NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

In addition to the sign-and-trade rule change, Stern also announced a clause that was absolutely shocking, even making the "Michael Jordan Clause" pale in comparison and almost no one discussed it!

“若一名球员在过去5年内曾夺得最少3次或连续两次MVP、4次或连续3次总冠军，4次或连续3次入选年度双一阵容，此球员在续约时，全联盟拥有此球员鸟权！即全联盟皆可以鸟权价格与此名球员商谈合同！”

"But the player's parent team still has the first right to renew the contract and the right to match!"

"Moreover, when renewing the contract, this player will ignore the current salary rules and use his current salary as the basis for negotiating a new contract. The luxury tax generated by the new contract reached on this basis will be doubled!"

When this clause came out, the entire league was shocked!

What the hell, are you crazy?

This is the first thing everyone thinks of!
too crazy!

For example, according to the terms of the existing labor agreement, players like Lin Tian and Garnett who signed their contracts before the 98 labor dispute will not be able to negotiate contract renewals based on their last year's sky-high salaries after the contract expires!
Because the labor agreement stipulates that the maximum salary a veteran with more than 8 years of experience can sign is 30% of the salary cap, which is a starting salary of about 1500 million plus an annual increase of up to 10%, and a maximum contract of 5 years.

In other words, no matter whether the last year's contract of Lin Tian, ​​Garnett and other players is 3500 million or 2800 million, when they negotiate a new contract, the parent team can only give them a maximum salary contract with a starting salary of 1500 million and a total price of no more than 5 million for 8500 years.

This is the standard contract rule stipulated in the 98 labor agreement!

But now that this rule has been issued, it means that if a player meets the above conditions.
Well, there is currently only one person in the entire league who meets this condition, Lin Tian!
That means Lin Tian will be able to negotiate a contract with all teams in the league with a starting salary of 3277 million, with a maximum of 5 years and an annual increase of 10%, and will ignore the salary cap.
In other words, if there is really a madman who makes an offer and extends the contract to the full amount in 10% increments, then Lin Tian will have the opportunity to get a 5-year contract worth more than 2 million US dollars, and his annual salary in the last year will even be close to 5000 million!
During the same period, the salary of all other players basically did not exceed 2000 million.

Even more than half of the teams in the league currently have a total salary of less than 5000 million.

too exaggerated!

As soon as this clause came out, it immediately triggered crazy discussions and uproar in the entire basketball world!

At the beginning, this clause was called the 'Lin Tian Clause'. After all, he was the only player in the entire league who met this requirement. But as the discussion went on, everyone discovered that throughout history, only two people met this clause.

Lin Tian and Jordan.

As a result, the clause was quickly renamed.

God Clause!

Absolute God Clause!
Except for those at the top of the pyramid in NBA history, no one else has any chance to use this clause.

Of these three requirements, there are only a few people who can meet the last one. As for the other two, any one of them is extremely difficult, but what about all three together?
There are really only Lin Tian and Jordan!
too difficult!
And then, everyone reacted quickly. Now that Jordan was no longer qualified, this thing was simply Lin Tian’s exclusive special clause!
Moreover, this thing is not even a benefit for Lin Tian, ​​but a benefit for the alliance!
Double luxury tax!
If there really is a crazy team that wants to get Lin Tian like this, the luxury tax this team will pay every year will definitely be an astronomical figure!
You know, the league's luxury tax is divided equally among all teams! Many small teams even count on that luxury tax to subsidize the team!

Once this clause is released, it means that all 28 teams in the league without Lin Tian can share the money! They can all benefit from it! They can all become beneficiaries of the clause!
This is probably the reason why almost all bosses agree to this clause with all their heart.

After all, 90% of the teams know that Lin Tian is unlikely to come to them. Since it is impossible for him to come, and we can get extra money now, why not do it?

It is rumored that even Pacers owner Simon did not raise any strong opposition or protest against this clause.

The guy agreed.

As for the reason for agreeing?
Everyone believed that this guy had most likely reached some kind of PY agreement with Stern.

Judging from the Pacers' financial situation this year and their decision to let Carter go, if there really is a team that offers Lin Tian a five-year, $5 million contract, they definitely won't follow suit!

As a small business run with integrity, when it comes to spending money, the Pacers certainly can't compare to New York, Portland and Los Angeles.

