Written by Zach Harper | 21 May 2009

As I'm sure it is for a lot of people around my age who are into writing, Almost Famous is one of my favorite and most re-watchable movies. I think the story is just fantastically written and the actors couldn't be more spot-on. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a scene-stealer as usual, Billy Crudup is enjoyable, Jason Lee is hilarious and serious, Patrick Fugit is perfect in the role as William Miller (first movie by the way), and not even Kate Hudson screwed anything up. She's ACTUALLY good in it.

And there's a great line in a scene in the movie in which William Miller is trying desperately to find Crudup's character to get an interview that will complete his job. He runs into groupies band-aids while attempting to locate Crudup and as he's getting frustrated, one of the girls asks him to take the dirty laundry down. William finally loses it and proclaims:

"Take the laundry? What am I to you? Huh? Tell me! Tell me right now. What am I to you?!"

And for my fellow Minnesota Timberwolves fans, isn't that where we are at this point in the franchise? What are we to Glen Taylor? We're not a respected commodity by any means. We're not revered and valued as the lifeblood that pumps money and any semblance of revenue into a franchise in a small market that should covet its fans over anything else.

On Friday, the Wolves organization and the owner, Glen Taylor, are going to sit at the middle of a press conference with smiles on their faces and announce that David Kahn is taking over the duty of running the basketball operations for this franchise. It was a position previously held by Kevin McHale. It was a position that flirted with Tom Penn (the Blazers salary cap guru), Dennis Lindsey (an executive for the Rockets and Spurs), and Randy Pfund (GM for the Miami Heat). It was a position that was TURNED DOWN by all three due to lowball contract offers and a meddling owner that was insistent on saddling the new VP of BO with Kevin McHale as the coach if Kevin wanted to stay with the team.

And all three guys turned down what's probably their dream to run and construct an NBA organization in order to avoid the Wolves franchise and stay where they are. There are only 30 of these jobs in the entire world and these three hungry execs that want to run the show for a franchise turned the job down. Let that marinate for a minute. Let's use myself as an example. I want to be a sports writer that gets to give his opinion on everything basketball and throw in some baseball and football too in the off-season. Let's say that ESPN contacted me and said, "You know what, Zach? We're going to cut ties with Bill Simmons and we'd like you to take his place. Would you like the job?"

Now what if I turned them down to stay where I'm at in life for a fraction of the money and influence that I would have with them? Would that make any sense? Not at all. What would make sense though is if they had Glen Taylor continually screwing up that organization and implementing poor business tactics and loyalties to people who aren't good at their job - guys running the show that dragged the franchise deeper and deeper into a self-dug grave. And that's the Wolves VP of BO situation as of right now.

They couldn't get anyone because Glen Taylor doesn't know how to own a successful basketball franchise. We watched for a decade while he kept Kevin McHale around instead of finding someone who could figure out how to put winning talent around one of the most talented big men to ever grace the court. We watched while KG's prime was wasted because he had to drag guys like Dean Garrett and Trenton Hassell (no offense, Trenton. I did like you but c'mon, you know what you are) around while trying to wade through the busted draft picks of Paul Grant, William Avery, and Ndubi Ebi who happened to break up the years of not having a draft pick at all due to an illegal deal under the table with Joe Freaking Smith.  And how are we repaid for this loyalty?

With David Kahn.

We're repaid with a retread guy who spent nine years with the Pacers and hasn't been back in the league for seven years. What has he been doing during that time? He's been flipping D-League franchises like it was an infomercial on how to make an extra $10,000 a month from the comfort of your own home. He's been trying to get baseball to the city of Portland. He's been an owner and operator of D-League teams that coaches don't want to coach for and interns avoid because he's supposedly the biggest dick in all of basketball. He's crippled franchises financially in order to put a few extra bucks in his pocket for a developmental league that is desperate for competent owners to help grow a minor league system for the NBA - a league that he is now running a team in.

And you know who suffers? Wolves fans and their players. The players will be put at a disadvantage because they won't be given the proper tools and talent around them to succeed. Kahn will figure out how to make money for the franchise and turn Taylor into the second coming of Donald Sterling (only hopefully, without the sketchy past). But he won't figure out how to put a winner on the floor. He'll figure out how to make up for the declining attendance over the past five years (Wolves have gone from 14th in the NBA to 28th) but he won't know how to get Minnesota to the playoffs on a perennial basis. And Wolves fans will be stuck with this guy for years because Taylor doesn't know when to pull the plug on a guy who's bad at his job.

So what the hell are we to you, Glen Taylor? Are we just supposed to watch happily while you dig a deeper grave for this organization? Because it's plenty deep enough. Seriously, Glen. Tell me what I am to YOU.

Because I'm done getting the fucking laundry for you.

< Prev		Next >