Hearing Malone's words, Chen Yilun froze where he stood.
"How serious is it?"
"Hard to say for now."
Inside the Sacramento hospital, Malone paced back and forth, visibly on edge.
"The MRI results aren't out yet, but we need to prepare ourselves."
"How could something like this happen?"
Chen Yilun's brows tightened into a deep V.
"They called it an accident, but I saw it clearly—Pachulia undercut him."
The moment he said it, Malone's anger surged again.
Because of the Butterfly Effect, last year's Warriors had added Pau Gasol and Whiteside at center, leaving no spot for Zaza Pachulia.
After wandering the free-agency market, he eventually re-signed with the Mavericks on a minimum deal.
In today's game, facing the Mavericks' flimsy interior, Butler was completely dialed in. He attacked the paint again and again, turning Pachulia into nothing more than scenery behind him.
Then, on one layup, Butler landed and "unfortunately" stepped right onto Pachulia's foot. He collapsed in pain and couldn't get back up.
The whole thing nearly set off a fight between the two teams.
Pachulia was immediately hit with a flagrant-2 and ejected, while Young—worked up during the confrontation—was given a technical foul.
"What is going on this year…"
Malone scratched at his shiny bald head in frustration.
"Murray going down for the season before we even started was bad enough. And now after just a few games, Butler's hurt too."
"There's no way you could've controlled any of that."
Feeling Malone's rising frustration, Chen Yilun rushed to reassure him.
"We've been lucky before—we almost never dealt with major injuries. Now that we have one, we just need to think through our next steps."
Hearing that, Malone gradually settled down.
"If Butler can't play, we still have options. Gay and Young can both step in. They just don't have his lateral quickness, so we'll have to tweak our defensive scheme."
"With Butler as our defensive spearhead, everyone else could shrink in and pressure the passing lanes. But without him, we'll have to go back to our original zone setup."
Using Young and Durant—two guys with huge help-defense range—as the foundation, while everyone else sticks to man-to-man with timely rotations.
"You can try putting LeVert at the forward spot. The kid moves well. He doesn't need to guard the opponent's top guy—just stay active."
Chen Yilun still wanted to give young players like LeVert some real playing time.
After all, they only gain value once they show something.
Look at Finney-Smith.
If they'd waited a year or two, he could've at least netted a first-round pick. But the Kings were overloaded with players, so they practically had to give him away to Budenholzer.
"My thoughts…"
Malone walked into the stairwell of the hospital.
"Even if Butler needs time off, we don't have to call anyone up from the G-League. The current roster is enough."
"We'll go with your plan."
When it came to personnel decisions, Chen Yilun always stayed hands-off. He didn't want a reputation as some control freak.
"You need me to head back and help?"
"No."
Malone rejected the offer without hesitation.
"You've got a ton going on out there. I don't fully understand your plans, but you clearly do. I'll take care of things on the home front."
Hearing that, Chen Yilun couldn't help but nod.
Now that's a real partner—someone who can step up when things go wrong.
"What happened?"
After he hung up, Anjali and Prince both noticed the shift in his expression.
When he finished explaining, both of them were furious.
"That was filthy!"
Anjali pulled up the video of Butler's injury.
"That move had nothing to do with basketball."
Prince couldn't help chiming in.
As a former elite perimeter defender, he knew defensive footwork like the back of his hand. That move was aimed at the player, not the play.
"Talking about it won't change anything now."
Chen Yilun motioned for them to stop standing around. "It already happened. The league will give us an answer."
…
Just as Chen Yilun expected, Adam Silver was in his office drowning in phone calls.
On the other end, Ranadivé was screaming nonstop.
"That was intentional! How dare he!"
"Adam, tell me—are you upset we won the championship? Did you find some Zaza Pachulia to take out my Butler?!"
"Impossible!"
As soon as the flames came his way, Silver scrambled to defend himself.
"Impossible! We've been planning to make your team the new face of the league! Why would I shoot myself in the foot like that?"
"Then what's with that Pachulia?"
Ranadivé growled through clenched teeth.
"I don't care why he did it—he has to pay the price."
Hearing that, Silver finally relaxed.
If Ranadivé was pushing for punishment, the burden shifted off him.
Dealing with a minimum-contract player was the simplest thing in the world.
"Don't worry!"
Silver said firmly. "The league already has a stance on this. With how big the public reaction is and the negative impact, we'll handle it seriously."
Back in the Stern era, this would've been minor—maybe a fine, maybe nothing.
But things were different now.
Since Adam Silver took over, the league has pushed for offense and more possessions.
In that environment, Pachulia's move was basically a direct challenge to everything the league promoted.
Of course, if Pachulia were on a team Silver wanted to protect, it'd be another story.
And with the Mavericks' owner being a well-known troublemaker, everything lined up perfectly.
Silver made up his mind: Pachulia would be made an example of.
…
The next morning, when Chen Yilun woke up, he stared at the two notifications on his phone, lost in thought.
The first: Butler had suffered a left meniscus injury and would miss 4–6 weeks.
The second: after reviewing the footage, the league determined Zaza Pachulia's actions were intentional, issuing a $50,000 fine and a 15-game suspension.
"That's a heavy penalty."
Sitting on the sofa, Chen Yilun processed both pieces of news.
Butler's injury wasn't surprising—Malone had already told him last night that Butler would be out a while.
The real surprise was Pachulia's punishment.
Normally, for a sneaky malicious foul like that, the league rarely jumps straight to a suspension.
Extra games usually only come from brawls or extremely damaging behavior.
But this? This went well beyond what Chen Yilun expected.
It was clear the league was trying to calm public backlash—while deliberately giving the Kings some protection.
"So this is what it feels like to have someone backing you from above."