Owner Glen Taylor said there was no snag in negotiations but that the Wolves did look into reports of a series of lawsuits stemming from unpaid bills during Kahn’s time as owner/operator of the NBA D-league.

“That was enough of a factor that I wanted to call up the D-league owners and talk to them,” Taylor said. “David brought it to our attention, so I called up the D-league owners. I think there are some things that have already been worked out or will be worked out. But yes, those were concerns.”

Taylor said the questions were answered to his satisfaction and noted that running the D-league is “a tough business.”

Kahn said he’s proud of what he accomplished in the D-league, pointing out that he never missed a payroll, even if he often had to fund it out of his own pocket.

Even so, Taylor insisted he was the Wolves’ first choice and strongly denied that they had offered the job to any other candidate.

“We’ve had nobody turn the job down,” Taylor said.

The agent for Portland Trail Blazers assistant general manager Tom Penn said Monday that he had a job offer before accepting a promotion to remain in Portland, and San Antonio Spurs assistant general manager Dennis Lindsey and former Miami Heat general manager Randy Pfund earlier withdrew from consideration.

Taylor said reports that Lindsey or any other candidate pulled out because of control issues, however, were media speculation and erroneous.

“I’d say that’s completely wrong,” he said. “I don’t know how to say it stronger. That’s inaccurate.”

The Wolves brought Penn in for an interview two weeks ago when it appeared they were nearing a contract offer to Kahn, but Taylor said there was no snag in negotiations: “We just didn’t get permission to talk to Tom until really late in the process.”

In one of his first acts on the job, Kahn wrote a 12-paragraph letter introducing himself to “Wolves Fans Everywhere” and before he appeared at that noon news conference asked that it be posted on the Star Tribune’s “On the Wolves” blog, a forum where the team’s most fervent remaining fans greeted his hiring with skepticism.

“We have to understand that people want to be able to touch us and we have to be willing to let them touch us,” Kahn said. “Sports is about transparency, and we have to be much more transparent that we have been in the past. People deserve that.”

Kahn said he intends to meet with McHale early next week to discuss the team’s coaching job, then head to Chicago for the NBA’s scouting combine to begin trade discussions with other league executives and continue work with the Wolves’ existing front office on preparations for a draft that is only five weeks away. He will not make any decisions on his new front office — and whether General Manager Jim Stack and assistant general managers Fred Hoiberg and Rob Babcock will be retained — until work for the draft and free agency is over in July.

Kahn, 47, said the right things at his press conference. He came off as bright without being a know-it-all, confident without being condescending.

He complimented Kevin McHale, whom he may yet fire as coach after meeting with him next week. Kahn said he won’t blow up the front office before the draft and vowed to pick the brains of longtime Wolves staffers to learn how the franchise sank to this point. It will be interesting to hear how he and McHale interact, because McHale, for all his faults as a personnel guy, can sniff out a phony a mile away.

It’s hard to imaging Kahn keeping McHale, who may make the decision easier by quitting on his own.

Kahn, the Timberwolves’ new president of basketball operations, was introduced by the team on Friday, but only after a rambling introduction in which owner Glen Taylor tried to convince us that his search process had been efficient and had not resulted in job offers to any other candidates, a fascinating tale that some of his employees even believe.

Kahn possesses the advantage of laying fresh eyes on the Wolves’ clown show. He possesses the disadvantage of sudden proximity to the delusional personalities who have run this franchise into the ground.

Twin Cities, meet Mr. David Kahn, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ new general manager. He’s cool, sparkly and as polished as the finest sterling silver teapot.

“Good afternoon,” Kahn said. “As Glen alluded to in his exposition …”

Within minutes, he used the words “hyperbolic,” “bifurcate” and “maniacal.” Furthermore, he mentioned a “shadow government” and dropped “prima facie.” One sportswriter went in search of a Serbian dictionary.

He made eye contact, immediately memorized everyone’s name and spoke as if even his spontaneous answers had been rehearsed in front of a mirror.

From the Star Tribune:
Will he hire a new head coach or retain Kevin McHale? Kahn said he intends to interview McHale early next week or so and then make a decision that will be “in the best interest of the Minnesota Timberwolves.” He said that it will be “done sensitively and the right way” because of McHale’s stature in Minnesota and his relationship with owner Glen Taylor.
David Kahn is the new general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Good luck to him. He’ll need it. Personally, they had three good in-house people (Babcock, Hoiberg and Stack) and how many candidates pulled out of consideration because of management and ownership? Not good.
A simple question for the readership: Let’s say the Wolves had hired Bill Simmons as GM, and they had held the press conference today, just as they did with David Kahn. The difference: the whole thing would have been open to the public – and after the papers and TV were done getting quotes, fans would have been allowed to ask questions. This isn’t that far-fetched – there are plenty of sports teams in the world (if not in America) that have open-question nights like this.

True or false: your first thought would have been, “Geez, I wonder if I can get down there at noon today.”

Now, you’re Minnesota. You have three keepers: Al Jefferson, Kevin Love and Randy Foye. (Note: I still like Corey Brewer but let’s see how he recovers from his ACL injury.) You are a joke of a franchise with an owner who has one of the poorest reputations in the league and a fan base that doesn’t care, namely because you hire failed GMs and coaches, recycle them, then expect the fans to care. Jefferson could be the best guy on a contender, Love could be the third-best guy and Foye could be a starter or a sixth man. But you’re not winning anything if that’s your top three. Too young, not quite talented enough. You need to acquire an experienced blue-chipper who can show everyone else the way (shades of Ray Allen and KG in Boston). And you have no chance of landing a marquee free agent because NBA players want no part of Sota when they can play for a well-run franchise in a warm city. Thanks anyway.

So what do you do? You have to bowl someone over with a big-time offer. That’s why you call San Antonio and say, “We’ll give you Foye, our No. 6 pick and Brian Cardinal’s 2010 expiring contract for Parker.” Note: The deal can’t work until July 1.

From Bradley Campbell/City Pages: Mark Madsen barks at the CIA