On June 17, 2005 the Minnesota Timberwolves announced the hiring of Dwane Casey as the seventh head coach in the franchise's 16-year history.

Casey joins the Wolves' organization after spending the past 11 seasons as a member of the Seattle SuperSonics' coaching staff, including the past four seasons as associate head coach. He was promoted to associate head coach in November of 2000, when Nate McMillan was named head coach.

"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," said Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale at the press conference to announce Casey as head coach. "We wanted to hire the right man and Dwane Casey's the right man for the job."

"It's been a long time coming for me," Casey said at the press conference. "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 because of the fact that the Timberwolves are not broke. They had a hiccup last season (2004-05). I look forward to the opportunity to work with Glen (Taylor), work with Kevin (McHale) and get this thing back on track. We want to be a hard working team every night."

Casey arrived in Seattle for the 1994-95 campaign after spending five years as a head coach in Japan. During his overseas tenure, he coached Japan's National Team with basketball legend Pete Newell. In the summer of 1998, Casey coached the team to its first World Championship appearance in 31 years. He has conducted numerous camps/clinics around the world including: Kenya, Australia and Japan.

"It's tremendous to have a guy like Kevin (Garnett) 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," Casey said. "It's great to have a hub, a superstar like Kevin Garnett who is one of the best players in the world. And I like to say the world because the NBA game has gone global. All of our players are very fortunate to have a guy like that to play with and for us to build around."

Prior to his coaching stint in Japan, Casey was an assistant coach under Eddie Sutton at the University of Kentucky from 1985-90. He also served as an assistant coach under Clem Haskins at Western Kentucky University from 1980-85.

"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 - is to make players accountable," Casey said. "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. I think this is a league where you have to be consistent in what you say and how you say it and players will know what's expected of them."

Casey played collegiately at Kentucky and helped the Wildcats register a 30-2 record his junior season and capture the 1978 NCAA Championship. A four-year letterman, Casey was named team captain his senior year and won Kentucky's all-academic award.

NBA.com profile on Dwane Casey.