MINNEAPOLIS — About two hours before his basketball life changed in dramatic fashion, Donte DiVincenzo had a huge smile on his face as he walked back to the locker room after his normal pregame warm-up routine.He beamed proudly at Minnesota Timberwolves public relations leader Aaron Freeman when he told them that he persuaded the in-arena DJ to play a couple of country songs while he was getting up some shots. This was quintessential DiVincenzo. Hip-hop dominates the soundtrack at Target Center, both before and during games, and that’s fine with DiVincenzo. But there is a mischievous side to him, one that delights in mixing it up.It was Game 4 of the first round against the Denver Nuggets. The Timberwolves were up 2-1 against their bitter rivals, and there was DiVincenzo, playing pranks and laughing devilishly. It spoke to the comfort he had found in Minnesota, with this team, and the level he had reached in his eighth season in the NBA.And then, just like that, it was over. Not even 90 seconds into that pivotal game, DiVincenzo felt a bite at his ankle and calf when he took a negative step trying to chase down an offensive rebound. He knew what had happened, but he needed to ask one question to the athletic trainers and medical personnel gathering around him.“Just tell me,” DiVincenzo said to David Hines and Erin Sierer, the Wolves’ two highest-ranking athletic trainers. “Was there somebody around me?”When they told him there was no one near him, his biggest fears were confirmed. No one nicked him with their shoe while contesting his shot. No one made contact with him as he moved toward the loose ball. His Achilles tendon was ruptured. As Sierer and Hines each got under one of DiVincenzo’s arms and helped him off the court, the gravity of what happened, and the long road ahead, started to sink in.“Once I got to the back of the tunnel, that’s when my emotions started going through my head,” DiVincenzo said. “And once I sat in the back, that’s when all the questions, the doubts, the not understanding why me and all that, that’s when that all hit.”His family met him in the locker room, and they cried together. DiVincenzo was playing some of the best basketball of his career. There were seasons when he shot the ball better from 3-point range. There were seasons when he scored more points. There was the magical run at Madison Square Garden with the New York Knicks two years ago.But in his second season in Minnesota, the 29-year-old DiVincenzo had reached the idealized version of himself. He started all 82 games in the regular season, gave the offense some spacing by shooting nearly eight 3s per game and emerged as the fighter of a too-often timid group. DiVincenzo was the one playing through a broken nose. DiVincenzo was the one consistently diving on the floor for loose balls. DiVincenzo was the one who looked like he cared.“I think people just see shooting with Donte, but really it’s his toughness and competitive spirit that will be most missed,” president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said.That is why coach Chris Finch met DiVincenzo on the floor as he hobbled out of Game 4 and hugged him. That is why Finch got choked up after the game, nearly shedding a tear as he talked about the impact DiVincenzo made.“He’s the heart and soul of so many things that we do,” Finch said after Game 4.It is far too early in the recovery process to predict when DiVincenzo will return to action. Tearing an Achilles tendon is among the most serious injuries in the game, often keeping players out for a year or more. Boston’s Jayson Tatum returned in less than 10 months, but that is considered an outlier. Still, DiVincenzo is trying to follow Tatum’s lead. He flew to New York for surgery less than 24 hours after suffering the injury, following a similar timeline that Tatum went through. DiVincenzo has spoken to Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton and Damian Lillard, all of whom have recently suffered the same injury, about their recoveries.“I just asked a million questions, and they’ve all helped me in different ways,” DiVincenzo said. “But all their journeys are different.”Several within the Timberwolves organization believe DiVincenzo could return at some point next season. The question is how much can he be expected to give? Tatum played remarkably well after returning this season, but he suffered a couple of injuries to his calf and knee in the playoffs and missed Boston’s Game 7 loss to Philadelphia. Haliburton, who was injured in the NBA Finals last season, did not play this year for Indiana. Lillard did not play for Portland this season after tearing his Achilles in the first round of the 2025 playoffs with Milwaukee.“He’s attacking rehab exactly how you’d think he would attack rehab,” Connelly said. “He had surgery 24 hours within the injury. We think he’s going to be back. We don’t know when.”It is a delicate, complicated issue for the Timberwolves. First and foremost, the injury is terrible for DiVincenzo on a personal level. He was playing great basketball, is entering the final year of his contract and was in line for a lucrative new deal. Now, all of that could be put on hold while he goes through a long, arduous rehab process. Even if he returns next season, he will likely have little time to show the Wolves and the rest of the NBA what he can do before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2027.It also hurts the Timberwolves in ways beyond just losing an emotional leader, hard-nosed competitor and great shooter. He is set to make $12.5 million next season. From a pure accounting standpoint, his salary will go from being one of the better values in the NBA in comparison to his production to one that sits on their books with no return until he comes back. Theoretically, it could be used to help match incoming salary for a big trade, but the Wolves feel a real connection to DiVincenzo and are determined to help him rehab his injury.At the same time, the team needs to replace what he brings to the table while realizing that there may be no replacing everything he brought.“He’s trying to get back as soon as possible, and I think he’s going to have a great recovery, the way he’s treating it and the attitude he has about it, getting right, getting better, it’s just great to see,” Jaden McDaniels said. “I mean, we all love Donte. Hopefully he’s going to have a speedy recovery.”As emotional as those early moments were for DiVincenzo and his family after the injury, they quickly subsided. There was no time to waste feeling sorry for himself, so it was time to get to work. He said by the morning after Game 4, he was ready to roll.“I went through those emotions of feeling sad for myself initially,” he said. “It was healthy, and I think once I flipped that page, it just put me in the right mindset of just getting around the guys, and the last three weeks of being around these guys have really helped me because as soon as we got back, we started doing rehab, we just started doing stuff.”A few days after his surgery, DiVincenzo was wheeling around the team’s practice facility with a smile on his face. He sat on the bench for the stirring Game 6 win that eliminated the Nuggets on a night that started with each one of his teammates showing up to the arena in his jersey. Being around his teammates and seeing how much he meant to them was as much a part of his therapy as anything else.“It’s going to get easier and easier as I can progress, but these initial phases of resting and healing are the toughest because of somebody who needs to be doing something constantly,” DiVincenzo said. “So for me, that was me doing something constantly, just being in the locker room, being on the plane, being on the bus, joking with these guys.”His recovery has just started, but in some ways, DiVincenzo may be through the most difficult part. He wallowed in the misery of a season lost. He gritted his teeth as the Timberwolves lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the second round, knowing his spacing and his defense were sorely missed.But he has felt the love of the organization, his teammates and the Wolves fans who are lifting him up. Not long after the injury, he was presented with a get-well-soon card signed by season-ticket holders. In two short years, he has stitched himself into the fabric of this team and this city.And he can’t wait to be back.“Just knowing that you’re being thought of, you’re loved, it helps you, it gives you the motivation to want to get back,” DiVincenzo said. “There’s nothing more that motivates me than trying to get in front of and play in front of our fans.”