Timberwolves decline picking up option on David Kahn's contract

Per Timberwolves.com:

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that the team has declined to exercise the one-year option in David Kahn's contract for the 2013-14 NBA season, and as a result, he will not return as President of Basketball Operations.

So Kahn is gone. In an official way. Officially. Gone. The days of smiley, athletic, manna from heaven is over.

This, of course, lends all the more credence to the idea that Flip Saunders will be returning to the team as an executive of some sort (GM/POBO/Something-or-other) And probably soon, as the draft is fast approaching. Still unclear if Adelman will be back or not, but this can certainly only help the case there, I would think. Whatever disagreements he and Saunders might have, they can't possibly be as bad as the eye-roll-inducing-press-conference ones he and Kahn had.

If I were to guess, I'd say Saunders' hire will be announced formally at the same time as Glen's 'surprise' ownership announcement. Because they're probably like....the same thing....

In the meantime, let's reflect back on the brilliance that was David Kahn. The man who inherited the best pile of assets this team has ever, ever sat on, and somehow came out with 3 seasons of .394, .207, and .183 while turning our post-KG playoggff haitus into the league's longest playoff drought (we'll leave out this year because of the injuries. And the fact that the roster was really assembled by Adelman) Jonny Flynn, Wes Johnson, Darko, fines for talking about weed, a pile of hysterically incoherent interviews, indecipherable blueprints, unfulfilled promises, the undying wrath of Bill Simmons, and 3 years of the Wolves (and himself, personally) being the laughing stock of the league. People thought we were goonier than the Clippers and Knicks. Think about that.

He was given the task of lowering the payroll, which he responded to with big contracts for guys like Darko and Ramon Sessions, and coming close to making max offers to Rudy Gay and David Lee. He traded Al Jefferson for Kosta Kufos, then paid other teams to (eventually....) take Flynn and Wes off our hands. He traded away Ty Lawson. He missed Steph Curry. He missed Dajuan Blair. He missed Paul George. And he tried to trade Kevin Love. More than once.

Even Ricky Rubio won't save a guy from that.

My first and still favorite Kahn memory was the moment when Nate tipped me off about the guy attending 2010 draft workouts and asking other executives what he should think of the prospects. Good times. May our future drafts be brighter. With picks in the high 20s.

And of course, who can forget this gem

Share your favorite Kahn memories, y'all. If there is any justice in the universe, we will never, ever have such a horrifyingly entertaining ride in any of our pro sports ever again.

We always said we'd look back on this and laugh. Well, if the drinking didn't kill us first...