The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Courtesy of the Minnesota Timberwolves, here is the lion's share of this afternoon's press conference with owner Glen Taylor and new President of Basketball Operations David Kahn. The two questions I asked were, in the interest of setting the record straight, was Kahn your first and only choice and not Lindsey, Penn or Pfund? Taylor said nobody else turned down the job. Later, under prodding from Jerry Zgoda, he was even more specific, leaving no doubt that, under his interpretation anyway, reports that Lindsey and Penn were offered the job and were otherwise preferential to Kahn were, in Taylor's words, "inaccurate" and "false." My second question was about whether Kahn felt Taylor was willing to spend big money to fleece (I said "prey" upon) teams in desperate financial straits such as New Orleans and Washington. Kahn did a nice job of eliding that question, saying the Wolves had sufficient cap space and flexibility to win without breaking the bank. When I pressed Taylor on this later after the press conference, he agreed with Kahn, but then said that spending money wasn't the be-all and end-all of building a winner, but that if money is the only thing preventing it, he'll spend it.

Anyway, here, courtesy of the Timberwolves organization, is a fairly verbatim record of the press conference:

David Kahn Press Conference Part I

Glen: "First of all, I want to tell you how pleased I am to make the announcement that David Kahn is going to be our president of basketball operations.  I'm pleased for a number of things.  I think that this is really an important step in our future at a time when we're growing our team, developing a plan for the future and to bring the right person on at the right time was a very important decision for us and I'm pleased with the decision that we made.  Also, just the process itself I'm glad is over because we put a lot of time into this.

 

"I'd like to do two things before David speaks.  Number One: I want to talk a little bit about the process.  I have found it very interesting some of the things that have been reported about the process which I know didn't come from anybody on our team that was involved in it, and I know it didn't come from the candidates so I think it's just been perhaps somebody's speculation about how the process worked.  I want to share that with you because I do think it is important.  I also want to talk a little bit as to why David was the person that we selected after doing that process. 

 

"The process is one that I have used many times before and it has to do with selecting the CEO or president of a company.  As many of you would know, I have around 80 different companies, each having a chief operating officer.  We saw that this particular position, we wanted to hire someone with the same type of characteristics that we would hire in any of our companies.  This has to do with the leadership and overall responsibilities, so that process was put in place.

 

"In particular, we had a list of some people that we thought we would be interested in interviewing.  First we talked to other people within mostly the NBA ownership, NBA coaches, NBA management people, and others associated with the NBA and asked them for a list of anyone that they know that they thought should be put on a list.  From that group of people, I would say that we came up with approximately 20 different people.

 

"Once we had that list that we had written down, what we thought that would be the type of individuals with certain characteristics that we would want to interview.  Basically, we said we wanted them with experience.  That pretty much got the list down to people who had either served in the position of GM or assistant GM.  We also wanted them to have worked within an operation for a length of time that they saw success.  In other words, that they had a good mentor.  Someone that would have shown them the ups and downs while on the job that would have trained them well during that time.  Then, we were just looking for people that had some other all around experience in the hiring of people and the things you would need out of a leader.

 

"We went through that process, which included a number of different interviews by us of the candidates.  We also used a service that I have used in the selection of leadership.  That is a national company that works on hiring CEOs and people with leadership.  Leadership meaning the ability to make decisions and surround yourself with strong, good people that will compliment you, the ability to listen to alternatives, the ability to make decisions sometimes without waiting when you have to make decisions quickly.  This company has had a history, they do it for most of the top corporations in the United States.  We asked some of our final candidates to go through that process.  In that process, one of the things that you are looking for that sometimes when you interview people, there's always a chance that you miss something or that you don't see a strength or you miss a weakness.  We have found it very helpful that they do that and then to go back and look at our records according to their records to see if we should do additional interviews with that person or reference check.  Once we got through that then we did the reference checks on all of the individuals.

