Press Conference Transcript: Initial Statements

Kevin McHale, Vice President of Basketball Operations
Well, as you can probably guess, we named a head coach - Dwane Casey. We’re really excited. The search took a long time. We were really committed to going out there and getting what we felt was the right man for the job and we feel we have. I’m excited and looking forward to hopefully a good summer league and good fall and a long, happy marriage.

Dwane Casey, Timberwolves Head Coach
Well first of all, I’d like to say thank you to Glen, thank you to Kevin, for the opportunity. It’s been a long time coming for me. I’ve come up through the trenches. I feel like I paid my dues and I look forward to coming to an exciting team. It’s unusual for a new hiring like this is because of the fact that the Timberwolves are not broke. They had a hiccup last season. I was just talking to Kevin about how this is probably the highest draft choice that they’ve had - fortunately. That’s a good thing. So it’s not a team that’s down, just needs a little tweaking, especially on the defensive end. I look forward to the opportunity to work with Glen, work with Kevin and get this thing back on track .. a few little tweaks, it’s not going to be a lot. I’m excited about the opportunity, excited to be here. I see a lot of friends in the crowd that I’ve known over the years and I’m excited to work with everyone.

Glen Taylor, Timberwolves Owner
First of all, this is a very important decision for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Fortunately, it’s a decision that we have not made very often. It’s been a long time since we chose Flip to come here and we wanted to make sure we get it right. We took our time on it, as Kevin said. We got a number of other people involved besides Kevin and myself. We did a lot of reference checks. We met with a lot of very, very fine candidates for this job. Each of those candidates, we told them that we have very high expectations. This is not like some places where you bring in a new coach and then say we’re going to rebuild and get there in the next three or four years. We’re saying that we got a darned good team here. We need to be better than we are. I think part of that is just getting more out of the players that we have and we think the other part is probably tweaking the team with some changes and that’s something we’ll work on this summer if those possibilities come. One of the questions that Dwane asked of me when we were finishing an interview, he said, “I know that some of the other candidates that you have interviewed have had head coaching experience. I’m just kind of curious as to why I’m here and are you really serious about me?” I told him that we were serious. But I told him that probably the best thing that you can choose from this is that we chose Flip Saunders and he had not coached in the NBA and we did very, very well with that selection. I said we could have found somebody with head coaching experience and that might have been a little bit safer. But I have never always taken the safest route. I said, “Dwane, I know this is a risk on your part and it’s a risk on our part.” But I said, “With that we might have higher expectations and we might be rewarded because we don’t know what your top potential is.” I think with that he knew then that he was a serious candidate and we went on from there.

Q: You’ve been in this town more than you’ve been in Seattle...
Casey: Well the past few weeks I have. It’s a great city. I’m very excited about it, and it’s a great city for free agents. I think free agents that Kevin and Glen want to talk to will be surprised about the city of Minneapolis. There’s a lot of things to do, a lot of restaurants, great sights. It’s a great city to sell.

Q: For the people who don’t know you, thell them about your passion and how hard you work and all the things you put into...
Casey: Well the thing about it for me, and that’s one thing that I think I bring to the table, and what I would expecxt out of the staff that we put together, is the fact of the hard work. And I think in turn what that will do is rub off on the players. Someone mentioned to me about discipline. And discipline is a funny word in the fact that there’s a lot of ways you can define it. Discipline is accepting your role. Discipline is making the right decision when you have the basketball. Discipline is making sure you make the right rotation. So, discipline has a lot of different meanings. I like to use the word accountability more than discipline. I think that’s something that I’ve always tried to do as a coach, whether it was recruiting in college, whether it was coaching offense and defense in Seattle – makiing players accountable. That should be an easy thing to do but sometimes it’s a day-to-day task in practice. The thing you want to try and do is be consistent. That’s one thing that our players will find out, that I will be consistent as far as accountability is concerned. You don’t have to be a hardankle about it every day – just be consistent.

Q: Coach (Clem) Hasklns said when he hired you as an assistant (at Western Kentucky University), he felt that your best ability was your communication. Talk about that and waht you learned from Coach Haskins over the years.
Casey: Well, I’ve known Clem for a long time. Matter of fact, I played with his brother, Marion, at the University of Kentucky. So I used to try and play against Clem in the summertime. At that time he was on the downhill of his career, so I could handle him a little bit and that was alot of fun. That was my first interaction with Clem as a player. We really hit the bushes real hard as far as recruiting was concerned throughout the state of Kentucky. I was smart enough, though, to not challenge the University of Kentucky. I would always go to Coach (Joe B.) Hall and Leonard Hamilton, who was an assistant coach, and ask him, “Who do you want? Who do you not want?” And I would always try and go for the guy tat I knew that they weren’t going to take. So that helped me a lot as far as recruiting. Communication is a funny thing. I’m think players want to be listened to. It’s a two-way street. Coaching is a two-way street. I’m sure like Glen, running a business is. You want to have input, but in the end it’s the head coaches decision whether you want to run that play or use a player in a certain situation or in a certain way. I think communication is a two-way street. From Clem, I learned that coaching is a two-way street, Clem had just got through playing at the time, so he knew the communication skills you needed as far as working with star players and. I learned from him how to deal with players and how to communicate with players..

