stem on a North American team. "And by the way I think this applies to the history of TFC occasionally too, and they dont unders

MINNEAPOLIS -- In the winter of 1998, Ethan Casson started calling professional franchise after professional franchise, begging them to get his foot in the door in any capacity. Fake Nike Air Max Replica .One night, a human resources employee for the Minnesota Timberwolves picked up the phone and Casson talked his way into a meeting. He flew from the East Coast, met with several Timberwolves executives and, during the third quarter of a game against the Golden State Warriors, was offered an entry-level position on the business side of the operation at $24,000 per year.To think that what started as a cold call of me begging an HR person to let me come in and prove my worth 18 years later turned into me coming back as a CEO is amazing and certainly very special to me, Casson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.Casson had to sell his car and some other possessions to raise the money to pay for his move from Boston to the Twin Cities, but the leap of faith has paid off. Six years after he left the Timberwolves to climb the ladder with the San Francisco 49ers, he is returning as CEO to breathe new life into one of the NBAs struggling operations.Timberwolves President Chris Wright remembered the impression Casson left in those first face-to-face meetings.I told him were going to find a place for you in this franchise because you are exactly the type of person that we want build this franchise around, Wright said.Cassons first stint with the Timberwolves lasted 11 years. He worked his way up to senior vice president of corporate partnerships and met his future wife here before leaving for the 49ers in 2010.When he arrived in the Bay Area, the once-proud 49ers were in the midst of an eight-year playoff drought. Their revenue had dropped to near the bottom of the league and they were playing in an outdated stadium that couldnt compete with the shiny new ones popping up around the league. He leaves after helping to secure a 20-year, $220 million naming rights deal with Levis for the new stadium and rebuilding the franchises business operations.The Timberwolves have not made the playoffs since 2004, the longest active drought in the league. That futility has contributed significantly to plummeting revenue and a dwindling season ticket base.Im not saying its apples to apples, but I certainly feel Ive been on a six-year journey that involved a lot of similar themes, Casson said. And Ill apply all of those lessons to this next phase of my career.Casson replaces Rob Moor, the longtime CEO who stepped aside to work more closely with Wolves owner Glen Taylors other business interests. At 42 years old, Casson is part of a youth movement coming into the organization. Taylor also brought in 41-year-old New York real estate mogul Meyer Orbach and 35-year-old Chinese entrepreneur John Jiang as minority owners, and he hopes the three of them help bring a new perspective and energy to the business side that mirrors the vibe youngsters Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine are bringing to the team.I was very aware and respectful that taking on this role wasnt about coming in and fixing things that were broken, Casson said. I dont look at opportunities like this as somethings not working. I look at it as an opportunity to reset and plot out a different course or a different version of a course that moves the business forward.The challenges are real. The Timberwolves competitive dormancy buried them in a crowded sports marketplace. Tickets have been hard to sell and the NFLs Vikings, the NHLs Wild and MLBs Twins are competing for the corporate dollars.Ive been here for a long time, said Wright, who is entering his 25th season with the Wolves. Ive tried to do it what I consider the best way for the franchise given all of the different sort of environments weve found ourselves in over the last 12 years as weve not been making the playoffs. And I think Ethan is going to just bring a completely fresh, new look to all of that and lead us in the direction we need to be as a club in the 21st century.The Wolves have one of the most promising young cores in the league, a brand new practice facility in downtown Minneapolis and have begun renovations on the dusty Target Center.Theres a lot of momentum in and around the organization that made it very exciting for me as a fan and now as someone who is coming back as CEO, he said. That will come and go. The renovation will eventually be complete. The team will stabilize and be competitive. You still have to make sure the business model is sustainable and drivable. Thats what were going to be. Wholesale Nike Air Max From China . Rinne played two periods in his first game since left hip surgery in early May. Gabriel Bourque scored 3:07 into the second period and Austin Watson tallied 5:15 later for Nashville. Cheap Nike Air Max Outlet . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005. https://www.wholesalenikeairmaxshoes.com/ . From filmmaker Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes), The Price of Gold revisits the saga that rocked the figure skating world ahead of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games: the assault on Nancy Kerrigan, and the plot that led its way back to her rival Tonya Harding. TORONTO -- New MLSE boss Tim Leiweke says he likes the management teams he has in place with the Leafs and Raptors. But he is withholding his verdict on Toronto FC, at least publicly, for the time being. The struggling MLS team is 2-10-8 under president Kevin Payne and manager Ryan Nelsen, who continue to overhaul the roster in their first year at the helm of the perennial underachiever. "This ones different than the other two (teams) because were in the middle of the season," Leiweke, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, said in an interview this week. "And so I dont think its fair or proper to get into an analysis, an assessment or a yearend on Kevin and Nellie because I think were in the middle of it here. "Are we happy where were at? No. And they understand Im not happy where were at. Do I hold them accountable and blame them for the decisions? No, I think they probably inherited most of these decisions. They didnt make all of these decisions. "Have we