So I am the god of basketball?

However, despite the chaos, the 98 draft was held as scheduled.

The Clippers, who won the No. 1 pick, happily picked up "Sugar Man" Michael Olowokandi.

He is the talented inside player who is known as the "second Olajuwon".

Legend has it that like Olajuwon, he also started playing basketball after the age of 16, but he grew rapidly and soon became one of the top players in the NCAA.

With the height for the center position and the offensive skills under the basket that are rare in this age group, he looks like one of the "four major centers" at first glance.

With the vision of the "Old Baylor", it is impossible for him to miss such a "genius"!
The “number one scholar” of 98 was born in this way.

He is also full of confidence that he will lead the Clippers to become the new upstart in Los Angeles.

Well, that's still quite modest. He didn't directly say to get rid of the Lakers and leave Los Angeles with only one NBA team.

After him, Mike Bibby was selected by the Grizzlies.

The "White Devil" is a typical "two-way guard". He can score by himself and also play the game. What's more, he has a pretty good ability in key shots.

There are many players in the NBA who could dominate the league if they were 5 centimeters taller. Meng Lang believes that Mike Bibby should be one of them.

After all, the original "Gorgeous King" completed his true transformation only after he had him.

This is a reflection of his ability. The third pick was LaFrentz, who did not have a brilliant career, but it was what most NBA players wished for.

If it weren't for the injury, he might have made it to the All-Stars.

but……

That’s the upper limit.

The fourth pick was Jamison. The only wrong choice of the three "musketeers" in their careers was to join the Cavaliers to win the championship. In the end, they didn't win the championship, and they didn't even have a career.

The sixth pick in the first round is one of Meng Lang’s ability cards, Jason Williams.

What many people don’t know is that when Jason was just starting out, he had an extremely arrogant personality.

Although he is a white man, his flamboyant playing style and rebellious character make him be regarded as the second Allen Iverson.

After the 98 Finals, Michael Jordan, who won his second three consecutive championships, chose to retire. White Chocolate said at the time: "Everyone has seen what Michael Jordan did. Next, I will bring you something that Michael couldn't do!"

This time, although Jordan did not retire, he was still talking: "I will do to the extreme what Dream has not done to the extreme!"

Meng Lang soon learned about what he said. A reporter who had a good relationship with him was interviewing "White Chocolate" tonight. After hearing what he said, he immediately sent him a message.

Meng Lang thought about it carefully. He hadn't done anything extreme...

First of all, excluding scoring, and then combining it with the title that Jason Williams left in the league later, Meng Lang was very sure that he must be talking about "fancy passing".

The seventh pick in the first round was Larry Hughes.

The "steals king" who made a name for himself on the Wizards, unfortunately suffered a serious injury after joining the Cavaliers and gradually became a marginal figure in the league.

With the ninth pick in the first round, the Mavericks selected the man who has been the representative of "one man, one city" for decades and fully interpreted the spirit of "veterans never die".

Even in his original form, he only won one championship in his entire career.

But in Meng Lang's opinion, that championship is one of the most valuable championships in NBA history.

After Dirk came the "11-knife man", who had the shit beaten out of him, went back to the locker room to change into long johns, and by the way, played with the "return of the king" Paul Pierce.

Speaking of the 96 generation, the quality is indeed high.

In other words, from 96 to 99, the quality of four consecutive drafts was very high, which is very rare in the history of the NBA.

It was also because so many high-quality players entered the league in succession that the NBA reached its peak in the 00s.

Countless fans regard the first 00 years of the 10s as the classic decade of the NBA.

Of course, in addition to high-quality players, there is also the perfect rule change, which gives players more room to play, thus giving birth to many classic series.

It may be that the change in ratings brought about by offense gave a certain bald man the illusion that as long as the offense was good, the NBA would be able to attract more and more people. As a result, the All-Star Game, which has always been the most anticipated event for fans, has become a waste of time.

After all, no one wants to watch superstars competing in three-point shooting.

It would be more interesting to let the cheerleaders come up and dance.

However, Meng Lang does not have to worry about these things at all. After this year, he will be 26 years old. If he plays until 2010, he will be 38 years old. He does not want to continue struggling on the court at such an old age.

At this stage in his career, Meng Lang has a very clear plan for his career: play for another 12 years, during which time he wants to achieve achievements that no one may be able to achieve in the next 12 years, and then announce his retirement when the new century arrives.

It just so happened that in the summer of 2011, if Meng Lang remembered correctly, the league also entered a lockout period.

That is also a hurdle that the alliance cannot avoid.

Because after that, inflation caused the US dollar to depreciate, and the same item required more US dollars.

But on paper, the league got a bigger broadcasting contract.

With such a large sum of money, of course we have to sit down and have a good talk.

When it comes to money, it's impossible not to work it out until the very last minute.

It’s a little different from this time.

This time the situation is even more serious. It can be said that the alliance is at a critical moment of life and death.

If NBA contracts become less standardized, the league may very likely perish amid constant scandals.

After the draft, July 7st arrived, and the contract between the league's labor and management officially ended on that day. At the same time, the league officially announced that the NBA had entered the "labor and management" negotiation stage. If the two sides could not reach an agreement, all games in November of the new season would be canceled.

According to official news from the NBA, they are ready to start the new season after Christmas.

Because they know very well that it is impossible for the players and the owners to reach an agreement so quickly.

As far as Meng Lang knew, this lockout almost led to the cancellation of the entire 98-99 season, which shows how big the differences between the two sides were.

Of course, this is normal. When a player like Kevin Garnett signed a contract that was enough to buy an entire team 10 years ago, how big a contract should the league's "superstars" get?

And after they get such a big contract, how much can the bosses who paid the money earn?

