Posts related to ‘Kevin McHale’

Larry Bird on Danny Ainge’s willingness to trade Celtics greats, the death of Len Bias and his love for Kobe Bryant

02.07.12 at 1:31 pm ET

By Ben Rohrbach   |  No Comments

By now, you’ve heard Celtics president Danny Ainge‘s version of the trades Red Auerbach supposedly turned down for Larry Bird and Kevin McHale in the twilight of their careers — and how it relates to the current Big Three’s trade availability.

The story goes that the Pacers offered Chuck Person, Herb Williams and Steve Stipanovich in exchange for Bird while the Mavericks proposed a deal for McHale involving Detlef Schrempf and Sam Perkins. According to Ainge, Auerbach refused both.

But, in an interview with Grantland’s Bill Simmons on the B.S. Report, Bird remembers it differently.

“I was there with Danny and Red and McHale the day we were talking about that,” Bird told Simmons. “The one thing that Danny threw in there was players’ names. The whole time I was in Boston I never heard Red mention any other players on other teams. I heard him talking about draft picks, but I never heard anything about, ‘Larry, I can trade you for this, this and this.’ He just never did that.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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Kevin McHale talks to Slam

05.20.11 at 2:39 pm ET

By Paul Flannery   |  No Comments

In an interview with Slam’s Tzvi Twersky, former Celtic great Kevin McHale looked back on his career and how he learned so many ingenious post moves. McHale was an undersized high schooler in Hibbing, Minn., who developed all kinds of up and under moves simply so he could survive against bigger players.

“I grew from 5-11 as a sophomore to 6-7, 6-8, maybe close to 6-9, by the end of my senior year of high school, and I grew to be 6-10 and a quarter,” McHale said. “But I never knew that [was going to happen]. When I first became a basketball junkie, I was just a small, little skinny dude and then I became a real tall, skinny dude.”

There’s great stuff in this interview about playing with Larry Bird, taking on the role of the sixth man and the rivalry with the Lakers. This quote about playing with a broken foot seems especially poignant, considering the way the current Celtics have battled injuries late in their careers.

“I don’t know. I say now in hindsight I wouldn’t do it again, but if I was out there and we had the chance to win a championship, I’d probably do it again. I mean, how often do you get a chance to go down that road? It’s the finals; how often do you get the chance to do that? It’s one of those things where the mature side of me now that I’m older says I wouldn’t do it. But you put me back at 27, 28, and say you have a chance to win another championship? I’d say, Let’s tape it up; let’s go.”

There’s more great stuff in the interview.

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LA Times: McHale in running for Clippers job

06.24.10 at 10:40 am ET

By Jerry Spar   |  1 Comment

While Kevin McHale has been mentioned as a possible successor to Doc Rivers should the Celtics coach elect to take some time off, The Los Angeles Times reported that the Hall of Fame big man is one of the names being considered to lead the Clippers.

Here’s what the Times story had to say:

According to league sources who were not authorized to speak publicly, the Clippers are interested in Dallas assistant coach Dwane Casey, former Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro, former Atlanta coach Mike Woodson, former Minnesota executive and Hall of Famer Kevin McHale, and possibly ESPN’s Mark Jackson, who played for the Clippers, and Utah assistant Tyrone Corbin.

McHale, who coached the Timberwolves twice on an interim basis, had informal discussions with the Bulls before they filled their coaching vacancy, and was believed to have interviewed with the Cavaliers.

Del Negro is coming off back-to-back playoff appearances in Chicago, and Woodson the same with the Hawks. Casey was a finalist for the Hawks job recently filled by Larry Drew. More important, he has head-coaching experience in the NBA, having been at Minnesota for a season and a half, and incidentally, followed McHale on one of the interim periods.

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McHale on Big Show: Celts must win ‘old-style’ game

06.11.10 at 8:12 pm ET

By Matt West   |  1 Comment

TNT NBA analyst Kevin McHale appeared on The Big Show Friday afternoon to discuss Celtics-Lakers, the controversial officiating throughout the playoffs, and whether or not he might coach again in the NBA.

Following are some highlights. To hear the interview, click on The Big Show audio on demand page.

Did [Game 4] shock you?

No. I was actually more shocked by Game 3. … Kobe [Bryant] goes 10-for-29, it’s kind of a muddy, muffed-up game, there was not a lot of flow to it. I thought they were going to win that game, I really did. [Derek] Fisher made some big shots and held them off. … I was telling somebody, they were saying, “Well, when the Lakers play free flow and they get their triangle” — they were talking like it was going to be 115, 114 points a night, that doesn’t happen in the playoffs. Everything tightens up, defense gets better, everybody’s after each other. So, no, I was more surprised that the Celtics lost one of those grind-it-out games, and now they’re going  to have to find a way to win two more of those kind of ugly, grind-it-out,  just classic, old-style games.

