Herb Kohl Admits He Vetoed a Zach Randolph to Milwaukee Trade

After dismissing Larry Harris from the role of general manager yesterday, Herb Kohl spoke to the press about Harris' limitations, or at least the implied notion that Kohl did not give Harris much leeway for making roster related transactional moves. Specifically, Kohl stated that he did veto a Zach Randolph to Milwaukee deal; but also said that he and Harris were on the same page all along.

"Larry has no difficulty or animosity with me over the right I had to say, 'Let's not do the Zach Randolph trade,' " Kohl said. "He would not bring that up to you as any point of contention. He would say, 'Yes, he had the right to do that, whether I agree or not.' "

Nothing smells finer on an early Thursday morning than a little politician double talk. Am I right? What Kohl essentially is saying, at least to me, is that he told Harris he was not going to trade for Randolph (purportedly for Charlie Bell, Dan Gadzuric and Bobby Simmons). And Harris won't contend that Kohl's veto power was outside any scope of normal behavior. Go figure.

Kohl's also discussed his reasoning for not wanting Z-Bo, which, not so shockingly, came down to character issues. Bear in mind that Randolph has a large contract and has had personal issues on/off court, but at least he's better than Gadzuric and Simmons combined.

'I don't want to impugn him, because I've never met him,' Kohl said about Randolph, the Knicks power forward, who was obtained in a trade with Portland last summer. 'Zach started out in Portland, and at the point they traded him, they really wanted to do that. He did not help them win.

'Then they traded him to New York, and within six months they wanted him out. They were prepared to trade him to the Bucks or anyone else. And he had three years, plus this year, remaining on his contract, which was over $50 million.

'Now any owner, I submit, who would not take an interest in that and would not want to be a part of that decision, is not doing his job. When it comes to decisions of that magnitude, the owner needs to be on board.'

Actually, Herb, the owner needs to trust his general manager to do what is best for the team. That's, in theory, why you hired him. And that is also why you pay him a whole boatload of cash every year. See, maybe Harris made mistakes; but maybe, if this Randolph trade is any indication, Harris was the one forcing his hand on some of those ill-advised moves. We'll know more depending on Donnie Walsh's willingness to head to Milwaukee as well as how quickly Harris gets picked back up for another job. And by the way, Herb, you should have taken that Randolph deal. At least Z-Bo has enough potential to be moved. Plus, the other Simmons would have loved him!