As I sit hear reading an article on Big Al's rehab progress, something occurred to me.  What if Kahn threw out the Jefferson as only the second best player on a championship team comment for more than just commentary?  Think about it.  The knock against Jefferson was that he only focused on offense and didn't do the other things like passing and playing defense that would make him that number one type player. 

The more I think about it, I can't think of a better way to motivate someone like Big Al than to call him no better than second fiddle.  I can't say whether this was on purpose, but I wouldn't find it out of the realm of conventional possibilities.  First you try to break someone's ego and challenge them.  Then you hire a whole bunch of very veteran coaches including Rambis and Laimbeer to provide him with all of the means to fix what was broken.  Sounds like a fair game plan.

I have to admit that it is kind of nice to have a GM who won't blow smoke to make people feel better about them then they should.  If I had to use one phrase to describe Kahn, it would be "a deceptive straight talker,' in that he is very blunt about his assessments, but there always seems to be some double meaning or implied future action/goal involved.  Here's to hoping that Al makes huge strides this season.