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It wasn’t two losing seasons that got Gerrson Rosas fired.
On Thursday — one day after the Timberwolves fired President of basketball operations Gersson Rosas — ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that his dismissal was due to a consensual romantic relationship with another team employee.
The alleged relationship was discovered in a performance evaluation on Rosas conducted this summer by incoming minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez — who were approached with “evidence.”
The Timberwolves were made aware of the alleged relationship this week, and planned to conduct an internal investigation, according to ESPN. Sources said the organization does not believe the relationship violated any of its internal policies.
Rodriguez and Lore, meanwhile, had planned to fire Rosas at some point, according to the report. Though, it happened sooner than later – and a week before the start of training camp – because of both Rosas’ alleged relationship with a team staffer and
his recent fallout with Sachin Gupta.
Gupta, the Timberwolves’ executive vice president of basketball operations, was promoted to the franchise’s interim head of basketball operations following Rosas’ removal.
Gupta reportedly had been barred from the Timberwolves facility by Rosas after the two had a falling out several weeks ago.
The timing of Rosas’ firing apparently rattled some players and members of the organization. Karl-Anthony Towns tweeted “wtf…,” soon after the news broke.
Rosas was in the gym with players in Minnesota “talking player development and culture building” on the day he was relieved of his duties, Shelburne said on “The Jump” Thursday.
Rosas, a former Rockets executive, joined the Timberwolves in May 2019. It’s unclear if his exit will impact Minnesota’s active talks with the Sixers about a trade for point guard Ben Simmons. Rosas worked under Sixers president Daryl Morey when both were with the Rockets.
The Timberwolves are looking for a major turnaround after going 23-49 last season. Minnesota has made the playoffs once in the past 17 years.
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