New president of basketball operations David Kahn announced the move Wednesday, ending McHale's 15-year stint with the Timberwolves. In a statement issued before a news conference, Kahn lauded McHale's contributions as an executive and a coach, but there are many changes on the way and it "would have been difficult for everybody involved to put Kevin in this position."

McHale, a northern Minnesota native and Hall of Fame player who won three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s, met several times with Kahn before the decision was reached.

"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, but that's up to you guys."'

Timberwolves forward Mark Madsen said McHale will be missed.

"Kevin McHale is a great coach," Madsen told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Salt Lake City. "I'm a little bit surprised by this news and I was hoping to play for him next season and I guess that's not going to happen now."

Jefferson, Foye and most everybody else in the locker room lobbied for him to come back.

"If there's some kind of way that he leaves the Timberwolves," Jefferson said in April, "that's when I'll be very, very upset."

McHale, however, was haunted by several bad contracts given to the likes of Marko Jaric, Troy Hudson and Mike James; draft-day blunders like Ndudi Ebi, Rashad McCants and the trade of Brandon Roy for Randy Foye; and an illegal under-the-table deal with Joe Smith that ultimately cost the team three first-round draft picks.

Those missteps aside, Madsen said he thinks people should remember that McHale built a perennial lottery team into a group that lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

"I think Kevin McHale's legacy speaks for itself," Madsen said. "Sure, the last couple years haven't been quite as good as any of us would have wanted. But let's not forget that it was Kevin McHale and Flip Saunders that took this organization to new heights in 2004 that was probably an injury away from a championship."