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Sam Mitchell has traveled far from that steamy summer day long ago, when he signed a free-agent contract on Timberwolves General Manager Billy McKinney's back inside a little San Antonio gym.

A European-league exile, he unexpectedly survived 13 years in the NBA by his grit and character. On an expansion team loaded with characters, he was something of a renaissance man, able one moment to expound upon that year's beaujolais nouveau wine crop from France, willing to exchange in some playground trash-talk straight from a Hollywood movie script with a teammate the next.

Today, in his suit and spectacles, he stands so professionally, almost professorially on the sidelines, directing a promising Toronto Raptors team thick with three-point shooters, foreign players and depleting injuries to T.J. Ford and Jorge Garbajosa.

It's a strange sight for anyone who knew him way back when.

His coaching experience began when he played. After trading him to Indiana, the Wolves brought him back in 1995 to mentor a promising draft pick named Kevin Garnett for his first seven NBA seasons.

Now, Mitchell, in his fourth year as Raptors coach, faces Garnett four times a year in the Eastern Conference, plus potentially the playoffs.

polo007 wrote:http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/15122431.html

Sam Mitchell has traveled far from that steamy summer day long ago, when he signed a free-agent contract on Timberwolves General Manager Billy McKinney's back inside a little San Antonio gym.

A European-league exile, he unexpectedly survived 13 years in the NBA by his grit and character. On an expansion team loaded with characters, he was something of a renaissance man, able one moment to expound upon that year's beaujolais nouveau wine crop from France, willing to exchange in some playground trash-talk straight from a Hollywood movie script with a teammate the next.

Today, in his suit and spectacles, he stands so professionally, almost professorially on the sidelines, directing a promising Toronto Raptors team thick with three-point shooters, foreign players and depleting injuries to T.J. Ford and Jorge Garbajosa.

It's a strange sight for anyone who knew him way back when.

His coaching experience began when he played. After trading him to Indiana, the Wolves brought him back in 1995 to mentor a promising draft pick named Kevin Garnett for his first seven NBA seasons.

Now, Mitchell, in his fourth year as Raptors coach, faces Garnett four times a year in the Eastern Conference, plus potentially the playoffs.

PapeSowish wrote:Isn't it obvious? Juan Dixon guarding KG in the playoffs!!! Genius.

ponder276 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-


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johnn_19 wrote:The plan was to become a head coach in the NBA and coach the players his GM provided to the best of his own and their abilities. That seems pretty obviously the intent of the article.