When pride still matters

Chapter 533 A Losing War
The competition for misery has shifted from the NBA draft to the dispute between labor and management.

Small-market owners, led by Michael Jordan, announced that they had lost $3 million in the just-concluded season of so-called unprecedented success in professional basketball.

The root cause of the losses can be traced back to the CBA agreement reached between labor and management in 2005.

That year, the league made concessions on the so-called "basketball income" dividend in order to reduce the salary period for top-paid players from seven years to five years and prohibit high school players from participating in the draft.

From that year on, players took home 57% of basketball revenue each season.

The owners of these small markets claim that it is because of the unfair distribution of income that they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars every year since then.

Faced with the financial reports submitted by the management, the players' union admitted that some teams were losing money, but questioned whether the losses were as great as the owners said, and expressed opposition to the league's desire to establish a hard salary cap, cut wages and shorten the maximum term of contracts.

With the first talks breaking down in July, a shutdown is imminent.

As professional basketball braces for its first layoff since the summer of 1998 that could affect next season, players are preparing for the possibility of a similar situation, with many saying they would consider playing overseas to earn a salary.

"From our perspective, we're looking at the most profitable league in sports, and they're going to become even more profitable through concessions from the players," Stern said. "The average payroll in the NFL is $200 million. Our average payroll is $500 million, and the owners are not making a profit."

The core issue remains the distribution of basketball revenue. Under the old agreement, players' income is guaranteed 57%, and the league said that without major adjustments to this figure, it will not be able to solve the loss problem.

Union president Derek Fisher is not a money-obsessed diehard like his predecessor, Patrick Ewing.

As a role player in professional basketball, Fisher knew very well that a lockout like the one in the summer of 1998 was a major blow to bottom-level players.

As a result, he has discussed within the players' union reducing his 57% share of basketball revenue to 54.5% in order to reach a new CBA agreement.

The proposal caused great divisions among the players.

Yu Fei is the number one opposition.

"If we don't play, the NBA will no longer be the NBA." Yu Fei said at the meeting, "We brought the best basketball games in the world to the audience, which enabled the league to sign the largest TV broadcast contract in history last year. 57% of the revenue is what we deserve!"

"Listen, our basketball revenue does not include home ticket revenue, local TV broadcast contracts, or other commercial revenues." Yu Fei was very clear about the contradictions in the whole thing. "This is a problem caused by the imbalance of income between big and small markets. It is not our problem. If we choose to give in on this matter, everyone, we are paying for an incompetent boss like Michael Jordan!"

As a leader of the players and also the leader of the Mesozoic era, Yu Fei's voice was loud at the meeting.

Instead, successful people like LeBron James, who have been committed to becoming "more than just a basketball player" from the beginning, were absent at this critical juncture.

He simply expressed his support for the players' union through emails and text messages, but did not participate in any specific affairs.

Kobe, who opposed the lockout, raised a small question to Frye: "Frye, I don't know how much you are doing this for the collective interests of the players, and how much is because of your personal grudge with Michael."

"Personal grudge?" Yu Fei laughed angrily, "Do you know how much money we will lose if we agree to take 54.5% in the next labor agreement?"

Kobe remained silent.

“That’s $1.5 million.”

Kobe didn't reply.

For him, this is a lot of money, but it is by no means a shocking number.

"Divide that by 325 (the number of active players in the league), and that's $46," Yu Fei said loudly. "What I mean is, everyone here, everyone who plays in this league has to pay $46 to help Michael Jordan out of his predicament. I want to ask, how many of you are willing to pay that? My attitude is that bastard can't even take a penny from me!"

Fisher has a different opinion, but he will not refute Yu Fei's views at this meeting.

Because Yu Fei was not wrong, but he was also not wrong.

The two men have different backgrounds and statuses.

Although Fisher was the chairman, the head of the union and the nominal negotiating leader, in terms of status, he was indeed inferior to Yu Fei.

Precisely because of his different position, his perspective is also different.

Yu Fei's point is simple. He saved the Seattle SuperSonics from the fate of relocation and achieved a sports economic prosperity rarely seen in the professional basketball world.

