Since June 24, two news rumors related to the NBA have begun to appear on the pages of New York media outlets, and have caused quite a stir.

One related to the Timberwolves is a trade rumor about the Timberwolves and the Bucks, saying that the Bucks will trade Sam Cassel and the Timberwolves for Joe Smith. This was originally a small trade, but one thing that has aroused a lot of interest in the rumors is that although Joe Smith will be traded to the Bucks, he already has a secret agreement with the Timberwolves, and after the trade is completed, the Bucks will cut Smith, and then Smith will sign the Timberwolves as a free agent.

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

When Joe Smith signed with the Timberwolves at an ultra-low price of $1.75 million a year, and he had just rejected the Warriors' 10 million annual salary, such an unreasonable signing naturally attracted the attention of the league.

In the end, under the full investigation of the league, it was found that the Timberwolves and Smith signed a yin-yang contract, and only gave Smith an annual salary of $1.75 million on the surface, and compensated Smith behind the scenes.

This led to the Timberwolves suffering heavy penalties from the league, not only losing draft picks for the next five years, but Smith was also called a free agent before being signed by the Pistons.

Now three years have passed, and then the Timberwolves are going to get some draft picks back, such as this year they got the No. 25 pick, and Smith also left Detroit after a year with the Pistons to re-sign with the Timberwolves. It's just that everything is no longer what was originally expected, he didn't play a big role in the Timberwolves, and now he is on the shelf again. At the same time, the Timberwolves were unable to replenish fresh blood due to the loss of draft picks, and Garnett's big contract combined with the small Minnesota city could not attract big-name stars, which can be described as a disaster.

Now that the same news has been revealed, even if most people rationally believe that the Timberwolves have paid such a heavy price and can't make such a mistake again, it is impossible for people to give up pursuing this matter because of this rationality.

Sure enough, the day after the news came out, the day before the draft, on June 25, the Timberwolves first announced that the issue of Joe Smith's yin-yang contract was purely a rumor, and the trade negotiations with the Bucks were still ongoing, and the contract details were not involved; On the afternoon of the same day, the NBA officially issued a statement that it would intervene in the investigation of the transaction and strive to find out the truth and return the Timberwolves to innocence.

However, regardless of whether the Timberwolves are innocent or not, being investigated by the league at this important juncture on draft day means that the Timberwolves-Bucks trade will be put on hold indefinitely, and only the devil knows what will happen after the draft.

This undoubtedly annoyed the Timberwolves' management, but the media in New York was mixed, and they couldn't figure out who had released the rumors that Joe Smith had a yin-yang contract, and it continued to spread until it affected the Timberwolves' trade plan. You must know that this is a key step in the summer recruitment of the Timberwolves, and such a thing at this juncture is very detrimental to fulfilling the reinforcement promise given to Garnett.

The second rumor is related to the draft, and starting on June 24, a dark horse in the draft began to enter the public eye. The rookie space, which has been occupied by LeBron James, Cameron Anton Weini, Dwyane Wade, Kirk Hinrich, Chris Bosh and others, inserted a relatively unfamiliar name - Darko Milicic.

The young lad from Serbia had already caught the attention of American scouts in the run-up to the draft, and the Mavericks' forward-thinking pair of Nelson and sons, who had been in training camp in Dallas, had an impressive training performance, and he was young, just 18 years old this year.

But after all, he is not a native American player, has not played in the NCAA, fans know little about him, many evaluations are on paper, and the media's predictions for his draft pick are also around 8 to 10. But on the 24th, several articles detailing Milicic appeared in the headlines of several major sports newspapers and sports websites, depicting not only Milicic's amazing basketball talent, but also his bumpy childhood, shaping him into a strong-willed foreigner who was late to basketball like Olajuwon but quickly picked up basketball.

Then came a number of rumours that a number of teams were interested in Milicic, including the Boston Celtics, who already have a few good interior players, but don't mind adding another one to expand their frontcourt.

Since then, Milicic's draft projection has soared to the top three, and it can be said that whoever is selected first or Carmelo Anthony will be selected by the latter team. For a while, the young man also doubled in value, and the interviews with him before the draft were also doubled, which made the somewhat shy Servia a little overwhelmed.

His English was not very good, and he seemed quite embarrassed by the barrage of questions, and he could not answer them fluently, because some of the questions he did not even understand.

At this time, a man named Andy Miller appeared in front of him, and he gave Milicic three hours to decide to fire his already hired agent, Mark Connstein, and instead make a verbal agreement with the New York agent to sign with the agent once he was selected with the top three picks in the draft.

Although Andy Miller is not a big-name agent, he is very good at dealing with the media, and he also knows how to protect his players, create a good personal space for them, and even make the players seem a little willful - this is also the difference between Miller and those agents who like to talk to the players, he knows how to make these young rich or future rich people happy.

With Andy Miller's help, Milicic's value has risen even further, and the media-savvy agent has answered all sorts of questions well and shaped him into a once-in-a-decade genius in a short period of time. In fact, judging from the performance of the trial, Milicic is indeed very talented, his figure, feel, and footsteps include the advantages of the European inside, and at the same time, unlike some European players who are not physically good, he has a coveted excellent physique at the age of 18.

The shelving of the Timberwolves trade and the skyrocketing market of Milicic have made the already anticipated 2003 draft even more confusing, and no one knows what will happen on the night of June 26, as if there is an invisible hand behind it, secretly manipulating something. This hand does not come from the top of those alliances or dignitaries, but an undercurrent that rises from the bottom.

In 2002, this undercurrent showed its strength, and this time, it will make a big difference without people noticing.

(To be continued.) )