Asia's Top Beauty

As Aaron took Lin Zhiling to Rome, where they were, like everyone else, eagerly awaiting the start of the European Championship final;

the Houston Rockets in the United States were also celebrating their fourth championship trophy in club history.

Meanwhile, the NBA's 2000 draft had just concluded successfully at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when a written memorandum of a secret agreement was unexpectedly exposed, triggering a massive uproar throughout the NBA!

It primarily concerned a secret agreement made in the summer of 1998 between the agent of Minnesota Timberwolves player Joe Smith and team owner Glen Taylor:

The two sides had signed a dual contract. On the surface, Joe Smith signed with the Timberwolves for three consecutive years at extremely low base salaries of approximately 1.75 million, 2.1 million, and 2.25 million US dollars respectively;

the secret agreement was that the Timberwolves club promised to use Bird Rights in the future—specifically, the summer of 2001—to offer Smith a major six-year contract worth between 86 million and 100 million US dollars, compensating him for the salary cuts he took during the first three years.

That way, Joe Smith worked for cheap during the first three years, helping the team save a huge amount of salary-cap space to sign other players, with plans to receive his "repayment" in the future;

of course, all of this was meant to deceive the NBA's salary audit system. It was exposed mainly because of factors such as a commission dispute that arose after Joe Smith's agent left his job!

That evening, on the balcony of the Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria Resort in downtown Rome, Aaron spoke with Jack Wellstone on the phone. "See? Didn't I tell you? Joe Smith and the Timberwolves had a secret agreement."

"So, what did the league say? How is David Stern