Tuesday night's NBA TV show, hosted by Ahmad Rashad and featuring Chris Webber and Gary Payton, wasn't as good as the TNT version with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley in terms of pure basketball analysis. But in terms of pure comedy, that Tuesday show was solid gold.
And now, it's over.
Kevin McHale has been hired to replace Gary Payton in the studio, and while I think McHale will do just fine as an analyst, there's no way he'll have the same chemistry with Webber that Payton did. With the show obviously looking to get a little more serious, here's a reminder of some of the antics that made it so much fun to watch.
Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 NBA season. On Saturday, there are exactly 87 days left.
In the NBA, 1987 was a tough year.
That's when it became official the Celtics were never going to be the same again, and neither was the Celtics-Lakers rivalry. Meaning it was also the end of Bird-Magic.
It was the third time in four years that Boston and L.A. had met for the NBA championship, a kind of Finals familiarity that hasn't happened since then. It also was the series Magic Johnson missed a wide-open Kareem Abdul-Jabbar underneath and instead took a tough skyhook in the lane that wound up being the game-winner in Game 4.
The 2005 NBA Draft would change the course of the future of two teams -- the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks. There was no clear-cut No. 1 pick, but Utah's Andrew Bogut was big, skilled and NBA ready. He wasn't the most convincing or dominant No. 1 pick, especially with Dwight Howard averaging a double-double in his rookie season, but he appeared to be the best choice for the Bucks.
Meanwhile, the Hawks decided on a player who was a sixth man of his college team. Marvin Williams had all the physical tools to be a star but played just one season at North Carolina. He fed off the Tar Heels' national title run and opted for the draft. It sounded like a good idea, although he was only 19. It's not that these were poor choices. Neither Bogut nor Williams are busts. They are productive NBA players, but when compared with the next two drafted, they are disappointments.
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.
Among the myriad NBA head coach executions this decade, Dwane Casey's ceremonial beheading still bothers me the most. So it's good to hear, by way of the Philadelphia Inquirer, that Casey (currently a Rick Carlisle assistant in Dallas) is the first candidate to get a second interview for the open 76ers job.
Few remember the post-Cassell/Sprewell Timberwolves teams fondly, but they really weren't that bad. In 2004-05, Flip Saunders' last season at the helm, the Wolves finished one game out of the eighth seed. That summer, Kevin McHale traded Sam Cassell for Marko Jaric and Latrell Sprewell decided $7 million a year wasn't enough cash for his services.
Blazers "capologist" Tom Penn became the third top candidate to leave Minnesota at the altar today. According to Ric Bucher, Penn took a better title, a bigger paycheck and a hearty backslap from Paul Allen to stay in Home Sweet PDX. The Wolves' search continues anew. Mascot Crunch is currently testing Shelden Williams' spelling skills.
To be brutally honest, these last two snubs in Minneapolis have been downright insulting. Randy Pfund will end up as an assistant general manager, assistant coach or lead scout somewhere when he likely could have had Minnesota's top job. Penn is one of numerous cooks in Kevin Pritchard's kitchen -- and this is a young Kevin Pritchard, who isn't likely going anywhere any time soon. Penn would rather stay there than deal with Glen Taylor and (potentially) Kevin McHale. (Publicly, Penn cites the comfort level with the Blazers. I didn't hear anything about a comfort level until Portland put on a "full court press," though.)
News this week that Randy Pfund, the former Heat GM who publicly announced his interest in the Timberwolves job, had withdrawn his name from consideration drew raised eyebrows at the least. Pfund, after all, has few front office prospects -- the market is just dry for personnel bosses right now. And just weeks ago he really pushed for consideration in Minnesota. What gives?
Back in December, Kevin McHale had a decision made for him. Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor fired coach Randy Wittman, and told McHale to get down to the bench to guide the team he had assembled as vice president of basketball operations.
It was an unkind blow for McHale, who had been in on the franchise's highs and lows as the team's top decision-maker for the previous 13 seasons. At the time, most figured McHale would ride out the rest of 2008-09 season, then move on.
Since moving out of the front office and into the head coaching role back on December 8, Kevin McHale has done a fantastic job of turning the Timberwolves around. Glen Taylor (the team's owner) has been so pleased, in fact, that he wants McHale to return as the head coach next season.
McHale has yet to decide if he'll indeed remain the team's coach, but what is clear is that his former position of running the team is no longer available.
NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.
* Brian Scalabrine: "It's not going to be a difficult negotiation,'' he said. "I'll just go to Danny and say, 'I don't want to go anywhere else. Please re-sign me.' If he says yes, that'd be great. If he says no, that's when I'll probably have to start begging." -- HoopsHype
* Kevin McHale on Al Jefferson: "He'll make a lot of them," McHale said. "You miss a couple early in your career when you should have gotten them, and you make some later in your career when you have no business making it and your reputation gets you there. It'll all equal out for him." -- Star-Tribune
Tuesday night's NBA TV show, hosted by Ahmad Rashad and featuring Chris Webber and Gary Payton, wasn't as good as the TNT version with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley in terms of pure basketball analysis. But in terms of pure comedy, that Tuesday show was solid gold. 
FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in 
Among the myriad NBA head coach executions this decade, 
Blazers "capologist" 
News this week that 
Back in December, 
Since moving out of the front office and into the head coaching role back on December 8, 
