Story Time: David Kahn, Kurt Rambis and the Dumbest Intra-Office Drama Ever

2009: The Minnesota Timberwolves sign Kurt Rambis to a four year contract to be their franchise’s next coach after firing Hibbing native and University of Minnesota legend Kevin McHale.

2011: Kurt Rambis has won just 32 games in two years and is at General Manager David Kahn’s throat. Kahn has a similar level of discontent to direct at Rambis.

If you’ve ever been at a job you hated, you can probably sympathize with Kahn. Working a job you’re not very good at is rough, but it’s especially bad when you hate your coworkers. Jobs like that are already purgatory in and of themselves, but imagine compounding that by being hounded by the media circus that is NBA news aggregation. Your rage doesn’t come from fish in the microwave, it comes from missed draft picks and humbling December matinees.

For any other franchise, the coach would be bought out and a replacement would be sought out and hired within at most a few months. However, this is the early-2010 Timberwolves. They are not just any other franchise.

Wolves governor Glen Taylor refused to buy out Rambis’ contract. Rambis would not accept a promotion to a front office role. So, Kahn needed to get creative to fire his hated coworker. Thus began the dumbest intra-office drama I have ever heard of between two people who were just not very good at their jobs.

Where did that leave us? Well, after an offseason of argument and pettiness, we entered the 2011 NBA Draft. An unsuspecting night where sixty young men would have their careers kicked off rapidly became a game of borderline tax evasion for Kahn to pay Rambis’ severance. In a single evening, Kahn made trade after self-destructive trade to pry cash considerations from the hands of other GMs for one purpose: get Kurt out.

In this episode of “The Outliars,” we get a crash course on why the Timberwolves have the worst record in major North American sports and a never before seen strategy in fundraising.

Welcome to “The Wrath of Kahn.”