How might the no. 2 overall pick of the 2008 draft have ended up in Minnesota for the mere price of two-second rounders? In the case of Michael Beasley, it has a bit to do with Miami’s limited cap space following the additions of Chris Bosh and LeBron James, but to hear T-Wolves GM David Kahn — who most recently managed to offend Chris Webber — tell the tale, it’s all about the Beaz’ Rush To Relax :
“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 Thursday during an interview with 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.”
“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.
“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.”