Jeff: Blame Shifting

We here at mwsr are done bashing Kevin McHale. We're through piling on the Giant Ugly Sweater. Pack up those "Fire McHale" tshirts, signs, paper bags, and websites. Despite his incompetence and complete inability to run a basketball franchise over the past decade (which is chronicled beautifully here at www.firemchale.com), we are no longer blaming Kevin McHale for the Minnesota Timberwolves failures. Why? Because we can't. Kevin McHale is not good at his job: not good at all. But this is not his fault. He has had a horrible draft record: of the 20 1st or 2nd round draft picks he's made since taking Garnett in 1995, only 3 are currently with the team- Rashad McCants, Randy Foye & Craig Smith. 10 of them are now out of the league completely. And of course he lost 4 1st rounders in that time because he tried to illegally sign Joe Smith to an extension, and has traded the rights away to 2 future 1st rounders, resulting in Marko Jaric, Mark Blount, and Ricky Davis; all of whom, according to McHale's postseason news conference are now on the trading block. The team will be in salary cap hell, with or without Garnett, through at least 2010 because Jaric, Blount, Troy Hudson, Mike James, Trenton Hassell and Mark Madsen have contracts until then. Oh and all of them are also almost completely untradeable.

But this is not his fault. Why? Because you can't improve on something you don't have. McHale was a Hall-of-Fame talent as a basketball player, but in his 11+ seasons running the Timberwolves, he has shown very little talent, ability or skill to be a successfull GM. And yet he not only still has a job, for the second straight season (and 3rd in a row his team has missed the playoffs) he was allowed to decide whether he wanted to keep it. If a person likes their job, or at least the paycheck, regardless of how bad they are at their profession, I believe they're going to keep their job if given a choice. So therefore you can't blame McHale for rehiring himself. Twice.

If you're one of the 5 or 6 pro basketball fans left in the Upper Midwest who still care about the Wolves, you're probably wondering who's left to blame. Well that's easy: owner Glen Taylor. For reasons that are beyond comprehension (Man crush? Incriminating evidence? Family held hostage?) Glen Taylor continues to employ Kevin McHale and allow him to make all important decisions pertaining to his basketball team. It's Glen Taylor's fault the Wolves suck, and will continue to suck, at least through the end of Garnett's contract next summer, because he refuses to fire the man responsible for the Wolves situation. So therefore it is Taylor who is responsible for the team's predicament.

Here's the obvious catch though: you cannot fire the owner. More over, I'm not sure you'd want to. Taylor has put a ton of money into the team, and is as passionate an owner as there is. If fans were to revolt by, oh I don't know, stop going to games, watching on TV or buying merchandise until a change is made, the alternatives are not attractive for professional basketball in Minnesota. There's not a long line of people with deep pockets who would want to keep the team in-state. And if the NBA is going to allow the Sonics to leave a Seatte market that's larger than the Twin Cities (as well as one who faithfully supported the NBA since the early '70's), you better believe they'd let the Wolves leave Minnesota. So for better, and certainly for the forseeable future, for worse, if you want to watch pro basketball in Minnesota, you're stuck with Glen Taylor, Kevin McHale, and a s***ty team.