When pride still matters

Chapter 570 Player Godfather
There shouldn't have been any turbulence in the free market this summer. If Yu Fei hadn't decided to leave Seattle, the biggest free agents would have been Andre Iguodala and Joakim Noah.

Iguodala contacted the GOAT as soon as Yu Fei announced that he would test the free market.

Yu Fei and Iguodala are old friends.

The two first met at Adidas' ABCD training camp. At the time, Yu Fei was about to graduate from high school and was preparing for the draft, while Iguodala was still unknown. Yu Fei recruited him into his temporary team, and he eventually shined in the training camp.

After entering the NBA, the two kept in touch and always greeted each other when they met during the regular season.

However, Iguodala's NBA journey was full of twists and turns. The best period of his career was with the Spurs, but he happened to run into the Sonics, who were about to reach the top. After that, he began his wandering career with a big contract that was considered overpriced.

This summer, Iguodala's contract expired and he finally had the opportunity to control his own destiny. He found Yu Fei and expressed his willingness to join forces.

Yu Fei said cheerfully: "No problem, but my favorite team is the Clippers, are you interested?"

This surprised Iguodala.

After all, Yu Fei usually likes to "exile" people to the Clippers as a joke. Who would have thought that one day he would voluntarily "exile" himself there?

However, the reason why the Clippers have long been regarded as the bottom of the NBA contempt chain is entirely because of a boss like Sterling. Now that Sterling has fallen, the Clippers' trade is going through the process. After Ballmer becomes the new boss, if Yu Fei joins, the future of this team will be completely different.

Iguodala began to seriously consider the opportunity.

Yu Fei needs to wait for Ballmer to complete the acquisition of the Clippers. Before that, he has to pretend to meet with various teams.

The first team to meet him was the Lakers.

After all, Yu Fei is currently in Los Angeles, and the Lakers are close to him.

Surprisingly, the person who came to recruit Yu Fei was Kobe. This situation made Yu Fei feel very strange, because he has always been the biggest opponent of the Lakers in the new century. And now, the Lakers want to recruit him, which makes him wonder: Can you just recruit me if you can't beat me?
When Kobe talked about how Yu Fei's style fits in with the Lakers, Yu Fei asked, "Is that how you recruited LeBron?"

The day of “decision” seems to be still before our eyes, but that “decision” has not brought any results.

Kobe smiled and said, "More or less the same."

"You know I'm not going to the Lakers," Yu Fei said. "I'm leaving a place I can't control, not to join a more complicated team and provide for an old man with no hope."

Yu Fei doesn't think that any star player in his prime would consider joining the Lakers.

The management is in chaos, the team resources are scarce, and with Kobe Bryant on the side, what on earth would a normal star player want to do by coming here?
Yu Fei certainly has the confidence to replace Kobe in the Lakers, but there is no need for him to cause trouble, not to mention that he has already made a commitment.

The Lakers ultimately lost.

Next was the Knicks, but Yu Fei didn't see Durant during the negotiations and didn't receive any recruiting calls from Durant beforehand.

So he knew very well what Adu was thinking.

Durant is definitely the person in the world who least wants to see him go to New York.

It is really surprising that the Knicks can actively recruit himself without Durant's support. Under such management, Durant's future is really promising.

Yu Fei rejected the Knicks.

Then there are a bunch of teams that feel good about themselves.

They put forward what they thought were good conditions, which were then casually rejected by Yu Fei.

As the free agency opened on July 7, players signed contracts one after another.

Iguodala did not end up joining the Clippers with Yu Fei, but went to New York to join forces with Durant.

Yu Fei rejected every team that came to recruit him, and the number of free agents in the free market was decreasing rapidly.

Days passed and Yu Fei still hadn't made a decision.

He doesn't look like he's choosing a team, but more like he's preparing to retire.

Until a sign-off that seemed like a sign of things to come woke up the media people who were trying to figure out Yu Fei's whereabouts.

On July 7, ten days after the free market opened, the Clippers announced that they had signed Kwame Brown for two years and $16 million.

Who is Yu Fei's most loyal follower?
This issue has always been controversial. When he played for the Bucks, the targets of the debate were Kwame Brown and Trevor Ariza; when he played for the SuperSonics, the focus of the debate became Kwame Brown, DeAndre Jordan and Patrick Beverley.

Some people who like to make permutations and combinations find that no matter how they compare, Brown is always there. So, there is no doubt that Brown is the most loyal follower.

Brown and Yu Fei became free agents at the same time, but due to his age - although 30 years old is not too old, for undisciplined role players, the time of significant decline usually comes earlier than that of star players - and his preference to stay in his comfort zone, Brown gradually became less adapted to modern basketball. Before the advent of the era of space basketball, Brown was still an all-around blue-collar center who could handle pick-and-roll, position, switch defense, and low-post defense. As long as he was not allowed to rely on his "clever hands" to do anything, he could definitely do the basic work of a blue-collar player.