With Pau Gasol you have to keep him out of his sweet spot.

No question. I think that’s where Rasheed [Wallace] has done a nice job of running him, coming around, tipping some balls away from him, getting him out of the sweet spot. And what Gasol’s tendency is when he feels pressure, he doesn’t push back and get closer, he starts drifting out to the ball. So I think [Kendrick Perkins] and Rasheed have both pushed him off. … When you’re that much bigger and longer than the guy, you can get a one-dribble jump hook left, one-dribble jump hook right, pump fake, you’re just too close, just right under the basket. Read the rest of this entry »

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Simmons on D&C: Officiating is the headline of finals

06.10.10 at 10:39 am ET

By Jay Asser   |  5 Comments

ESPN columnist Bill Simmons joined the Dennis & Callahan show on Thursday morning and talked about the quick turnaround from Game 2 in Los Angeles to Game 3 in Boston, the inconsistencies of the officials, and the sloppiness of both teams in the series.

Following are some highlights. To hear the interview, click on the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

On Game 3:

I was worried about Game 3 because it was 48 hours after Game 2, cross country trip, and it just seemed like, “Uh oh, this is going to be bad.” If you look at what happened in the game, Kobe [Bryant] had a bad game, [Paul] Pierce and [Ray] Allen both had bad games, the only old guy who had a good game was [Kevin Garnett] and KG didn’t play a lot in Game 2 because he was in foul trouble. My biggest fear about this whole series is that they just wasted an epic KG game and I’m not sure how many he has.

On the inconsistency of the officials:

I think for the most part in the finals, the right team is going to win each game. That’s what bothered me about Game 3 was basically both teams didn’t play well and it came down to officiating. If we’ve learned anything from the Celtics team this year, for whatever reason, the officiating determines how they’re going to do. … It just seems like so many things are predicated on how the officials decide beforehand, “This is what we’re going to do tonight.”

That’s my biggest problem with NBA officiating. Why can’t they just call it the same way every game? … Should we go to a system where there’s just three refs for the entire finals, the same three every game. There just has to be a better solution. Read the rest of this entry »

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Love: McHale will not return as T’Wolves coach

06.17.09 at 8:59 am ET

By Jessica Camerato   |  5 Comments

Kevin Love has a lot of goals in the NBA. Breaking news was not one of them. But early Wednesday morning, the Minnesota Timberwolves forward unknowingly played the role of the reporter on Twitter.

@kevin_love: Today is a sad day…Kevin McHale will NOT be back as head coach next season.

Love Tweeted about McHale’s status with the Timberwolves before the organization had made any news public. Teammate Mark Madsen also Retweeted the news on his page.

According to the Associated Press, “Upon seeing the posting, a person in the league was told McHale sent a text message to Love indicating he was not coming back. The person requested anonymity because no official announcement has been made.”

Two hours after the initial Tweet, Love offered a clarification:

@kevin_love: P.S. I am not a breaking news guy…I had no idea no one knew..I’ll tell them I stayed at a holiday inn express last night. Always works….

News on McHale’s future had been expected. Last week the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported McHale and president of basketball operations David Kahn met for the third time.

The former Boston Celtic has collected a 39-55 coaching record over the last two seasons with the Timberwolves.

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Sounds of the game… Celtics 109, Timberwolves 101

02.01.09 at 6:27 pm ET

By Mike Petraglia   |  1 Comment

Who needs All-Star Kevin Garnett?

Not the Celtics on Super Sunday. When news of Garnett’s flu spread before the game, Paul Pierce knew it was time to step up his game, offensively. In his last three games against Dallas, Sacramento and Detroit, he has posted games of eight, eight and 20 points. Not exactly the stuff that All-Star reserves are made of.

But obviously, when Kevin Garnett, Eddie House and Rajon Rondo are picking up their fair share and more and blowing out the competition in the first half, Pierce has not needed to be THE guy.

But on Sunday, against old friends Al Jefferson (34 points), Ryan Gomes and a vastly improved Sebastian Telfair, he was THE guy, scoring a game-high 36 points from all different angles, including a clinching fadeaway with 2:24 remaining to put the pesky Timberwolves away and clinch Boston’s 11th straight win, improving the Green to 40-9.

Doc Rivers said Pierce had little choice BUT to pick up the slack for Kevin Garnett.

Rivers said the T’Wolves will be good soon.

Paul Pierce on picking up the scoring slack.

Pierce said he enjoyed watching Big Al, Gomes and Telfair return to Boston.

Al Jefferson said Minnesota killed itself early with turnovers.

Jefferson said the T’Wolves had their shot without KG in the lineup.

Minnesota coach Kevin McHale said his team was alseep in the first half.

McHale said the T’Wolves had some big boo-boos on defense.

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