 

"The process took a little longer than I anticipated mostly because in my other companies, we can talk to candidates and we call them up in private and get on with it.  In the NBA, we have the responsibility that if candidates are working for another team, we have to call them up and get the O.K. from the owner.  Of course, I've had a number of incidents in the past like that and I have always responded really quickly because I have been proud and happy for any of our employees to have a chance for a promotion within any other organization.  I found out that it wasn't necessarily always the case when I talked to some of the other owners, as some of them took quite a long time to get back to me.  It was just one of those things that we did not anticipate and it delayed the process somewhat before we were able to talk to the candidates that we wanted.

 

"That was the process that we went through.  At the end, we were just pleased with David.  Let me talk about the things that we were interested in David.  He had worked for Indiana, a team that is in kind of a state somewhat similar to ours.  I'm just comparing that against a team in New York or the Lakers, a type of team that has a much different base than we do in these Midwest states.  He had worked there for nine years, and during the time that David worked with that team they had tremendous success, so he was part of the success story.  His mentor was Donnie Walsh, and I think most of you would know Donnie.  Donnie and I got to meet within a month of the first year of my ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Donnie is not only very helpful in putting a team together, but he is a person that extends himself and his help to lots of different needs within the NBA.  That was David's mentor, and if you recall Donnie kind of went into retirement but then came out of retirement to go to the Knicks and take over a challenging and difficult job.  I would just say that Donnie was one of the first people to call us about David.  Although David was on our list, there were a number of people within the NBA that brought up David's name to make sure that we were going to talk to him.

 

"So not only did he have that experience, but in the last five years he has been involved in the Developmental League.  The Developmental League is a very important part of the NBA.  It is something that we have strived to put together not only to expand the resources of finding young players that aren't taken right out of college, but that we develop ourselves: the coaches, referees, we try different procedures down there.  David got involved mostly through his ownership of the various teams; therefore he had to do a number of things.  Number one he had to work with the owners of the NBA because the NBA now owns some of the teams.  We continually try to change that league to work with trying to find more talent down there and also a away to send people down there to help them develop their skills.  A lot of people are familiar with David, and David's familiar with working with many different roles.  I personally see the NBA changing, not only in the things of finances, but continuing to look for players.  We are interested in somebody who has been out there in the real world doing all those things, and we thought that David came forward with all those skills.

 

"The other skills we were looking for is the ability to work with other people in difficult situations, the importance of contracts, the importance of our labor union contract, the importance of the finances.  All of those things are getting more complex and you want to have any little advantage you can have over the other teams.  These are all areas of expertise either because of David's legal background, or just in practice that he's had to work with.  We just thought that they met the characteristics that we needed in a leader at this particular time.

 

"That's the process that we went through and that's why we selected David.  That's not to say that there weren't any other fine candidates out there.  I assure you that there were, but in any situation like this one, no one is perfect and neither is David, so therefore you look around and find the person that has the characteristics, or most of those, that fit your particular needs.  We thought that David was the best person for that.  So I'm going to turn it over to you, David."

 

David Kahn: "Thank you, Glen.  Good afternoon.  As Glen alluded to in his exposition, I had ownership of some D-League teams and it was last summer when we sold our Tulsa team to Oklahoma City I began to consider to come back in this type of vain.  I've been around the NBA my whole adult life, 24 years either in it or in the periphery of it.  I started to think last summer, if I were to do this again, where would I like to do this?  I came up with my set of criteria to find the right situation. 

 

"One: As everybody is in the situation wants to know, is the owner committed?  Is it a good owner?  Is it an owner who has exhibited in the past a willingness to spend the resources necessary to win?  Glen has that reputation, not only in the past but in the present.  I used to go to the Board of Governors meetings with the Pacers from time to time, and Glen is considered to be one of the finest owners there are in our sport.

