When pride still matters

Chapter 536 Chairman Yu decided to lose his reputation

The shutdown farce continues.

It's October.

Yu Fei's trip to China is about to end, and on the NBA side, labor and management have held more than 30 hours of meetings in the past three days.

NBA Commissioner David Stern canceled the first two weeks of the 2010-11 regular season on Monday night after three days of negotiations failed to bridge what the league called "significant differences on nearly every issue."

For most, this is a continuation of the shutdown, but for those in the industry, the shutdown is causing real harm.

If the Donaghy case in 2007 was the lowest point in the league's commercial image in the post-Jordan era, then the season that just ended was the moment when professional basketball returned to its peak.

The Empire War between the Supersonics and the Lakers set a record for viewership, and the six-year, $6 billion television broadcast agreement that will take effect in the new season will further boost development.

It is expected that after six years, such broadcasting agreements will increase significantly, allowing the league to usher in rapid development like in the Jordan era. However, the suspension of the regular season may damage this prospect. In particular, cable TV stations will have enough reasons to readjust their contracts, which will not only affect the future, but may also lead to a significant reduction in revenue this season.

These events may force management to take a more aggressive stance in negotiations.

"We think we made a very fair proposal," Stern told reporters in New York, expressing regret and disappointment that the league failed to start the regular season on November 11 as planned.

Billy Hunter, executive director of the players union, was in a similar position in 1998, when the lockout lasted 204 days and the NBA played just 50 regular-season games.

Hunter said Monday that canceling games and forcing NBA players to go without pay was a plan by owners for months: "I believe this was all part of the plan."

"I think everybody is waiting for the players to give in," Hunter added. "They think once the players are off pay for a long period of time, this will be over. I would say it's a huge mistake if they think that's going to happen because it's not going to happen. The players are going to hold out."

NBA players, urged by Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, showed their solidarity throughout the day with dozens of "LET US PLAY" tweets and the hashtag #StayUnited.

Just two weeks before the NBA canceled its regular season, with more regular seasons to be canceled and the entire season in jeopardy, international players who had a way out chose to return to their parent teams.

As a free agent and owner of the Shanghai Sharks, Yao Ming announced that he would return to the CBA to play for the Shanghai team before the lockout ends.

Now, "the boss is warming up" has become a reality.

Then, the Trail Blazers' third-year forward Taikong Yi also returned to Guangdong.

Then, the players who came to China with Yu Fei also received contracts from CBA teams.

Players like Danny Green and Wayne Ellington dream of playing in the NBA, but in the context of a lockout and salary suspension, they must first keep themselves alive.

In order to pry open the NBA's players, the rich teams in the CBA spent a lot of money to bring these people who should not play in the CBA to the CBA.

This was the beginning of a wave of NBA starting players in their prime, such as Kenyon Martin, Aaron Brooks, and JR Smith.

Then, Tony Parker returned to France.

The Gasol brothers returned to Spain.

International players have their own destinations, and the labor-management struggle has become the American players' own business. After all, the NBA is an American league. You American players can only choose to fight the management to the end, but their international players have many choices.

What Yu Fei didn't expect was that a CBA team was willing to invite him to play 50 games as the team's short-term foreign aid at a price of US$10 per game.

In terms of pay per game, it's more profitable than playing in the NBA.

Roy said: "If they dare to give me this contract, I will definitely play in the CBA!"

Unfortunately, although the opponent was very sincere, Yu Fei did not accept it.

It's really not about the money.

Just like Jacky Cheung would not accept the invitation of "Singer", some people's status in the industry is there, and they will only show their talents on a stage that suits their status.

Before leaving China, Yu Fei contacted some people to do something he had long wanted to do.

Yu Fei's most admired businessman in his previous life was Tsai Chongxin. There was no other reason, just because Boss Tsai spent a tiny amount of his own money every year to support talented Chinese players to travel to the United States through scholarships.

Originally, this was something Fei could do or not. After all, if he did it, it would be just a small matter for him, and if he didn't do it, it wouldn't matter either.

Because a country's basketball strength cannot be fundamentally changed by the power of one individual.

But what happened to Guo Shao still touched him to some extent.

He thought of Wang Quanze. For those who don't follow Chinese basketball, this is an unfamiliar name. In fact, before 2018, few people had heard of him. But later, he was selected for the U18 National Youth Team that year and shined in the Asian Youth Championship. Because of his all-round skills and American-style court posture, he was called "King B" by fans.

Wang Quanze was just an ordinary player before going to the United States, but after training in American high schools, he became a top Asian player of the same age.

If he stayed in a domestic university, he probably would not have reached the level he reached in 2018.