If the times hadn't changed, Brown would still be a useful blue-collar player, but the times are changing too fast.

Ironically, this new era was ushered in by the team Brown played for, but he himself was completely unable to adapt. If he hadn't clung to Yu Fei's thigh, he might have been unemployed long ago.

So when the Clippers signed Brown, the mystery of "where did Yu Fei go" finally began to have answers.

This was an outcome no one expected.

"The Clippers? Frye's final choice turned out to be the Clippers?" Bill Simmons said in surprise, "Does God think that MJ is the real GOAT, so he sent Frye to that cursed team?"

All parties immediately began to discuss Ballmer, trying to understand what kind of promises the billionaire had made to the GOAT.

On July 7, Ballmer officially completed the acquisition of the Clippers.

The result was shocking. Forbes previously valued the Clippers at $6 million, but Ballmer ended up spending $20 billion.

Not only is the price more than three times the estimated price, it also makes the team the second most expensive in sports history, behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers, which sold for $21 billion last year.

This amount of money obviously far exceeds the current value of the Clippers, but Ballmer knows very well that with every day of delay, Yu Fei's signing will become more uncertain, so he acted decisively and offered Sterling a price he could not refuse.

Although he spent three times the price expected by the outside world, Ballmer did not feel he had lost out.

In fact, the Clippers, a team that has been rooted in Los Angeles for many years, is only worth $6 million. This in itself shows that its former owner did not manage the team seriously at all.

In Los Angeles, any franchise that is seriously managed, whether it is the "money-eating beast" of the Lakers, the Dodgers and Angels of MLB, the Kings of NHL, or even the Rams of NFL, which one is not valuable? The market value of the Clippers itself is puzzling.

For a long time, this team has been unpopular among Los Angeles residents. Most of the fans who support them are those who cannot afford the Lakers ticket price or fans of some niche teams.

However, even without Yu Fei's joining, the Clippers are worth $20 billion in Ballmer's eyes.

The upside of having a stingy owner is that the team spends every penny very carefully and has no debt. In addition, the Clippers' broadcasting contract with local TV stations will expire in the summer of 2014, when they will earn about $2000 million a year, which is about one-tenth of the Lakers' annual income from Time Warner.

Once Yu Fei joins, the Clippers will immediately become the top team in the league, and the revenue from the next local TV broadcast contract will surely increase significantly.

In addition, the Clippers are in very good financial condition. This is also thanks to Sterling's "sound" style. If it weren't for the racial discrimination scandal, he would hardly face any external risks. In contrast, when Jordan bought the Bobcats shares, he spent far less money because he inherited the debts of most shareholders, which have not been repaid to this day. In comparison, the Clippers are simply healthy assets.

According to the agreement, Ballmer will transfer 10% of the Clippers' shares to the person designated by Yu Fei.

According to the CBA agreement, the league prohibits people who have close relationships with players and the immediate family members of players from owning team shares to ensure fair competition. However, the league has never clearly defined the criteria for determining "close relationships with players."

Therefore, Yu Fei decided to let Quint DiMeo resign from his media company, and purchased 5% of the Clippers' shares through Ballmer. At the same time, he will serve as the team's president in the new season.

In exchange, Ballmer made another promise to Yu Fei: if Yu Fei eventually chooses to retire with the Clippers, he will give Yu Fei 10% of the team's shares. Of course, this is just a verbal promise, and there is no guarantee that Ballmer will fulfill his promise.

But for Fei, what matters is the present.

DiMeo is Yu Fei's best friend. Now he has become the team president and holds a 5% stake, which gives Yu Fei the same influence in the team as when Jordan controlled the Bobcats.

This is the control that Yu Fei wants.

If Ballmer later regrets and takes back the management rights of the team, Yu Fei will be helpless. This is the weakness of being a player: power is always given by others, and if you want to have full control, you must become the boss yourself.

That step is still far away for him, and at this moment, it is the limit of what he can achieve. Except for Ballmer, there will be no second team to offer the same conditions.

The current situation is the most ideal for him. He has gained unprecedented power from Ballmer as the GOAT. If the power is taken back before he retires, it can only mean that he has messed up a lot of things like Jordan did when he was a Wizard.

If that is the case, then it is understandable that he was backstabbed.

This is a fresh start.

He is already looking forward to the new chapter of his life.

On July 7, it was officially announced that Yu Fei and the Clippers had reached a four-year contract with a player option.

The Sonics dynasty did not end in the Western Conference Finals. If Yu Fei chose to stay, they would probably rise again like the Bucks in 2006.

However, Yu Fei did not stay.

He completely gave up the idea of ​​staying with the team after the season ended.

Because his relationship with Clay Bennett was already tense.