 

"Second: I wanted to go to a situation where you can win, and win quickly.  Thanks to the people that have been working on this for the past several years, the people up here and the people in the staff, there is a tremendous opportunity here right now, this moment, to make this team quickly a playoff contending team and ultimately a championship contending team.  I have no desire whatsoever in being involved with an organization that doesn't set that as its only goal, to win a championship.

 

"That's what we will set out to do here with the Minnesota Timberwolves.  There are some young, significant pieces on the roster, there is a tremendous amount of flexibility because of the number of expiring one-year contracts and the cap room coming up.  We have a rare opportunity in our league right now to make this team special.  I know the last few years are not what Glen or Rob or anyone in the organization would have liked, but like I told them as I went through the interview process and I want to continue to make this point today, the good news is that most of that stuff now is behind.  It's been fixed, and it's a pretty wide-open playing field.  I'm very excited to be here in this place and in this state with this organization to help lead them to championship contending status and hopefully, God willing, a championship here in the near future.  That's what we're here to do, period."

 

*What's Kevin McHale's status with you?

 

DK: "I had the over-under on that question at seven seconds, so you just got the under.  Thank you, you owe me Glen.  It'd be very easy for me to sit here today and say, "I'm going to fire Kevin."  That would show all of you out here that I have the authority, which I do, to do what I want to do.  I won't make decisions though that is in my best interest.  I'm interested solely in making decisions that are in the best interest of the Minnesota Timberwolves, period.  Kevin and I will meet next week.  I spoke to him two nights ago; he's at his cabin this weekend and we'll get together early next week so we can get to know each other better.  We will start to make our way to a decision point.  Absolutely no decision has been made.

 

"I will say this, and I've said this to Glen and Rob and other staff members this morning, the first time that I came here to interview, there was a Sunday night game against the Denver Nuggets.  I came to the game because I wanted to see the arena and I hadn't been here awhile and I wanted to see the culture.  I had two takeaways from that game.  One, Denver is really good.  They were really good that night and they had a great camaraderie.  One of the things that has been wrong with Denver in the past, or at least people think, is that they don't all fit together and don't like to play with one another.  You could tell that night, and I even told George Karl that on the phone the next day, I think you have a chance to beat the Lakers, I think you're the only team that can.

 

"The other takeaway I had that night was from the Timberwolves.  The team that night, not only was Al out, but Kevin Love missed the game because he was sick that night.  We were down by 20 early in the second quarter, and yet the team played together the whole game, and moved the ball.  You didn't have the young guys jacking up shots from all places early in the shot clock.  They played hard, despite the fact that they were hopelessly out-matched that night.  Then I came back a few days later to meet with Glen in person and the team went on the road and beat the Clippers, went to Golden State and beat the Warriors.  I came in and was able to catch the second half on T.V., and what was remarkable was that guys were on the bench, they were off the bench, they were cheering for each other.  What was remarkable was that guys were on the bench, they were off the bench, they were cheering for each other.  You could see that Kevin had kept the team together.  That is really hard to do in our league.  When you have a young team that is miserably behind in the standings and is down to the last couple weeks, most often you'll see teams not playing the right way.  They're selfish and just trying to have a vacation.  He kept the team together, and that was very important to me what I watched that week.  So, like I said, next week we're going to sit down and start talking.  It's his decision too in some respects.  But I'm not going to do what would be the easy thing and to say, 'I'm firing Kevin just to show all of you that I'm the one who gets to make the call,' because I am the one who gets to make the call according to Glen.  We'll do what's in the best interest of the Minnesota Timberwolves in making a decision.  Every time we make a decision, it will be in the best interest of the Minnesota Timberwolves, that's it."

 

* "How do you envision your staff being made up?"