Q: Are you going to keep any of the present staff?
Casey: We haven’t had a chance to talk about that. The President (Bush) was in town and I think Glen got caught up in the traffic and I did too coming in. We’re going to get on that the next few days and talk about that and get Kevin’s input on that and try to put together a very young, energetic staff, probably with a veteran head coach type as the first assistant. That’s something that Kevin and I are going to talk about i the next few days.

Q: What about the length of the contract
Taylor: The contract is a five-year contract with three years guaranteed.

Q: Your old friend Billy McKinn ey was describing you as -- there’s been some reference to you as a defensive coach, but he said you’re as much an offensive coach. How would you describe yourself as far as where your expertise at this point lies?
Casey: My personality is defensively oriented. I think coming up through the ranks that was one of my fortés but we saw what we had and our strenghths and weaknesses at Seattle. We knew that we had to really focus on the offensive end. But we spent just as much time defensively. It may not have shown in the numbers, but we got the most out of our team defensively as we could with the guys we had because we had some challenges. We probably spent 60 percent defensively, talking about defense, working on our rotation. It finally came to fruition in the playoffs, but it took that long. Again, we were consistent in practice every day. It’s not always easy to crack the whip every day, but you have to do it.

Q: What about the complaint here is that Flip wasn’t tough enough?
Casey: I don’t know. I wasn’t here.

Q: How tough are you?
Casey: I think toughness is like the word discipline. I think it comes in different forms. You treat the players the way they treat you. Like my grandmother used to say, “If I took and told ‘ya” a few times to do a certain thing and you didn’t do it, then that’s when you become stern, tough, whatever you want to call it. I think you go in with an open mind. I don’t think you go in with a hammer. If you have to use it, you do. You have to adjust to the situation, but believe me, if it’s a certain situation where if the guys not accountable, doesn’t do his job... I won’t have any problem being tough if I have to. I think this is a league where you have to be consistent in what you say and how you say it and players will kn ow what’s expected of them and if they continue not to do it ... the one hook you have as a coach is playing time. You don’t want to go in threatening or with a hammer, but you want them to know that accountability, especially on the defensive end is important.

Q: Given what you've had to overcome... you've had to go to Japan, pay you dues, the number of times you've come up second in races like this … did you ever think that maybe this wasn’t going to happen?
Casey: I think it’s about timing as far as jobs are concerned. I think timing and opportunity are things that you see in sports. In the jobs that I’ve been up for there were relationships involved. (In Toronto) Rob Babcock, who you guys know well, he had Sam Mitchell who he had known for nine years. It’s just a thing about timing. Sometimes when you hire coaches they go in different directions, whether the guys an offensive coach, a defensive coach … so the timing just hasn’t been right. But I haven’t sat and cried over spilt milk and said “Woe is me.” I’ve just pulled by pants up and tried to get our team ready for the next season. And that’s what I look for in assistant coaches – not someone who is complacent and happy to be an assistant coach, but someone who is energetic, aggressive and who aspires to be a head coach some day, but not at the expense of the current team.

Q: Will you talk to Dean (Dean Demopoulos, current Sonics assistant coach) about coming with you?
Casey: Again, that’s something that Kevin and I will talk about. T’s going to be a joint decision between Kevin and myself – someone that we both know, he feels comfortable with, I feel comfortable with … but we really haven’t gotten into that yet.

Q: Do you have any apprehension about being a first year head coach with a veteran team?
Casey: Apprehension – I don’t know if that’s the word. Not knowing … that’s why it’s important the next few days that I go and meet as many players as possible before the summer starts. That way you get a feel for guys and they get a feel for me. I won’t have any problems as far as communicating, relationships or whatever. In those meeting I will let everybody know exactly what’s expected, what I’m looking for out of them, what I foresee a little bit -- until I see them on the court in practice -- of what their roles are going to be on the team. But I don’t foresee any problems. I’m not going into this situation looking for problems. I’m as apprehensive as any coach would be. This is my 26th, 27th year in coaching. I’ve been in different situations and it’s the same feeling now. But as Glen said, the mission is different now. It’s not like you are going into a rebuilding process. Our goal is to get to the playoffs and make some noise in the playoffs this coming season. So I don’t have that luxury... So if I have apprehension that would be it. You don’t have that luxury of rebuilding and nor should we with the talent that we have, the expectations of our fans, our season ticket holders and our ownership. I don’t expect any different pressure or any different apprehensiveness that any new coach or veteran coach should have if he was in this situation.

