Premature Tweeting: Kevin Love Spills Beans on McHale Ouster
The Minnesota Timberwolves are saying so long to Kevin McHale after nearly 15 years. This is big enough news on its own, given that McHale did a decent job last year as their coach and could very well have been retained in that capacity, but it became even bigger news when the story leaked out prematurely thanks to Timberwolves player Kevin Love and his Twitter account.
“Today is a sad day,” Love tweeted in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. “Kevin McHale will NOT be back as head coach this season.”
Love evidently learned the news via text message from an unimpeachable source: McHale himself. Apparently, it never occurred to Love that there might be a proper procedure by which the public would learn about such a move; he took to Twitter almost immediately, and let the cat out of the bag.
Later, when Love had it explained to him that he wasn’t supposed to blab about the firing, he tried fixing it by tweeting again:
P.S. I am not a breaking news guy. I had no idea no one knew..I’ll tell them I stayed at a holiday inn express last night. Always works….
Love at least gets points for being amusing and quick on his feet. However, I think the Timberwolves might want to consider holding a seminar for their players: When to Tweet and When Not to Tweet. ESPN, and the other media outlets who make a living on breaking news, would be especially grateful.
