It's not just South Carolina Republicans who seem to have a problem with the Twitters. What was the first thing in my feed this morning? A Kevin Love tweet:
Today is a sad day...Kevin McHale will NOT be back as head coach next season.
Actually, Love's message may have more in comment with the Twitter usage of Utah Republicans:
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced he will be challenging Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) in a Republican primary – by accident.
He posted a series of messages announcing his campaign on Twitter while on a trade mission to Israel, but he didn’t realize that his feed was available for the public to see. He quickly tried to delete his posts, but the damage was done.
Love followed up his initial tweet with this:
P.S. I am not a breaking news guy...I had no idea no one knew..I'll tell them I stayed at a holiday inn express last night. Always works....
Interestingly enough, I've done something very similar to this involving a not-yet-official legislative initiative and an email. Not quite on the same scale but enough to know that it's not fun and I really feel for the guy as he probably is due for a meeting with the new boss. Hopefully, he'll be able to keep the Twitter account.
The good folks covering the Wolves over at the Strib are already hot on the case:
Upon seeing the posting, a person in the league was told McHale sent a text message to Love indicating he was not coming back. The person requested anonymity because no official announcement has been made.
New team president David Kahn and a Timberwolves spokesman did not immediately return messages left by The Associated Press.
Kahn was to speak at a Dunkers club meeting this morning, and a Star Tribune reporter is trying to track him down.
Upon further review, it appears that Darren Wolfson deserves credit for first spotting this. Here's his take on the matter:
Official confirmation should come later today, but the more I see from new president of basketball operations David Kahn, the more I like.
Coaching in the NBA is far more than being an X's and O's master - it's about being able to massage egos. You also need to have great people skills, areas in which it can be argued that McHale had some success in.
But when down two, with .7 seconds left, the coach needs to have the ability to diagram the right play. The coach also needs to properly manage minutes and get his guys to give superior effort, whether it's a Game 7, or a late March contest when you're out of playoff contention.
I'm not convinced McHale was even average in those areas. There were plenty of games from early February on when playing hard wasn't on the minds of most players. Assistants Jerry Sichting and Dean Cooper took care of the play calling and defensive alignments.
Separating the failures of McHale the general manager and the public relations nightmare his return would've been - his return as the coach made no sense, and it's nice to see that apparently Kahn feels the same way.
If all of this officially plays out later today, it does seem a bit weird that Bill Laimbeer just suddenly walked away from his WNBA head coaching job earlier this week.
I know a lot of this depends on who they bring in as coach, and that we're still talking about unofficial events, but what are your thoughts on the matter? To tell you the truth, I'm kind of bummed. I liked the thought of McHale having to cook with the ingredients he brought home as well as him having a strong assistant a'la Wittman to his Casey. I also thought he had the makings of a pretty good coach. Will the players be upset? When was the decision made? What was the time line in regards to the Monday morning breakfast where he told reporters a decision has not yet been made? Did McHale initiate this decision? If Laimbeer is the coach is this the ultimate revenge for McHale calling him a gorilla on Cheers way back in the 80s?
What say you?
UPDATE: I suppose I should read the comments on my own site before opening up the feed bag in the morning. Seth from Posting and Toasting (Curry is ours!!!) dropped it in the comments at about midnight last night and Darren confirmed it less than an hour later:
Just swapped text messages with Love
All he confirmed was…he and McHale talked tonight…so clearly that tweet speaks for itself.
replyGotta love the internets. Breaking news in the comment section. We'll have more as it becomes available but keep your eye on the Strib as Jerry Zgoda is in the process of tracking down Kahn at a breakfast and Darren has been all over this from the get-go.
UPDATE II: The Strib has an update:
A person with knowledge of the decision says Kevin McHale will not return as Timberwolves coach.
The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not yet been made, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that McHale and new boss David Kahn came to the conclusion that McHale's time with the Timberwolves was up.
The Wolves have scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference today.
That confirms a Twitter message posted by the Timberwolves' Kevin Love early Wednesday that read, "Today is a sad day ... Kevin McHale will NOT be back as head coach this season."