Minnesota Timberwolves: What everyone is saying about the Gersson Rosas firing

The Minnesota Timberwolves firing of Gersson Rosas has everyone talking.

It’s no surprise, of course. When an NBA team fires the leader of their front office right before the start of training camp, there will be plenty of folks who have thoughts on the decision.

Let’s take a look at some of the commentary from some of the more prominent reporters and media figures from around the NBA landscape.

What everyone is saying about the Minnesota Timberwolves firing Gersson Rosas

The immediate reaction to the Wolves’ firing of now-former President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas was, of course, shock. There was no indication that a move was coming at all, and it was a complete surprise for it to happen mere days before training camp and less than two weeks before the preseason opener.

We’ll start with the local reaction and then move on to the reaction from some of the national folks that came in the day or so following the news.

Local reporters have the details on Timberwolves’ decision to fire Rosas

While ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was (unsurprisingly) one of the first reporters to break the news of the firing, local reporters uncovered many of the details.

The Athletic’s Twin Cities reporter Jon Krawzynski, along with colleague Shams Charania, reported the firing within moments of Wojnarowski. But later in the evening on the same day, the local scribe provided much-needed context and additional details to the move (subscription required).

Krawczynski’s piece included everything from a list of issues that some in the Wolves organization had with Rosas over the past several months, to details on the “consensual intimate relationship” that came to light in recent days and accelerated the timeline.

Bleacher Report adds details to final straw for Timberwolves and Rosas

Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report took the inappropriate relationship piece of the story and extrapolated it further, uncovering additional details. While somewhat gratuitous, the context helps provide color for why Glen Taylor and the Wolves ownership as a whole opted to move expeditiously in recent days.

Rosas and the other team employee were seen together in public, at an outing with other front office employees and members of the coaching staff.

The apparent brazenness of the affair was, well, a lot of things, but the word arrogant is perhaps the first that comes to mind. Bleacher Report reportedly obtained photographs of the incident, which were also viewed by team ownership prior to the decision that was made to fire Rosas.

John Hollinger lambasts the Timberwolves for never getting it right

The Athletic’s John Hollinger was a longtime ESPN employee before working in the Memphis Grizzlies front office for years. He has no doubt dealt with several past Timberwolves regimes in a variety of capacities, and he’s certainly informed enough to speak on the topic of the Wolves front office.

Hollinger penned a piece for The Athletic (subscription required) that dives into the failings of the Wolves to find the right person to lead the basketball operations team.

It’s an article filled with largely fair criticisms, although interestingly, he only mentions owner Glen Taylor in passing. Taylor, of course, has been in charge of the franchise throughout the tumult that Hollinger describes, from Kevin McHale to David Kahn to Tom Thibodeau to Rosas.

He calls out the personnel mistakes made by Rosas but also admits that there is “cause for cautious optimism on the court.” Hollinger’s biggest issue is with the failure to have the right person in charge — which, of course, has to point back to Taylor.

In fairness to ownership, however, some of these issues with Rosas seem to be more recent developments. Plenty of folks signed off on his hiring more than two years ago, and it isn’t necessarily Taylor’s fault that these serious problems came up.

It is, however, fair to wonder why a change wasn’t made weeks or months ago. Instead, things were allowed to get to a (very public) tipping point.