Did McHale tank the season on purpose?

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 4/12/2007

   The Timberwolves are headed for the NBA lottery. That happens when you miss the playoffs.

 Since Forbes Magazine’s General Manager of the year Kevin McHale fired Dwayne Casey when the team was 20-20, the Timberwolves have fallen on their face playing for McHale’s buddy Randy Wittman. The Timberwolves are currently 32-44 as of Monday, April 9. That means under Wittman the Timberwolves are 12-24.

 The reason McHale fired Casey now appears to be that he wanted to make certain the Timberwolves missed the playoffs and qualified for the lottery. If you make the playoffs, you don’t qualify. McHale knew Wittman could not coach beforehand; after all, Wittman’s record in Cleveland was 62-102.  

  When Casey had the team at 20-20, they were in the playoffs. By missing the playoffs, the Timberwolves keep their 2007 number-one draft pick and are in the NBA Lottery. Once the lottery takes place later this summer, as long as the Timberwolves don’t finish in the top three, meaning 11-14, they keep the pick.

 Toronto Raptors Coach Sam Mitchell is not under contract for next year for the playoff-bound Raptors, who are 44-33 and one of the top teams in the NBA East. The Timberwolves should hire him now and dump Wittman.

 Fitz Notes & Quotes

  Cleveland ’s LeBron James says Kobe Bryant of Los Angeles is his first choice for NBA-MVP. Bryant will win his second straight NBA scoring title; he leads the league, averaging 31 points a game. Steve Nash of Phoenix is attempting to win it for the third straight year. However, Dirk Nowitzski of Dallas is the front runner.

 James Harris, former Los Angeles Rams NFL quarterback and one of the Black pioneers at that position, is now the vice president of personnel with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played for the late great Eddie Robinson at Grambling. Harris said, “Eddie Robinson told me to not come back if I failed as a NFL quarterback and say I did not make it because I was Black.”

 Bill Rhoden, sports columnist with the New York Times, has a must-read new book out called Third and a Mile.

Former Minnesota Timberwolves star Pooh Richardson was in town last week and looks like he could still play. He was the very first number-one pick of the expansion Timberwolves; he played for the late Bill Musselman.

 Jason Williams, star guard of the World Champion Miami Heat, is one of former Vikings great Randy Moss’ best friends. Last week, after scoring 15 points and dishing out 10 assists in a 92-77 rout of the Timberwolves, he told me he and Moss are still close. “Randy Moss is going to Green Bay ,” he said. “It’s going to happen.”

  Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre is pushing hard for the Packers to work a deal with Oakland for Moss. The NFL Draft is April 28-29. Oakland finished 2-14 last year and has the overall first pick in the draft. Green Bay has the 16th pick of the first round, while the Vikings have the number-seven pick in the first round. 

 In this year’s NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas , All-Stars Ray Allen of Seattle , Caron Butler of Washington , and Richard Hamilton of Detroit all attended the University of Connecticut . Coach Jim Calhoun coached all three players at Connecticut and is the first college coach to have three All-Stars in one All-Star game since 2002.

 When the legendary former Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson had three of his players in the same game — Allen Iverson, Alonzo Mourning and DiKembe Mutombo — former Connecticut star Khalid El-Amin led Connecticut to their first-ever NCAA Championship.

 El-Amin is the only player in Minnesota high school history to win four straight State Boys’ Basketball titles at North High, the school that Don Samuels wants to burn down. He will host a Celebrity All-Star Weekend this summer in Minneapolis . It’s set for July 13-14 at Minneapolis Community College . El-Amin continues to play great basketball in Europe . Some of the players I mentioned will be coming to Minneapolis to play.   

 The Minnesota Wild closed out the 2006-07 regular season with a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday evening. The victory was Minnesota ’s 48th, giving them a franchise-record 104 points on the season. Minnesota finishes the 2006-07 season in second place in the Northwest Division and seventh in the Western Conference.

 Niklas Backstrom’s 24-save effort means he and Manny Fernandez have won the 2006-07 William Jennings Trophy, awarded to the goaltenders that played in a minimum of 25 games on the team allowing the fewest goals in the regular season. The Wild allowed a league-low 191 goals this season.

 Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio, 89.9 FM, at 8:20 am, and Monday evenings 6-7 pm. He welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-recorder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.