I think that Stern is hurting the Twolves Fans to much. He should punish the team not the fans. Fine them $3.5 million a year for 5 or 6 years and suspend some managment and Smith and at the most one first round choice not 5. Need to leave the fans something to look forward to! Seems like the Twolves fans got hit hard on this If this happen to the Rockets It would be ???? . ------------------ One minute ago you had 60 seconds longer to live then you have now. Did you enjoy the 60 seconds you just had?
Here's one team in our division that we won't have to worry about for a while! ------------------ I am the b*stard son of LHutz. Huh? Right!
I feel sorry for the Wolves, but at the same time the league sent has sent the message. I do wonder if the same penalty would have occured if it was to the Lakers or Knicks or Bulls. The penalty is harsh, and I feel for the Pups fans but cheating doesn't pay.
I wonder if the penalty is so servere because the agreement was in writing. Perhaps Stern's implied message is...the penalty will only be slightly less if there is UNdocumented but substantial evidence. I guess he got the owners' attention! ------------------ GATER
Geez I think the penalty was very harsh. I can understand voiding the players contract. I could have understood a MUCH bigger fine ($10 million plus) on top of that. Take away two draft pick as well and I would have understood why it was done. But 5 first round picks is crippling and will make the next few season realy tough for the Wolves. In my opinion they have a player in Garnett that they can ask for a couple of good solid starters And a few first round draft picks. So I think trading KG would be the best option they have in getting back on their feet.......of course Im not a Wolves fans who Im sure would feel KG is about the only thing they have left to look forward to. I sure hope the Rockets arnt as stupid as to put these "aggrements" in writing (What the hell were the Wolves thinking!). Could you imagine the hate mail Stern would get from us Rockets fans (Who dont like him anyway) if he did this to Houston Ah well, I guess its one less team to worry about in the West. Christopher ------------------ Your Starting Power Forward for the Clutch City Allstars My Expert Opinion Of Steve Francis:Mate he is a special player!
Guys, Check out this article from NBA.com. It may provide alot more insight as to the real reason David Stern came down hard on the T-Wolves. Man I feel for the fans of the T-Wolves. Just day dreaming here but what package of players and draft picks could the Rockets offer for KG??? I am just trying to get a feel of what kind of package of players would be needed. Read below as the article describes what package the Bulls would be willing to give up to get KG. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 25, 2000, 9:15:42 PM A Bull Market for Da Kid by sportsTALK.com's Chad Ford David Stern has a long, long memory. And a helluva lot of power to exact revenge. Just ask T-Wolves owner Glen Taylor. David Stern is seeing red. Sure, signing an under the table agreement with Joe Smith to circumvent the salary cap is a MAJOR sin in the NBA deity's eyes. But that isn't the reason that Taylor is sitting, with his head in his hands, on the rubble of what used to be a competitive NBA team. No, the capital crime was committed on October 1st, 1997 when Taylor signed a young Kevin Garnett to a ridiculous 6 year, $121 million dollar extension. Remember the lockout? It can be directly traced back to that day when Garnett became the NBA's first $20 million dollar a year man. You could almost see Stern clinching his teeth, swearing by the heavens that the 'rogue' Taylor would pay. And on this day of reckoning, T-Wolves fans are beginning to feel the cost. Losing Joe Smith hurts. No doubt. Losing five first round draft picks over the next five consecutive years kills. The Wolves, with Garnett and Brandon's huge contracts are well over the salary cap until 2004. With the Wolves over the cap and without any draft picks, the will remain an also-ran in the competitive West. They'll have the mid level exception to offer every year, along with every other team in the NBA, and that's about it. Last time we checked, the free-agent market looked real shallow for the next few years. Sure they're young now. But five first rounders is five first rounders. Last year's team didn't make it out of the first round while the teams that did actually got better during the off season. Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan are just as young. Paul Allen gets richer by the quarter. By simply growing from within, the T-Wolves fell further behind. And just about the time the T-Wolves can start drafting, that's when Kevin Garnett will really get paid. His bill? Garnett's next contract could be worth $283 million over seven years. Ouch! The Wolves are screwed and the other foot has yet to drop. Kevin Garnett is as good as gone. It may not be what KG wants. It may not be what Taylor or the tens of thousands of other T-Wolves fans want. But it's what is needed. Not only will Garnett be unhappy playing for a team in a constant struggle for that eighth playoff seed, the T-Wolves would be half crazy to keep him. They cannot begin to rebuild the rubble unless they get Garnett's whopping deal off the books and find a way to get some young talent and some first round draft picks. The expansion mentality must prevail over the next five years or it could last a decade. GMs are already salivating. One Western Conference GM told me that there will be a day or two of quiet, then Glen Taylor's phone will be ringing off the wall. The Wolves are wounded and the vultures are circling. Who cares about Joe Smith. Miami, LA, NY, Dallas? Take him. Garnett is the mother lode. He's ripe for the picking. And David Stern is