Team tries to explain Taylor’s comments

The following is a letter from the Wolves organization attempting to clarify the comments owner Glen Taylor made earlier this week on Garnett and tanking:

Thank you for your note. While I appreciate your passion and feelings around Mr. Taylor, KG and our team, I feel some further explanation is needed. Mr. Taylor’s remarks were never meant to be a commentary on KG’s entire 12-year experience as a Timberwolf. KG is, and always will be, a celebrated part of this franchise’s history and his contributions to the team and the community cannot be emphasized enough.

This entire conversation took place in the context of reporters asking Mr. Taylor why this year’s team isn’t tanking the remaining games of the season to ensure a better lottery pick. Mr. Taylor responded that he felt it was important to win games to build the confidence of our young players, to make final evaluations of which players we wanted to build around and finally he said it was important to show fans that we have a plan and are committed to it. To the degree that we have disappointed our fans and ourselves in the past, it has been because we deviated from our plan and began chasing short-term solutions.

Mr. Taylor was then confronted with a direct question from a member of the media as to whether the team had tanked the last few games of last season. At that point, Mr. Taylor expressed his personal opinion that he believed that KG could have played reduced minutes in those last five games and if he had, the outcome of those games may have been different. He used the word "tank" in his response because that was how the question was poised to him by the media. Unfortunately, in a world where the media looks for controversy, this statement was splashed across the headlines and given far more emphasis than what was conveyed in the short interview.

Mr. Taylor never intended this to a "cheap shot" or to call into question KG’s overall effort, competitiveness, etc. He did however, want to make clear that the decision for KG to not play the last five games of the season, and the subsequent accusations in the media that the team was tanking it, were a result of KG deciding not to play the final five games. He wanted to remind the reporters that the team had actually wanted KG to continue to play (as was reported extensively in the media last spring) but it was KG who chose not to finish the season. At that point, it becomes a hard argument to make that the team was trying to tank the remaining games when they no longer had their star player on the roster.

I know this explanation may not be completely to your satisfaction but hopefully it provides greater context to the story. Please let us know if you’d like to discuss further or if we can help in any other way.

Regards,