 

DK: "I don't have a pre-ordained list of people I'm going to bring in, and I don't have a shadow government.  We have a staff that's done a pretty darn good job of putting us in position for this draft.  Having said that, we have five weeks.  I called all of the key staffers the same night I talked to Kevin.  I know this will be hard for them, but we don't have one waking moment that we can spend on staffing issues or any extracurricular issues.  We have five weeks to get ready for an important draft.  We have three picks if we want to use them all, and we have free agency right around the corner.  I need all hands on deck.  I need everybody to put aside their personal concerns.  I need them badly because they are the ones best prepared to take us through this period.  I know human nature will become and be a part of it.  It's very hard for people not to worry, but what I told them was don't unnecessarily worry.  Meaning, next week in Chicago if you see me talking to somebody who you think might be somebody who wants to work here, know this: they will have approached me.  I even got a couple calls yesterday from people.  I said, 'Talk to me in July, between now and then we're doing nothing but getting ready for this draft, that's it.'"

 

*Do you consider yourself a personnel guy or a finance guy?"

 

DK: "It's impossible to bifurcate those in today's NBA, you've got to have both.  Meaning: you can be the greatest personnel evaluator of all time but if you don't know how the cap works, or where the tax number is, or how to put all the contracts pieces together and make certain you aren't only managing for the short-term, but for the long-term, you'll fail.  On the other hand, if you are a finance guy who can just manage the cap but you don't know about players, you can't possibly come up with a trade proposal that will work because you don't know that part of that world.  You've got to have both in today's NBA and I think that's what I've managed to achieve in my education and my schooling.  I'm both.  In Indiana, I had both the business and financial sides reporting to me for four years.  I'm intensely aware of where the revenues are and what we have in terms of budget.  I'm intensely aware of how the business operates.  But I know basketball, and the people I've worked for and with know that I know basketball.  That's what made me effective in Indiana with Donnie.  He knew that if I came to him with a trade proposal, it not only worked in basketball purposes but it worked in cap and financial purposes and it wasn't going to put us in trouble.  I think that the people that are most effective in our sport today are the people who can do both.  You have to be able to do both if you're truly going to be effective in this job and this age."

 

*Is the only issue with Kevin if he wants to keep coaching, or are you considering contract length and other things as well?"

 

DK: "I'm walking into it as if it's completely open-ended.  I'm not bringing an agenda.  We don't know each other very well.  He's one of the few people who I don't know very well in this league, although I do know a few people who know him very well like Larry Bird and Rick Carlisle.  I just spent a whole afternoon the other day with Bill Walton, who is very close to Kevin, so I know him through others more than he knows me or I know him.  I think that Kevin and I need to have a very open ended discussion, and by the way we might need to have more than one discussion, we might need to have two or three.  Ultimately, it needs to be something where we need to figure out what we need to do and he will have a say in that.  If I want him and he doesn't want to come, then that will be the end of that."

 

*Do you have a list ready in case he doesn't come back?

DK: "I don't and I come back to the same issue that I had before.  We have five weeks, and I think that it would be a disservice to take time away from the draft and free agency preparation to do that.  I don't have a timetable, I don't operate in that fashion.  There's a tendency in our league to think that there's only one way to do things.  That's not true.  You sometimes have to be very flexible and nimble and adjust to the circumstances and surroundings to make the best decision.  I don't want to put any templates or constraints upon us but I'm pretty certain to say that we have to get ready for the draft.  Given the fact that we have five weeks, that has to be the number one priority of this question."

 

*Glen, in the interest of setting the record straight, is this the first person you've offered the job to?  Did anyone else turn the job down previously?

GT: "We've had nobody turn the job down."

 

*David, as you take this team from 24 victories into the 40s, how do you see the breakdown...

 

David Kahn: "Or 50s..."

