NBA | Trade revival pleases Wolves

MINNEAPOLIS — For days, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies broadly discussed a transformative draft-night deal involving two top-five picks, many potential players and inevitably the shuffling of more than $70 million in players' salaries.

Just before the stroke of midnight Central Daylight Time on Thursday, the teams finalized an eight-player trade that seemed so improbable about three hours earlier.

"The thing was dead," said Kevin McHale, Minnesota's vice president of basketball operations. "Dead in the water."

But the trade — resurrected in an instant by an unexpected phone call from Memphis — swapped the draft rights of USC freshman guard O.J. Mayo for UCLA freshman forward Kevin Love, reshaped each franchise and provided draft night's finishing fireworks long after fans had left Madison Square Garden in New York.

Minnesota drafted Mayo with the third pick, and Memphis took Love at No. 5.

The Timberwolves sent Mayo, forward Antoine Walker and guards Greg Buckner and Marko Jaric to Memphis for Love, shooter Mike Miller and frontcourt retreads Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins.

The opportunity to leverage one pick for what McHale called "two building blocks" in Love and Miller was irresistible for Minnesota.

Memphis general manager Chris Wallace, referring to Mayo, said, "We felt it was a chance to take a player who we had ranked as the third-best player in the draft."

Notes

• Disgraced referee Tim Donaghy has exaggerated his cooperation in a gambling investigation in hopes of lessening his prison term and avoiding paying hefty restitution, prosecutors said in court papers filed Friday. Donaghy also has minimized his role in the scheme, according to the filing in Brooklyn federal court.

Prosecutors rebuffed defense arguments that Donaghy should get a break on his sentence for voluntarily coming forward and giving prosecutors inside dirt about alleged game-fixing and other misconduct by other referees and league officials.

Donaghy, 41, pleaded guilty last year to felony charges of taking cash payoffs from gamblers in the 2006-07 season. He faces up to 33 months in prison at sentencing, set for July 14.

• Phoenix Suns forward Grant Hill, 35, has exercised his player option for the 2008-09 season. Hill, 35, averaged 13.1 points and shot 50.3 percent from the field last season.

• Meanwhile, Portland forward James Jones, 27, became a free agent after deciding not to exercise his player option.

• San Antonio forward-center Robert Horry, 37, wants to play another season, he told KRIV-TV of Houston. He is to become a free agent Tuesday.