There’s a good reason certain NBA teams fail to make headway
McHale out as Timberwolves coach
During 15 years in charge of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Kevin McHale forged two distinct reputations.
There was McHale the gifted teacher, beloved by players and staff for his relentlessly positive demeanor and an unending eagerness to share his wealth of basketball knowledge. Then there was McHale the mistake-prone executive, vilified by fans for a series of blunders and the failure to make his team into a consistent championship contender.
New president of basketball operations David Kahn dumped McHale as coach on Wednesday, praising him as a “great man” who deserves respect. But offered no specific reasons during a press conference for his decision, saying instead that “this is going to be a transition period. And with the changes that have occurred, and with the changes that are still going to come, it would have been difficult to put him in the middle of that again.”
McHale, a northern Minnesota native and Hall of Fame player who won three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s, met several times with Kahn before the decision was reached.
“I was willing to come back, but they never offered me a contract,” McHale told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “They told me last night they were going in a different direction. I said, ‘I think you’re making a mistake, but that’s up to you guys.”’
Players lamented the loss of the teacher.
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Wrap-up of McHale
After a day to think about it, my thoughts on the matter are kind of mixed. On one hand, I think McHale has the goods to be an outstanding NBA coach. He is, as Kahn mentioned several times during the press conference, a fantastic communicator and he seemingly has a wonderful way with NBA ego management. We also know that he’s a let’s-take-care-of-it-in-practice kind of coach and I think that is the best way to handle things in a players’ league. Say what you will about the importance of January or whether or not the team he put together has any promise, but McHale got solid improvement out of Al Jefferson, Randy Foye, and Kevin Love during the time at the end of the bench. There was promise there and it was a bird in the hand, not the bush. On the other hand, I had the feeling that McHale simply didn’t have the makeup to properly adjust to the new responsibilities that being a coach, not a GM-type, entailed. He just seems like a stubborn ass in this department and I completely agree with Kahn’s assessment that it would have been an uncomfortable fit for everyone involved to have McHale coach a team that, by all of Kahn’s statements, will look very different from the vision the Iron Ranger had in mind.
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If your organization is run by individuals who know what they’re doing … what you do NOT do is what was done yesterday to a person like Kevin McHale.
There are any number of different ways that GLEN TAYLOR & DAVID KAHN could have [and SHOULD have] handled this situation … with class.
What they chose to do, instead, was act in a way that can best be described as Lacking Basketball Acumen.
This viewpoint has nothing to do with Kevin McHale’s track record as the embattled former General Manager of the Timberwolves … a team that he once led to 8 consecutive playoff appearances and, in 2004, to the Western Conference Finals … it has to do with who Kevin McHale is, as one of the NBA’s Top 50 Players of All-Time AND one of the few solid head coaches in the Association today who was responsible for turning around their team’s on-court performance in the middle of last season before Al Jefferson went down with a serious knee injury.
When your organization has one of the Top 50 All-Time Best Players in the History of the NBA, as arguably the No. 1 Power Forward on the list, working on its behalf every day … you DO NOT hang that gentleman out-to-dry by refusing to offer him a contract to return as the coach of your team, with a group of key players headed up by Al Jefferson [PF-C] and Kevin Love [C-PF].
You might WANT to do that. You might FEEL like doing exactly that. You might even have a NEED to do just that, on a personal level … BUT, THAT, IS NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD DO, if you are someone who knows what you’re doing at the head of a 1st-class organization in the NBA, and are trying to WIN.
The fact is … THIS IS A PLAYERS’ LEAGUE.
Period.
If you want to have major success in the NBA … i.e. by hoisting this trophy one day in the future during a parade down main street in your particular shanty-town … you need to [MUST?] conduct your business with this Prime Directive in mind at all times.
This is a PLAYERS’ LEAGUE.
Period.
What you do MUST BE in the best interests of the PLAYERS on your team.
It is not an owner’s league.
It is definitely not a 1st time General Manager’s league.
It is not a David Stern’s in-house-boy league, by any stretch of the imagination … at least, if your ever want to win the League Championship.
Shame on GLEN TAYLOR & DAVID KAHN for NOT having the intestinal fortitude to return Kevin McHale to the sidelines next season, as their team’s head coach, devoted to teaching the game properly, and instead continuing the lunacy that has been responsible for putting the T-wolves franchise in the place it finds itself today, in the nether region of the NBA … sleeping with the fishes.
Mr. Taylor … as the owner of this team, YOU will get precisely what YOU deserve.
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PS. Zero sympathy goes out to T-wolves fans who cannot distinguish properly between having a solid head coach on their sidelines, responsible for directing the future development of their team’s best players, and a former GM who was rightfully scrutinized for the relatively poor job he’s done in recent years. Holding grudges like that and making largely inaccurate assessments of a person’s basic character gets you nowhere fast in this life.
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Related:
‘I think you’re making a mistake,’ McHale tells Kahn as he is ousted
Kevin McHale and the Cult of Reason
Tags: Al Jefferson, Canis Hoopus, David Kahn, Glen Taylor, Kevin Love, Kevin McHale, Mark Madsen, Ridiculous Upside