Turning the clock back to three hours before the draft began, the entire NBA league was busy with the draft, and most of the things on hand in the league office were put on hold, and only a few were still in progress, one of which was the approval and verification of the Timberwolves trade.

Since the rumors about Joe Smith's yin-yang contract were leaked before the trade, which caused the deal to be delayed and stranded, the Timberwolves are constantly urging the league to complete the investigation and make a conclusion so that the Timberwolves can complete the trade as soon as possible and make reinforcements to retain Kevin Garnett.

And just as the investigation was proceeding unhurriedly, the Coalition office received an email at around five o'clock in the afternoon, which contained two things, one newspaper and the other a statement.

The newspaper is the town newspaper of a small town near New York, with a monthly circulation of more than 20,000 copies, and is a little-known and largely influential. But when the staff of the League Office handed him over to Adam Silva, Silva understood the weight of the paper. The June 24, two days ago, headline in the newspaper read, "Private agreement in the Timberwolves trade reappears, and this time the protagonist is still Joe Smith." ”

It was a morning newspaper that would be delivered to the door of every town by the postman at six o'clock in the morning, and his contents were often edited and printed the night before.

The Timberwolves' deal with the private agreement began to ferment in full swing on the 24th, appearing on the pages of the evening editions of major New York newspapers that day, and this tabloid actually published the news on the 23rd, there can only be two possibilities: First, a powerful reporter at the tabloid on the 23rd discovered this shocking scandal, and then gave up the opportunity to become famous and published the news in his own tabloid. Second, a daring reporter at the tabloid No. 23 fabricated the scandal and published it in his tabloid newspaper in order to increase circulation.

Anyone with some brains can guess which one is closer to reality.

What a smart person Adam Silva is, he immediately understood a lot when he saw this newspaper, and then he opened the statement again, and roughly skimmed it, and sure enough, it was a statement from a tabloid reporter, saying that the Timberwolves trade scandal was made up by him, and he didn't expect it to cause such a big storm, and he was willing to admit the falsity of the news, apologize to the Timberwolves, and take all responsibility for it.

Adam Silva pondered the statement, which had a signature and phone number, and it didn't look like it was forged, and it couldn't have been forged. The coalition has been investigating the source of the news for the past two days, and it turns out that all the major media in New York seem to reprint it, but none of the newspapers declare it original.

Unexpectedly, it turned out to be such an anonymous tabloid, but why was the fake news of such a tabloid reprinted like this and caused a bad impact? Silva knew there must be hidden secrets, but now he didn't have the time to guess them, and after checking the information and discussing it with the rest of the league office, they decided to drop the investigation into the Timberwolves and Bucks trade, and as long as both parties agreed and the deal was approved, the deal could be completed.

But for the Timberwolves, this time is a little late, because their strategy has changed irreversibly in just two days, and the situation is also moving in the other direction.

After being stripped of five years of draft picks, the Timberwolves' draft pick was finally returned once this year, and they have the No. 26 pick in this draft, so McHale appeared in the candidate area of Madison Garden Plaza, No. 26, which is already a baby for the Timberwolves, who have not tasted a rookie for two years.

However, McHale's mind is not entirely on the draft, in fact, they did not do enough preparation for this draft, and McHale put most of his energy into trading reinforcements and reassuring Garnett.

When the Timberwolves were framed by a scandal two days ago, McHale felt that something was wrong, on the one hand, the terrible punishment in 2001 left McHale with lingering palpitations and heartache to this day, and on the other hand, McHale knew that he was thinking about Plan B, and the team's previous strategy of firmly keeping Garnett was gently shaken. If they don't get anything on the trade market and Garnett doesn't renew his contract, then they are likely to be in vain next year and Garnett will be poached directly on the free market.

As the so-called drowsiness comes up to send pillows, McHale's first consideration is, of course, the Celtics, although he also suspects that the trade scandal is the Celtics' obstruction, but there is no evidence, and the Celtics do have a lot of high-quality chips in their hands. As a result, McHale offered Walker, Arenas, and Bangyan a high asking price, one to make a profit, and the other to wait and see.

But then, with the two owners meeting, the deal has not yet reached an agreement on the content, but the likelihood of success is growing, and now the core of the deal is that the Celtics are not willing to give Arenas, they are only willing to add Cadrick Williams.

But the Timberwolves are in desperate need of a point guard right now, and if McHale can get Arenas, then the deal would be perfect, and they don't even need that deal with the Bucks anymore.

While McHale was still waiting for news and keeping an eye on the draft in the candidate area, he received a call from Rob Babcock, the team's chief of operations.

"Kevin, I received a message from the league office five minutes ago that they said that the investigation into the transaction has been canceled and everything can go on as normal."

When McHale heard the news, his mind couldn't turn for a while, and he didn't know whether this was good news or bad news. The good thing is that the trade can go through normally, then the Timberwolves can strengthen the team's point guard position, and the bad thing is that now the Timberwolves have been tempted by the Celtics' trade chips, and even in Minnesota, there are many people who believe that they have actually got rid of the super big contract that pressed on the Timberwolves' head.

Although Garnett is good enough, his contract is really too big, so big that it completely affects the team's recruitment, and it is too difficult for the Timberwolves to make a breakthrough in the record without rookies and free agents. This kind of difficulty for a clever woman to cook without rice, McHale is deeply touched.

At this time, the draft has reached the second pick, and David Stern's five-minute consideration time for the Boston Celtics has passed, and he is back on the podium, and it looks like the Celtics' selection has already taken effect.

This draft is also important for the Timberwolves and McHale, as the Celtics' selection determines whether they want to make the trade or not, and obviously, the Timberwolves need a replacement for Garnett.

"In the 2003 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics selected, Darko Milicic from Serbia!" (To be continued.) )