What will happen to the Timberwolves 2000 Yin-Yang Contract become an eternal nightmare for NBA management

KG and Joe Smith

September 9th Leonard is currently in a turmoil with the Clippers.

The most classic case about "yin and yang contracts" in NBA history is also the heaviest punishment in the league. It's Joe Smith's Yin-Yang contract incident.

Event background:

From 1998 to 2000, in order to avoid the NBA's salary cap rules. The Timberwolves already had Kevin Garnett, the superstar who signed a huge contract that took up a lot of salary space. The team management hopes to sign Joe Smith (No. 1 pick in the 1995 draft) with a potential goal, and hopes to extend his contract with him by exceeding the salary cap after the Bird clause takes effect in the future, thereby forming a more competitive lineup at a low cost.

Event Operation:

Timberwolves and Joe Smith and their agents secretly reached an oral agreement:

Yang contract (surface contract): Smith signed with the Timberwolves for three consecutive years with extremely low basic salary (about 1.75 million, 2.17 million and 2.25 million respectively).

Dong Contract (Secret Agreement): The team promised to use the Bird clause in the future (specifically the summer of 2001) to provide Smith with a total value of up to $86 million to $100 million to compensate him for the losses of his salary cut in the previous three years.

In this way, Smith worked at a low price in the first three years, and the team saved huge salary space to sign other players and planned to "reward" him in the future. All this is to deceive the NBA's salary audit system.

Joe Smith (first from left)

Incident exposed: A written memorandum about this secret agreement between Joe Smith's agent and team owner Glenn Taylor was accidentally exposed (some say the agent leaked it due to a commission dispute with Smith). The NBA immediately intervened in the investigation and obtained this key evidence.

Penalty Results (2000): After the investigation results were confirmed, then NBA president David Stern issued one of the heaviest fines in NBA history:

huge fine: a fine of $3.5 million to the Timberwolves.

Deprived draft picks: Deprived the Timberwolves of the next five first-round picks (2001-2005)! This is the most severe punishment in history.

Contract void: Announcement of immediate voiding of Joe Smith's existing contract with the Timberwolves, and he becomes a free agent.

Management ban: Team owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale were suspended for a while. Impact of the

Event:

For the Timberwolves: The penalty is devastating. Losing the first-round draft pick for five consecutive years means that the team was unable to supplement young and cheap high-quality players through the draft during Garnett's golden period, which seriously hindered the team's lineup construction and long-term development. Although the league later restored two draft picks in 2003 (2003 and 2005), the team has missed the best time to strengthen.

vs. Joe Smith: He became a free agent, but his reputation was severely damaged. He eventually signed a contract with the Pistons, but far from the 86 million promised in the secret agreement (34 million in 6 years).

For the NBA: This incident greatly warned all teams and set a benchmark for the league to resolutely crack down on "yin and yang contracts" and maintain the fairness of the salary cap system. Since then, although there are still various ways to avoid the salary cap (such as verbal commitments), such a blatant secret written agreement has never appeared again.