NBA-ийн зүгээс Лос Анжелес Клипперс багт цалингийн цэсний дүрмийг зөрчсөн үндэслэлээр түүхэн дэх хамгийн том шийтгэлийг оноосон нь 27 жилийн өмнөх Миннесота Тимберволвсын дуулиантай ижил төстэй байна.
NBA-ээс Лос Анжелес Клипперс багт цалингийн дүрмийг зөрчиж, од тоглогч Кавай Леонардад хууль бусаар мөнгө төлсөн гэх үндэслэлээр хатуу арга хэмжээ авлаа. Лигийн зүгээс багийн эзэн Стив Балмерыг нэг жил, багийн үйл ажиллагаа эрхэлсэн ерөнхийлөгч Гиллиан Зукерыг нэг жил, сагсан бөмбөгийн үйл ажиллагаа хариуцсан ерөнхийлөгч Лоуренс Фрэнкийг зургаан сараар тус тус эрхээ хасуулах шийтгэл оногдуулжээ. Түүнчлэн багийг 30 сая ам.доллараар торгож, ирэх таван жилийн драфтын нэгдүгээр тойргийн эрхийг нь хураан авсан байна. Кавай Леонардын гэрээ хүчин төгөлдөр үлдэж байгаа ч түүнийг 700,000 ам.доллараар торгож, нагац ах Дэннис Робертсоныг NBA-ийн багуудтай хамтран ажиллах эрхийг таван жилээр хаслаа.
Энэхүү үйл явдал нь 27 жилийн өмнө Миннесота Тимберволвсын өртөж байсан дуулианыг эргэн сануулж байна. Тухайн үед баг нь Жо Смиттай нууц гэрээ байгуулсан нь илэрч, комиссар асан Дэвид Стерн багийн эзэн Глен Тэйлор, ерөнхий менежер Кэвин Макхейл нарыг нэг жилээр эрхээ хасуулж, 3.5 сая ам.доллараар торгон, таван жилийн драфтын эрхийг нь хураан авч байв. Тухайн үед Тимберволвс жижиг зах зээлтэй, плэй-оффт амжилт гаргаж чадахгүй байсан тул лигийн зүгээс тэднийг жишээ болгон хатуу шийтгэсэн гэж Глен Тэйлор үзэж байсан юм.
Лос Анжелес Клипперсийн хувьд нөхцөл байдал илүү хүнд байна. Тэд аль хэдийн Кавай Леонардыг Торонто Рэпторс руу солилцоогоор явуулахаар тохиролцсон байсан ч мөрдөн байцаалтын улмаас уг ажиллагаа зогсоод байв. Түүнчлэн Пол Жоржийг авахын тулд олон драфтын эрхээ зарцуулсан тэд одоо энэхүү шийтгэлийн улмаас 2034 он хүртэл өөрсдийн нэгдүгээр тойргийн драфтын эрхгүй үлдэж байна. Стив Балмер болон багийн удирдлагууд эхнээсээ бүх буруутгалыг үгүйсгэсээр ирсэн бөгөөд лигийн шийдвэр гарсны дараа ч энэ байр суурь нь өөрчлөгдөөгүй хэвээр байна.
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If any team knows how the LA Clippers feel after the NBA dropped the hammer for salary-cap circumvention, it is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Timberwolves were embroiled in a similar scandal 27 years ago, when a legal dispute between two agents brought to light an under-the-table agreement Minnesota made with veteran forward Joe Smith. After an investigation, then-commissioner David Stern levied an enormous punishment: owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale were suspended for a year, the team forfeited five first-round draft picks and was fined $3.5 million. Smith’s contract was also voided as part of the discipline.
Sound familiar?
The Clippers felt the NBA’s wrath on Wednesday when the league announced suspensions for owner Steve Ballmer (one year), president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank (six months) and president of business operations Gillian Zucker (one year), a $30 million fine for the team and the loss of five first-round picks, after the NBA determined the team circumvented the league’s cap rules to funnel millions of dollars to star forward Kawhi Leonard. Leonard’s contract remained intact, but he was fined $700,000, and his uncle, Dennis Robertson, was banned from working with NBA teams for five years.
