<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Other free agents get the midnight calls. Mark Madsen sleeps like a baby. Madsen knows his place in the NBA's pecking order of desirability: Big dogs eat first, medium-sized dogs eat next and "Mad Dogs" wait. Coming off a minimum- salary contract and a season that ended prematurely because of wrist surgery, Madsen knew he wouldn't be the first player NBA general managers called when the market for free agents officially opened Friday. To his credit, though, he wasn't the last. In the first 24 hours, Madsen's agent, Arn Tellum, had heard from Atlanta, Houston, Portland and Utah, in addition to the Wolves. More calls likely would come. Rather than a let's-get-this-done pitch, though, teams wanted to express interest in the 6-9 forward, then put him on the back burner while they addressed other needs. Madsen is a role player, a hustle guy and hardly anyone's top priority. And he knows it. "Right now, as a third-tier free agent, I just have to wait," he said by phone Friday. "My thing is going to be patience. I know how this works. "When I went through it with L.A., Phil [Jackson] called and told me, 'You're our No. 2 choice.' They were talking to Horace Grant. And if [Wolves VP] Kevin McHale calls me and says the same thing because they've got a chance to get Elton Brand or Kenyon Martin, I'll understand. "He wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't," Madsen said.</div> Source
