Standing pretty old

Chapter 550 Strange Husky

The Minnesota Timberwolves, as a team with a wonderful pedigree, the most amazing thing the Timberwolves have done is to sign a black gold contract with Joe Smith. The specific story is as follows:

Joe Smith became a free agent in the summer of 1998. In order to avoid the sanctions of the luxury tax, the Timberwolves reached a "yin and yang contract" with Joe Smith.

这份合约的正本是给联盟办公室看的书面文本，一共签署了3次，分别为1998-99赛季年薪175万米元、1999-2000赛季年薪217万米元、2000-01赛季225万米元。

However, the copy of the contract has not been announced. Timberwolves boss McHale conspired with Joe Smith. As long as Smith is willing to join with a low salary in the first three seasons, he will get a 3-year long-term contract with a contract amount of no less than 7 million U.S. dollars. It can reach 4000 million US dollars (this was a super contract at the time), and the copy of the contract has Timberwolves owner Glenn Taylor, Joe Smith and his agent (this agent is Allen's agent-Dan * Root) autographed. ?
In October 2000, the scandal of black-box operations broke out, and the Timberwolves were severely sanctioned by the league office.

他们被剥夺未来5年首轮选秀权(后来2003年与2005年选秀权被联盟还给了森林狼队)外加350万美元的罚款，乔*史密斯则被强制性转型为自由球员，1个月后签约活塞1年。

In fact, in order to avoid the luxury tax, NBA teams had many such verbal agreements at that time, but this was the only case that was actually implemented on paper and was captured by the league.

The Timberwolves, which were established less than 1989 years ago in 10, were forever nailed to the pillar of shame in history.

Whenever talking about the Huskies in Minnesota, the black gold incident is a story that has to be talked about.

However, the Timberwolves are not useless, at least they have gathered young talents like Marbury and Garnett (only referring to ball skills), and even formed a formidable three-headed monster: Garnett, Sprewell and Kassel.

However, since the three-headed monster formed in the 03-04 season and the Lakers F4 in the Western Conference Finals, they have never entered the playoffs. Their current record this season is 17 wins and 30 losses. Say goodbye to the postgame.

Five years later, Timberwolves have completely evolved into huskies, running more and more happily on the road of infinite death.

This season, they had a chance to usher in a turning point, but they still traded inside players when they selected OJ* Mayo when the team already had Al Jefferson inside. —Kevin Love.

Such a wonderful choice is undoubtedly challenging the patience of the current "Wolf King" Al Jefferson.

What do you mean?
Labor and management have not yet decided whether to leave, so you have found a spare tire for me?
Jefferson never wanted to come to Minnesota, and now that the management has made such a move, he is even more upset.

Despite this, Jefferson faithfully performed his "Wolf King" duties, averaging 23.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game this season.

Relatively speaking, as a rookie and backup tire, Kevin Love obviously hasn't fully adapted to the rhythm of the NBA, which probably has something to do with his position in the team. Love's average per game this season is 11.1 points + 9.1 rebounds.

This data looks good on the surface, but you must know that before entering the league, Love was known as the "white kraft" produced by UCLA. Compared with Ruan Erniu's superhuman data of 29+20+5 in his rookie season, Love's performance Obviously not good enough.

But at the beginning of the season, Love was not in a good mood. After all, from the main force of UCLA, from the warm California to the cold Minnesota, and from the favorite of heaven to the younger brother of Al Jefferson, he can It's strange to be happy.

He also called alumnus Ruan Erniu to ask for his experience. Erniu told him, "The most important thing is to relax and enjoy the game!"

From the current point of view, Kevin Love (Love = LOVE = love) has a good mentality, at least he can face the game very positively.

Anyway, the Timberwolves are also fighting for the playoffs early, and Kevin Love can certainly rest assured and boldly brush up the data here.

Target Center in Minnesota on February 2009, 2.

Before the game, Ruan Erniu talked with his junior Kevin Ai about the current situation of the UCLA gang in the league.

If you don’t talk about it, you don’t know. It’s shocking when you talk about it. Needless to say, the older generations like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Wharton, and Reggie Miller.

Many people are still active in the league, such as Baron Davis, Jordan Farmer, Jason Kapono, Matt Barnes, Trevor Ariza, Aaron Affer Lalo et al.

Of course, there are Kevin Love, Westbrook and Erniu.

Kevin Ai complained, "I'm probably the worst one among UCLA alumni."

Ruan Erniu hurriedly said: "Shhh, don't let my former captain - Aaron Afflalo hear it. If he heard you say that, maybe he would run from Detroit to Minnesota with a knife. Come to find you desperately."

Er Niu's exaggerated tone and body language made Kevin Ai very happy. I have to say that although he has never played with the Chinese, Kevin Ai knows very well that he has no way to get along with him, whether it is charisma or physical talent. Kraft Nguyen on par.

Only one year later, Ruan Erniu's historical status has been steadily promoted to the superstar ranks, while Kevin Ai is still struggling for a stable starting position.

Before the start of the game, the two teams announced their starting lineups, the Eagles still did not change, and the Timberwolves' lineup is:
C Kevin Love
PF Al Jefferson

SF Ryan Gomez

SG Randy Foye

PG Sebastian Telfair
The registered height of Kevin Ai is 6 feet 10 inches, and his naked height is only 205cm. Standing next to him, Er Niu doesn't feel that he is shorter than the other party.

The two jumped the ball in the middle circle, and Erniu easily passed the ball to the lunar eclipse by virtue of its bullet speed advantage.

The Hawks had the ball, and Bibby held the ball for halftime.

While observing the Timberwolves' defense, Bibby thought about how to pass the ball to the opponent.

After some careful consideration, he finally decided to take the ball directly to the Huskies' inside line.

When the White Devil's speed was not as good as before, he actually hit the needle every time, used the pick-and-roll of the lunar eclipse to pass three people in a row, and finally completed an easy layup.

Jefferson and Kevin Ai's defense and turning speed were so slow that an old guy like Bibby, who basically lost his speed advantage, could find the opportunity to make such a sneak attack.

However, this is a challenge for Ruan Erniu.

This challenge is on the offensive end, but not on scoring, because Ruan Erniu can also use his speed advantage to take on Kevin Ai or Jefferson alone. What really worries him is the problem of the Hawks' offensive rebounds.

Ruan Erniu averaged 21+ rebounds per game this season, at least 5.8 of which came from the frontcourt. In terms of rebounding, there is obviously no advantage at all.

Two fat wolves, one black and one white, firmly occupied the inside line. Just relying on tonnage and stature, they could squeeze other people out of the penalty area.

Even Erniu is only slightly better in strength, which is far from enough for Erniu to establish an advantage in offensive rebounds.

The first stop in early February seemed easy, but for Ruan Erniu personally, it was quite a test.

　Thank you for your reward of being stronger than your father!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)