That's the benefit of high-level training and competition.

However, studying abroad does not guarantee success. Behind Wang Quanze, who has come into everyone's attention, there are the fallen Tang Zihao, Adili, Yan Yufeng (this person really exists) and countless nameless people.

Yu Fei decided to do it, but not this year, because the enrollment season was over.

The earliest it can start is next year.

He needs to find a few professionals in the country to take charge of the preliminary preparations, which is not difficult.

After making all the arrangements, Yu Fei prepared to return to the United States.

He felt that the lockout was coming to an end, but what he didn't expect was that because of his presence, his team's monopoly on the championship in the 2000s, the rise of the Supersonics, the surge in revenue brought by the Seattle basketball season, and Clay Bennett's extremely ugly eating habits angered small-market teams and the players' union at the same time.

This shutdown is turning into a storm with no winners.

Yu Fei's team had ten players when they arrived, and only four were left when they left.

Kwame Brown was defeated by the CBA team's financial strength at the buzzer.

He originally wanted to return to the United States with Yu Fei.

However, the XJ team, the richest team in the CBA, offered him a contract he could not refuse.

Brown revealed that the money he received after taxes was more than the mid-level contract he received in the NBA.

Yu Fei didn't know what was going on with the management of the XJ team, but this was a good thing for Brown.

Although he is the same age as Yu Fei, unlike Yu Fei who is in his prime, Brown's career as an NBA player has come to an end.

His journey in the NBA can be said to be born in comfort and die in comfort.

When he first joined DC, he became close friends with Jordan, but then he was used as a sacrifice by Jordan, and since then he has become mediocre.

Coming to Yu Fei was the best decision he had ever made. Not only does he have five rings now, but with Yu Fei's influence, he was able to sign middle-class contracts in succession, take over the Reebok endorsement, and pick up some endorsements that Yu Fei didn't want. His career income has exceeded 6000 million US dollars, making him undoubtedly a winner in life.

But it was this carefree life that made him lose his sense of urgency.

Over the years, he has made little progress in technology. The craze for space basketball was brought about by Fei, but Brown did not realize that this technological revolution that killed traditional inside players was also fatal to him.

He was abandoned in last season's Western Conference Finals.

Like him, Jordan's skills are not in line with the trend, but he is more talented and can make more contributions accordingly.

If Brown wants to gain a foothold in the Supersonics now, he can only rely on Fei's influence. If he goes to other teams, his true colors will soon be exposed.

It's a good thing for him to go to CBA to make money now.

But Yu Fei still didn't understand why the XJ team signed him.

Although he doesn't play in the CBA, he understands the CBA.

Leaving the NBA aside, no league in the world has greater requirements for foreign players' hard power than the CBA.

There are two types of foreign players that are most popular in CBA.

One is a three or four swingman like Beasley who can score like drinking water, and the other is an all-around point guard who is a scoring and organizing maniac.

Brown is almost unable to eat cakes now. What can he do in CBA?

Yu Fei estimated that Brown could probably average 18 points and 9 rebounds per game in the CBA, but sorry, the CBA standard for big foreign players is 25+10.

Therefore, Yu Fei estimated that Brown would soon reveal his true colors in China, and then a large number of fans would be surprised that he could lead Brown to win so many championships.

In this regard, Yu Fei can only say that as long as you don't expect Brown to average 25+10 per game, he is actually okay.

On October 10, Yu Fei and his team returned to the United States.

The team disbanded on the spot.

George decided to go for special training because his trip to China made him realize that his technical level was seriously inadequate.

Roy will go to the hospital for a follow-up examination. If the result is normal, he will officially return and start intensive training.

What surprised Yu Fei the most was Beverly.

Beverley shined during this trip to China. Although he is not the type of super point guard that the CBA likes, his defense and three-point shooting remind people of the "Grim Reaper" Smush Parker who has been invincible in the CBA in the past few years.

After winning the championship with the SuperSonics two years ago, Parker failed to stay in the NBA, so he went to the CBA to join the Guangdong team. The Guangdong team, which is full of national players, does not need Parker and Kyrie. He only needs to play to his own strength, which is to defend the small foreign players of each team below the average level, and then the Guangdong team will beat the opponent with the overall strength of the team.

However, Parker's professionalism was questionable and the Guangdong team had always wanted to replace him, so they were very surprised when they saw Beverly and wanted to use him directly to replace Parker.

According to Yu Fei, the contract offered by the Guangdong team was very good, much larger than Beverly's contract in Europe, but he refused.

"Pat, why don't you accept the CBA contract?" Yu Fei asked.

