Happiness Bunny

Earlier today, a trade was officially announced that sent multi-time All Star and former league MVP Kevin Garnett from my beloved Minnesota Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics for young stud forward Al Jefferson, solid backup forward Ryan Gomes, athletic guard Gerald Green, and the expiring contracts of Sebastian Telfair and Theo Ratliff. The Wolves also get the Celtics' 2009 1st round pick(top 3 protected) along with another future 1st round pick, plus around $3 million in cash.

KG's massive $22 million salary, the largest in the league, was obviously a hinderance to signing other talented players. The salary cap is around $45 M for a team of 15 players, and the Wolves were way over that, in luxury tax land. The tax is 100% of salary over $60M.

The trade netted five players due to the fact that only Ratliff makes double digits. Jefferson, the key player coming back, only makes $2.5M. However, the contracts for all five end after this upcoming season. The team will re-sign the first three(hopefully), though to much larger contracts than they have now-Jefferson from 2.5 to around $12, Gomes from $880K to around $4, and Green from 1.5 to around $4 as well. Telfair and Ratliff's contracts will be allowed to expire, netting the team $14M.

After 12 years as the greatest player on the Wolves, and a top ten player in the league, it's hard to see this day come. It's not a surprise, for years media sources have been calling for him to 'escape' MN for a big name club, and the team recently admitted that they couldn't put a solid cast around him.

Still, losing the heart and soul of the team, a solid team-first guy who had no run-ins with the law, who was at the forefront of team charity events, is tough. KG offered to stay through the rebuilding phase, resign when his contract is up in two years, and end his career in 'Sota. That makes it tougher, unlike other stars who find themselves on losing teams, he didn't really want out.

As a Wolves fan since 1992, when the franchise was only 3 years old, I stuck with them trough 60+ loss seasons, the early KG years when he was a skinny kid just out of high school, the sale of the team to a New Orleans boxing promoter that was nixed at the last moment, to the highs of 03-04, when the team was in the Western conference finals. I guess I'll stick with the team into an uncertain future.