Flip comes back home
Posted on April 1st, 2008 – 2:08 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Flip Saunders stepped inside Target Center Tuesday morning with his Pistons for the third time since the Wolves fired him three years ago. His team plays the Wolves for the first time this season — it is April, isn’t it? — and for the first time he returns to the arena he called home for nine-plus seasons with No. 21 in uniform for the home team.
“It’s a little bit different, no question,” he said, referring to the Wolves without Kevin Garnett. “I saw No. 5 (Garnett’s uniform number with the Boston Celtics) enough already. I saw him three times with No. 5 on it. There’s no question Kevin is going to go down as the face of this franchise, the best player who ever played here and probably will ever play here.
“Knowing he’s not here with his enthusiasm (is different). But watching their team, they’ve been very competitive here lately. I give Randy (Wittman) a lot of credit. He’s got the guys playing hard. They’re not playing out the string.”
He was asked about Wolves owner Glen Taylor’s recent comments that suggested Garnett “tanked” last season by not playing the final games.
“I’ve told some people: Glen is not malicious in what he does,” he told reporters. “You guys only have so many lines you write. I don’t think Glen ever thinks that. Maybe it was taken a little bit out of context. He doesn’t mean that. Anybody who knows KG and knows how KG has played, they know the competitor that he is. Maybe the word that should have been used was frustrated. Was he frustrated? I’m sure he was frustrated. More than anything else he wants to win, he wants to be in the playoffs. There could have been frustrations. There was no way Glen ever thought that.”
Looking back on the Wolves’ decision to fire him with a 25-26 record midway through the 2004-2005, one season after the Wolves reached the Western Conference finals, he said, “You make decisions that you hope are good decisions and when you look back sometimes, they are good and sometimes they are not. Good from my standpoint, things worked out for me. I ended up getting in a great situation, with a great organization and great players. And we’ve had a great run here and hopefully we’re going to win a championship.
“At the time, we won 58 (games the season before) and we were right at .500 and I still believe we could have made the playoffs. Decisions are always made. You live with it.”
12 Responses to "Flip comes back home"
Does anybody still really care what Flip thinks? I know I don’t. Let’s move on already.
I certainly care about what Flip thinks. He’s a great basketball mind that deserves respect. Listen up, I say.
I care what Flip thinks.
Especially if it’s “I hate Kevin McHale, and I think that Randy Wittman is overmatched by roadkill, and that Glen Taylor knows jack squat about owning an NBA Team.”
If it’s nothing like that… then I don’t really care much… as all that really matters to me is that the TRIUNE FAILURE IS REMOVED!!!
Who would you rather hear from, Greg Buckner?
Why? Do you have some G-Buck quotes that you are withholding from us?!
i think Beneke and El Doucho are the same person.
Yes, I do have many Buckner quotes, but I’m saving them for the book.
The point is, Jerry, Flip has been gone for three years. His insights on the Wolves at this point are no better than anyone else’s. Why must we reflexively stroke the “Minnesota connection” to everything?
And, Flip’s not going to give us anything with real candor. If he has real dislike for Taylor and McHale at this point, he’s not going to air it publicly. He’s going to say bland nice things about the new Wolves players.
So what’s the point? There’s no news value there.
So, your saying Flip is a little wiser in his public comments than, say…Glen?
Well, sure. Flip has had ample opportunity to throw Taylor under the bus and hasn’t done it, even when Taylor blamed Flip publicly this past offseason for losing Billups (and other McHale screw-ups). He hasn’t responded in kind, and likely never will.
As was pointed out on KFAN last night, Flip’s quotes about the these Wolves sound an awful lot like what other teams used to say about Flip’s Wolves teams back in the day.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080320/SPORTS0102/803200426/1127
Saunders’ response to Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor’s comment that Kevin Garnett “tanked” games in his last year in Minnesota. “Anyone who has played with or coached Kevin knows that’s the farthest thing from the truth. Everyone who has ever gotten out of there, there’s always something said about them (by Taylor).
“So I guess they should be happy with where they are at (16-50). All their problems are gone.”
Had a good coach and lost him, had a hall of fame player and lost him, but we get wittman and celtic retreads-and same gm who made all these mistakes stays-something is wrong in timberwolf nation. we will never be in the nba finals! its just the way it is when you live in minnesota!
