Flip Saunders will not return this season to his role as Minnesota Timberwolves head coach and president of basketball operations after complications from his fight with cancer, owner Glen Taylor told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Flip Saunders will not return to Timberwolves this season
Minnesota owner Glen Taylor has ruled out Saunders returning to work after complications in his fight with cancer.
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Saunders took a leave of absence after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in June and has been hospitalized since late September.
“Not this year,” Taylor said when asked about Saunders. “I just think his illness, I mean, it’s serious. At this point, if he came back I still think he’d have a hard time to recover all his energy and all that because he has been in the hospital for a long time.”
Doctors say the cancer is treatable and curable. Associate head coach Sam Mitchell, a former Coach of the Year winner, has been promoted in the interim while general manager Milt Newton’s duties have been expanded in Saunders’ absence.
Saunders was hired last summer for his second stint with the Timberwolves after coaching the team for 10 years from 1995 to 2005.
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