The Whip of the God of Basketball

Starting on June 24, two news rumors related to the NBA began to appear in the pages of New York media, and caused quite a stir.

One is related to the Timberwolves and is about the trade rumors between the Timberwolves and the Bucks. It is said that the Bucks will exchange Sam Cassell and the Timberwolves for Joe Smith. This was originally a modest deal, but one thing among the rumors aroused great interest, and that was the news that although Joe Smith would be traded to the Bucks, he already had a relationship with the Timberwolves. The secret agreement was that the Bucks would waive Smith after the deal was completed, and then Smith would sign with the Timberwolves as a free agent.

This news undoubtedly caused an uproar, because three years ago, the same Timberwolves and Joe Smith signed such a yin-yang contract.

Back then, Joe Smith signed with the Timberwolves at an ultra-low price of $1.75 million a year, and he had just rejected the Warriors' annual salary of tens of millions. Such an unreasonable signing naturally attracted the attention of the league.

Finally, after the league's full investigation, it was discovered that the Timberwolves and Smith had signed a yin and yang contract. On the surface, Smith was only given an annual salary of US$1.75 million, and Smith was compensated behind the scenes.

This resulted in the Timberwolves being severely punished by the league. Not only did they lose their draft picks for the next five years, Smith was also ordered to become a free agent and was later signed by the Pistons.

Now three years have passed, and the Timberwolves have also wanted back some of their draft picks. For example, this year they got the 25th pick. Smith also left Detroit after playing for the Pistons for one year and re-signed with the Timberwolves. But everything is no longer as expected. He did not play a big role in the Timberwolves, and now he is on the shelf again. At the same time, the Timberwolves were unable to add new blood due to the loss of draft picks. Garnett's big contract and the small city of Minnesota were unable to attract big-name stars, which made the situation worse.

Now that the same news has been revealed, even if most people rationally believe that the Timberwolves have paid such a heavy price and cannot make such a mistake again, people cannot give up pursuing this matter because of this rationality.

Sure enough, the day after the news came out, that is, the day before the draft, on June 25, the Timberwolves first announced that the issue of Joe Smith's Yin and Yang contract was purely a rumor, and that the trade negotiations with the Bucks were still in progress and did not involve to the details of the contract; in the afternoon of the same day, the NBA officially issued a statement that it would intervene in the investigation of this transaction and strive to clarify the truth and clear the Timberwolves' innocence.

However, regardless of whether the Timberwolves are innocent or not, being investigated by the league at this important point of the draft day means that the deal between the Timberwolves and the Bucks will be shelved indefinitely, and only the devil knows what will happen after the draft.

This undoubtedly made the Timberwolves management very angry, but the media news in New York was mixed, and they couldn't figure out who spread the rumor that Joe Smith had a Yin and Yang contract, and it continued to spread until it affected the Timberwolves' trading plan. . You must know that this is a key step in the Timberwolves' summer recruitment. If something like this happens at this juncture, it will be very detrimental to the realization of the reinforcement commitment to Garnett.

The second rumor is related to the draft. Starting from June 24, a dark horse in the draft began to enter the public eye. In the rookie space that has been previously occupied by LeBron James, Cameron Antoni, Dwyane Wade, Kirk Hinrich, Chris Bosh and others, a relative comparison is inserted. Unfamiliar name - Darko Milicic.

Before the draft, this young boy from Serbia had already attracted the attention of American scouts. As early as 2002, the forward-looking Nelson father and son of the Mavericks began to pay attention to this boy in the Greek League. He participated in the training of Dallas. camp, has an impressive training performance, and he is very young, only 18 years old this year.

But after all, he is not a player from the United States and has never played in the NCAA. Fans know very little about him, and many evaluations remain on paper. Regarding his draft pick, the media's predictions are also around 8 to 10. However, on the 24th, several articles detailing Milicic were published on the headlines of several important sports newspapers and sports websites. They not only described Milicic’s amazing basketball talent, but also described his rough childhood experience, putting him He was shaped into a talented foreigner with a strong will, like Olajuwon who came into basketball very late but picked up the game quickly.

Immediately afterwards, many rumors emerged, indicating that many teams were interested in Milicic, including the Boston Celtics, who had the second pick. Although they already had several excellent insiders, they were not Mind adding one more to expand the frontcourt.

Since then, Milicic's predicted draft pick has soared to the top three. It can be said that whoever is selected first between him and Carmelo Anthony will be selected by the latter team. For a time, the young man's value doubled, and the number of interviews with him before the draft also doubled, which made the somewhat shy Serbian a little overwhelmed.

His English was not good, and he seemed quite embarrassed when faced with the barrage of questions. He couldn't answer in fluent English because he couldn't even understand some of the questions.

At this time, a man named Andy Miller appeared in front of him. He spent three hours asking Milicic to decide to fire the agent he had hired, Mark Connstein, and instead work with the New Yorker. The agent reached a verbal agreement that once he is selected in the top three picks in the draft, he will sign with this agent.

Although Andy Miller is not a big-name agent, he started as a low-level agent and is very good at dealing with the media. He also knows how to protect his players and create a good private space for them, and he even does not hesitate to make the players appear a little willful. ——This is also the difference between Miller and those agents who like to reason with players. He knows how to make these young millionaires or future millionaires happy.

With the help of Andy Miller, Milicic's value has further increased. This agent who is good at dealing with the media answered various questions well and took advantage of the limelight of public opinion in a short period of time. Shaped into a once-in-a-decade genius. In fact, judging from the performance in the trial training, Milicic is indeed very talented. His body, feel, and footsteps include the advantages of European insiders. At the same time, he is not as physically fit as some European players. The 18-year-old just He has a coveted excellent physique.

The shelving of the Timberwolves trade and the skyrocketing market price of Milicic have made the already anticipated 2003 draft even more confusing. No one knows what will happen on the night of June 26th. What is behind this It was as if there was an invisible hand secretly manipulating something. This hand does not come from the top leaders or dignitaries of the alliance, but an undercurrent coming from the bottom.

This undercurrent showed considerable power in 2002, and this time, it will bring about considerable changes without people paying attention.