Anyway, with four championships already won, the Simon brothers have earned countless amounts of money and honors.

He had to accept this kind of thing with a pinch of his nose!

What can I do if I don’t admit it?

When Stern conveyed this clause during the meeting, he did not give anyone a chance to refuse. He was conveying and notifying, not negotiating or discussing!

What else can Simon do except happily accept the benefits promised by Stern, and then wait for Lin Tian to leave so that he can get his share of the money from the luxury tax?

As for Lin Tian? He felt that it was no longer the case that Frieza said to Kakarot, "Your combat power is 18, which is amazing, but I have 53."

Now Frieza has completed the first stage of transformation, and then said to Piccolo and others, "Every time I transform, my strength can be increased by 2-3 times. My current combat power is over 100 million! And I can do this transformation twice more!"

Even so, Frieza has a hidden ultimate transformation that allows him to reach 100% full power.
Beat, crush, and kill twice!

It’s just fun!
What's there to be unhappy about if you can make money and get more money?

Originally, after getting this contract, Lin Tian's annual salary was at most 1500 million, but now he has to work hard to get it to 3300 million starting and nearly 5000 million ending.
Even though this was bound to happen to Lin Tian himself, Lin Tian still felt it was crazy and unbelievable.

But apart from the madness and incredibleness, it’s just a feeling.

Cool!
It feels so good to blow up the entire league!
However, Lin Tian did not feel happy for too long, because less than two hours after the terms were announced, his phone started ringing.

"Two hundred million for five years, I can't give you Lin! The elders of my family will kill me! If someone gives you this price, I will lose you again. God! Damn Stern, why did he give me this at this time? He just doesn't want me to be with you!"

Dolan's voice was filled with tears, but his acting was quite exaggerated, so exaggerated that even Lin Tian didn't need to expose him. Dolan couldn't hold it in anymore, and in the middle of his speech, he laughed out loud on the other end of the phone.

"James, what do you want to tell me?"

"People in Los Angeles are known to be rich, but in fact, old man Buss is a poor fellow. If he can offer you 2000 million a year, I think he is awesome!"

"The only person who can compete with me in this league is Paul Allen. That old man does have a little money, but I think Stern came up with this because he was determined that you would never go to a small place like Portland."

"If you don't get to the point, I'm going to hang up!"

"Okay, okay, I just want to tell you that if there wasn't the damn double luxury tax, I could still grit my teeth and give it to you for 5 million over years. But now, that's absolutely a whopping price!"

"I just want to say that 5 million in 2 years is not possible, but 5 million in 1.5 years is definitely no problem! I will continue to save money in the next two years, and if the money saved in these two years is evenly distributed, it won't be that exaggerated!"

"I believe that no one can make a better offer than me. See you in two years!"

Lin Tian could tell from Dolan's excited tone that this guy was sure of success this time and believed that he would not be able to escape.

I can't get 5 million in 2 years.
It's a bit of a pity.

However, Lin Tian didn’t think too much about how much he would get in two years.

Stern has specifically put forward the terms, so there is no need to worry about not getting the money!
This so-called "God Clause" has really been discussed in the entire basketball world for a long time. This clause can really have a positive impact on the interests of bosses and players!

The bosses are calculating how much money they have to spend to get Lin Tianneng to make a fortune, while the players are calculating how they can meet the terms and get much more money than before!
The popularity of this clause also overshadowed another thing Stern announced -

That is the China Summer Pre-season that has been warmed up for many years and has been in preparation but has never been implemented!

On October 10, the Pacers and the Nets will travel to China's capital and magic city for two preseason games!
This is the first time that the NBA has held a game outside of North America, and it is also their attempt to hold formal games such as preseason games overseas.

Many people speculated that holding the preseason overseas was definitely just the beginning. If everything went well, Stern might also hold the regular season overseas! Even heavyweight games like the Christmas game might be held overseas!
For example, a game between the Mavericks and the Nets in Berlin or Madrid?

Or maybe a Pacers vs. Lakers game in Tokyo?

Or maybe the preseason games don’t necessarily have to be played between two NBA teams. What if an NBA team can play a preseason game with a popular local team?
In short, Stern has taken another important step towards his own goal and dream of globalization and world-wide development!
At the same time, Stern has been paying attention to the ticket sales in China.

It was his first overseas game, his first time playing in another continent, and Stern was actually very worried that tickets would not sell as well as he had imagined.

