Welcome to the Friday edition of The Cooler. Programming note: This is the last edition for a couple of weeks because of a much-needed vacation. I will resume rambling consistently on Aug. 13. For now, let's get to it.
*In a wonderful bit of serendipity, I received a flurry of direct messages on Twitter from a European journalist wondering about former Wolves president of basketball operations David Kahn.
It was a reminder that I had seen — and then totally forgotten — some very important Kahn news a couple weeks back: He has resurfaced in the basketball world as the owner and president of the club Paris Basketball.
The club is slated to compete next season in the second division French Pro B League, but if you're wondering if Kahn has greater aspirations than that … he does!
"In fact, we have two very important ones," Kahn said when asked about the club's objectives in an interview with L' Equipe. "The first is to be the team that will play in the new Arena ("Porte de la Chapelle" in the summer of 2024), and play in EuroLeague in 2022. For me, it's totally incredible that Paris doesn't play in EuroLeague. We want to place this club on the map of the big European basketball clubs."
Playing in EuroLeague in 2022 would be a significant step. Jonny Flynn, who by then will be 33 years old and who has not played in any pro league since 2014 because of injuries, very well could be the starting point guard. (That part is just speculation on my part).
One of the questions from the overseas journalist, by the way, asked me to pick Kahn's worst move as Wolves boss and implored me to pick just one. It sounds hard, but really it's pretty easy.
*Through all their ups and downs this year, the Twins are remarkably just two games behind last year's pace. They were 50-51 at this time last year and 48-53 this year. The big difference in the standings is that the wild card is pretty much out of reach this year, while last season it was up for grabs.
But the Twins improved to 7 games back of Cleveland in the AL Central with last night's thrilling 2-1 win at Fenway. It should be noted that Minnesota and Cleveland play each other 10 times between July 30 (Monday) and Aug. 30.
*Dale Murphy was my favorite baseball player growing up and probably the one athlete I truly idolized. Wright Thompson is one of my favorite writers. Wright Thompson did a long profile piece catching up with Murphy, which was pretty much summed up my childhood and was a must-read for me. You should check it out, too.