seeing red. With KG's huge deal and the T-wolves needs (dump salaries and get draft picks) there is one perfect trade partner for them in the NBA. You probably don't need a sleuth to figure this out, but I'll give you a hint. Jerry Krause was just seen a Giordano's. That's right, the stuffed pie. Forget Orlando. They have the draft picks but imagine the base-year compensation mess if they tried to move any of their valuable players. The Clippers have the cap room but not enough talent to barter. Even if they did, would Donald Sterling shell out for a KG extension? Everyone else is over the cap. New York is tied up with overpaid players. Same with Portland. Miami's eggs are already counted. Expect Mark Cuban to stick his nose in the door, but Michael Finley is untradeable in this sitaution with his pending free agency. And without him, the Mavs have nothing of value. The Bulls, on the other hand, have everything the Wolves need. Mainly cap room, lots of draft picks and a young star to pacify their fans (they'd give up Elton Brand in a heartbeat for Garnett). Throw a few young players to throw in the mix (Artest, Fizer, Crawford, or El-Amin would all be expendable) and you've got a deal. The biggest in a huge off-season. Kevin Garnett is pure basketball love. He is the future of professional hoops, completely immune to ghosts past. The perfect golden child to step into Michael Jordan's shoes AND his locker. The United Center is cleansed. Suddenly Chicago would have its star, and the T-wolves could start their massive rebuilding project. Meanwhile, David Stern could sit back and smoke a fat cigar with Jerry Reinsdorf, reminiscing about the good old days when the NBA's top star played in one of its top markets. Don't mess with David Stern. ------------------ Titan's fanatic!!!! It was the first time the Titans sent an offense to the line of scrimmage with Eddie George in the backfield behind McNair to go with Wycheck at tight end and Carl Pickens, Kevin Dyson and Yancey Thigpen at wide receiver. So many choices, with a full season still ahead. "I think that might be scary for a defense," Dyson said.
I think people are too worried about the "could this have happened to the Rockets?" angle. The difference between what the TWolves did with Smith and what everyone else is doing is NOT just that the Wolves were dumb enough to commit an agreement to writing. Its that they were dumb enough to make a specific agreement in the first place. What the Rockets have done, for example, with Shandon is a "we'll take care of you" promise. Vague, mafia-like. He's one of the family. We have a track record of rewarding players for their service with long-term contracts (see: Olajuwon, Harrington, Maloney, Bullard) and of back-pay compensation (Barkley). That, and a starting spot on a young team, is what we offered Shandon - not a specific, under-the-table contract. This is the same type of arrangement-based-on-trust invented by the Phoenix Suns with Danny Manning - and its perfectly "legal" under the CBA. ------------------
To me the action by the NBA league office was not unexpected. The severity of the punishment will no doubt give everyone a clearer understanding of how much importance the league places on "above the board" and "compliant" league-sanctioned contracts. I, or perhaps more accurately, my alter ego, was made painful aware this past summer of this league's repercussions if declarations of "secret agreements" or actions deemed as noncompliance to specific rules governing player acquistions took place. More accurately, if a posting on a fan-based BBS, was given wider connotations than mere speculation and accepted by the mainstream media as a qualified or even, partially substantiated insight into an actual "secret communication", well, let's just say any Rocket's penalty would have been as prohibitively severe as Minnesota's. Watch for the league to be more vigilant in the future. Some franchise intracourses, including possibly "unofficial", but highly visible, fan-based BBS's may fall under closer scrutiny. Nuff said. [This message has been edited by oeilpere (edited October 26, 2000).]
The NBA should have tapped everyone's phone-lines before announcing the penalty. I'm sure there are dozens of players calling their agents telling them to find and destroy all the copies of their illegal contracts. ------------------ Rockets Draft Obligations Summary http://www.gaffordstudios.cjb.net/
Two things : 1) Upon further consideration I have obviously underestimated Stern's power. Remember, he had that meeting with Iverson and "convinced" him to change the lyrics to his songs, when Iverson seemed adamant that he wouldn't budge his stance. Now this. Maybe COACH SAMPSON can come in here and explain how this is part of Stern's master plan to get the best players into major media markets. 2) I still am perplexed by the trading of Garnett. If I was the GM of the T'Wolves on of the prerequisites for any deal for Garnett would be to get a young, exciting(with a gloomy outlook for the future, they need someone to draw a crowd to the arena) franchise player in return. There aren't that many of those in the league. Unless Garnett tanks, or pulls a He-Whose-Name-Shall-No-Longer-Be-Written the T'Wolves could practically name their asking price. Though this is a situation made in heaven for the 76ers. Garnett goes to another team, A star player goes to Philly and Iverson goes to Minnesota - fill in salaries and draft picks as needed. Just a thought.
The NBA league (Read: Stern) is far more powerful than many think. They have the sanctioning power of most sports leagues (NFL,MLB, NHL, etc...), which has been challenged and defended successfuilly by the NBA in the Supreme Court. But maybe more importantly, the NBA freely exercise that option very sternly (pun intended) when required.