 

*Fine. First thing's first, how do you see the breakdown of your job between making moves that energize the fanbase, even things that are sort of show, versus focusing on getting to where you win on the court and then that will take care of the fans?*

 

DK: Again, there's not one template, there's not one way to do it. Clearly it would be great to have a star on this team. I don't mean that as a disrespect to Al or any of the other players, but what I mean is some sort of transcendent player, and the problem is you can count them on maybe one or two hands as to how many of those there are. I don't mean a star in terms of marketing, that we need a star to sell tickets, although that always helps, what I mean is somebody who can galvanize a locker room as a star. In other words, think of say, people like Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, those guys can do both. They are the leader on the floor that brings people together, and yet they're also the signature player on the team who gets the fanbase excited. Clearly it would be wonderful if we could locate one or more of those. This is day one, so we now have to start rolling up our sleeves and figuring out who to draft and see who's available in free agency, and we even need to start making decisions now or avoid making decisions now that might impact our ability to make decisions a year from now. We have to very careful as to how to proceed, because the last thing I would like us to do, is put us in a position where we've done some things wrong and have only jeopardized our ability to be flexible down the road. Let me know this right now: we're going to make a mistake or two. It's inevitable. We're going to make a mistake or two, however, if we make a mistake, I will promise you it's not going to be through lack of organization, lack of preparation, lack of attention to detail. We'll come across on our mistakes honestly. That's how we'll make mistake, but we're not going to be outworked, we're not going to be out-fought, we're going to have the best basketball operations office in this league when it comes to hard work, innovation, ingenuity, and preparing ourselves to make decisions."

 

*Glen, how much did you talk to David Stern about David (Kahn) and how much influence he had on you?*

 

Glen Taylor: "I used David only in the same term as a reference. In other words, David was not one of the people that--David Stern's, Commissioner Stern's--was not one of the people that called up and gave me anybody I should talk to or not talk to, he was not involved in that, but I knew that through the developmental league that David had worked with the Commissioner, so he was one of the people that I called up as a reference, is there any reason we shouldn't be hiring him or anything that we should know about that, and David gave him a positive reference. That's all I used the commissioner on that, Jerry."

 

*I guess this is for both Glen and David, you mentioned that no one else had been offered the job even though Tom Pen (??)'s agent says otherwise. With that situation and the situation of guys like Randy Pfund and Dennis Lindsay saying at some point that they weren't interested in the job, the impression is that David is like the third or fourth choice. Can you both address the feeling of that?* (Jerry Z)

 

GT: I'd say that's completely wrong. I don't know how stronger to say it. That's inaccurate. They're all, all of those people are fine people, good people, but I'll stand by word and experience.

 

DK: Even if Glen had said otherwise, I don't think Adam Lambert's going to have a tough career.

 

*David you have the three draft picks, you've got the cap, you've got the expiring contracts...does this leave you in a pretty good position to make an immediate impact now? Can you get that star you were talking about? How soon can you do this because of what you're working with now?*

 

DK: Again, I want to reiterate the good news here is the landscape is relatively wide-open. We have a tremendous amount of flexibility. We're going to have a lot of teams calling us to try to trade longer contracts for shorter contracts, we've got multiple draft picks, we've got cap room if managed appropriately, we've got a lot of assets here. All I can say is...it would be hyperbolic to say 'the sky's the limit', that's taking it a little too far, but we have a tremendous opportunity that starts literally with this draft and will extend all the way into next summer and beyond in terms of being able to re-energize this team and add some significant players.

 

*How many games will you win next year?*

 

DK: Not going to do that. You need to first tell me is Al going to come back healthy. Will Al come back healthy?

 

*I hope so*

 

DK: God willing, he will come back healthy. I think that the team, from what I saw and from what everyone tells me, until Al went down was turning the corner even last season. The shame of it was, right when it seemed they were hitting their stride, it looked like it was on its way to being, you know, a .500 team despite the rocky start. I think that, and again this goes back to I really want to listen right now for the next several days, and I want to soak all this up. I have some opinions, no question, but the worst thing I could possibly do today and for the next several days is to say what they are without listening to the more informed opinions of the people who have been here day-in and day-out."