What if the ticket price is too high? What if Chinese fans only like to watch on TV and don’t like to watch the game in person?
So, less than 24 hours after China officially announced the time and location of the game and started selling tickets, Stern couldn't help but call China to ask how the tickets were selling.

If the sales are really not good, we can offer discounts or extra gifts. For every ticket, we can give a team T-shirt to everyone! It is not expensive, and it is worth it for advertising!

"It's sold out. Can we add two more games? The fans are going crazy. Our phone, email, ticket purchase website and the ticket queues are all over the place. The demand is simply not enough to meet the supply!"

"What? Can't add more? Then don't delay us, it's too chaotic here! We have a lot of work to do, please contact us if you can add more!"

FUXX!

The ticket price is set low!
This is the first thing that Stern, the capitalist, thought of at this moment!

Then, he got excited!

It’s done! The first stop of the overseas competition is destined to be a great success!

Globalization! NBA globalization!
Stern was so excited that he almost wanted to shout three times: "I am the king of the world!"

But fortunately, he was not that stupid and managed to endure those howls.

But he couldn't hide his excitement.

The decision to send out these two powerful teams this time was absolutely the right one!
Which team will be arranged next year?
Europe will also send a team there!

But we can’t use the royal bomb right at the beginning like we did in the Chinese competition. We have to hide it!
Let’s give the Nets back! Let’s give the Nets back next year, and then find another team at random, and we’ll focus on one team next year!
Only by keeping a thought in mind can we maintain suspense and increase the box office!

Stern's excitement and vision for the future are actually very telling!

The Pacers are a team with a medium to large market size. Thanks to Lin Tian, ​​their revenue, net profit, attention, online search index, etc. in recent years have all been at the top of the entire league!
Or to put it this way: Apart from the Lakers and the Knicks, two big money-makers in the top markets, the league's most profitable, most watched team with the most fans around the world is the Pacers!
Over the years, they have made countless amounts of money from overseas revenue alone, not to mention the countless honors they have received!

Lin Tian can really help the team make a lot of money!

This is why even though they know that Lin Tianxia's contract will most likely start at 3000 million, there are still some bosses willing to take over and even willing to take a gamble. It can make money!

This guy can really help the team make a lot of money!
The only suspense is whether your market is big enough to support the traffic and profits brought by Lin Tian.

At the very least, Indiana cannot hold up. This is why Stern has been trying every means to get Lin Tian to leave, and racked his brains to come up with this so-called "God Clause"!

For Stern, it is such a waste for Lin Tian to be in Indiana!

Do not believe?

If you don’t believe it, just take a look at the ticket sales for these two Chinese games!

Lin Tian definitely has this level of appeal throughout China and even Asia!
He is the light of Asia and Asia’s number one sports hero today!
His business potential is far from being fully developed!
Ticket sales for the China Games were extremely hot, including the fact that scalpers had begun to speculate on tickets at 10 times or even 20 times the price. The news spread to the league's management almost in the blink of an eye, and they once again had a new understanding of Lin Tian's appeal!

Even a guy like Dolan regretted offering Lin Tian 1.5 million. Dolan was worried that Lin would think he was stingy. Wouldn't my image as James Dolan be ruined?
At the same time, because of Lin Tian’s sudden popularity, Yao Ming and Da Di, who had not played a single NBA game, became popular overnight!

You are all from the same country, so even if your business potential is not as good as Lin's, it is definitely enough for us to make a good profit, right?

Suddenly, there were many more people in the league asking for Yao Ming's price and rumors of a trade.

Among them, not many teams asked about Yao Ming. Many teams even asked casually. They knew very well that the Nets would definitely treasure Yao Ming at this time, both from the perspective of performance and business, and would not sell him easily.

But the Mavericks are different! If you guys in Dallas have already bought Jamison, you probably won't be able to use him!
Should I stay in the team and play as the third forward or as center?

Since we won’t be using it anyway, let’s just have a good chat and see if we can make a deal!

For a while, the phone of Mavericks general manager Nelson was blown up by calls, and countless people came with quotes, hoping to recruit Davies.

There are many sincere and tempting offers among them, but for various reasons, Nelson is not in a hurry to put them on the shelves.

Because Cuban made a request to old Nelson.

