In 1998 free agent Joe Smith secretly agreed to sign three below-market one-year deals with the TWolves with the promise of a much larger contract once Minnesota had his bird rights. The Wolves were fined $3.5 million, lost 5 first round picks (2 were later returned), McHale and owner Glen Taylor were suspended for about a year (McHale without pay), and Smith's contract was voided and he was stripped of his bird rights.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/smith-deal-benches-mchale/
https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=100243
https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports/2014/01/09/nba-joe-smith-illegal-contract-timberwolves/82176143007/

27 comments

  4. Well yeah, the other teams weren’t stupid enough to literally put the deal in writing. 

  8. The Warriors literally tried doing the exact same thing with Gilbert Arenas a couple of years later according to Gilbert. Although that was the NBAs fault for having a rule where the team that drafted you couldnt pay you as much as other teams.

  11. Smith had reportedly turned down an $80 million extension offer from the Warriors before being traded and becoming a free agent. His three one-year deals totaled about $6 million.

  14. Kevin McHale should be listened to because he built a championship team as a basketball executive.

    Too bad that championship team was in Boston.

    The NBA was never a serious league. Never.

  16. Michael Rubin (then the 3rd largest investor of the Sixers) straight up said he was “violating every rule the NBA had” at the 2024 MIT Sloan Sports Conference. [He admitted to betting on the Sixers (or taking bets?), having individual contracts with athletes, and had players invest in his own business](https://youtu.be/4_c4ky_OCaE?t=828).

    Edit: this clip is honestly a good example of what Silver was saying in how things have gotten complicated. Ruben is (at least as far as I’m interpreting it) explaining how his natural business dealings outside the NBA were violating the CBA, and those being why he had to stop being an owner. It’s a hilarious watch regardless, and not exactly clear cut what he truly means.

  20. So has anyone noticed that for almost all major US sports, the champions are basically the same? They are well managed teams that are built to be solid in every aspect and able to grind, grind, grind. They are the Florida Panthers, the Philadelphia Eagles, and now the OKC Thunder.

    They don’t win championships in the playoffs pretty, everyone grumbles about how things could have been different with a slight twist of circumstances. But these teams just win, win it all eventually.

    And none of these teams has anything to do with offseason chatter about superstars maybe trying to leave their current team for another.

  23. aint no way the warriors are doin this shit now man we’ve overpaid every player on our roster

  24. I think there are a lot of investment deals and endorsement partnerships that are very similar, but I also think most players/agents are smart enough to do 1 day of work with whoever their deals are with – knock out a couple photo shoots / ad reads and call it a contract. The Clippers are just flat stupid and Uncle Dennis is an all time swindler.

  26. There’s definitely side deals that happen in sports.

    It doesn’t mean it’s the Clippers situation exactly (though I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that was true), but it could even be other side deals, maybe the team or company who owns the team gives family members or friends jobs (just because the player makes millions doesnt mean every single person in their life is getting a cut of it, so people still need to work or just get experience for younger family through internships), lots of things could happen.

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