Rambis would bring sizzle to Wolves, but where's the steak?

To damn him with faint praise, Kurt Rambis is certainly the best of the candidates interviewed by Big-Brained Basketball Boss David Kahn.

Mark Jackson is known in NBA circles for backstabbing John Stockton in Utah and becoming a clubhouse lawyer in Indiana. Kahn being a lawyer inside and outside of clubhouses, maybe that was what made Jackson attractive to our BBBB.

Elston Turner and the rest of the candidates might have had trouble landing CBA jobs, so they probably weren't ready to run an NBA team, even if the Timberwolves are an NBA team with CBA talent.

If Rambis is indeed the Wolves' choice to become their next head coach, he certainly has a résumé that would impress most casual observers. He played for Pat Riley, one of the best coaches in NBA history. He coached under Phil Jackson, whose coaching history is even more impressive than Riley's. He was clotheslined by Kevin McHale, earning sympathy from an entire generation of Wolves fans 25 years later.

Rambis also fills one of the Minnesota criteria for endearing himself to casual fans -- he was a white guy of moderate talent who came off the bench. This ensures his popularity in a state that grew fond of Scotty Brooks, Mark Madsen, Derek Boogaard, Randy Bush, Gene Larkin and Bob Lurtsema.

So Rambis, with his grit, championship rings and associations, has a chance to become popular.

Does he have a chance, though, to become a good NBA head coach?

He moved into the Lakers' front office, and became an assistant coach, took the top job for most of a lockout-shortened 1999 season, and has spent recent years sitting next to the elevated chair Jackson uses to protect his faulty back.

That's an impressive résumé, unless you believe that true head coaches don't sit around in assistant's chairs for the bulk of their careers, waiting for the right break and the right salary, as Rambis did.

If you are dying to be a head coach, do you really take the easy way out and live the big-time life of a Lakers assistant, or do you do what so many of the best NBA coaches have done, and invest yourself in the craft of running a team by yourself?

Gregg Popovich coached Pomona-Pitzer before becoming an NBA assistant. Flip Saunders, George Karl, Jackson, Jim Boeheim and Bill Musselman became head coaches in the CBA. Larry Brown became a head coach at Davidson, then jumped to the ABA.

If you are made of the stuff of outstanding head coaches, you don't sit in the cushy chair next to Jackson. You find an uncomfortable head coach's seat in the CBA, or at a high school, or a small college. You learn the craft of running a team, which is far different than the craft of running one or two aspects of a team.

He also won't have the luxury, at the end of a tight game, of nodding as Jackson enters the huddle and says, "Get the ball to Kobe and get out of the way."

There were a lot of intriguing, highly-thought-of GM candidates available this summer. The Wolves chose the one, Kahn, who had been out of the NBA for seven years and never had been a general manager.

There were a lot of intriguing, highly-thought-of coaching candidates available this summer, including Sam Mitchell, Jeff Van Gundy and Avery Johnson. The Wolves appear to be close to choosing one who never has been a full-time head coach.

Maybe Kahn is a genius and Rambis will overachieve as much on the sideline as he did on the court.

"Maybe" is such a kind word.