part in the 1989 NBA Expansion Draft with the Orlando Magic.
 The Timberwolves have since made eight playoff appearances, advancing to the Western Conference finals once during the 2003–04 NBA season, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.
 Since the franchise's inception, 198 players have made an appearance in a competitive game for the team.
Willie William Porter (born July 3, 1942 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is a retired professional basketball power forward who played two seasons (1967–68) in the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a member of the Oakland Oaks, Pittsburgh Pipers, Minnesota Pipers and the Houston Mavericks.
 He attended Tennessee State University where he was selected by the Cincinnati Royals during the 16 round of the 1965 NBA draft.
Karl-Anthony Towns Jr. (born November 15, 1995) is a Dominican-American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
 He played college basketball for the University of Kentucky.
 Towns was named to the Dominican Republic national basketball team Olympic squad as a 16-year-old, although the Dominican Republic ultimately did not qualify for the 2012 Olympics.
 He was selected with the first overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and went on to be named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 2015–16 season.
The 1968–69 ABA season was the second season for the American Basketball Association.
 Two teams relocated: Minnesota Muskies became the Miami Floridians.
 The Pittsburgh Pipers moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Pipers.
 Two others relocated within their territory.
 The Anaheim Amigos became the Los Angeles Stars.
 The New Jersey Americans became the New York Nets.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
 The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member club of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division.
 Founded in 1989, the team is owned by Glen Taylor.
 The Timberwolves play their home games at Target Center, their home since 1990.