Beverley said: "The money I made last year was enough to get me through this period. I'm tired of low-level competition. I just want to play in the NBA."

"But you should know that the Lakers don't have a place for you." Yu Fei smiled subtly, "They are aiming for the championship and won't use a newcomer like you in such an important position."

Beverley said bluntly: "I don't like playing for the Lakers either. No one likes the Evil Empire. They are cowards."

After a month of getting along, Yu Fei believes that Beverly is definitely an average guard in the NBA. If we only talk about defense, he can be considered outstanding at the number one position.

"I like how you feel about the Lakers." Yu Fei made a simple decision, "Maybe we will have a chance to play together in the future." After that, following Yu Fei's suggestion, Beverly went to Seattle to train with the fully recovered Roy.

Roy organized a private training camp in Seattle specifically for those players who still had illusions about the end of the lockout to keep training.

Anthony Morrow and Alonzo Key joined them.

Then, DeAndre Jordan joined in.

Roy also invited Yu Fei, but Yu Fei was a busy man and could not stay in Seattle for a long time.

The first thing Yu Fei did when he returned to the United States was to briefly understand the progress of the labor-capital struggle.

Although the version has been rolled back for the past month and a half, Yu Fei found that he was still able to keep up with the latest progress.

This shows that the two sides have not made any progress in the past month and a half. Not only have they failed to reach any consensus, but new problems have also arisen.

First, the league showed that it had made a huge concession by no longer insisting on setting a "hard salary cap", but their demand that 47% of basketball revenue be distributed to players was considered ridiculous and unreasonable by the players' union.

Then, within the management, many long-losing teams proposed "anti-monopoly" measures.

Since 1991, the NBA championship has been won by six teams for sixteen years.

In the past decade, four teams have won the NBA championship.

What's more, if we narrow the time frame to the last eight years, the Bucks have won four championships in five years, the Supersonics have won three consecutive championships, and only the Spurs managed to win the 2005 championship in the gap.

Those failed operators believe that they are in an unfair league and that the championship has in fact been monopolized.

Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who not long ago believed that Yu Fei was the savior of the NBA, has changed his position.

Now, he believes that the Supersonics represented by Yu Fei, the Lakers represented by Kobe and James, and the Knicks represented by Stoudemire are destroying fair competition in the NBA.

"I want the league to be more competitive and to somewhat reduce the advantage that Los Angeles, Seattle and New York have," Gilbert said, "because they have so much revenue to pay salaries and luxury taxes that are far above the salary cap, and this amount of money is unbearable for small markets."

This forced Yu Fei to respond to the remarks: "We hope that every team starts from the same starting point. But if you tell me that businesses and companies around the world are equal, that's a lie. Some companies are on top, and some are at the bottom. This is competition. We have some big markets and some small markets. This has been the pattern since ancient times."

Yu Fei then cited the Spurs as an example: "I think it's not a question of who has more money, but who manages the team. Small-market teams can also win championships, such as San Antonio, which has won twice in the past eleven years."

Surrounding antitrust issues, owners of small-market teams have proposed a punitive luxury tax that is more severe than the luxury tax.

They hope to impose a 1.5:1 fine on teams like the Supersonics and the Lakers, whose total team salary reaches 5 times the salary cap.

That is to say, if the amount exceeds the cap by $1, a fine of $5 will be imposed.

This is the prototype of the super luxury tax, but it looks stricter than the super luxury tax.

The players' union strongly opposed this move because it looked like a replica of the hard salary cap. The terrifying super luxury tax would limit the team's spending.

The bosses of large markets also strongly opposed it.

Especially Clay Bennett.

He calculated that if the super luxury tax was applied, $1.4 million of his $1 million profit this season would have to be used to pay taxes.

Although there was still a profit of $4000 million, to him, he was looking at an extra $1 million he paid.

This is actually a way to indirectly share the profits of big-market teams with small-market teams.

Although owners like Buss and Dolan expressed opposition, they all took a mild attitude towards the matter, while Bennett was in a completely different state.

From the moment he decided to keep the Supersonics in Seattle, he betrayed the elders of his hometown. Whenever the elders of his wife's family asked him if he regretted this decision and wanted to mock him for it, he would use the profits brought by the Supersonics to shut them up.

He knew that the only reason the Supersonics were where they are today was because of Yu Fei's arrival.

In order to consolidate his historical position, Yu Fei must have a strong team, and the salary of this team will definitely far exceed the salary cap.

As long as the profit remains the same, Bennett can afford the team's salary and 1:1 luxury tax.

However, if the punitive luxury tax is passed, he will have to face two choices.

