CHICAGO – The leadership of the National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA) spoke Wednesday about its “concern and level of disappointment” about how the Minnesota Timberwolves approached their change of coach earlier this year.
The statement came from NBCA President Rick Carlisle of the Dallas Mavericks and NBCA CEO David Fogel.
“It’s always bittersweet when one coach is fired and another is hired. But it’s not about individual coaches,” their statement said. “I would have been careful not to acknowledge a deeper concern and a level of disappointment with the hiring process for the Minnesota head coach.
“NBCA understands and respects the right of every organization to hire and fire anyone it wants and when it wants to. But it is also our responsibility to specify when an organization does not conduct a thorough and transparent search for candidates from a wide range of diverse backgrounds. . “
The Timberwolves fired Ryan Saunders on Sunday night and struck a deal to hire Toronto assistant Chris Finch almost immediately. Finch was officially announced as coach Monday morning.
“There were other candidates, minority candidates that we are considering at the moment,” said Timerswolves basketball operations president Gersson Rosas. “Unfortunately, when you are in the middle of a season, you are really at the mercy of the teams in terms of who can be available and who can’t. That was a challenge for us as we went through the process. “
Minnesota lost to Milwaukee on Tuesday night in Finch’s first game. The Wolves were in Chicago to play Wednesday night.
Timberwolves assistant David Vanterpool has the support of several NBA players, many of whom have expressed anger at not landing at work or at least appearing to be considered for work. Vanterpool is African American. Finch is white.
“During this off-season, we saw a lot of NBA coaching openings in which teams were doing diverse and transparent searches,” Fogel and Carlisle wrote in their statement. “That should be the standard. We need to establish a level playing field and equal access to opportunities for all candidates to train.”
They said they had worked with the league’s office “on a wide range of initiatives that will improve coaching searches in the future,” but did not specify what any of them might include.
Finch was interviewed for the Minnesota job in 2019, before Saunders was promoted from interim coach to full-time, so the organization knew his style and credentials well. He also has a long career with Rosas; they worked together in the Houston Rockets.
Rosas is Latino, one of the few leading minorities in the league.
“Anyone who knows me knows how important diversity is to me and it’s a big part of who I am and what it’s about,” Rosas said. “Our staff and the diversity we have speak for themselves.”
Vanterpool is one of the three black coaches of the Timberwolves, along with Joseph Blair and Kevin Burleson. The Karl-Anthony Towns star center was one of the players in favor of the future Vanterpool.
“I wouldn’t do justice to the world, social justice, the amount of amazing things black men do, not to mention that David Vanterpool is an incredible coach with an amazing IQ and will have an incredible opportunity. here soon, “Towns said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.