Minnesota Sports Forum

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In the above link Wolfson talked to Sam Mitchell in his lastest scoops podcast and it to me it showed everything good and bad about Sam. He is thoughtful, classy, has a good basketball mind, and truly hurt by how he was let go (he has a point). He was also bizarre in claims he made, cranky, seems a bit clueless about some things about how life works and very wise about how other things work. This spot with Wolfson who is a very big fan of Sam who I have little doubt overall is a very good person and Sam still came off poorly at times. I want to like Sam and I still do but that's the way I took it.

The biggest example was he was complaining Thibs never called him because Sam has known him since 1989. Then he said a month and a half after he was fired Layden called him and Sam said he was unhappy nobody from the wolves had called him etc so after listening to Scott for a few seconds he hung up on him. Damn that's pretty rough. Layden seems pretty classy and Sam has to have known him in some way since Layden has been in the league forever. I think Sam should get credit for doing some good things and taking over a tough situation and it also sounds like he empowered his assistants at least down the stretch but man I'm glad the guy isn't the head coach. It seems pretty clear Sam wasn't a choice of Flip for a head coach and most fans had reservations about Sam to one extent or another even as an assistant. I think the guy has value as a coach and as a person but...there are some legit negatives.

There was an interesting start with them talking about Teddy. Sam literally gushed about him. And Wolfson was asking about bad injuries. Assuming Sam remembers it correctly which is a legit question to ask...he said he had micro fracture surgery at 34 and of course that was a scary deal back then even worse than it was now. He came back and played healthy Sam actually said he didn't miss a game the next year (I'm too lazy to look it up) anyway Sam said he felt good with medicine the way it is that Teddy will come back healthy.

Thanks for posting this, monster, and providing the link. I'll listen to this later, but I'm guessing you perfectly captured the essence of Sam. He's a complicated guy, and not one to ever keep anything inside...and that can make him lovable and petty in the same conversation. Much closer to Flip in terms of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, although Flip was obviously much happier and smoother, and almost the antithesis of the closed up Leydon and Thibs. With Sam, what you see is what you get. Sometimes I wonder if he feels embarrassed later after saying something that sounds so childish, but I'm guessing he has too much pride to regret anything. He's an interesting guy to say the least. Will always be one of my favorite Wolves characters.