Submitted by ogishkemuncie, Jan 25, 2007 22:27

New York probably wouldn't even have an opinion on the firing of Dwane Casey if they didn't have designs on Kevin Garnett. I won't be an apologist for Kevin McHale. He has done a lot of bone-headed things, but I don't think he is any way unique in that among GMs in the league. He doesn't get a pass from any of the sporst media in the Twin Cities. Virtually every franchise in the league has made aggregious mistakes at some point on draft picks. Injuries (Micheal Williams, Terrell Brandon) can blow a hole in a team for years at a time. Petulant players (Stephon Marbury, Isaiah Rider, Eddie Griffin, Latrell Sprewell, etc) obtained on the basis of their talent who wind up weakening a team are certainly not restricted to the Wolves. The two worst thing to happen to the Wolves during their existence, in my opinion, were the defection of Stephon Marbury (which set in motion a set of dominos that hamstrung the team for years at several positions) and the unfortunate Joe Smith deal (which was precipitated by a high-risk surgical procedure on owner Glen Taylor. He was trying to assure Smith that he would be taken care of if Taylor didn't survive the operation.) The deal was ill-advised on many levels, but the penalty to the team was unprecedented The taking away of all those draft picks truly left fans in despair. And all the second-guessers should not forget the role of luck in the success of a franchise. The Wolves had the worst record in the league the year that Shaq was drafted out of college. If fate had followed the percentages, he should have been a T-Wolf. Remember the coin-flip that put Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (that is, Lew Alcindor) in a Bucks uniform. The Phoenix Suns lost the flip and had to settle for Neal Walk. How did that work out for them?

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.