<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Kevin McHale's 11th season as the Timberwolves' vice president for basketball operations concluded on Wednesday night. There is a growing suspicion that McHale was more effective as a player than he has been as an executive. Larry Bird was on hand when McHale joined the Boston Celtics as a rookie for the 1980-81 season. Over the next 11 seasons, the Celtics reached the conference finals seven times, the NBA finals five times, won three titles and went 93-65 in the playoffs. Kevin Garnett has been with the Wolves throughout McHale's tenure. Over these 11 seasons, the Wolves reached the conference finals once and went 17-30 in the playoffs. Ah, heck, let's just say it flat out: McHale was better in the post than on the phone. The Wolves say there will be a media session at 11 a.m. today at Target Center. At that time, McHale is expected to announce ... nothing. It would appear that owner Glen Taylor, in the NBA for 11 years and a month, doesn't have a hint what to do about this mess. So, he has given McHale the option to continue running the basketball operation, in the wake of the most miserable season in franchise history. The criticism from the sporting public has been relentless. It's almost definite the Wolves will lose another big hunk of season-ticket sales this summer. And yet McHale can stay, because Taylor doesn't have a better idea, or any idea. The Wolves have lost fewer than these 33 games, but not in a full season since 1996, Garnett's rookie year. There was an excuse (expansion) for the futility of the first four seasons of this franchise, and there was an excuse (idiocy) for the next three years. The idiocy came in the form of Christian Laettner and Isaiah Rider, the back-to-back lottery picks in 1992 and 1993. Rarely in the history of professional sports has a team been blessed with two such horrendous teammates. McHale was hired after 1994-95 season and he had these successes: first, drafting Garnett out of high school, then dumping Rider for nothing, and finally dumping Laettner for nothing. Nothing was too good for those two NBA losers. There are no reasonable excuses for McHale today. He hasn't had Rider and Laettner to build around for the past decade. He's had Garnett. To be back to only 33 victories with Garnett less than a month from his 30th birthday goes beyond any failure that Bill Musselman, Billy McKinney, Jimmy Rodgers or Trader Jack McCloskey brought to this franchise. On Wednesday, Garnett sat out his sixth consecutive game. Fortunately, Mark Madsen showed the veteran leadership needed to get a much-needed defeat. Without his 1-for-15 shooting (including 0-for-7 on three-pointers), there's no way the Wolves could have escaped with this 102-92 loss to Memphis and a guaranteed place in the draft's top 10. Garnett was on Allen Iverson time Wednesday, arriving in civilian clothes at 6:55 p.m. As the season finale progressed in the half-filled arena, there was a discussion in the locker room between Garnett and McHale that was described as "animated" by people in position to overhear. The topic of this discussion was anyone's guess. Garnett has turned silent since being removed from the lineup. McHale has talked rarely to the media since the Wolves went backward -- rather than upward -- following the Wally Szczerbiak trade. McHale is supposed to take a few questions today, but he's not expected to take the dramatic route and say, "I quit."</div> Source