Q: You had a leader in the locker room in Seattle in Ray Allen. Obviously Garnett is a MVP player, but how much does it help having him in the locker room as a leader.
Casey: That’s tremendous. It’s is tremendous to have a guy like Kevin and I’m looking forward to that because throughout my career I’ve had guys like Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins – star players. Nate (McMillan) will probably get mad at me that I didn’t put him in that category as being a star player… but we had guys like that and it puts in a pecking order. On every team there is a pecking order that is very important. Kevin (McHale) and I were talking about how a potential draft choice would fit in and it’s kind of a natural process. There is a pecking order and it’s great to have a hub, a superstar like Kevin Garnett who is one of the best players in the world. And like to say the world because the NBA game has gone global. He’s one of the best in the world. All of our players are very fortunate to have a guy like that to play with and for us to build around.

Q: What does this team need to compete for a championship?
Casey: Maybe Shaq… or maybe Kobe… No, it’s amazing what team unity, a team that’s together, a team that shares the basketball, a team that believes that they can do it, a team that doesn’t have “well I don’t like so and so,” a team that when you come out of that locker room that you believe that you can get it done. That goes a long way. If you had told me this coming season that in Seattle that we would have a chance to win… but that team came together. Another thing that will help us here is trying to build that chemistry, trying to build that team unity, and adding a piece here a piece there to help Kevin and some of the other players that we have. To win a championship it’s a lot of togetherness. It’s talent – don’t forget that at all. But, it’s also a lot of luck and good health.

Q: What type of pieces?
Casey: A player that can break the defense down in a one-on-one situation. Again, you have some solid pieces on this team already. I have total respect for the guys that are on the roster right now. An unsung hero that I really expect a lot of is Troy Hudson. I think he’s a very, very valuable breakdown type of player. Again, you can talk about offense, but defensively is where we are really going to challenge Troy and Sammie (Cassell) -- and I’ve known Sam for a long time -- and our perimeter players are going to be huge as far as how well they defend on the perimeter.

Q: Being a black head coach and the second black head coach here – talk about that significance and is that more pressure on you as opposed to another person.
Casey: I think you are a coach. I don’t think Kevin (McHale) when he saw KC Jones at Boston, saw a black man. He saw a basketball coach, especially when KC was getting on him about playing defense. I don’t think you see black, white, purple, green… I know when I see a basketball player, I don’t see black, green, gold, Yugoslavian, South American… I see a basketball player. I think that is the great thing about the NBA, about the game of basketball, is that it does allow different players, different personalities, different cultures, different races to play together. I mean that sincerely. It’s a great game that you can have guys from different backgrounds, different personalities… this guy may like rap music, this guy may like country western music – that’s why they made headphones. I think that’s really important that we do recognize the differences and respect them. But I don’t see myself as a black head coach. I see myself as a coach that is coaching the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Q: How would you describe you in-game style. Are you the type of guy that likes to get up in guys faces and challenge them on the court or do you like to sit back and do it in timeout? Ho do you do it?
Casey: I can only go on the games where I took over for Nate in the past few years. I see myself in games letting players have the game. Where you have to do your work is in practice. That’s where you do your yelling, that’s where you do your correcting, that’s where you do your teaching is in practice. If you have to wait for the game, to teach during the game, you are in deep trouble if you wait that long. I just go back to the coaches that I’ve been under: Eddie Sutton, George Karl, Clem (Haskins) – different coaches do it different ways and I see myself letting the players have the game, playing the game, but also, too, doing the correcting, the teaching and being consistent on accountability in practice. One thing you do have in the game is playing time as far as accountability is concerned. I don’t see myself as screamer, yeller because if they don’t want to stand by at game time what I want them to do then, like I said, we are going to be in trouble. Glen (Taylor) made a great point. A lot of coaches in this league get a lot of respect for different reasons. But it’s not what I know. It’s what I can give Troy Hudson, it’s what I can give Wally (Szczerbiak) to understand. It’s what I can teach them. That’s what’s really important and that’s what you do in practice before the game starts.

