Kevin McHale and the Cult of Reason
Kevin McHale has few equals in his status as an NBA punchline. His track record as an exec is covered with the torn jerseys of players past and soaked in the tears of Wolves fans everywhere. From polaroids of Joe Smith to Dwane Casey’s headstone, the evidence of McHales failures as a manager is overwhelming.
Some of McHale’s flubs are understandable, others unforgivable. But all in all, I didn’t quite shed a tear the day he was canned from his management duties. He was given keys to the car he built, a level of accountability that few managers in this league are held to. The Wolves deserve plenty of praise for that, even if they stood ildly by while McHale ruined the franchise’s hopes for the better part of a decade. That’s why I was a bit disappointed with the franchise’s latest move to can McHale, the plague that he was, from his coaching duties. I’m not calling for Kevin to get his job back, or anything close to demanding it. But I certainly wouldn’t have minded. Separating McHale the coach and McHale the executive was apparently too tall a task for the Wolves’ new brass, and if the move was made in the name of wiping the slate clean then I have no objections.
That said, I still feel like McHale is getting a bit of a raw deal. His work as a head coach was admirable, and players from Al Jefferson and Kevin Love all the way to Mark Madsen have sung his praises as a excellent coach and teacher. He managed to find some success during his time as a head coach until Jefferson’s sent the team reeling. The Timberwolves had already endured an unexpected down season from Mike Miller, a season ending injury to Corey Brewer, and a recovering Randy Foye by the time Jefferson went down, and to expect anything significant from an already limited roster sans Jefferson is a bit ridiculous. There was no playoff run and there was no late season miracle, but McHale was able to raise the spirits of a limited team decimated by injury. It’s not much, but it’s something.
At this point in his career, I don’t think there’s much that Kevin McHale is entitled to. He hasn’t earned a second chance. But considering what the Wolves were able to accomplish in short spurts this past season (a 10-2 run in January, in particular), shouldn’t David Khan and his staff face the possibility that McHale may be the right man for this job? Doing so brings about a strange conflict of interests; McHale’s success as a coach with this team as constructed would be akin to admitting that his firing was a mistake. It would be an acknowledgement that the right coach could have made sense from McHale’s muddled roster. Khan gave no real explanation for McHale’s firing, and so we have no way of knowing.
I fully understand the importance of a fresh start, but I can’t shake this feeling that the reasons McHale was fired have little to do with his coaching ability. I empathize with the blood-for-blood mentality, but as a member of the congregation in the Church of Actually-Employing-People-Who-Can-Do-Their-Damn-Job, I feel a bit dirty. Being a former player doesn’t make you a qualified executive, but demonstrating some teaching ability is a valuable asset for the head coach of a young team. Does firing him in the name of a fresh start in spite of his talents really bring about a Timberwolf Revolution? McHale may have gotten what was coming to him, but he’s ultimately a victim to the twisted logic of an old regime.
