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Blog
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McHale and Wittman Invite Us To Lunch
The media were invited to Champs for a little lunch and hunch three days before the official media day this coming Friday. Coach Randy Wittman and VP Kevin McHale leaned against tables in the front of the room and took questions from about two dozen media folk. Here’s what I gleaned from the 45 minute affair.
* McHale likes this team a lot better than the past two or three because they are young, teachable and will play the way he has always wanted the Wolves to play. Today he and Wittman talked about the need to get to the free throw line and pound the offensive glass. McHale likened rebounding to a running game in football, a crucial fundamental that separates the contenders from the pretenders.
* Don’t be surprised to see Al Jefferson play some center this season. Not surprisingly, Jefferson is one of the reasons for McHale’s upbeat demeanor. Comparing AJ and KG, McHale said, “Kevin was a freak of nature. Al is more of a prototypical low post player; he wants to bang you…We haven’t ever had a smashmouth guy, someone who will put his shoulder down and get to the rim…Al doesn’t shoot the same way twice, he just does what it takes to put the ball in the hole…if you’re making shots from twenty feet away, the [opposing] coach will tell you to get a hand up in his face, if you’re making shots from three feet away the coach says we need to double-team. That opens things up.”
So why might AJ play the 5? Because McHale also loves Craig Smith and Ryan Gomes. McHale on Smith: “He’s a matchup nightmare, a unique guy…in our league if you’re odd and give [opponents]something people don’t see [you have an advantage]. He’s got strength and quickness…he can be a really good player in our league for a long time.” As for Gomes, McHale calls him a banger too (one of his favorite compliments) and then flat out says “I love what I see out of Ryan Gomes.”
* Wittman is directly comparing this Wolves squad to the Chicago Bulls of two and three years ago. “We’ve got eight guys under 24 years of age. Hopefully two and a half or three of them will step up and become all star caliber playhers. That’s what Chicago has gone through…they had three guys who emerged and they were able to trade Chandler and Curry and now they are very competitive…we’re looking for a similar thing.” Later, when it came to the unhappiness of Juwan Howard, Witt didn’t deny Juwan was bummed about the KG trade, but appropriately said the reasons they wanted Howard around are just as relevant pre- and post-KG. “Howard should look at what PJ Brown did with Chicago,” Witt continued, noting that he played the good teammate, the veteran glue guy, “and now he has his choice to play with Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio…” Translation: We’re not trading your ass this year but if you’re a solid presence on the court and in the locker room, we’ll see if we can send you someplace you might pick up a ring next year.
* Wittman is not using youth as an excuse for a poor record this season. He points out that Jefferson, Gomes, Green and Telfair are all in their 3rd or 4th year and that Foye and Smith “had good years last year and didn’t back down…so it is not like we have eight guys who just came out of high school…we have the ability to compete in this league…with the talent we do possess we are going to win some games.”
Then McHale chimed in that sometimes young guys get too competitive with members of their own team, become too preoccupied with surmounting a teammate and then struggle, rather than coming together once the rotation is sorted out. While there is truth to this, it is also serving notice that there will be some tough winnowing out and some promising youngsters who think they deserve more time are going to be logging a lot of bench sitting. “You can’t play 10, 11, 12 guys. You’re really only going to play 8, 9 guys,” McHale declares.
* Given that view, my early handicapping would put minutes in for, in order, Jefferson, Foye, Davis, Smith, Brewer, and Gomes, with Jaric, Hassell, McCants, Blount, Green and Telfair on the bubble.
* Why is McCants downgraded? Strictly my interpretation, reading between the lines, but even when Wittman was talking about Shaddy in positive terms, there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm and conviction behind it. Maybe it was because it was the first question of the afternoon and everyone was still getting warmed up, but there was just something tepid, to the point where Witt followed one sentence by conceding, “I didn’t see him his rookie year.” Yes he said some nice things about McCants, noting that his injury is “night and day from last year…he’s back to 100 percent…we finished near the bottom of the league in free throw attempts and he can help that…he’s been here all summer so [if he falls off] it won’t be for lack of effort…” But then McHale jumped in and claimed that McCants still doesn’t have that “crazy hop up,” adding that God puts people together best the first time and it is hard to come all the way back after such a significant injury.