The new Jamison cannot come in vain, he must be reused! The team leader Nowitzki is the foundation and core of the team, and his playing time must also be guaranteed. At the same time, the team previously underestimated the general commercial value, and the team will try to develop it next season, so his tactical position must also be retained!

Nelson rolled his eyes at Cuban's request: "The playing styles, strengths and weaknesses of these three players are almost completely overlapping. How can I guarantee playing time for all three of them? Otherwise, I can put all three of them in the starting lineup, with Wang playing 5, Dirk playing 4, and Antoine playing 3!"

"Good idea! This is actually what I want!" Cuban clapped his hands, expressing that what you said is exactly what I want!

"Fuck you! Are you mentally retarded? Can't you tell I'm laughing at you? Your IQ is not even higher than my dog's. How did you succeed in starting a business and make so much money? Did you lick other people's stuff with your tongue?"

"I can use the players however I want, and I can rotate the players however I want. You idiot who doesn't even know whether a basketball is round or square, just shut up and stop pointing fingers and being so self-righteous!"

Seeing that Cuban didn't realize that he was mocking him at all, old Nelson's patience immediately dropped to zero. He opened his mouth and uttered a string of swear words, then hung up the phone rudely!

WTF!

Do you really think you’re so great just because you’re the boss?
It's fine if you made a stupid trade to get Jamison, but now you want me to put up this kind of formation that insults my intelligence? Are you crazy?
Still a three-PF lineup?

I am a mad scientist and it is true that I like to research new things, but I am not a moron. Can't I see that what can be accomplished is bullshit?
Retarded!

However, old Nelson, who was used to scolding his boss, didn't know that Cuban on the other end of the phone also had a gloomy face at the moment.

Damn old man, you are addicted to scolding me, right? Do you really think you are the boss?
I will settle the score with you sooner or later!

In short, the season hasn't even started, and even the training camp hasn't ended, but the entire league has quickly become chaotic because of Stern's actions and the promulgation of new rules!
As for the reason, there is only one: everyone wants to make money!

However, whether it is Yao Ming or Da Wei, the trade between the two at least did not happen before the start of the season. The management of the Mavericks and the Nets are not fools. They all know that now is not the time to trade.

Especially the Nets, their goal is the championship! It is even more impossible to destroy the chemistry and tacit understanding that the team has cultivated at this time!

As for the Pacers, although Lin Tian was actually the core figure of this storm, the entire Pacers team was extremely quiet and calm this time. No one was stupid enough to go to Bird to make an offer for Lin Tian. They all knew that it was asking for humiliation.

The players on the Pacers are also preparing for the new season wholeheartedly and sweating profusely in the training camp.

In fact, this year's training atmosphere within the team and the players' emphasis on training are even better, more focused and more dedicated than last year, or even every year before that!
As for the reason?

Michael Jordan is here!
Most of the players on the Pacers are die-hard fans of Jordan, and the remaining small half are die-hard fans of Lin Tian. With such a group of people gathered together and watching the two big guys of the team taking the lead in training hard, it would be a miracle if they would be lazy!

They are really all working harder and more serious than each other!
Even Webber, whose form has declined in the past few years, showed rare concentration and devoted himself to the training camp!
This year, the Pacers' training camp period is much shorter than in previous seasons due to the World Championships and the China Games. A rigorous head coach like Carlisle would definitely protest against the league and Stern's mischief, and would most likely suggest that the league should postpone the season to increase the training camp time.

But this time, Carlisle was extremely satisfied!

The team's training intensity, the speed at which the players' tacit understanding improved, and the things and characteristics he wanted the team to play were all perfectly displayed!

He originally wanted to complete the training in a month, but now the players have completely absorbed it in less than half a month!

In this regard, Carlisle believes that every time the team is divided into groups for confrontation, Jordan and Lin Tian refuse to be in the same team, and they have to confront each other. And every time it is like a fight, their attitude of wanting to beat each other's brains out definitely played an important role!

With the two big guys doing this, who among the people below dares not to work hard and train seriously?
Just play for your life and it’s all over!

Then, with the end of training camp, the Pacers picked and chose, and their final roster was officially released!
Center: Ben Wallace, Andre Miller, Zayn Tabak
Power forward: Chris Webber, Larry Keltner, Jeff Foster
Small forward: Michael Jordan, Doug Christie, Terry Mills
Shooting Guard: Gilbert Arenas, Manu Ginobili

Point guard: Lin Tian, ​​Tony Parker, Tyus Edney

As usual, Bird only retained 14 players with formal contracts, leaving a vacancy in case the team has injuries or there are any slip-throughs in the free market, so that the team can be supplemented!

