Kevin McHale pays homage to friend, Wolves colleague Flip Saunders

HOUSTON --Rockets coach Kevin McHale spoke fondly of close friend Flip Saunders, his former college teammate and Timberwolvescolleague who died of cancer Sunday.

McHale and Saunders were teammates at the University of Minnesota, and McHale was Saunders' boss when he was the general manager of the Timberwolves. They were fishing and drinking buddies.

"It's a sad day, really sad," McHale said after the Rockets practiced Monday. "Knew Flip since I was a high school kid. Went down to the University of Minnesota and took my recruiting visit and never saw the campus, went fishing, so I didn't know where the hell the building was. But I knew where the good lakes were to fish. We went fishing and drank beer.

"I said, 'I think I'm going to like school.' Flip took me out and we've done a lot of stuff together through the years. We worked together for a lot of years, went fishing, did a lot of stuff together. Just a sad, sad day. Way too young."

Saunders, who was 60,had more than 1,000 victories in a 35-year coaching career that included successful NBA stops with the Timberwolves andDetroit Pistons.

McHale, 57, received updates from family members and friends about Saunders' health status. In August, Saunders was being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma. At the time, doctors said it was "very treatable and curable." Saunders planned to coach the Timberwolves this season but had a setback in September, at which time it was announced that he would not coach this season.

McHale said he's not sure if he'll attend Saunders' funeral. But it won't diminish what Saunders meant to him and for basketball.

"Flip loved basketball," McHale said. "Our lives were intertwined through basketball from the day I met him, when I was a 18-year-old kid, all the way up to this summer when I ran into him. Basketball was our fabric. He had an unbelievable passion for basketball and went through the CBA, came up the hard way."

Saunders began his coaching career at Golden Valley Lutheran College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1977 and eventually rose up the ranks during seven seasons in the Continental Basketball Association, leading the La Crosse Catbirds to two league championships.

At Golden Valley, "We were all over there helping him coach and watching his teams. He'd run the scores up and the score would be 140-30 and I'd be like, 'Flip, you can't just run up the score like that.' But he loved to let his guys go and we had a lot of fun," McHale said. "He had a passion for basketball and he was a good man and I'm going to miss him a lot."

Former Wolves center Kevin Love, who spoke from Cavaliers practice on Monday, said Saunders "was someone that I was very close to and whenever he came into a room, you knew he was there and he always kept it real light and he knew when it was time to get down to business. But it's just ... not only sad for his family and Minnesota and the Timberwolves and the community there but for the basketball community in general. We lost a really good one yesterday. And as I said, my prayers are with his family. It's tough. It's tough."

ESPN.com Cavaliers reporter Dave McMenamin contributed to this story.