 

*Glen, you researched your candidate through all these different channels, do you know how he handles adversity and has he been through a lot of adversity and what to expect?*

 

GT: David? Yes, I know that just from the last few years of working in the D-League with him. The D-League is an experiment, and it's difficult, so that I know personally. The other is going back to what Donnie told me. I know Donnie fairly well, so I'd say our conversation isn't just one where I'm calling him over the phone and kind of saying, I'm feeling you out. I talk very frankly to Donnie and address the questions you're asking to him very frankly and Donnie responded accordingly, which is why I'm very confident from two different areas. I would say that other people I talked to who I don't know quite as well or don't have quite the experience, their response was similar, so that gave me confidence.

 

*David, you talked about Glen's willingness to spend money to improve this team, and you talked about being a playoff team in rapid order. In addition to free agency and drafts, given the current NBA economy, there's a chance to, for lack of a better word, prey on other teams that need to unload salary. Have you and Glen talked about this, and is that one of the things you're thinking about as means to improve this team?* (Britt)

 

DK: Sure, and let me start by saying this: being a championship-contending team and being a non-tax paying team are not mutually exclusive. San Antonio's managed to do it. In fact, if you look back over the last 10, 15 years, almost invariably the highest-spending teams are not the championship-contending teams. They're teams that have made mistakes and are stuck with some long, bad contracts. In our case, we can do both, in other words we don't have to become a tax-paying team in order to become a very good team. To your point, sure, you're not saying anything that isn't obvious to the naked eye. We have a lot of teams in our league either because they want to position themselves for 2010 or because they made have some economic pressures which were unseen, would like to move a contract or two. Here's what we need to do: we need to make darn certain as to who those players are if we get something offered that at least superficially looks attractive. It may look attractive superficially, but we better start digging in and finding who that player is and what he's about. One of the things I've noticed in our league is, we spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for the draft and scouting college kids. Not so certain we spend enough time scouting the players once they're in the NBA, meaning that we stay on top of their progress and their development as who they are as people. One of my first commandments to the staff will be, we need to have, make certain that we're on top of the personnel in the league, because we are going to be offered, from time-to-time, some contracts with good players attached to them, and we need to make certain who know who those players actually are.

 

*Glen, you described the process as the same for searching for any other CEO in any other of your 80 companies. You've been here for 15 years, you know this business is different than any of your other companies, did you consider that in how you did the search, and did you vary it at all in how you search for a CEO otherwise given the unique nature of pro sports and this animal?*

 

GT: No I didn't really, Jerry, only that each of my companies is different anyway, so the type of candidate you're looking for has to have different backgrounds in each of those, but I would say the qualities of leadership, the quality of being able to work with other people, the quality of having input and be willing to listen to other people, the quality to sometimes make decisions when you don't have all of the information but a decision has to be made, the quality of probably working with myself on key financial issues, does the person have that. Those I think are similar in all of the organizations. People are a little bit different, their background might be a little bit different, but those, Jerry, I would say I was consistent that they have those qualities. I think the difference that has been brought out is his background, what pervious experiences does he have in this profession, and that's important. We did not consider anybody who had not been in the NBA with those types of experience, that narrowed it down to this particular group.

 

*Dave, you talked about needing to stay on top of personnel. Your time from when you left Indiana in the D-League, how close were you able to stay to the NBA, and do you have some cramming that needs to be done, some reintroduction to some contacts you made in Indiana and before to get ready for this job?* (Jon K)

 