* When someone mentioned that Davis could be a key to the season, Wittman replied that the “different things that went on last year can’t happen,” quickly amending it to mean he was addressing that to all the Wolves’ players, but it certainly wasn’t mere coincidence that the sentiment was raised in sync with RD. “We don’t have to put up with that this season, we’ve got 16 players,” Wittman reiterated. We’ll see.
* Asked about trades, McHale was less enthusiastic about it then when I posed the same question three weeks ago. But some guys may be looking to leave before too long. For example, McHale is truly excited about Gomes. And he genuinely is pleased with the opportunity to have drafted Brewer. So where is the world does Trenton Hassell fit on this team? He wasn’t mentioned by either Wittman or McHale; ditto Mark Blount.
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Types of Fantasy Sports Users
Lee K. Farquhar, of the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Robert Meeds, of Kansas State University’s A. Q. Miller School of Journalism, present their research on Types of Fantasy Sports Users and Their Motivations.
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News Media Online
The Journal of Online Behavior published a research study on The Role of the Internet in National and Local News Media Use.
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Man Dies from Gaming Binge
I don’t know how I missed this, but according to CNN, a man in Beijing, China died from exhaustion after a three-day gaming binge. See, computer games can kill you — not just brain cells.
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Young Girls Tell Us What They Want
Thanks to Adrants for pointing out these videos of teenage and twenty-something girls discussing their reactions to ads that try to market to them. Interesting. More interesting still is the idea of a young all girl creative agency.
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Halo 3? Not this one.
My favorite Madonna. From Eddie Munch. Looks troubled.Saints are frequently (always? help me as I am not Catholic) depicted with halos around their heads. In the car biz, there are certain revered cars that emit a similar glow. And few halo cars are worshiped more fervently than the BMW M3.
That is why the first notices on the latest model about to hit our shores soon are as troubling as Munch’s Madonna (depicted above.) In fact, if you believe the English motoring press (as you should because it is the best) things look very dark indeed.
They say its just not snappy enough (for an M3, even with 420 HP, my God) it lacks steering feel (for an M3) and is a little porky (for an M3, as all have been compared to the first beloved iteration in mid-80s, the bad boy with the spoiler).
Personally I think something Faustian is going on. I believe someone whispered into some southern chu-man’s ear that the current M3 is a little too edgy for the typical American gold chain guido. If the Oracles are right, then BMW planned it this way.
And the thought of it makes me mad as you know where.
Like Guidos? then this is your flick. Or if this is too taxing to watch, try the story in more literate form. The comic book is for sale BTW:
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So you want to be snapped at by Anthony Bourdain?
OK, so you probably can’t be a Food Network star, but you can be in the presence of an infamously uncensored one. Anthony Bourdain is coming to Solera on Tuesday, November 27, for an evening of Spanish wine and tapas, during which he will answer questions [beware!] and autograph copies of his new book, “No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach.” There are a limited number of tickets available at $80 a pop. Click here, if you’re so inclined.
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Strib editorial upheaval confirmed
9/26 UPDATE: Albright is out, and Gillespie is in…”temporarily.” Hope that doesn’t mean he’s going to decimate the opinion pages, then return to his regular newsroom vagaries….
Here’s the memo:
“Editorial Page changes
by Chris Harte, Publisher and Chairman
September 26, 2007 – Susan Albright, our editorial page editor, will be leaving the Star Tribune, effective Oct. 12. Scott Gillespie, our managing editor, will move over to be the editorial page editor on an interim basis.
Susan has ably guided the Star Tribune editorial pages with the highest integrity since 1993, and I have the utmost respect for her as a journalist and an editorialist. She is a nationally recognized leader among editorial writers and a former president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers (NCEW).Under her leadership, the Star Tribune editorial staff has won numerous editorial, op-ed and cartooning awards. In 2001 her staff conceived and launched the Sunday Op Ex section, now called “Opinion Exchange.”
