David Kahn made a special guest media appearance at shootaround this morning to shoot down Thursday's ESPN.com -- the latest in a series of semi-regular such rumors -- that the Lakers are refusing Wolves' overtures for Pau Gasol.
Kahn said he hasn't talked to the Lakers since last June. He didn't say this, but that was when he was talking with the Lakers about a bigger deal that would have brought Gasol here and sent away Derrick Williams, probably to a third team.
The latest ESPN.com said the Lakers had turned down a Wolves deal built around Williams and Nikola Pekovic.
Kahn said he wasn't upset about the latest rumors because that's the way the world is these days. But...
"What bothers me is it has an impact on a team and its players and its family members and it's not appropriate for that reason, in other words if it's not real," Kahn said.
A couple other things from shoot:
* Ricky Rubio will not play tonight against the Cavaliers at Target Center. He'll now have three more practices with the team to see if he's ready to play Wednesday against Denver.
* Andrei Kirilenko says he's feeling much better and definitely will return to the starting lineup tonight after missing four games because of back spasms.
