Don Seeholzer/Pioneer Press conducted an interview with Kevin McHale.
Q: But you’re still committed to coaching this full season, right?
A: Yeah, yeah.
Q: You said from the start that you weren’t looking forward to the travel. Has that been the worst part of the job?
A: You know what, I’ve found one thing with the travel. There is some quiet time for me to spend some time doing things I enjoy. So I’ve tried to use some of the down time on the road just to be more productive, and that makes it easier.
McHale, asked if it’s more enjoyable to watch these wins from the bench than his former seat in the stands:
“To be truthful, I wish I was 10 rows up and doing that, you know what I mean? I’ve always said there’s part of the coaching that is really fun. It’s getting in there; it’s the competitiveness; it’s all that stuff. That’s really fun. It’s as close as you’re going to get to playing again, but yet it’s nothing like playing. It may sound weird, but if you’re a decent player, you have a hundred times more control over the outcome of a game than a coach.”
From Sid Hartman:
Jefferson had nothing but good words to say about coach Kevin McHale.
“I think he is an old-school coach,” Jefferson said. “If something isn’t broke, don’t fix it, is his theory. That is the way he coaches. So if a play keeps working, that is what we are going to keep on doing. If they stop it, we go to the second option. That’s the way he coaches. He lets us go out and play free. He’s coached defense, and I think he’s a great coach.
“I know me playing center on this team, I’m the captain on defense. When I’m playing great defense, the team plays great defense. So that’s something that I had to take upon myself to get better. I have a long ways to go, but just know my teammates know I’m working at it. I’m trying to get better at it, and it’s something that I want to get better at, and it’s going to happen.”
Teammates chanted Carney’s name when he returned to the locker room after being interviewed on the team’s postgame brodcasts, McHale said.
“Just about everybody likes Rodney a great deal because he works hard every day,” said McHale, who acquired Carney from Philadelphia last summer in a bit of salary-cap bookkeeping that brings the Wolves a future first-round pick. “When you get guys like that who didn’t complain when he didn’t play, you pull for those guys. He’s been such a blessing for the team because he’s such a great guy to be around. I didn’t know he was such a quality team guy, just a diligent worker. He just kind of comes in and does his thing. The best part of [Saturday night] was there was such a genuine happiness for Rod.”
Carney impresses with his sheer athleticism, but he has also become a defensive specialist as his role has grown and with Corey Brewer’s season over because of a torn knee ligament.
From Benjamin Polk/City Pages on Rodney Carney:
But sometimes, like Saturday night or in the first half in New York, when his attitude and physical gifts magically align with the rhythm of the game, Carney really gets it going. He sticks the other team’s star (check the end of that same video); he blocks somebody’s jumper; he he runs the floor; he throws down really hard:
And sometimes, seemingly in violation of the laws of outer space, he even gets that herky-jerky jumper going, the one that usually has me saying something like “don’t do it Rodney!” as it leaves his hand. When, as against Milwaukee, you see Hot Rod splashing threes, you know it’s the witching hour. And the best part is the blase, ultra-professional expression on his face which wants to say, in sharp contrast to his teenager’s looks and that gangly, spastic body language, “relax dude, it was nothing to me.” Its debatable whether Rodney Carney is any good; he’s definitely amazing.
The Wolves now have won 11 games, and still only one of them is over a team with a winning record (Detroit). But Foye called the Bucks a legitimate playoff team in the Eastern Conference and hailed the victory as proof of his team’s confidence and ability to succeed even after Jefferson went to the bench with his fourth foul.
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