Have to bite the bullet and pay the sky-high luxury tax.

Alternatively, disband the team to reduce the salary burden.

The former will make his profits no longer seem substantial, while the latter will cause Yu Fei's relationship with the team to deteriorate sharply.

Neither of these two things was something he could bear.

So, what should he do when the situation is not in his favor?

The answer is to muddy the waters.

Now that everyone is focusing on anti-monopoly, he wants to bring the issue back to the starting point.

As the boss of a big market and the league's big winner with annual profits of up to $1.4 million, Bennett has made it clear that he wants to support small-market teams. He firmly supports the proposal that players only take 47% of basketball revenue each year.

With Bennett, a bastard who only cared about money and not fame, taking the lead, big market owners such as Buss Sr. and Dolan Jr. soon joined the small market owners' camp.

So, a few days later, the negotiations broke down again.

NBA Commissioner David Stern announced the cancellation of the November regular season.

A full month of games canceled means everyone in the league, owners and players alike, loses an eighth of their revenue.

"We all share that hope, but given the breakdown in negotiations, we're not going to have a full NBA season," Stern said.

He also reiterated his warning that proposals could become more onerous as the shutdown drags on, as the league faces hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

“We’re going to have to recalculate how bad the damage is,” Stern said. “The next proposal will reflect the massive damage that’s accumulating now.”

For Fei, everything that had happened and was about to happen was like a dream.

He did bring the NBA back to the top last season.

But this peak is not so much the peak of the NBA as it is the peak of big-market teams led by Seattle and Los Angeles.

They earned everything, while small-market teams gained nothing. They chose to tear up the CBA agreement in this season when the new TV broadcast agreement was about to take effect. Is this a madness that is difficult to reverse, or an outbreak of contradictions caused by the unbalanced development of large and small markets?

The November regular season has been canceled, and it is almost impossible for the lockout to end in December.

If the lockout extends into 2011, it becomes possible that the entire season will be canceled completely.

This is no longer a question of whether the players are willing to give in. The problem is that the unbalanced income distribution among the bosses cannot be adjusted through self-regulation, so they have to turn the knife on the players.

Derek Fisher faces a historic decision.

Do you accept the 47% income distribution?
If he accepts, he will undoubtedly become the most incompetent players union president in history.

If they don't accept it, the players under his management will have to take the risk of not playing for a year in order to ensure fair income distribution.

Yu Fei obviously didn't want to get involved in this matter anymore. After his brief return, he announced his support for all decisions of the players' union. He would always stand with the players' camp. Now he was going to undergo special training and then prepare for the movie he had planned long ago.

There are rumors that Kobe may join the CBA.

Some media reported that the Shanxi team offered Kobe a sky-high contract.

Kobe's team confirmed that it did happen, but it may not happen, and Kobe is considering all options.

Lower-level players began to put pressure on the union to end the lockout as soon as possible.

The mid-level players have enough savings to get through this period, so they are the tougher opposition.

On the contrary, after Yu Fei was left out, the top players also started their personal itineraries.

Only stars like Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade who are determined to join the players' union will continue to participate in negotiations.

11/14

The Players Union announced that it would dissolve the union into the Players Industry Association in preparation for further antitrust lawsuits against the NBA.

Stern then announced the cancellation of all games before December 12, and threatened Fisher that if a new agreement could not be reached before the New Year, the entire 15-2010 season would be cancelled.

The new agreement means the players will make concessions on every option.

Revenue sharing was reduced from 57% to 47%, the maximum contract year was reduced from 5 years to 4 years, and there was a further supplement to the luxury tax, mainly to curb monopoly in large markets.

Fisher, who came from the bottom, decided to endure humiliation for the bottom players, but the waves his decision stirred up were not what he wanted to see.

At that time, Yu Fei was in New York.

In addition to preparing for the film, he also has to spend four hours training every day.

Agent Arn Trem called Yu Fei.

"Derek Fisher is kneeling to the management!" Trium shouted with absolute certainty, "He's been bought!"

Yu Fei didn't believe that Fisher was bought by the league, but agreed to reduce the revenue sharing from 57% to 47%, which was enough to nail Fisher to the pillar of shame.

Yes, by doing this he will allow the bottom-level players to get their jobs back, but the middle-level and top-level players whose income has dropped as a result will not let him go.

"So?" Yu Fei asked casually, "Is the lockout over?"

Unexpectedly, Tellem on the other end of the phone said in a cold tone: "On the contrary."

“The shutdown has only just begun.”

It was refreshing to hear that after the NBA was suspended for 162 days.

(End of this chapter)