Chapter 533 A losing war
The competition has moved from the NBA draft to the labor-management dispute.
Small-market owners, represented by Michael Jordan, claimed that they lost $300 million in the just-concluded season of so-called unprecedented success in professional basketball.
The source of the loss needs to be traced back to the CBA agreement reached by labor and management in 2005.
That year, the league made concessions on so-called "basketball revenue" dividends in order to reduce the salary years of top-paid players from seven to five years and prohibit high school players from participating in the draft.
Since that year, players have taken 57% of basketball revenue every season.
The bosses of these small markets claim that the unfair distribution of income has caused them to lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year since then.
In the face of the financial reports handed over by the management, the players union admitted that some teams were losing money, but questioned whether the losses were as big as the owners said, and expressed doubts about the league's desire to establish a hard salary cap, cut wages and shorten the maximum length of contracts. Opposed to the practice.
With the first talks breaking down in July, a shutdown was imminent.
As professional basketball faces its first lockout since the summer of 1998 that could affect next season's regular season, players are beginning to prepare for a similar scenario, with many saying they would consider playing overseas to earn paychecks.
"From our perspective, we're looking at one of the most profitable leagues in sports and they're going to become even more profitable through player concessions," Stern said. "The average salary in the NFL is $2 million. And ours The average salary is $5 million, and the bosses are not making a profit.”
The core issue remains the distribution of basketball revenue. Under the old deal, players were guaranteed 57% of their earnings, and the league said it couldn't address the loss without significant adjustments to that number.
Union president Derek Fisher is not a money-hungry die-hard like his predecessor, Patrick Ewing.
As a role player in professional basketball, Fisher knows that lockouts like the one in the summer of 1998 can be a major blow to lower-level players.
Therefore, he discussed within the players union to reduce the 57% basketball revenue share to 54.5% to reach a new CBA agreement.
The proposal has sharply divided the player camp.
Yu Fei is the number one opposition.
"If we don't play, the NBA will no longer be the NBA." Yu Fei said at the meeting, "We brought the best basketball game in the world to the audience and the league signed the largest television contract in history last year. We deserve 57% of the revenue from the broadcast contract!”
"Listen, our basketball revenue does not include home ticket money, no local TV broadcast contracts, and no other large or small commercial income." Yu Fei is very clear about the contradiction of the whole matter, "This is a big football market The problem caused by the income imbalance in small ball markets is not our problem. If we choose to give in on this matter, everyone, we will be paying for an incompetent owner like Michael Jordan!”
As the leader of the players and the leader of the Mesozoic Era, Yu Fei's voice was loud and clear at the meeting.
On the contrary, successful people like LeBron James who have been committed to becoming "more than just a basketball player" from the beginning were absent at the time.
He only expressed his support for the players union through emails and text messages, but did not participate in any specific matters.
Kobe, who opposed the lockout, raised a small doubt about Fei: "Fry, I don't know how much of what you did was for the collective benefit of the players, and how much of it was because of your personal grudges with Michael."
"Personal grudge?" Yu Fei smiled angrily, "Do you know how much money we will lose if we agree to share 54.5% in the next labor agreement?"
Kobe was silent.
"That's $150 million."
Kobe didn't reply.
For him, this is a lot of money, but it is by no means a shocking figure.
"Divide this amount by 325 (the number of active players in the league), it is 460,000 US dollars." Yu Fei said loudly, "I mean, everyone here, everyone who plays in this league must pay for Michael. A stupid boss like Jordan paid $460,000 to help him get out of trouble. I want to ask, how many of you are willing to pay this money? My attitude is that the bastard doesn't even want a cent from me. Take it away!”
Fisher has a different view, but he will not refute Yu Fei's view at this meeting.
Because Yu Fei was right, but he was also right.
The two have different origins and different statuses.
Although Fisher is the chairman, the leader of the union, and the nominal negotiating leader, in terms of status, he is indeed inferior to Yu Fei.
Precisely because his position is different, his perspective is also different.
Yu Fei's point of view is simple. He saved the Seattle SuperSonics from the fate of relocation and achieved a rare sports economic prosperity in the professional basketball world.
Annual profits exceeding 100 million are staggering for any sports club.
But he, the man who created this economic boom, never tried to take money out of Clay Bennett's pocket.
Now, these people want to cut players' income to subsidize loss-making teams?
What is the logic of this?
