<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Frustrated and a little amused by the rampant media speculation surrounding the Minnesota Timberwolves' coaching vacancy, Kevin McHale denied published reports on Thursday that the team was in contract negotiations with longtime Seattle assistant Dwane Casey to become team's next head coach. "We haven't offered the job to anybody," said McHale, vice president of basketball operations. "Unless I missed it, and usually I'm involved in that, so we haven't got to that point, yet." McHale said the team had finished interviewing the finalists for the job, including Casey, San Antonio assistant P.J. Carlesimo and Timberwolves assistants Randy Wittman, Sidney Lowe and Jerry Sichting, but had not made an offer to any of them. McHale said the hiring process had taken longer than he had hoped, but said the team would name a coach fairly soon. "We're moving in that direction," he said. Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor had said he hoped to have an announcement by the end of this week. Several media outlets in Seattle and Minnesota had quoted anonymous sources saying that the team was in contract negotiations with Casey. "Well you've hired five coaches so far," McHale said to a group of reporters, referring to several speculative reports this offseason. "You guys haven't been right yet, why would you be right right now?" </div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">One report said that the Timberwolves initially favored Carlesimo before former MVP Kevin Garnett gave the thumbs down to the hire. "That's a media creation," McHale said. "Kevin hasn't said a word to me about it. "He didn't say anything like that to me. We try to keep Kevin abreast to what's going on, but Kevin (said), 'Hey, you guys get a coach and I'm going to go play.'" </div> Source Good stuff from McHale.
