Kurt Rambis fired by the Timberwolves

Wikipedia

Rambis took a bad situation and made it worse.

​Like a wounded deer limping around the forest, Kurt Rambis was finally put out of his misery -- appropriately, by Timberwolves.

The T-Wolves fired Rambis this morning, ending his reign at the helm of one of the league's worst teams.

"I want to thank Kurt for his contributions to our franchise and wish him the best in his future endeavors," said T-Wolves president David Kahn.

Kahn didn't elaborate those "contributions"  -- maybe Rambis bought a bunch of chairs for the locker room.


In two years, Rambis went 32-132, and the T-Wolves became a league-wide punchline.

Rambis' cursed tenure is a dramatic decline from his glory years, when he won championships as a hard-nosed role player with Magic Johnson's Lakers. Hell, it's even a decline from the years he played Coach Cleary on "7th Heaven."

As he exits, the T-Wolves actually have something of a bright-looking future, with a talented cast of promising youngsters, namely Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams.

"I am hopeful Kurt receives his share of the credit for helping develop that talent and his contributions are not forgotten as we become a better basketball team," Kahn said in a statement.

To his credit, Rambis -- who was in his first head coaching job -- didn't gripe about inheriting a bad situation from former coach and general manager Kevin McHale. McHale leaving the Wolves in ruins was actually the second time he cheap-shotted Rambis.

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For the moment, the T-Wolves have no coach, and, with the players and owners locked out, no league. Oh well, there's always the year after next year.

Previously:

• Wolves hone in on Kurt Rambis
• Kurt Rambis, Best Coach, 2010 (boy were we wrong)
• Kurt Rambis: An endorsement amidst the carnage
• Timberwolves to fire Kurt Rambis