If Yu Fei wants to leave, he must first carry out a series of publicity, just like a movie needs to go through various promotional activities before it is released, so that the public can form reasonable or unreasonable expectations about the results.

The breakup process in sports is similar.

If Yu Fei wants to leave, he must make public what Bennett has done, and this will cause Bennett's reputation to plummet.

Bennett would develop a strong hatred for him because of this.

Even if Yu Fei chooses to stay, the two will only be harmonious on the surface and can never go back to the past.

Therefore, from the moment Yu Fei's camp began to lay the groundwork, the outcome was already doomed.

Fans spontaneously expressed their gratitude to Yu Fei in various ways.

His former teammates also sent their blessings on social media.

Among them, Brandon Roy's message on Twitter was the most touching: "Six years ago, I didn't expect you to come back; six years later, I didn't expect you to leave. But you once said that this is life, no one will accompany anyone forever, but I am sure that we have had golden times in the past six years. Brother, I wish you all the best in the future!"

Perhaps the one with the most complicated emotions is Irving.

In his rookie season, Yu Fei gave him a lot of help and was a very good leader.

But Irving also knew that as long as Yu Fei was there, he would never be able to become the number one player of the Supersonics.

Now that Yu Fei has left and Roy is a fragile person, he has already seen the dawn of promotion.

This is definitely the ideal state for every young person who is emerging.

Irving became more and more excited, and this emotion gradually overwhelmed the negative emotions brought about by Yu Fei's departure from the team. He felt that a bright future was beckoning to him.

After signing Yu Fei, the Clippers still have some salary space, but the future space has become saturated because they have two big contracts on the team.

In addition to Yu Fei's contract, the Clippers are also burdened with two big contracts, one is Blake Griffin's huge contract that will take effect in the new season, and the other is the contract extension signed with Larry Sanders just last season.

The name Sanders was unfamiliar to Fei. What confused him even more was why he felt unfamiliar with this person.

In this era of declining centers, Sanders has neither shooting ability nor finishing ability, but he has excellent athletic ability and a long arm span. With his defense and rebounding, he can play in the NBA until he is at least 30 years old. However, Yu Fei knew nothing about this man, but the Clippers signed him to a 4-year, $4400 million contract last season.

Although this contract is not a maximum salary, it is enough to show the Clippers coaching staff's expectations for his future development.

However, Yu Fei felt very bad about this contract.

Therefore, after signing with the Clippers, he immediately contacted Arn Tellem to find out the specific situation of Sanders.

Tellem praised Sanders' talent, but also expressed regret that the man was not focused on basketball.

"Larry has so many interests," Tellem said. "Music, poetry, painting... To be honest, I'm not sure basketball would rank in the top five."

Yu Fei suddenly had an idea and blurted out: "Then why did you give him such a big contract?"

"He's more talented than DeAndre Jordan," Tellem explained.

After listening to Tellem's introduction, Yu Fei remembered that in his previous life, he had read a post titled "Awards of Weird NBA Players", which mentioned the case of Larry Sanders. This player was obviously gifted and had a bright future, but he lost interest in basketball during the golden period of his career and eventually chose to retire.

Such a person actually has a big contract of 4 million US dollars for 4400 years in his team.

"Then trade him." Yu Fei said decisively, "Trade him now!"

Trem was stunned: "Why?"

"I hate inside players who can't shoot!"

At this moment, Kwame Brown was sitting in Yu Fei's house teasing Xiao Bufan. When Yu Fei yelled this, Brown was suddenly startled, "Da Fei, I will definitely learn to shoot next year!"

Tellem on the phone still didn't understand why Yu Fei suddenly made this request: "Larry really can't shoot at the moment, but he can master this skill through training. Frye, can we..."

"You just said that basketball is not among his top five hobbies. I don't think such a person can practice shooting." Yu Fei said firmly, "Besides, I don't want the team to waste salary space on him. Summer is almost over, but next summer will come. I don't want to wait until then and you tell me that we don't have the money to sign those who can really help us because we have to pay Larry Sanders $4 million for four years."

Trem hesitated for a moment and said, "Who will come next summer?"

"I don't know," Yu Fei said, "but we have to prepare for a rainy day now."

"Do you have any other questions?"

Tellem understood that Yu Fei had made his decision. The full authority that Ballmer gave Yu Fei was not a vain power, but real power. Yu Fei could decide whether everyone in the Clippers would stay or go.

This was the first time he had exercised this power, and no matter who he wanted to send away, a few words of persuasion from Trem as he had just done was the limit.

This is the power that the legendary godfathers in the history of professional basketball once held, and now, this authority falls into the hands of a 30-year-old active athlete.

Professional basketball can never go back to the way it was.

"No problem," Tellem said helplessly, "You won't see him in training camp."

"very good."

(End of this chapter)