Q: Can you talk about the way things ended in Kentucky and how that played out and if it was fair and the length of time you had to put in to get past that.
Casey: Well, it was 17, 18 years ago. Eddie Sutton is a great – not a good, but a great – basketball man. He will be in the hall of Fame as a coach. Unfortunately it was a situation that a lot of college programs go through. That doesn’t make you a bad person, doesn’t make you a bad man. It wasn’t anything against the law. The funny part of that whole situation was the fact that I won a very significant lawsuit against the company that accused me of that situation and that gets lost in the fine print a lot of times. It was a situation that happened a long time ago. I’m not bitter at anyone. In fact, it made me a better person, made me a stronger person going through that. I learned a lot about life through that adversity which has helped me become a better person, a better basketball coach.

Q: What was the biggest thing you learned from that?
Casey: Dealing with people, being honest with people, to have people be honest with you, I learned that. Adversity – you found out who your friends are. I never forget Happy Chandler, who bless his soul has gone on, but he came into my office when all that happened. He said, “Casey, I got Type O blood and you can have every ounce of it.” He’s the guy that integrated baseball. He was a good man. You find out who your friends are. He was chairman of the board for athletics, but he followed me throughout my career. We got really close. You find out who your friends are. You learn to deal with adversity. That’s what the NBA is all about is dealing with frustration and how you handle adversity, how you bounce back after losing three games in a row.

Q: Five years in Japan, that’s a lot of adversity…
Casey: I had a chance to come back to the States though. You appreciate the United States, too.

Q: When fans here watch your team as they get to know you, what’s the number one thing you want fans to say after they watch your club?
Casey: Well I hope that they see a team that’s united, that’s playing together, a team that is solid defensively, that is prepared for every situation. That’s one thing that I pride myself on and I read a comment by Rashard Lewis (Sonics forwards) that made me feel good that “Coach Casey is always prepared.” That’s what I take pride in, whether it’s late game situations, jump ball situations, free throw situations… But again, it’s not what I know, it’s what I can get them (players) to know, what I can teach them and get over to them. But I take that pride… I hope you see a team that’s together, organized and prepared, but also improved on the defensive end. That’s our number one challenge. Again, this was a hiccup in the franchise history – this year only missed the playoffs by two games. Every time we played the Timberwolves we were nervous because of the talent and the way they play. So, it’s improvement and it maybe only four points. If you can get that defensive point production down two points, three points, then you are in tall cotton.

Q: Will part of your job for this season to get more success be to diagnose the problems of last year and address them or do you have a fresh start?
Casey: A clean slate, a clean slate. That goes back to what was asked earlier. You don’t go in with a hammer. You start out with a clean slate and hopefully they start out with a clean slate with me as a coach. Respect is a give and receive, a give and take. This year we will go out with a clean slate. Everybody will earn everything. You’ll have a rotation in mind, but it’s going to be earned -- it has to be earned. Players will earn it themselves and they will dictate what their role on the team and how we will use them. I like to sit down with the guys face to face and say it to them and not have then read the paper and say, “Oh, my goodness, here comes a dictator.” That’s not the way it is at all. It’s just being accountable.

Q: Kevin, do you have any timeline on this? You must have gotten a lot done in the last few days.
McHale: Yeah, we did as a matter of fact. About 6:30 last night is when we had our final phone call and got everything wrapped up. Hen I felt it was very important to not say anything. I wanted to call all the candidates. We had some great candidates and it never entered my mind to say we were going to hire a black man. We wanted to hire the right man and Dwane Casey’s the right man for the job. That’s what basketball is all about. I wanted to be able to talk to all the other candidates. I didn’t want them hearing about it even though it was reported a million different times a million different coaches that we already hired prior to this. I wanted to do it the right way, so we did it last night.

Q: Were other teams serious about hiring you this summer?
Casey: There was one other team in particular, but if had my choice this team, the Timberwolves organization is class from top to bottom. I told Kevin that and Glen that when I first came in for the interview. It’s not everyday that you get an opportunity to coach a class organization -- not only a good basketball team, but a class organization. And it’s been that way for a long time ever since Kevin and Glen have been here. If I wasn’t sitting up here today I would say the same thing. Yes, a couple of other teams inquired, but if you had your choice, this is the number one, cream of the crop organization.

Q: What are your expectations for next season as far as success on the court? Do you have a particular win total you’d like to hit? What do you think you can achieve this season?
Casey: I don’t think you can do that right now. I think the one thing you want to do is show improvement. Showing improvement, two games and you’re in the dance. That’s where they play the real basketball is in the playoffs. We want to show improvement from last season and the playoffs are our goal. I know that’s a scary thing for coaches to talk about, but for this organization, for the team and the talent that Kevin has assembled that is a realistic goal. That should be our players goal the first time we step on the court in training camp. That’s what we’re going to practice starting the first day of training camp is preparing for the playoffs