If you felt a twinge of deja vu when Kevin McHale stepped down as Vice President-GM of the Timberwolves yesterday to concentrate on the job of coaching the mismatch of talent he’s acquired, there’s a good reason for it. After all, we’ve been down this road before, with McHale coaching Minnesota to a 19-12 record after taking over from deposed Flip Saunders and leading the Wolves down the stretch in 2005.

(McHale’s new play for Rashad McCants.)

That’s a decent record, but according to at least one of the players on that team, the improvement may not have had much to do with McHale’s coaching acumen. According to an interview with Nuggets guard Anthony Carter in the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, McHale was more like a lost puppy than a bloodhound on the scent of a win in his first stint at Minnesota’s helm. Here’s what Carter had to say:

“He didn’t really know all the X’s and O’s, but he had a good assistant coaching staff that was helping him out with a lot of plays. He kind of let us run whatever we wanted.

“He was trying to draw plays, and it was like a little Etch and Sketch. Like a kid just messing around. . . . He just gave the clipboard to the assistant coaches sometimes.”

An Etch-a-Sketch? Really? He’s that bad, Anthony? And, while we’re at it, wouldn’t it be incredibly difficult to sketch out plays on an Etch-a-Sketch?
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A lot of athletes have tales of being brought up the hard way. Where pimps were trying to catch a woman that’s weak, where pushers wouldn’t let junkies go free, and where women tried to catch tricks on the street. At least, that’s what the intro to Jackie Brown told us. But Nuggets guard Anthony Carter was on a whole different level of street life: He used to actually play ball for the drug dealers.

During an interview with the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, Carter told stories of how he spent his late teenage years playing ball in Atlanta parks, getting paid by drug dealers. The dealers would spot each 5-man team anywhere from $400 to $2,000, and then split the winnings if he won. “The one who put up the money, he didn’t get any (if that drug dealer’s team won),” Carter said. “He just wanted the bragging rights.”

Street life, indeed.

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