With all of these fine credentials to Susan’s credit, it is all the more difficult to say that she and I have a difference of opinion that results in her leaving. As I moved into the chairman’s role in March and then into the publisher’s role, it was clear as Susan and I talked that we had different views of the future.
We have a professional disagreement about the role of the editorial pages and how they should be edited. The main shift I want to see is toward even more locally focused editorial pages.
I believe the role of a metro newspaper is changing radically and rapidly in a world of instant global access to information. I see the need for our editorial pages, like the rest of the newspaper, to concentrate more heavily than ever on local, state and regional issues. This is where we can stake a claim like no other media can.
Our readers can go to many places to get informed opinion on the Iraq war or global warming. But there are very few places they can go for expert opinion on local issues. And that is where I want us to dwell, with the active participation of our readers.
As you know, we will soon be locally zoning the metro news pages, and my mandate to Scott is to move our editorial pages in a direction that complements this local strategy.
Regarding her departure, Susan said: “It has been an honor and a privilege for me to serve as the Star Tribune’s editorial page editor for nearly 15 years. I am proud of what the opinion page staff has accomplished in those years. On leaving, I can only express my profound gratitude to all my colleagues, and wish them all the best.”
I hope you will please take the time to congratulate Susan on a job very well done. She is a true professional who stands up for her beliefs, articulates them eloquently and genuinely respects the views of others. I wish her all the best.
Posted yesterday: It should come as no surprise to any of our faithful readers that the Strib’s, uh, shall-we-say, “progressive leaning” editorial department, under the long-time stewardship of Susan Albright, has for years been a painful, pricking thorn in the side of McClatchy, and now Avista. My partner in crime, currently on a kayaking adventure in Utah, recently posted about management’s directive that the editorial department lay off support for the nickel a gallon gas tax hike.
The latest rumor to rumble around Shake-up Central on Portland has Albright stepping down from her post, to be replaced by none other than Strib managing editor Scott Gillespie.
It makes sense.
Gillespie hardly seems a favorite of Strib uber editor Nancy Barnes. Heck, when a reporter from the American Journalism Review showed up earlier this year to do a piece on the paper’s contractions, Barnes offered a list of people for him to contact. Although all her other newsroom favs were included, Gillespie’s name was nowhere to be found. Then there was the leak that now-vanished publisher Par Ridder wanted to bring PiPress’s editor Thom Fladung Stribside (Fladung declined).
Gillespie is well-known as an editor who has continuously lost vertebrae as he’s ascended through the ranks and become more adept at avoiding controversy at all costs. Over the last few months, he made his bones with top management by following its staff whacking and restructuring orders to the letter, no matter who got hurt. Staffers who once considered him a friend have no doubt that he’d run the layoff truck over them if Chris Harte so ordered, rather than take a stand.
Having Gillespie in the Editorial driver’s seat would not only get him out of the downsized newsroom–where two editors are probably now seen as too many (read expensive)–it would put a malleable executive in charge of what, until now, has been the paper’s last bastion of rage against the machine.
Watch this space.
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The Tease
Unfortunately, I forgot my digital camera at home today – it holds all the substandard pics I snapped during MNfashion Weekend. I’ll report more on the affair (and my associated quest for commerce) tomorrow, perhaps in the p.m. But, in the meanwhile, check out this week’s big fashion event, which you can still buy tickets for:
Collage Fashion Show
Thursday, September 27 at Nicollet Island Pavilion
Two of my favorite local boutiques are participating in this three-way of a runway affair: the refined, and yet funky, Ivy and super-girly Stephanie’s. The third boutique, Bluebird, isn’t a fave, but I have found fabulous vintage jewelry there in the past. However, I’m probably most excited about Bluebird’s contribution to this year’s (the third annual) Collage. They’re planning to show clothes by Loeffler Randall, the shoe designer – a favorite of the shop’s owners – who only recently introduced a line of apparel.