INQUIRER Sports

MINNEAPOLIS--Kevin McHale was dismissed Wednesday as coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, ending McHale's 15 years with the National Basketball Association club.

David Kahn, the Timberwolves new president of basketball operations, said that McHale was vital to the team as a coach and executive but due to changes it would be "difficult for everybody involved to put Kevin in this position."

McHale, a Basketball Hall of Fame player from Minnesota, won three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s and joined the T-Wolves in 1994, much of the time guiding personnel decisions for the club.

"I was willing to come back, but they never offered me a contract," McHale told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "They told me last week they were going in a different direction. I said, 'I think you're making a mistake.'"

McHale was demoted to replace fired coach Randy Wittman last December and saw Khan take his old job last month.

McHale went 19-12 in a pinch-hit coaching role in 2005 after Flip Saunders was fired and 20-43 in completing this past season after Wittman's dismissal.