Annual profits exceeding 100 million yuan are amazing for any sports club.

But the man who created this economic boom never tried to take money out of Clay Bennett's pocket.

Now, these people want to cut players' income to subsidize loss-making teams?
What is the logic?

Your losses are not caused by the players. As a collective, shouldn't the big-market teams take out part of their profits to feed back to the small-market teams?
Yu Fei was looking at the whole thing purely from the perspective of a superior.

He has the reason, determination and ability to defend the interests of the players. As the GOAT, this is his responsibility.

But Fisher was the inferior.

From the first day he entered the league, he was at the bottom.

If there was one word to describe his career, it would be compromise.

Wherever he went, the bigger picture was bothering him.

In the summer of 2003, Gary Payton joined the Lakers to form the amazing F4 Galaxy Battleship. As a meritorious player of the team, Fisher gave up his starting position without hesitation. You know, the following season was his contract year, and he should have argued with reason, saying "I sacrificed my life for the OK Dynasty, and you treat me like this?" After all, playing as a substitute in a contract year meant saying goodbye to the fat contract.

But Fisher knew that the Lakers needed Payton, and Payton had to start, so he chose to be a substitute. This move won him the respect and love of many teammates and laid the foundation for his election as union chairman.

A grassroots player who knows how to compromise and make concessions knows best the hardships of the grassroots.

He knows that if the lockout affects next season, the livelihoods of hundreds of players will be at risk.

Although all the players in the NBA are millionaires, not many of them have financial management knowledge. The monthly bills are astronomical figures for ordinary people, and to maintain this expenditure, the income must be kept stable.

If the new season is really affected or even canceled completely, it means that all players will face the dilemma of not having salary for a whole year.

Yu Fei can give up his annual salary of 2000 million US dollars in the next year, but the 200 million annual salary of the grassroots players is related to the operation of the entire family behind them.

After the meeting that day, Fisher had someone release a report that the players' union was considering reducing the basketball revenue dividend to 54.5%.

Stern called the proposal "modest."

However, both Stern and Fisher have hardliners behind them.

The hardliners on the capital side are represented by Jordan. Their demands are a hard salary cap, a reduction in players' basketball income dividends to 47%, and all players' contracts must be re-signed under the new salary cap.

Such harsh conditions brought the divided players together again.

Fisher had no choice but to remain tough.

The second round of negotiations between the two sides centered around the salary cap, and then they discovered that no matter how the salary cap was going to be formulated, they would eventually return to the issue of money.

The bottom line of the players' union is that it gets better year by year, that is, the most basic condition is that the players earn more in the new season than in the previous season.

This makes the proposal of some owners who think they are fair, that "capital guarantees players a salary of $20 billion next year," seem clownish.

Because the total salary of players last season exceeded 21 billion US dollars, getting 20 billion US dollars in the new season is still a pay cut for them.

With the summer league canceled, the free market that was supposed to open fell into silence, and the league held its last negotiations before the shutdown at the end of July.

This time, the players' union voted internally and agreed to cut revenue, reducing dividends from 57% to 54.3%.

This is the biggest concession the players can accept.

Yu Fei's opposition did not work, and he immediately announced his withdrawal from the negotiations that day.

As a result, the players' union, which thought it was sincere, proposed that players would cut their salaries by $5 million over the next decade (from 57% to 54.3%), while the owners' demand was that players cut their salaries by $20 billion over the next decade.

Three hours later, the negotiations broke down.

The management immediately announced that it would withdraw from the existing CBA agreement, and the NBA officially announced a shutdown at the end of July 2010.

Someone close to Yu Fei revealed: "Frye is glad that he didn't sit there like a coward and beg the owners to accept his concession and let the season continue."

This incident was a major blow to the prestige of the top players' union.

Their self-righteous concessions are far from enough in the eyes of the capital side.

On the contrary, Yu Fei's simple and rough way of pointing at the other party's pain points and angrily lashing out is more suitable for today's situation.

Since a shutdown is bound to happen, why do we have to stand up and curse after kneeling down fails?

