FanHouse BillLaimbeer

MINNEAPOLIS -- A look of disbelief crosses Bill Laimbeer's face. After all, he spent years perfecting such expressions for NBA referees.

"I don't know what you're talking about,'' Laimbeer said when asked if he's teaching those on the young Minnesota Timberwolves to flop.

When it comes to flopping, Laimbeer made Manu Ginobili's moves today look rather amateurish. The former Detroit Pistons center was the all-time master.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Al Jefferson wasn't even born when the incident happened in 1984. But he's seen the old footage.

"The only thing I knew about Kurt (Rambis) from him playing is the highlight of Kevin McHale knocking him out,'' said the Minnesota forward.

Jonny Flynn wasn't born when Rambis won the last his four titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1988. But Flynn has seen the highlights as well.

"I remember he had the high socks, the thick glasses and the short shorts,'' said the Timberwolves point guard. "That was my first impressions about him. I said that when we first talked on the phone, and we got a good laugh about it.''

There's no official confirmation yet, but as you can see above, Kevin Love seems to have let the cat out of the bag on Twitter: Kevin McHale, who led the Timberwolves to a 20-43 record after Randy Wittman's dismissal, is apparently no longer a candidate to resume coaching in 2009-10 and beyond.

(Update: GM David Kahn made the official announcement today.)

Via SkeetsTweet, PistonsNation has this great Bill Laimbeer retrospective, broadcast on occasion of the dude's midseason retirement in 1993. If nothing else, it should serve as shocking reminder of how much more physical the NBA was just 15 years ago. Players would be earning lifetime bans for this type of action today. (And yes, that is a young Karl Ravech introducing the vid.)

PHOENIX -- As the arena began to fill up, Dan Majerle was working on his half-court shooting, warming up for the Haier Shooting Stars event. FanHouse NBA writer and next-door neighbor on press row Brett Pollakoff said Majerle practices knocking down the shots from halfcourt before every Suns home game, but it didn't rub off on Saturday in Phoenix.

Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast! One moment Plenette Pierson and Candace Parker are jostling for position, and the next Rick Mahorn is shoving Lisa Leslie to the ground and Cheryl Ford is being carted off in a wheel chair.

In other words: one second the WNBA isn't even a speck in the casual sports fan's peripheral vision, and the next it's a guaranteed hot topic in thousands of newspapers, blogs and talk radio shows across the country, not to mention on endless loop on SportsCenter. But hey, all publicity is good publicity, right?

Try telling that to David Stern (or better yet, Mahorn) this morning. But while this is certainly a figurative black eye, I'm guessing all that really comes of this is a bunch of people who never liked the league in the first place cracking a few more jokes. If you must, please don't compare it to the Malice at the Palace just because it happened to take place in Auburn Hills (fans were never even close to being involved) nor Danica vs. Milka just because it involved female athletes (at least actual haymakers were thrown last night, not just towels).