And it can be seen from the player list that the Pacers' lineup is indeed strong!

There are many capable players in the inside, outside and forward lines!

Of course, their outside line is a bit crowded now, with many players with strong scoring ability in the lineup. Carlisle's adjustment to this is to let Jordan play the No. 3 position!

It just so happens that Jordan is now slower, and his lateral speed can't keep up when defending the No. 2 player, but when facing the No. 3 player, he is not at a disadvantage in the confrontation!

Therefore, moving Jordan to the No. 3 position will actually help the team's overall operation and smoothness!

And precisely because of the arrival of Jordan and Argentine Jordan, although the Pacers lost two important rotation players in the summer, they are still the team with the highest chance of winning the league!

Not even one!

There is no way. When a team has Jordan and Lin Tian as its starting lineup, even if the remaining three starters are Jordan's grandmother, Lin Tian's grandmother and 50-year-old Bird, there will be people who think that this lineup can compete for the championship!
A person's reputation is like a tree's shadow! It's just that powerful!

With the end of training camp, this season's salary cap and luxury tax threshold have also been determined!
The salary cap is 5100 million US dollars, this year's luxury tax threshold is 5800 million US dollars, and the poverty line is 4100 million US dollars.

The Pacers' payroll this year is naturally far beyond the salary cap!

Lin Tian will get 2730 million this year, Webber 1430 million, Jordan 1200 million, Ben Wallace 600 million, Christie 600 million, Brad Miller 350 million, and the rest of the players' salaries are all around 80-150 million basic salaries.

The Pacers' total salary this season once again reached 8000 million!
Still second in the league for now.

To keep the salary at around 8000 million, the team still has to let go of Carter and Harrington and have Miller announce his retirement in a timely manner.

Otherwise, these three guys will have to combine to take away another 2500 million US dollars at least. Even if Jordan's 1200 million is removed, the Pacers' total salary this season will be close to 9500 million.

Well...even if it's 9500, it's still second in the league!

As for number one?

Still a pioneer!
There is no way, because there are so many junk contracts in the Trail Blazers.

皮蓬1900万，再加上1600万的拉希德、1300万的坎普、1250万的斯塔达迈尔、800万的戴尔·戴维斯、700万的安德森，700万的萨博尼斯、600万的邦奇·威尔斯和500万的鲁本·帕特森。

Although this team does not have a salary monster like Lin Tian who can earn nearly 3000 million a year, they have four players worth tens of millions.

What is even more despairing is that among these four players who can earn more than 1000 million, Pippen has degenerated into an ordinary or even below-average starting player, and Kemp has basically stopped playing. It is rumored that the Trail Blazers are preparing to cut him.

After suffering from various injuries, the level of the "Little Flying Squirrel" Stoudemire has long been degraded. Sabonis, who also earns 700 million per year, also announced his retirement a year ago.
The Trail Blazers have such a large number of players and a payroll of over 100 million. The two best players are Rasheed and Wells, and the rest are basically high-paid but low-skilled.

All I can say is that Paul Allen truly lived up to that saying: stupid people, lots of money, come quickly!

As the players of the Trail Blazers get older this season, their goal has long been to just make the playoffs. As for other things,
The right thing to do is to get out of this predicament as soon as possible, stop spending money recklessly, and quickly restore a healthy salary cap space!

The team building after Paul Allen took over the team undoubtedly ended in failure. Except for the Western Conference Finals, they have never played any impressive games.

The disintegration and disbanding of this team is definitely imminent.

As for whether owner Paul Allen can learn from his mistakes and stop spending money like crazy, that depends on him.
Anyway, whenever Bird and the Simon brothers are troubled by the team's total salary and lament the high cost of spending, they will take out the Trail Blazers' payroll and take a closer look.

Then, they get comfortable!
Bird was even so insidious that he hung a photo on the wall of his office, which showed the total expenditure of the Trail Blazers this season.

Whenever he encountered troubles at work, he would look up.

Think about it again, these people get so much money but can't make any contribution.

So comfortable!

This world is still beautiful! (End of this chapter)