That night, many people sent text messages to Yu Fei, asking him to return to the union to continue presiding over labor-management negotiations.

But Yu Fei refused, he didn't want to be with those cowards who only care about the present and not the future. Today's events provided Yu Fei with a broader perspective.

When he looked back at the history of labor-capital disputes, he found that since 1983, every time there was a disagreement between labor and capital, capital was the ultimate beneficiary.

Interestingly, before 1983, the players union won every labor war.

Even players like Oscar Robertson had the power to prevent the merger of the ABA and NBA after retirement.

But after 1983, labor began to lose ground to capital.

And this history of failure can be summed up in one sentence.

If Larry Fleisher (Larry Fleisher) is still alive, he will definitely say this to NBA players after 1983: "Is it because I let you eat too much?"

Yu Fei figured this out.

Before the 80s, the NBA was in danger, and blacks suffered discrimination in the NBA similar to that in other industries. Then, the advent of cable television and the historic meeting between Magic and Bird in the finals put professional basketball on the fast track of commercialization.

The money-driven basketball brought about by commercialization has greatly improved the players’ lives and social status.

From then on, the NBA became the empire of black people. Anyone who could survive here could be considered an upper-class person. Black people could even discriminate against other races in this league. The leap in income, the change in mentality, and the leap in class were like being in another world.

The most direct effect of these prosperous and beautiful things is that they infinitely weaken the players' fighting spirit in labor-management disputes.

The older generation of players not only have low incomes, but also face discrimination. As the saying goes, those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes. If you don't let me live a good life, then don't live with me. That group of people really dare to make the NBA unable to continue. Now, whenever there is a lockout, the player camp will be divided into three factions. One faction is to lie down, they don't care about winning or losing, they just want to maintain their current life. Another faction is moderate, they consider everyone's feelings and hope to get a good ending for everyone. There is also a faction of hardliners who are carefree.

Simply put, hardliners are people like Yu Fei who don't mind not playing for a year or not getting paid, just to fight for their dignity.

This made Yu Fei start to reflect.

If he were a low-level player, would he really have the courage to fight the management to the end?
Who doesn’t want to play basketball peacefully, earn a few million dollars a year and provide a good life for his family?
Who would be willing to give up this kind of god-like life? If losing a little money could change the situation back to the way it was, Yu Fei believed that more than half of the players would give in to the management.

This is why labor is bound to lose.

They are no longer those crazy people who are willing to sacrifice their lives.

Now they are irritated by the boss and are ready to start a war again out of passion, but as time goes on and the new season is really affected, those who have no money to support their families will immediately kneel down to the boss and start making trouble within the player camp.

At that time, hardliners like Yu Fei will become clowns who are neither popular nor respected.

What happened today made Yu Fei foresee such a future.

Instead of fighting to the end for these people and employers who may turn against you at any time, it is better to step aside after making your position clear.

You asked him if he supports the players' union? Of course he does.

He is willing to give up next season in order to get a better CBA agreement, but how many players are willing to do that?

His attitude has reached this point, what else can we do?
Yu Fei no longer participated in labor-management agreement negotiations as actively as he did in the beginning.

He occasionally appeared at the negotiation site, but always sat on the side as a mascot.

Yu Fei’s choice to “hang up” is beneficial to the investors.

If a person like this, who has great appeal and influence, really wants to fight them to the death, the power of public opinion he mobilizes alone will be a force that cannot be underestimated.

But now, Yu Fei doesn't want to play anymore.

He didn't want to be the one who raised the flag when he was needed, and then ignored his advice and did his own thing when he was not needed.

The war had just begun, and Yu Fei officially began his vacation after deciding to fade out.

He first represented Marvel at the premiere of Iron Man 2 in Los Angeles.

His role in Iron Man 2 was also revealed.

In fact, Yu Fei became the reason why film critics gave bad reviews to Steel 2 after watching its premiere.

It’s not that Yu Fei’s acting was bad, but that Marvel was suspected of false advertising.

When Yu Fei joined Marvel, there was a lot of publicity, but he only contributed his "voice" in Iron Man 2. He replaced Paul Bettany and voiced Jarvis.

