By Jon Krawczynski
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Watching Kevin McHale work the sidelines for the Minnesota Timberwolves, it is difficult to gauge just how much coaching he has left in him.
There were days this season when he was so frustrated by a lack of effort or a slow start that it looked like he wanted to walk away in the middle of a game.
Then there were nights when everything seemed to come together, when he saw the players applying what he harped on in practice and showing abilities that weren’t there earlier this season. And he would walk out of the arena invigorated, with an extra hop in that famous limp of his.
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So it should come as no surprise that he wasn’t willing to shed any light on his future with the organization after a season-finishing loss to lowly Sacramento on Wednesday night.
"We’ll see," McHale said.
The coach said he will head to his cabin with the family and think things over before he decides whether his career with his homestate team is over.
"If it is, it is, if it’s not, it’s not," McHale said. "All things change and come to an end and stuff like that. We do different things. Life’s a fun journey. You do different stuff and try to enjoy whatever you’re doing and move on from there."
The Minnesota native has been with the Timberwolves since 1994. He took over as vice president of basketball operations in 1995 and held that post for most of the next 14 years, including his first stint as coach in 2005. But owner Glen Taylor stripped him of those duties when he fired Randy Wittman and installed McHale as coach in December.
Taylor wants McHale to return as coach next season, and the players seem to agree.
Forward Al Jefferson, who has been out since the All-Star break with a knee injury, told The Associated Press that he wants McHale to return as coach, "but I want him to be happy, to be comfortable with his decision.
"If he coaches, I told him we’re going to fight to the end. I think he’s a good coach. He was a player so he knows how to relate to us, he knows how to talk to us and he knows how to coach us. But also, if he wants to go back in the front office, that works for me because, even if he’s in the front office, he’s down there (in practice) as if he was a coach."
