The Minnesota Timberwolves reached into their past — summoning a former player brought to the franchise long ago to help mentor budding superstar Kevin Garnett — to find the first candidate who interviewed for their vacant head-coaching position.

And it wasn’t Sam Mitchell.

Former Milwaukee and Phoenix head coach Terry Porter was that first candidate who formally interviewed with president of basketball operations David Kahn and likely owner Glen Taylor on Monday, league sources with knowledge of the team’s search said.

Porter is a former two-time All Star who played point guard — the same position as just-signed Ricky Rubio — for 17 NBA seasons with Portland, the Wolves, Miami and San Antonio.

He also is a guy who was fired by Phoenix in February 2009 after four months on the job when his attempt to emphasize defense and slow down the Suns’ breakneck offense enough to incorporate Shaquille O’Neal was deemed a failure by then-General Manager Steve Kerr.

Kahn repeatedly mentioned when he finally, officially fired Kurt Rambis last week that he is looking for a coach who has fast-break basketball written into his "DNA" to complement a roster Kahn says has been constructed to play "an athletic, up-tempo style" of ball because that’s what fans want to see and what players want to play.

"That is what we are looking for," he said then. "Somebody whose DNA is, ’That’s how I coach, that’s how my teams have played, that’s how I believe we should play.’ "

Porter owns a career .460 winning percentage (99-116) in two seasons with his hometown Milwaukee Bucks (71-93) and those four months with the Suns. He led the Bucks to a 41-41 record and the playoffs in the 2003-04 season and then was fired after a 30-52 season the next year.

He went 28-23 with the Suns, but that winning record wasn’t nearly good enough for a franchise that averaged 58 victories in its previous four seasons.

The Suns just recently stopped paying Porter on a three-year contract to which they signed him in 2008.

Porter, 48, spent last season working as a sideline reporter for Portland television broadcasts.

The Trail Blazers drafted him 24th overall in 1985 out of tiny Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He played 10 seasons in Portland before the Wolves brought both him and Mitchell into the locker room in 1995 to help a just-drafted, 19-year-old Garnett mature.

Both players helped the Wolves reach the playoffs for the first time in their second season together and achieve the franchise’s first winning season in their third season there.

Kahn did not return a message seeking comment, and Porter could not be reached Monday.

The coaches Porter has played for include: Dick Bennett at Stevens Point and Jack Ramsay, Rick Adelman, P.J. Carlesimo, Flip Saunders, Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich in the NBA.

Don Nelson — winner of more NBA games (1,335) than any other coach — said late Sunday night that he didn’t speak with Kahn again over the weekend as he expected to but said again that he’s very interested in the Wolves’ job and doesn’t have a reason to believe they aren’t interested in him, too.