Person with knowledge of decision: Kevin McHale will not return as Timberwolves head coach

AP Source: McHale out as Timberwolves coach

MINNEAPOLIS — Kevin McHale’s 15-year run with his home-state Minnesota Timberwolves has come to an end.

A person with knowledge of the decision, speaking on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not been made, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that new basketball boss David Kahn would not retain McHale.

The news confirms a Twitter message posted by Timberwolves forward Kevin Love that read, “Today is a sad day … Kevin McHale will NOT be back as head coach this season.”

The 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 week they were going in a different direction. I said, ‘I think you’re making a mistake, but that’s up to you guys.’”

The move ends the McHale Era with the Timberwolves. McHale joined the organization in 1994 and spent most of that time as the primary decision-maker on personnel matters, forging a tight bond with owner Glen Taylor in the process.

Taylor moved McHale down from the front office in December to take over for fired coach Randy Wittman and hired Kahn last month to take McHale’s former position as basketball boss. Ever since he was hired, Kahn pledged to handle the decision on McHale’s coaching status with professionalism and respect.

“Kevin has a long history here and a relationship with the owner that I respect and trust,” Kahn said at his introductory press conference. “I will not hurt Kevin McHale. I will not.”

Timberwolves forward Mark Madsen said McHale will be missed.

“Kevin McHale is a great coach,” Madsen told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Salt Lake City. “I’m a a little bit surprised by this news and I was hoping to play for him next season and I guess that’s not going to happen now.”

Though he helped turn a terribly unsuccessful franchise into a playoff team by boldly drafting Kevin Garnett out of high school with the fifth pick in 1995, McHale received massive criticism from fans the last few years for a series of draft-day failures and other roster moves that never worked out.

He showed more proficiency as a coach, though, and adored this young team that he helped assemble.

In 2005, McHale took over after firing his old friend Flip Saunders — less than one year after they went to the Western Conference finals behind Garnett, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell — and went 19-12 the rest of the season.

Minnesota’s record under McHale after he replaced Wittman was 20-43, but for much of that stretch the Wolves were playing short-handed after star Al Jefferson tore the ACL in his right knee. Defensive standout Corey Brewer also suffered a season-ending knee injury and guard Randy Foye missed 12 of the last 22 games to ankle and hip problems.

After losing eight straight games following the coaching change, the Wolves went 13-10 until Jefferson was hurt. Several players remarked about the positive vibe McHale brought to the bench and expressed appreciation of his simpler strategy.

Jefferson, Foye and most everybody else in the locker room lobbied for him to come back.

“If there’s some kind of way that he leaves the Timberwolves,” Jefferson said in April, “that’s when I’ll be very, very upset.”

Even when he was working in the front office, McHale had a gift for on-court teaching — often staying late after practice to help post players from Garnett to Jefferson hone their inside games. He still enjoyed that aspect last season, though the losing wore on him and he wasn’t fond of the rigors of travel.

But he will always be haunted by several bad contracts given to the likes of Marko Jaric, Troy Hudson and Mike James; draft-day blunders like Ndudi Ebi, Rashad McCants and the trade of Brandon Roy for Randy Foye; and an illegal under-the-table deal with Joe Smith that ultimately cost the team three first-round draft picks.

Those missteps tarnished an otherwise sterling legacy for McHale in Minnesota, but Madsen thinks the job he did building a perennial lottery team into a group that lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals without Cassell should be what people remember.

“I think Kevin McHale’s legacy speaks for itself,” Madsen said. “Sure, the last couple years haven’t been quite as good as any of us would have wanted. But let’s not forget that it was Kevin McHale and Flip Saunders that took this organization to new heights in 2004 that was probably an injury away from a championship.”