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 Rumors
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.
David Kahn: So we now had the Nos. 5 and 6 picks in the draft. Taking not one, but two players who might not want to play in Minnesota? That would have taken real cojones. We took Rubio and Jonny Flynn, a ready-to-play point guard who started 81 games for us as a rookie and then fell victim to a terrible hip injury. At the time, drafting Flynn made a lot of sense: we didn’t have a single point guard on the roster and our staff had ranked him No. 1 among all point-guard prospects for not only his on-court play, but also his strong leadership qualities, a significant team need.
David Kahn: Flynn made his final move to the top of our charts based on his impressive visit and workout with Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings, among others. Curry’s absence was duly noted. Rubio wasn’t there, either, but I thought his passing ability and defense were extraordinary for an 18-year-old and was willing to take the risk I could ultimately recruit him to come. That was the player I wanted. There are only two reasons to share this story now. First, Dell Curry revealed the family’s demand to Minnesota last year but didn’t provide any detail. Part of the story’s out.
But here he is in the Las Vegas Review Journal as a candidate to be the next athletic director at UNLV. In addition to his work with the Wolves, the paper notes that Kahn was credited with helping with UCLA’s renovation of Pauley Pavilion as a consultant. The other four listed potential candidates, though, are either former or current high-ranking college athletics administration officials. Kahn would have to be considered a dark horse among that bunch. Then again, who would have imagined he would have been hired with the Wolves in 2009 when he got that job?
