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At an event that included a roundtable discussion titled “The NBA, a model for European basketball”, David Kahn predicted that in two years the NBA will have some sort of league in Europe. The former manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves and now president and co-owner of Paris Basketball was clear in his statement: “After our victory against Partizan Belgrade (74-71 on November 7), two people who are used to NBA games came to see me and tell me that it was the best game they had ever seen. That’s what we can sell, a product that has nothing to do with the NBA.”
However, this is a product that the NBA wants: “I don’t know how, or in what manner, but I predict that the NBA will have a strong and concrete commitment in Europe within two years”. Kahn explained even further the whole situation: “In two years, the licenses that have been signed by the 13 EuroLeague clubs expire, and practically those clubs are free agents. So, now is the time that this discussion is held, inside the EuroLeague, in FIBA, and in the NBA. The time is now”.
Exiled former Timberwolves general manager David Kahn, 14 years removed from passing on Steph Curry twice, is now the president of Paris Basketball in the LNB Pro B basketball league. While his focus is now on turning France into a basketball hotbed, many remember Kahn for his blunders stateside, highlighted by his decision to not draft Curry, a four-time NBA champion who is one of the best shooters the league has ever seen back in 2009. Instead of drafting Curry, Kahn took point guard Ricky Rubio and shooting guard Jonny Flynn. Rubio has had a nice career, but nowhere near as good as Curry’s Hall of Fame track. As for Flynn, he flamed out after three years due to a career-altering hip injury. So why Rubio and Flynn? Kahn told staffers that they were “reminiscent of Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe.”
Indeed, it can seem everyone is trying to get to the U.S. except for Kahn. He tells me he wouldn’t take an NBA GM job if offered one. “No, I’m not leaving, “he says. “This is my favorite city in the world.” He pauses. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been more miserable [than I was in Minnesota].” What if he could go back knowing everything he does now? “I wouldn’t have taken the job,” Kahn says. I ask about the reaction from fans and media. Deserved or not, on a human level that seems like a lot to process. “Billy Beane made a strong point in Moneyball,” Kahn says. “You can never read anything. I learned he’s absolutely right. . . . Now am I aware? Of course.” He brings up a David Brooks column in The New York Times from 2011 titled “Tree of Failure” that he says he thinks about often. “The idea is that every step forward that you take is a correction of the previous step. That’s how I live my life. I believe that every step forward I’m taking I’m acknowledging a mistake I just made. I make mistakes every day. But I’m moving forward.”
Last fall doctors diagnosed Kahn, 61, with thyroid cancer, and a thin red scar now creases his neck from where they removed a tumor wrapped around a vocal cord, as well as 32 lymph nodes. His latest scan, in March, came back clean. Asked whether the brush with mortality changed his perspective, he says, “I know this will sound silly, but I don’t ever think about it because I’m too busy.” He reconsiders. “To say I never think about it is too strong. Of course, I think about it, but I don’t ever dwell on it. I mean, it is what it is. You move on.” This is a theme he will return to: moving forward.
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Jorge Sierra: Paris Basket has been promoted to France's top division. The president and co-owner of that club? None other than David Kahn of Minnesota Timberwolves fame.
Paris Basket has been promoted to France's top division.
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) June 13, 2021
The president and co-owner of that club? None other than David Kahn of Minnesota Timberwolves fame. pic.twitter.com/e76Wogx7mv
ok buckle up.... former Minnesota Timberwolves executive David Kahn has come down to talk to the protesters.... claims to be a friend of Ted.
ok buckle up.... former Minnesota Timberwolves executive David Kahn has come down to talk to the protesters.... claims to be a friend of Ted. pic.twitter.com/J6kyW6Q5GK
— Portland DSA (@PortlandDSA) August 29, 2020
At one point Friday evening, one resident of the condo building walked up to the group of protesters and offering to set up a meeting with Wheeler. That resident, David Kahn, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he was going across the street to pick up a pizza, but saw the protesters and talked to them. He said he offered to set up a meeting with Wheeler on Monday, but the protesters were not interested. Kahn said he did not previously discuss that offer with Wheeler, but said that he knew the mayor, whom he described as a friend, would be ready to meet with demonstrators. “I’m certain that if he was here tonight we probably could have arranged for something, but he’s not,” said Kahn, the former president of the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team. “But I know for a fact that is a standing policy for him.”
Curry brought this up in a 2014 interview with the Star Tribune's Jerry Zgoda, and he advanced that theory to a national audience again recently when he appeared on Bill Simmons' podcast. "My guy David Kahn. I don't know where he's at right now," Curry said on the podcast. "I think the word on the street was that he didn't draft me because Minnesota is cold and I wouldn't be able to play as much golf so I'd be miserable."
Jerry Zgoda: The old story that the Wolves didn't draft Stephen Curry because Minnesota has such a short golf season is news again? It's nonsense. Curry's threats played a role, but bigger: Kahn didn't think Curry was strong and durable enough to play PG full time.
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As it turned out, marijuana was not an issue in Beasley’s two seasons in Minnesota. Failure to grasp defensive concepts was the problem that led to their divorce. “Michael’s issue then from a basketball standpoint wasn’t on the offensive end,’’ Kahn told The Post in a phone interview. “Michael had a hard time on the defensive end. I think that wasn’t so much about Michael as the fact most of his basketball training was in the AAU system, a brief time in college. My sense at the time was he didn’t play as much in Miami as he had hoped because of the challenges he faced defensively.
David Kahn: Jeff Austin, who I'd known casually, had represented Dell Curry when he was a player. He had been handed Steph due to his connection to Dell and told me this was a family request. “I really need your help on this,” Jeff said, explaining why there would be no visit and perhaps even hell-to-pay. (As it turned out, this was the only time when I was with the Wolves that I ever ran into this type of draft problem.) The back-channel message would have weighed heavily in my decision-making process under any circumstances, but especially in Minnesota. Immediately after my hire, I was spending nearly every weekday morning in the team’s conference room, listening to team business partners and season-ticket holders lament over coffee and pastries. “You’ll never attract free agents here,” they said, practically in unison. “Players don’t want to play in cold-weather places.” Doomsday all around.
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