Like winning the lottery

["Ravi Singh" <kelticsfan@attbi.com>]

Jim Bainbridge: What a deal: NBA salary shenanigans worth million

Former Colorado Springs resident Joe Kleine had seen a lot of financial
goofiness during his 15 years in the NBA, but it wasn't until after he
retired from Portland in 2000 that he appreciated the full, staggering
depth of it. In August 2000, Kleine got a call from his agent, telling
him the Blazers wanted him to unretire so they could trade him and
Jermaine O'Neal to Indiana for Dale Davis. They needed Kleine so the
salaries would add up right on both sides, and Kleine was told he
wouldn't have to play or even set foot in Indiana. Once he signed his
name to the deal, he'd collect $1million, the Pacers would waive him,
and he'd go on about his business. "I was driving down the highway when
I got the call, and I about had a wreck," Kleine told Tom Fitzgerald of
the San Francisco Chronicle. "It was like winning the lottery. I was in
a little town in Arkansas, and I had to find a place that had a fax
machine. I wanted to do it before they changed their minds."

http://gazette.wow.mhe.viapointe.com/stories/0205spts6-4.php?section=4