Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn went on record with some interesting remarks about recent Timberwolves acquisition Michael Beasley while talking to Tom Pelissero from ESPN radio Thursday.
“He’s a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he’s not smoking anymore, and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case,” Kahn said.
Kahn went on to justify Beasley’s immaturity by noting that he’s still growing up, even saying that if Kahn would have been put in the same situation that he wouldn’t have handled it any easier.
“He has developed a really good support system around him this past season in Miami. He’s hired people to help him grow up. He is growing up — he’s not grown up. He’s 21 … and he just turned 21 last January, and if you think back, as I do all the time, to when I was 21 and if you had given me this kind of money and put me in this kind of world with these kinds of pressures attached to it and some of the demands, I don’t know (that) I would have handled it any easier than, say, he has.”
Kahn also believes that due to Beasley being so young that he’ll be able to learn from his mistakes going forward.
“I think that if Michael was 25 or 26, maybe I would have felt differently about things. But I feel very strongly that some of these kids simply deserve the opportunity to make mistakes and grow up. The issue is, will they learn from their mistakes? Will they grow from them? In Michael’s case, there’s no evidence yet to suggest he won’t, meaning that he should be able to grow from these mistakes.”
Last, but not least, Kahn reminds everyone that he’s willing to take risks.
“So far, so good by the way. He had a very issue-free season last season in Miami. So, we expect more of the same with us. We’re very cognizant that we, too, as a club have to help him with some resources and make certain that we’ve got everything there to help him continue to grow. But I think it’s going to be fine, and he’s an incredible talent, and for us to be able to land him for … two second-round picks — that’s the kind of risk that I’ll take any day of the week.”