Article: A contrarian view of the Joe Smith penalties.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Warning: The opinions expressed in this column are not those of most members of the media, the NBA or its teams' officials, most of whom continue to deny reality as they hammer Joe Smith.

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By now, we've all heard about how Joe Smith and his agent, Eric Fleischer, negotiated an illegal contract _ in writing _ with the Minnesota Timberwolves, one that called for Smith to play three seasons at paltry salaries, then receive $40 million to $86 million once the T'wolves acquired his Larry Bird rights.

Because of their foolish actions, we knew that commissioner David Stern would be stern. Stern snatched away five first-round picks from the ...

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