What they did was bad. Real bad.
The naughty boo-boo: A series of signed contracts for future employment, in obvious circumvention of the strict salary-cap structure of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NBA and its Players Association.
Some, including curious bedfellows David Stern and Karl Malone, say the crime undermines the integrity of the game.
"The magnitude of this offense was shocking," said NBA Commissioner Stern, who called the transgression "a fraud of major proportion."
But the biggest blunder of Joe Smith, his former agent and the Minnesota Timberwolves may not have been their scam. It's how they were nabbed.
They left a paper trail.
Duh.
"That's how you get caught," Malone said.
That, though, is where Stern and several opinionated Jazz players, including Malone, part ways.
Question: Hasn't this offense been done before, just without a paper trail, and instead with a "wink-wink" or gentleman's agreement?
Stern: "Not to my knowledge."
NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik: "So, if you have evidence of that, please send it to me and we'll prosecute it accordingly."
Evidence? You want evidence? Will the words of some savvy NBA veterans suffice, Mr. Commissioner?
"Teams been doing that s--- for years?" said Malone, whose Jazz host the red-faced Timberwolves Monday night. "And Mr. Stern has been trying to catch teams for years. But they've been lying about it for years. So, he caught a team, and they paid the price for it."
Stern is punishing the Timberwolves so severely it could take them years, even decades, to recover.
In sum, here's why: "These agreements," Granik said, "were all signed when Smith left Philadelphia after he had (his contract rights) renounced. He was a free agent and signed with Minnesota. That's when all these (secret) agreements were entered into . . . The agreements were signed in (January) 1999. All (the Wolves) had in (cap) room (to pay Smith) was $1.75 million. That's what they submitted to the league, but at the same time, they entered into five other contracts that stipulated what Joe Smith would be paid over the next 10 years."
The circumvention: Getting Smith to take less money earlier, with a promise he would make much more later — when cap rules would allow it.
"There were no fewer than five undisclosed contracts tightly tucked away, in the hope that they would never see the light of day," Stern said. "This was a fraud that really ripped us, went right to the heart of the compact, to our fans as well, that our game would be played in accordance with a set of rules that everyone agreed to be bound by."
So Stern laid down the law: Minnesota must forfeit its first-round selections in the 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 NBA Drafts; the team was fined $3.5 million; and the contract between Smith and the Timberwolves for the 2000-01 season, along with all previous contracts between the two, have been voided.
Smith, who stood to gain from a lucrative long-term pact starting next season, is still awaiting an arbitrator's ruling on an appeal to determine if Stern has the authority to void signed contracts for the past two seasons. If it is determined the commissioner does, Smith may sign with another team (perhaps Miami, Dallas, Chicago or New York) that now could afford to pay him more than Minnesota; if the arbitrator rules otherwise, Smith may still be able to cash in with the Wolves.
Still to be announced: The fate of Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor and vice president Kevin McHale; each could be suspended up to one year pending results of a hearing to determine their knowledge of, and/or participation in, the secret agreement.
Moreover, the league has requested that the Players Association discipline Smith's ex-agent, Eric Fleisher.
Some with the Jazz think the punishment — especially the forfeiture of five first-round picks — is heavy-handed.
"I'm sure they're probably not the only team that's ever done it, but you know the rules, you play by the rules. And if you try to cheat, if you get caught, you know the consequences," forward Donyell Marshall said. "The league is trying to take a stance and trying to prove that they're the power and they're the boss. But I think it's a little severe: I mean, five first-round picks . . . they could be hurt for a while."
Others think the Wolves got what they had coming.
"If you know the rules, if you get caught bending the rules, it's just like if you go down the road, and the speed limit is 55 or 60 or 70, and you get caught doing 90," Malone said. "What's your excuse? You don't have one because you broke the rules. It's the same thing. What's your excuse? You don't have one."
On this, Stern concurs: "We gave this a lot more thought than the parties on behalf of the Timberwolves who decided to risk the future of the franchise."
The bigger debate: extent of the practice.
"You can probably go back over history," guard John Starks said, "and you probably have a lot of organizations that have been doing that stuff."
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan agrees, and hypothetically suggests the Timberwolves were an easy target.
"When it's all said and done, I kind of have a feeling they (league officials) know what's going on," Sloan said. "But who are they going to punish first? Minnesota or New York? Utah or New York?"
"I'll say this: (The Timberwolves) are not the only team that's doing it," Malone said. "There's a whole lot of guys that went to teams where it made you say, 'Hmmmmm?' OK?"
Not OK, Granik counters: "I would be surprised to learn that something like this has happened before or since. . . . There have been cases where we have unsuccessfully tried to prove that there have been undisclosed winks, nods, whatever. I think this is a totally different level of violation that occurred here."
Starks maintains the cheating, at whatever degree, is a direct result of the competitive nature of high-profile pro sports. "That's part of big business," he said. "In big business, things go on. It's no different than any other business. People do certain things, and when their livelihood is predicated on wins and losses, it puts a lot of pressure on teams to try to make the right deal or get the best deal that helps their organization. I think that's what happened in Minnesota."
Added Marshall: "I'm sure this happened around the league before. It happened somewhere down the line, somewhere . . . Everybody makes rules. Rules are always broken somewhere along the line. I don't think there's been one rule that has never been broken."
But does that make it right?
Absolutely not, Malone said. "There's been a number of times when I feel we've been the innocent team, and teams have taken advantage of that by going out doing stuff illegal — and we try to do it by the rules."
That, Malone believes, is bad for basketball. "That's just another thing to throw on the fire. You've got the fans sitting there saying, 'I knew this has been happening; somebody got caught; why do I spend $75-$100 to take my kid? Let's go out to dinner and go to a movie.'
"Now, no disrespect to Minnesota or anybody like that. But you've got to . . . agree with the commissioner on this aspect. But they're not the only ones. You can't just single them out."
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com