The Timberwolves watched the NBA deliberate the Clippers’ case as closely as any team in the league. All the principals involved in Minnesota’s case are no longer with the organization, and, when reached by phone on Wednesday, Taylor declined to comment.
“This is the largest punishment in the history of the NBA.”
But Wolves fans, and even those around the organization who were not involved with the Smith saga, wanted to see how the league would react this time around. Back then, the Timberwolves were a struggling, mid-market franchise that had never made it out of the first round of the playoffs. Taylor was a local owner from the small town of Comfrey who made his fortune in agriculture and printing. It was viewed then as the big, bad league office making an example out of the little ol’ Wolves.
This time around was different. Ballmer is the richest owner in the league. He built a new palace in the nation’s second-largest market in his attempt to move the Clippers out of the Lakers’ long shadow. He also made it clear throughout the process he wasn’t going down without a fight. Ballmer and the Clippers have denied all the allegations from the start, and that stance did not change after the league issued its ruling on Wednesday.
If many throughout the league were surprised by commissioner Adam Silver’s willingness to issue such a significant penalty on one of the NBA’s most powerful owners, those in Minnesota were straight up gobsmacked.
Any eye-for-an-eye satisfaction derived in Minnesota should also come with a healthy dose of empathy for the Clippers’ fanbase.
When the Wolves first signed Smith to a one-year deal in 1999, it was in the hopes that the 1995 No. 1 draft pick could help franchise cornerstone Kevin Garnett finally break through in the Western Conference. But it ended up being one of the primary reasons Minnesota had such a hard time building a true contender around Garnett.
Smith was supposed to be Garnett’s long-term frontcourt partner, stepping in after All-Star Tom Gugliotta left amid a dispute with point guard Stephon Marbury. He averaged 13.7 points and 8.2 rebounds in his first season with the Timberwolves, signed another cut-rate, one-year deal the next season and then started only nine games in 1999-00. That’s when trouble arrived.
Smith’s agents, Eric Fleisher and Andy Miller, went through a bitter divorce that ended up in the courts. The discovery process produced documents showing that when Smith signed his first one-year deal in 1999, there was a secret agreement that he would take two more one-year deals so the Wolves could earn his Bird rights and exceed the salary cap to retain him for a fourth year, at which point he would get a new four-year deal for a maximum of $86 million.
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Minnesota lost its first-round picks from 2001 to 2005 on top of the maximum fine Stern could levy. It was a staggering penalty, aimed at deterring other teams from trying something similar. The picks in 2003 and 2005 were eventually returned on appeal.
Taylor took the blame, saying the incident happened on his watch and was his responsibility, and accepted a suspension. McHale also took a leave of absence for the remainder of the 2000-01 season. Neither was able to watch games in person, negotiate contracts or be involved in any basketball decisions during their exiles, which is what the Clippers’ leadership faces now. Smith’s contract was voided, and he spent the 2000-01 season in Detroit before returning to Minnesota on a six-year, $34 million deal. He was traded to Milwaukee after two seasons and retired in 2011.
The Wolves had just one first-round pick from 2001-04, which was used on Ndudi Ebi, who did not work out. Meanwhile, Garnett was ascending to an MVP-level, and the lack of draft capital contributed to a run of eight straight first-round exits. Garnett did lead Minnesota to the conference finals in 2004, but that was the last time the Wolves made the playoffs until 2017. Garnett was traded to Boston in 2007.
Taylor believed that the Wolves’ lack of success in a smaller market contributed to Stern’s hard-line stance.
“We’re a little town, a little town out here in the prairie,” Taylor said then. “And it isn’t quite as important to the NBA as the other towns.”
Ballmer and the Clippers cannot say the same thing. But they now face an uphill climb possibly even steeper than Minnesota’s. The Clippers have already agreed to trade Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, a deal that was put on hold while they awaited the investigation’s findings. In a brutal twist of irony, all the draft picks they gave up for Paul George, a move Leonard demanded before he signed with the Clippers in 2019, coupled with the five picks that were stripped on Wednesday, means they do not have their own first-rounder until 2034.