Yu Fei accepted this seemingly boring role because he knew Jarvis would evolve into Vision later on, but the critics in 2010 had no idea how big a game Marvel was preparing.

Many people feel sorry for Yu Fei, and they think Marvel has wasted Yu Fei, who has such huge traffic.

Yu Fei declined to comment on this, and Marvel is also trying hard to downplay the impact of this incident.

However, the negative reviews at the premiere did not prevent Iron Man 2 from becoming a hit movie. It eventually grossed $4 million in the United States and more than $4 million in overseas markets, with the final global total box office approaching $9 million.

In mid-August, Yu Fei put down his work and rushed to New York again to participate in labor-management agreement negotiations.

This round of negotiations was more formal than any previous one.

Not only the league's star players gathered here, but also the five most influential agents - Arn Triem (Yu Fei's agent), Bill Duffy, Mark Bartelstein, Jeff Schwartz and Dan Fegan - were all present.

Stern thanked everyone for attending the meeting before the meeting, and then did not forget to threaten the players' union that if no agreement was reached today, next month's preseason training camp and preseason games would be canceled.

"I think it would be better to announce the cancellation of next season now, and then we will have time to talk slowly."

Yu Fei made some idle remarks.

No one took it seriously. The upper class in the United States is well versed in the banana-cutting tactic. They want to shut down the league, but they have not indicated that they will cancel a season to allow for slow negotiations. Just as Stern said, if they cannot reach an agreement, they will cancel the training camp and preseason games, and if they cannot reach an agreement later, they will have to cut the sausage into the regular season.

With 82 regular season games, there is plenty of time for him to cut.

Yu Fei hadn't participated in any negotiations for about half a month. He found that although he had been absent for half a month, he could still keep up with everyone's pace.

The owners are still demanding a hard salary cap, while the players' union is demanding the status quo. Only if the status quo remains unchanged will the players be willing to take a pay cut.

For now, the boss holds the initiative.

They can afford it more than the players.

Because the NBA is just an asset in their name, they have other businesses, and 90% of the players have no stable income except salary.

Therefore, players are more likely to feel anxious due to a long shutdown.

The agents realized this, so they wanted to take a drastic approach. They suggested that the players dissolve the players' union and then file a lawsuit against the NBA in federal court.

The specific operation is to have 30% of the players sign a petition in support of the dissolution of the union to promote the dissolution. This is exactly the proportion of NBA players represented by the five agents present today.

Once the union is dissolved, the law will treat NBA players as individuals rather than union members and apply different laws. In this case, they can file an antitrust lawsuit against the boss and apply for an injunction to force the boss to let the players return to work.

However, there is no sure win in a lawsuit, and dissolving the union and taking it to court means there is no possibility of reconciliation between the two parties, and both sides will then face risks. Therefore, this suggestion has caused great disagreement among the players.

Yu Fei once again spent the most boring three hours of his life.

The two sides did not reach any consensus.

After the meeting, Fisher said: "I think from the results of today's meeting, obviously because of the schedule, we can't feel that training camp and the season will start on time."

David Stern expressed the same sentiment.

"Well, we didn't do a great job today, and I think it's fair to say that," Stern said. "On the other hand, we did say that it's our collective task to decide what each of us wants and what each of us needs if we choose to work in a way that allows us to start the season on time. That remains our goal."

Yu Fei had only one idea: he didn't want to get involved in this mess which was destined to go on like that for a long time.

He had to do something of his own.

At this time, Yao Ming, who had returned to China to participate in the national team training in preparation for the Men's Basketball World Championships, sent a text message to Yu Fei.

"Well, since you have nothing to do anyway, why don't you form a team to play a warm-up match with us?"

After Yu Fei asked further, he found out that the opponents the men's basketball team had booked in advance had stood them up. There were still two weeks before the start of the World Championships, and they had no warm-up matches to play.

Yu Fei, who was looking for something to get out of the labor-management negotiations, agreed very readily.

⑴ Larry Fleischer served as a long-term consultant to the Players Union from the 60s to the late 80s, and dominated almost all major professional basketball events in these decades.

(End of this chapter)