Kahn and Rambis welcomed Laimbeer, along with former Boston Celtics assistant general manager Dave Wohl and former Sacramento Kings head coach Reggie Theus, as part of the direction the Wolves are taking to reshape the franchise.
All three assistants have head coaching experience and come from, as Rambis put it, “winning environments.” Each assistant also told Rambis during the interview process that they want to be head coaches again, a point that didn’t make Rambis feel uncomfortable.
“I like to be around guys who have aspirations,” Rambis said. “I’m not intimidated by that at all. I want them to be head coaches again someday, just not here. They can get their own jobs.”
“I like the guy,” Laimbeer said. “He’s well prepared and is a lot like me, which surprised me. He’s a Laker. I’m a Piston.
“He speaks his mind, honest, blunt, sarcastic. Ditto. I thought it was a good fit and we’re going to zing each other but it’ll be fun. The bottom line is that he’s very competitive and wants to win, and that’s my nature.”
Laimbeer wasn’t so open-minded during his playing days. He said the years away from the bench — and his experience with the Shock — have helped him mellow and he expected to provide “comic relief” in Minnesota.
“I understand what the word patience means,” Laimbeer said with a chuckle. “I don’t have it, but I understand it and have learned to temper myself a bit.”
“It was a new experience for me to assemble my own staff. I went through an exhaustive search. … I was looking for individuals who had a lot of NBA experience.
“There was a wealth of experience, over 30 years with Dave Wohl to my right here. We’ve been together and known each other since my early days with the Lakers. Looking at Reggie Theus to my left, he played in the league and had head coaching experience with the Sacramento Kings, and also Bill Laimbeer at the end with head coaching experience in the WNBA and his championship experience with the Pistons.
“The other aspect of it is that these are all workhorses up here. They all don’t mind long, hard hours of work.”
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