Flip Saunders: Sam Cassell's dance moves cost Timberwolves a championship in '04

Flip Saunders is blaming a lost conference championship from 2004 on some questionable dance moves.

Saunders, the Minnesota Timberwolves head coach, is pinning defeat in the Wolves-Los Angeles Lakers conference finals from over a decade ago on former guard Sam Cassell's creative celebration, according to Kent Youngblood of The Star Tribune.

Cassell is well-known for an interesting celebration that involved lowering his hands below his hips and emphasizing his ... nether regions. Saunders claims the move injured Cassell's hip, rendering him ineffective in the aforementioned conference finals:

We lost a championship by that. When (Cassell) did that he had an avulsion fracture in his hip. … So, from that perspective, I’ve always been against that type of thing.

Most recently, Wolves guard Kevin Martin was fined $15,000 by the league for imitating Cassell during the fourth quarter of a game against the Chicago Bulls.

Sorry for partying, Saunders.