Probably the most honest interview an owner has EVER give in the history of the game. And I'm not even exaggerating.... Some Rockets-related stuff, too. Particularly how some teammates screwed with Mike James and how he thought about hiring Van Gundy before he traded KG away.
No wonder Mike was so miserable in Minny. I guess he's going to love where the players from here in Houston cover one another's arse as best as possible. Sort of seems like he was venting! You know it must have been bad if things like he says were happening are true. No wonder your team sucked.
Great post. Probably the best read of this whole offseason. Its amazing the amount of things that go on behind the curtains. After reading this I am sure that MJ will be a much better player this year. These are the things that fans are not privileged to know but are the main reason players go from one team to the next and blow up.
I dont think MJ had ever been in a situation like that. He had not been around the team long enough to catch on to those things. If I had just gotten a nice contract from a team last thing I would expect is that to happen to me from the beginning. The coach should have set their asses straight.
I think the owner missed the point. I'm pretty sure Mike James figured it out but, unlike Davis, was professional enough not to do it back.
I think more like Mike was actually classy enough not to retaliate. Even more surprising is that KG appears not to be the leader that we assume he is, and was partially responsible for Minnesota's woes. Either way, it's clear that intra-team politics doomed the Wolves, and there was nothing McHale could've done to fix that. No wonder Mike James was miserable there, and it looks like Juwan dodged a bullet (I wouldn't be surprised if he heard about some of these issues and that was one of the reasons why he wanted out). Makes you appreciate having stand up guys on our team that we can always root for regardless of how the team is doing on the court. Extra juicy goodness: It's funny how people have always called Ricky Davis a cancer, and now there's evidence.
I'm not suprised about KG not being the best leader. He seems to be the kind a guy who just want to come to the arena, work his ass off, and play basketball-- not the kind inclined to "babysit" as he puts it. Part of the reason why KG wanted Juwan there is probably that Juwan can do the baby-sitting. It seems like the whole dyfunctional culture thing isn't one guy's fault, bad karma and bad chemistry perpetuates itself.
I would hope that if he had figured it out, he would have talked to those guys about it. At least, that's what I'd hope for players put in that position would do.
Not surprised about KG choosing favorites as opposed to choosing the guys who work the hardest or give him the best chance to win. It sounds like he would be a worse GM than Jordan.
Yep! It's all KG's fault and Flip's fault and Ricky's fault. Taylor and McHale had nothing to do with any of this... I wonder how he didn't put the blame for the Joe Smith thing on Garnett too
Except, how do we know some of that type of stuff doesn't go on here? How do we know that type of on court passive aggressive cliquishness didn't go on under Van Gundy? With Adelman's looser coaching style, doesn't that create an environment that makes it easier for these types of situations to arise?
What a miserable and dysfunctional franchise. Stuff like this happens around the league but the T-Wolves were (and still are) a pathetic organization. The problem starts at the top. Glen Taylor is an idiotic owner with a bad GM (McHale) he should have dumped long ago.
This line right here says it all: Glen Taylor: I've always been kind of loyal to pretty much everybody...If it was really obvious to me that I knew somebody else could come in and do the job really a lot better than Kevin, I'm not afraid to make that switch. I just look around the league, and I'm not sure that I see so many guys that are really very good at what Kevin does... Are you kidding me? You got a rookie GM in Houston that's running laps around McHale. You got another fairly young GM in Portland that's been drafting wisely and been trading away bad contracts.
Man this article is too good to pass up: Glen Taylor is a grade-A moron. What do GMs worry over more than details??
