Sports Radio Interviews

David Kahn: Kevin McHale Couldn’t Handle The Upcoming Transition

It’s the end of an era in Minnesota.  Kevin McHale had been the head of the organization for 15 years and saw it rise to its highest point of a Western Conference Finals in 20044, but since, it’s been pretty ugly.  It just felt the right time for a new regime, a new face for this new, young squad.  By all accounts, McHale is a great guy, and it was very difficult for Timberwolves’ President of Basketball Operations, David Kahn, to point out why he axed the NBA great from the Head Coach’s chair in this interview, but I think the entire Wolves’ fan base knew it was just time.  While beating around the bush, Kahn makes it sound like he didn’t have much faith in him, and understandably so.  McHale had his share of chances, plenty of positives (drafting Kevin Garnett, turning him in to Al Jefferson, picking up Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell), definitely some negatives (signing that secret agreement with Joe Smith which cost the team three first round picks), and plenty of losing seasons.  It seemed inevitable that McHale’s tenure would end with the team – his GM chair had been worn out and he wouldn’t get a just shot at coaching the team because of it.  Kahn joined KFANto discuss if the players’ perspectives factored in, what McHale wouldn’t be able to successfully deal with, and where he sees the team in the near future.

Why the change?

“We’re gonna be a team still in transition and as a team in transition, we’ve had already changes, and there will be more changes.  While I really am confident over the next 16 months we can make the team better – I truly believe that and add some significant pieces to the team – that doesn’t mean at the end of 16 months, we’ll be playoff ready, we may not be.  In other words, we may still need a couple more years of growth.  And, so asking him to do this in the midst of this transition period was becoming more and more uncomfortable for me.”

Was the players’ take on McHale a factor in the decision?

“It was definitely a factor, and I respect what the players had to say, and I was very mindful of it and actually met with Al on this very subject a couple weeks ago face-to-face.  In fact, Al called to talk me, and I said, ‘Al, we need to meet face-to-face, this is very important to me,’ and we spent about 45 minutes discussing it.  It was hugely important and it was actually a big factor going through this, but it wasn’t the only factor.  And, I think as I said earlier today, I’m very mindful that Kevin’s great qualities as a communicator, as a person, as somebody who gets the players to believe that he cares ’cause it’s sincere and it is, is something that we will have to recognize as we begin the search late next week for the next coach… I really wanted to be respectful to Kevin throughout this.  I hope I was, I do, and I think he deserves to be treated with dignity, no matter what the outcome, yay or nay.  And, it was very hard.”

What was the one thing that really sealed the deal?

“Dan, there wasn’t one thing in particular… I don’t want to this to be a day or even a time after this, where we kind of talk about this out loud, those kinds of answers to those kinds of questions… I really don’t want to spend time dwelling on this, that, or the other thing, other than to say, it’s sad.  I felt very badly about this, but I felt we had to do it, and I did spend a long time thinking abut this and processing all the information.”

Listen to David Kahn on KFAN in Minneapolis with Dan Barreiro (1 minute into podcast)

Tags: Basketball, David Kahn, Kevin McHale, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA