The Rest, Only Noise: Chapter 1435 labor war
The latest website: Entering the new year, the Lakers also started contract renewal negotiations for Kobe, Nash and Big Ben.
Big Ben's contract renewal was the smoothest.
As the only second-round pick in the 96 San Shaoli, his status in the Lakers is completely inferior to the other two. Therefore, he is also the player who needs protection most.
With the help of Zhao Yuanzheng, Jim Bass offered him a three-year, $10 million contract extension, and he signed the contract overjoyed.
Unlike Big Ben, Nash very simply rejected the Lakers' four-year, $20 million contract extension.
When Buss Jr. raised the price to $24 million over four years, they were deterred by a request from Nash.
Nash hopes to add a starting clause to the contract extension.
Bass Jr. can even increase the price to 32 million in four years. He can lose money, but he can't give Nash any promises in terms of role positioning.
Moreover, Nash does not seem to have the ability to replace Bodi Loga.
Therefore, the contract renewal plan between the Lakers and Nash declared bankruptcy in mid-January of the new year.
The Lakers, who were unable to renew Nash, focused their work on Kobe.
Buss Jr. is determined to win Kobe's contract extension.
Because Kobe is not only the youngest asset in the team, but also the biggest work achievement since he assisted Louis.
Bryant's long-term stay in Los Angeles will help Bass enter the management team.
Therefore, although Kobe has not won anything now, nor does he have a convincing award, but the Lakers still gave him a Garnett-level contract extension.
Like Garnett, Bryant signed a non-guaranteed six-year, $100 million early extension.
The guarantee amount in the contract is only 80 million US dollars.
Only when Bryant completes all the terms of the contract can he get the full $100 million.
This money is not so important to Kobe, the team treats him the same way as Garnett, which is very important.
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Because at the moment, no one in the outside world regards Kobe as a future superstar like Garnett, it is risky to renew Kobe with such a contract.
However, the Lakers did not hesitate.
The Kobe camp also believes that playing for the Lakers is good for their own development. The two sides hit it off and the contract renewal negotiations went very smoothly.
During this period, the Lakers challenged the Cavaliers away to the gutter on the way.
108 to 112
The Cavaliers defended their home court with a 4-point advantage and won a hard-won victory.
Alonzo Mourning, the head of the team, said with pride: "Everyone is talking about how good the Lakers are. This is disrespectful to other teams that are equally good. Tonight, we proved ourselves and can compete with the Lakers. It’s not just the Knicks against the Eastern Conference team!”
This defeat is just telling the Lakers.
If they want to achieve the mythical record of 80 wins, they can no longer lose.
But this is almost impossible.
The dream team can lose to the college team, and the extremely luxurious Lakers cannot guarantee outstanding performances for several months in a row.
Laziness is one of the bad roots engraved on human beings. No matter how self-disciplined a person is, there is a time to relax his tense nerves.
Louie never took the 80-win gimmick seriously.
Because even if the real dream team is allowed to play in the NBA, it is impossible to win 80 wins in a single season.
The overall strength of the Lakers this year is stronger than last year, but last year they won 77 games. Can they win more games this year?
From Louie's point of view, this is equally difficult.
Their morale is far from last year's high, and the degree of internal harmony is not the same.
These internal undercurrents are enough to cause them to lose several unexpected games.
At the end of February, Louis rested Wilson and Duncan in rotation, with the intention of making it easy for the team to play.
The Lakers' opponent is the upstart in the Western Conference this year-the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets are a typical example of poor results.
Their motto is that if your grades aren't good enough, you haven't done enough.
The acquisition of Alan Houston from New York with the No. 3 pick the year before has directly led to their strong rise this season.
They have a luxurious back line with enough depth inside.
Mike Bibby and Stephon Marbury, a pair of extravagant one-position duo, broke out strongly against the Lakers.
They punished the inattentive Bodi Loga with speed.
In addition, Kobe took advantage of the absence of Wilson and Duncan and was extremely selfish in his personal offensive choices. The Lakers couldn't play a decent offensive rhythm all night, and they were defeated by the Rockets by double digits.
After the game, Louis looked at the statistics and said with emotion: "Are those who voted Kobe into the All-Stars blind?"
That being said, it is already a fact that Kobe was selected as an All-Star.
This year, the Lakers' starting five were all selected to the All-Star roster. Among them, Kobe was selected for the first time, and his controversy is also the biggest.
In terms of data, Kobe averaged only 18 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game. No matter how you look at it, it is not an All-Star data.
But in the West, Californians have never lost a vote, and Kobe's style of play is also very popular. It is normal for the team to be selected as an All-Star while the team is at its peak.
After all, Kobe in his previous life was selected as an All-Star in his second grade.
There are so many Lakers stars in this world, but it actually delayed his early days.
And off the court, something far more important than who the Lakers make the All-Star is happening.
In early February, the league announced that it would hold collective bargaining agreement negotiations during the All-Star weekend.
In reality, the negotiations were initiated by the bosses.
After voting, the owners of each team decided to renegotiate the existing collective bargaining agreement. After all, when the annual salary of 20 million US dollars becomes the identification of top players, it has become poison.
Players who like to compare will not be satisfied with this price, they will only ask for more, and this will actually make the employer pay more operating costs. Owners seek substantial cost containment measures to reshape the NBA's existing salary structure. Everything from the maximum salary cap to a hard salary cap is on the table.
The days of Benjamin Wilson are over.
He can no longer freely take the young players on the team to kick everyone's ass, and then be crowned the new dog under the unanimous caliber of the media.
As the coordinating chairman of the players union, he must participate in this war between multimillionaires and billionaires.
Before the war started, the backbone of the trade union representing the interests of the multimillionaire class, led by Ewing, made the decision of "not giving up a penny".
At that time, Wilson had a sentence that he didn't know whether to say or not.
If it is true that there is no concession for a penny, then the suspension of the alliance will be inevitable.
At that time, can those middle-class and basic salaries whose interests have been damaged still support the players union?
Just imagine, whose interests are the trade unions fighting for now? They want to keep the status quo, so that top players can continue to make bids as they please, a benefit that has nothing to do with the overwhelmingly large middle and low-salary classes.
It doesn't matter if a player like Ewing gets $20 million or $30 million a year.
With the boss determined to cut expenses, how can this war be won without the support of middle-class and low-salary players?
Wilson did not speak his mind, because he himself is a top player with relevant interests.
Ewing and the others are so jealous, aren't they also fighting for him?
It's just that Wilson's idea is very simple. He doesn't care whether there is a numerical limit on the maximum salary, he just wants to play. If it wasn't for his high reputation, he wouldn't want to be an important member of the trade union at all, but now that the situation forced him, he couldn't help himself.
The legendary agent David Falk, who played a disgraceful role in this labor war, expressed the star's attitude in one sentence: "In my opinion, people like Benjamin Wilson, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing Players deserve even if they take away $100 million a year, without them, the league would not be what it is today, and they deserve the biggest piece of the pie."
For unknown reasons, as the chairman of the labor union, Ewing advocated showing toughness to the outside world. He stated in various public occasions that he was not afraid of the alliance, let alone Stern.
He would beat Stern if necessary.
He really said so.
This labor dispute related only to money did not reach a result until the end of the All-Star weekend.
All the public knows is that negotiations are close to breaking down.
They will conduct a second negotiation in mid-March. If there is no result, there will be a final negotiation at the end of the season~www.mtlnovel.com~ If nothing can be negotiated by then, a lockout will be inevitable.
For participants in professional basketball, the most confusing thing is that fans not only don't care about negotiations, but also cover everyone on both sides of labor and management. Because in the final analysis, this is a battle between rich people with an annual salary of millions, tens of millions, and billions. They just want to watch the football, and they don't want to watch them quarrel.
Instead of paying attention to who among these vampires is better at sucking blood, it is better to pay more attention to the impeachment of Xia Lianzong.
The results were astounding.
The Senate acquitted Lianzong in mid-February, because asking the intern secretary to help him open the zipper and care for the sword is not such an act, right?
Is this reasonable?
It makes sense.
With such a thing, who still pays attention to the NBA?
Even Louis didn't pay attention, and focused on the high-intensity surfing of major news stations 24 hours during the All-Star Weekend.