You can't be the "boss" and actually be an employee, right?

The boss will definitely be unhappy if the players take the lion's share of the money.

The players, seeing one billion-dollar contract after another, would never be willing to see their top-salary contracts restricted. They also want such contracts, so they are naturally unwilling to give in.

In short, this is not an easy matter to resolve. The players' union quickly found Meng Lang and hoped that he would become one of the representatives.

This also includes Michael Jordan, Ewing and Olajuwon.

Meng Lang looked at this lineup and shook his head slightly.

Because there are still some players missing from the list.

Those are the players who represent the bottom of the NBA.

They also need a representative.

Unfortunately, Meng Lang had such an idea, but it was useless for him to realize this problem alone. Because of Michael Jordan's dominance, he became the main body of this negotiation. Meng Lang listened to them slamming the table with the capital representative on the negotiation table, and listened to Ewing saying like a retard, "We earn a lot, but we also spend a lot." It was these two typical "why not eat meat" sentences that led to the outside fans thinking that these players were too greedy.

Even the exhibition match was booed by the audience.

Meng Lang knew that he couldn't convince these simple-minded "niggers", so he found Tyron and asked him to help publish a few reports: "First, publish the statistics of the bottom-level NBA players, and then interview them about their daily expenses, so that the outside world can have an intuitive feeling. As the bottom-level players in the league, they do earn a lot and spend a lot."

25 is the current minimum salary in the league, but this amount of money is considered a huge sum for ordinary white-collar workers. However, after spending the team's daily expenses and various other expenses, there is not much money left after spending 25.

"Then emphasize that NBA players rely on their youth to make a living. Also find an authoritative media to publish the average lifespan of an NBA career, and interview some retired players about their lives."

The war ended with the players' compromise.

The reason is the difference in demands between star players and those at the bottom of the league.

With the salaries of star players, they can endure a season without games, but this group of players on minimum salaries cannot, as they still have to earn money to support their families.

and so……

When casting an anonymous vote, the player loses.

Meng Lang had no intention of changing the outcome of this war, but he hoped that the outcome would change. The league would be reopened because the players had fought for what they wanted.

For example, the protection for grassroots players!

Rather than so that star players can get more money.

In this way, the image of these NBA players can also be reversed.

Do not……

What Meng Lang mainly wants to reverse is his own image.

After listening to his series of arrangements, Terran understood what he wanted to do.

After arranging these things, Meng Lang did not participate in the subsequent "labor-management negotiations". He knew very well that there would be several rounds of verbal battles before the formal sit-down talks began. He did not want to participate in such a "dog-eat-dog" meeting.

And I've already seen it once, so it doesn't feel new anymore.

Monica happened to be in Los Angeles during this time. They were like ordinary couples, going for a drive every day and hanging around Hollywood, and their days were very comfortable.

Since the game was bound to be suspended, Meng Lang had little time to relax and rest.

As for why not going out to travel.

At this time, Meng Lang knew very well that he should not be too high-profile.

After all, everyone is thinking about the future of the league, but you still go out to travel. You are a superstar so you are not worried. You are amazing, right?
Meng Lang didn't want to get into such an unexpected disaster.

You know, Tim Duncan and Grant Hill just played a joke about "losing their jobs" when filming an advertisement, which caused a lot of ridicule. It can be seen that in the current American environment.

There is a big difference between these basketball stars being unemployed and ordinary people being unemployed.

Therefore, what Meng Lang needs to do is to focus all the attention of this negotiation on the reliance of the grassroots players.

In this way, even if the players continue to fight for it, they will have a legitimate reason.

Especially these stars, they will not be labeled as "greedy" or "brainless".

In mid-July, Michael Jordan sat at the negotiation table and yelled at the owners: "How much more do you want to earn!"

This war of words has come to an end.

Interestingly, 12 years later, the league also encountered a lockout, and Michael Jordan also said this: "How much more do you want to make?"

Of course, those with a fan filter might say that most of the league's stars did earn more in 2011 than they did 12 years ago.

At that time, Garnett's 2 million was no longer an isolated case.

However, even 12 years later, Garnett's contract of more than 2 million is still the league's top salary contract, which shows how big the contract the Timberwolves gave him at that time was.

No wonder the league was shut down.

During this period, Kobe called and said he wanted to continue the "Breakfast Club" level training. He also believed that Meng Lang could not cut corners for him this time because he was almost 20 years old and not a child anymore!
Meng Lang officially started summer training at the end of July.

However, this time due to the lockout, he can extend the timeline, so his first phase of special training was not long, only half a month.

Kobe is different. He started with a "breakfast club" level of training.

It can be seen that his overall condition is maintained very well.

Even though the finals have been over for more than a month, he is still in outstanding form.

Obviously, on the days when he didn't call Meng Lang, he was also training hard.

I have to admit that this ability to endure roughness is also a kind of talent.

If any other domestic player trained like him, he would have ruined himself long ago.

No matter which statistical analysis is used, the 98-99 season can be regarded as Kobe's "transformation year". His field goal percentage reached 46.4%, and his average points per game also increased to 19.6 points. This is evidence of his transformation from an ordinary player to a first-tier perimeter player.

At the same time, after entering the playoffs, he still averaged 19.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, which also proved that he had completed his transformation this season.

And now, while watching Kobe training, Meng Lang vaguely saw the future "Four Great Shooting Guards".

Kobe's growth is actually not fast among many stars.

It took him four full seasons to become a top No. 2 in the NBA.

However, he took each step very firmly.

This was one of the reasons for his long career.

It was his early role as the team's "second or third man" that allowed his skill package to include both off-ball and on-ball methods. (End of this chapter)