Image by Getty Images via @daylifeTimberwolves president David Kahn says his comments about the NBA draft lottery were intended as a joke, simply a tongue-in-cheek resignation that fate gave Cleveland the first pick ahead of luck-lacking Minnesota.
After the Cavaliers beat out the Wolves for the top spot Tuesday, Kahn said with a smirk to a group of reporters, “This league has a habit—and I am just going to say habit—of producing some pretty incredible story lines.”
Kahn pointed to Washington sending the widow of longtime owner Abe Pollin last year and getting the first pick. Cleveland had owner Dan Gilbert’s 14-year-old son, who has battled disease since birth, on hand for good luck this time. The Cavaliers got exactly that in the annual pingpong ball pop-up.
Kahn, in a statement sent Wednesday by the Wolves to The Associated Press, said he wasn’t suggesting a conspiracy of any kind.
“I don’t believe in jinxes, curses (or) hocus pocus, and I certainly don’t think we were wronged,” Kahn said. “But I do believe in the power of story, and I joked last night that it’s a heck (of a) better story for a 14-year-old kid to beat out a couple of middle-aged executives standing together on a stage on national TV—and that our league seems to always have its own share of luck in being a part of these stories.”
Kahn added: “That was the entire meaning of what I said last night in a joking fashion and what I believe was received in such fashion.”
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