done as well as we would have hoped to do, even with the bad decisions they had to inherit? No, and I think theyd admit it. But I think what we need to do as an organization, all of us, the hand we were dealt is the hand we were dealt, we all knew it going in. And now what we need to do is not complain about it, not bitch about it, not revisit it. "I think weve got to focus every day on saying how do we fix this and get better. And thats what Im encouraging all of us to do, including me. That this needs to be going forward, how do we make this a better organization, lets not revisit what got us here." Leiweke spoke favourably of Payne-- "He knows where the bodies are buried and he knows what it takes to build a championship team" -- in a June 4 in-house interview aired on YouTube. In the same video, he said he was looking forward to getting to know the coaches. While Leiweke, who oversaw the Los Angeles Galaxy during his time in charge of AEG, told The Canadian Press he would withhold judgment on TFC, he seemed to offer several signals in the interview. Payne, who has been in the league from Day 1, and Nelsen, a rookie manager who began his playing career in MLS, have complained about officiating throughout the season. Leiweke, asked about Saturdays 0-0 tie with the New York Red Bulls, acknowledged that Toronto was "not catching any breaks." But he refused to dwell on it. "I tend to believe that sitting here and revisiting those calls doesnt serve much of a purpose," he explained. "And so we probably have to as an organization spend less time bitching and more time just moving on and understanding that sometimes thats the way those calls are going to go." Leiweke feels a keen connection to MLS, in part because he recalls a time "where there was a question whether it (the league) was going to make it." At one point, AEG owned six of the leagues 10 teams. Leiweke watched it grow, in part because of the off-field success and packed stands in Toronto during the franchises early days. "So theres a large part of me that feels the pain here more with TFC than we probably do with the other teams (Leafs and Raptors) because they had such an amazing thing that was going on here, they were such a vibrant part of changing the league and the way people viewed us. And people that wanted to come in and invest in the league. TFC made a huge impact and it was because of the fans and the overwhelming support that we got and how well we were doing. "So the good news is I tend to believe that TFC and Major League Soccer are a little bit different than the other two (Leafs and Raptors) because of the pains and the trials and the tribulations and the blood, sweat and tears that we put into thiss league to try to help it survive. Cheap Air Max 270. "The bad news is it makes it even more painful for what were going through now, because you clearly understand what those fans are going through." MLSE paid $10 million for Toronto FCs expansion fee prior to the club joining the league in 2007. The new New York franchise will pay at least $100 million. "I guess thats the good news," Leiweke said. "The sport and the league have done extremely well. And this team has done well. But weve lost our way and weve got to find it, weve got to get it back." To that end, MLSE is looking at upgrading BMO Field and the marketing of the team. "Its a little bit easier for the Leafs and the Raptors because we were at the end of the year and so we made some decisions on the Raptors and we made some decisions on the Leafs," Leiweke said. "And I am extremely comfortable with both of those management teams and where were headed." Being in the middle of the season isnt stopping Leiweke from making his thoughts known to the TFC braintrust. Nelsen has said hed like to fix the rest of his roster before bringing in a star designated player, so the new DP has a proper supporting cast. Leiweke, who brought David Beckham to MLS, disagrees. He believes if you find the right designated player, you sign them. But he learned the hard way that having the right DP wont make a difference if you have the wrong coach. "Philosophically theres probably a few changes that Im asking them to think about," Leiweke said. "I know theres a debate, for example, do you bring the DP in when its the final piece of the puzzle. I dont agree with that. I think the DP has to be part of your culture and your character and youve got to build around great DPs. "I know in Los Angeles, the first year we brought David in, it was a disaster. And by the way some of the disaster was self-created. I made a bad mistake on the coach. We didnt have the right system in place, we didnt make the playoffs and it was chaos. "But we turned it around very quickly and by the next year, we were a playoff team." The Galaxy coach in question was Ruud Gullit, a former star Dutch player who had managed Chelsea, Newcastle and Feyenoord before succeeding Canadian Frank Yallop at the Galaxy helm after Beckhams first year. Leiweke believes Gullit "underestimated the league and kind of probably didnt think it was good as it turned out it was." For Leiweke, many overseas coaches make the mistake of trying to impose a European system on a North American team. "And by the way I think this applies to the history of TFC occasionally too, and they dont understand this league," he said, in what could be seen most recently as a reference to Dutch manager Aron Winter. "It takes a long time for them to begin to understand this league." The MLSE boss says newcomers dont understand the athleticism, endurance, durability and work ethic of the North American player, not to mention the travel in the league. "What I realized is you have to put (in) someone (as coach) that understands the league and not try to change the league. Youre not going to change the league, youre not going to bring another style and another system and suddenly be able to be successful in the league. "Because at the end of the day there is a certain style of play and a certain quality with our league that you have to learn to be a part of. So we learned that in L.A. and when Bruce (Arena) came along, he did an extremely good job at taking our youth and our development and then our veteran guys, including our DPs, and finding a system that played into the strengths of the league. And thats when we began to have great success." ' ' '