DK: I stayed extremely close. I'm a big network guy, I like talking to people. I like information. Like we talked about early, in order to get information, you need to talk to people. One of the features of the D-League is, especially in the first couple years, you have multiple team parents. So, the extent that I might not have known somebody, it became an opportunity to get to know either another team GM or vice president of basketball operations and start to interact with them on that level too. The other thing is, like you said, I haven't been doing it for five years, but you can imagine that I found out some things that I probably wouldn't have found out if I had still been doing it, but I never stopped going to games in person, NBA League Pass and NBA TV are on literally 24/7 in my house, not just because of me but because of my seven and a half-year-old son who is maniacal in his programming habits. He knows...I might have him in the draft room. You laugh...    But this year in particular, knowing that I wanted to come back, I especially took care in preparing myself. I have all the salary cap sheets, and have had them for months, I've seen a ton of games, on my own volition I went to Europe in March for 10 days. I say six games in eight days. I say the key players that had to be seen, because I suspected that if I had an opportunity to come in, I wouldn't have that chance to go to Europe then. There's no question though, that this staff is ahead of me right now. They have to be, they've been doing it every day, 24/7. I can't pretend that I'm going to be their equal, but so all the more reason I need to rely upon them and listen over the next several days and then collectively coming up with a strategy and executing it.

 

*Glen, as you went through the process and as we read about the process, certain names, we were lead to believe, fell out of the running or took themselves out because they craved a certain level of control that you allegedly weren't willing to give. How real was that resistance, and can you talk about the implication that there's certain strings attached to David's position now?*

 

GT: Let me say it to you this way now, that is false. I don't know how stronger to say that. That is just inaccurate, false, I know those statements did not come from those candidates, because it was never talked about, and I know it didn't come from anyone who did the interviews, so I don't know where that came from. I can tell you that David responding here is what every candidate was told, basically I'll say it in smaller words: that if you're coming here, you want success. If you want success, you're going to have to have control over your own future. TO have control over your own future, you're going to have to make decisions and you're going to be held accountable for those decisions. Those decisions will be yours in every way. I expect you on major decisions, and I talked about in terms of what a major decision would be, a money expenditure, that you need to come to me and get approval before doing that like any other owner. They all understood that, they all accepted that, and they all appreciated that. I said this to every one, I wouldn't take this job if I put controls over you, because you will never be measured on your own decisions. That's why those statements are so inaccurate because with each candidate that was sort of a standard thing, David heard it. They didn't even have to ask that question of me. That was part of my standard question I would tell any leader. That's why I use the word "leader". It's very important that they person we selected for a job like this is a leader, a person who is willing to take risks. If they're successful, they get praised, and if not they will get whatever it will be. It could be the loss of a job, but it could be a firm discussion, or whatever it might be. That's the best I can answer that, Steve.

 

*Glen, saying that, you've been a Kevin McHale proponent. Was that hard to say, David, this is your deal? David, I want to hear from you too...*

 

GT: Charley, it wasn't hard because I talked to Kevin first. I talked to Kevin a long time ago, about how this process is going to work. It wasn't hard, because I knew I owed that to Kevin before I got to the process of how it's going to work. We didn't share it publcly, but we had it a long time ago. The conversation that went to Kevin is that we're going to hire a new person to run the organization. It might be internal person, it might be an external person, but we all are just going to have to wait until that time. You may or may not want this job, you may or may not want to work with this person, that person may or may not want to work with you, so you just have to wait for it. The difficult thing with everybody has just been the time process that you have to wait. In the meantime, David has talked to Kevin, and repeated the same thing I told him. I don't think they're much room on that, I just think that's the way it had to be. I owed that to Kevin. I told him a long time ago, that's the way it had to be. I think the process, some of you asked me, see if Kevin had said to me, I'm not going to do it, then we would have announced it. If I would have some said to you, I for sure I don't want Kevin here, I would have announced it, but he didn't say that he didn't want the opportunity, and I never considered he could not be a candidate and continue it. That was our position on that that.

 

*Does that mean you want Kevin here?*

 

GT: I think there's two levels, let me just talk about them. I really like Kevin, I think he's a great person, but I think that's separate for what's best for the team and best for our future. I just think that our fans could care less that I like Kevin or not like Kevin, that's a personal thing, but I know our fans care greatly about us setting ourselves up for a championship team. Personally, that's my goal. My goal is to put ourselves in position to be a championship team. The friendship, I think I will always have with Kevin no matter what the decision will be. I think that's where we go with that."