Your losses are not caused by the players. As a collective, shouldn't those big-market teams use part of their profits to feed back those small-market teams?
Yu Fei looked at the whole thing purely from a superior position.
He has reasons, determination, and ability to defend the interests of the players. As the GOAT, this is his responsibility.
But Fisher was the underdog.
From the first day he entered the league, he was at the bottom.
If he had to use one word to describe his career, it would be "compromise."
Everywhere he went, the bigger picture bothered him.
In the summer of 2003, Gary Payton joined the Lakers to form the amazing F4 Galaxy. Fisher, as a meritorious member of the team, took the initiative to give up his starting position without saying a word. You know, the following season was his contract year. He should have argued hard and said, "I sacrificed my life and blood for the OK Dynasty, and you are going to do this to me?" to fight fiercely. After all, he was fighting in a contract year. Being a substitute means saying goodbye to Fei Yue.
But Fisher knew that the Lakers needed Payton, and Payton had to start, so he chose to come off the bench. Such actions won him the respect and love of many teammates and laid the foundation for his election as union president.
A low-level player who knows how to compromise and give in knows best the suffering of the low-level players.
He knows that once the lockout affects next season, the livelihood of hundreds of players will be in question.
Even though those who play in the NBA are all millionaires, not many of them have financial management concepts. The monthly bills are astronomical for ordinary people. To maintain this expense, you must maintain income. Stablize.
If the new season is really affected, or even next season is completely canceled, it means that all players will face the dilemma of no salary for a whole year.
Yu Fei can give up his annual salary of 20 million US dollars in the next year, but the 2 million annual salary of the bottom players is related to the operation of the entire family behind them.
After the meeting ended that day, Fisher asked the players union to consider reducing basketball revenue dividends to 54.5%.
Stern called the proposal "modest."
However, both Stern and Fisher have hardliners behind them.
The hard-liners of the employer, represented by Jordan, demand a hard salary cap, a reduction in players' basketball income dividends to 47%, and all player contracts must be re-signed under the new salary cap.
Such harsh conditions allowed the player camp with different opinions to unite again.
Fisher could only hold on.
The second round of negotiations between the two sides had a heated discussion around the salary cap, and then they discovered that no matter how the salary cap was set, they would eventually come back to the issue of money.
The bottom line of the players union is that it is getting better year by year, that is to say, the most basic condition is that the players will earn more in the new season than in the previous season.
This makes the "management guarantee that players will receive a salary of US$2 billion next year" proposed by some bosses who think they are fair look clownish.
Because the players' total salary last season exceeded US$2.1 billion, getting US$2 billion in the new season is still a salary cut for them.
With the summer league canceled and the free market that was supposed to open falling into dead silence, the league ushered in the last negotiation before the shutdown at the end of July.
This time, the players' union voted internally to reduce revenue and reduce dividends from 57% to 54.3%.
This is the biggest concession the players can accept.
Yu Fei's objections did not work, and he immediately announced his withdrawal from the day's negotiations.
As a result, the players' union, which thought it was sincere, proposed that the players' salaries would be reduced by US$500 million over the next ten years (i.e., from 57% to 54.3%), while the boss's demand was that the players' salaries would be reduced by US$2 billion over the next ten years.
Three hours later, the negotiations broke down.
The employer immediately announced that it would jump out of the existing CBA agreement, and the NBA officially announced its suspension at the end of July 2010.
People close to Yu Fei revealed: "Frye is very happy that he did not sit there like a coward and beg the bosses to accept his concessions and let the season continue."
This incident is a major blow to the prestige of the top players' union.
Their self-righteous concessions are far from enough in the eyes of the employer.
On the contrary, Yu Fei's simple and crude way of pointing at the opponent's pain points and angrily speaking was more suitable for today's situation.
Since a shutdown is bound to happen, why do you have to stand up and curse after kneeling to no avail?
That night, many people sent text messages to Yu Fei, asking him to return to the union to continue presiding over labor negotiations.
But Yu Fei refused. He didn't want to be associated with those cowards who only cared about the present and ignored the future. Today's events provided Yu Fei with a broader perspective.
When he looked back at labor disputes in history, he found that since 1983, every time there was a disagreement between labor and management, it was the management that ultimately benefited.
Interestingly, before 1983, the players union won every labor war.
Even players like Oscar Robertson have the energy to prevent the merger of the ABA and NBA after retirement.
But after 1983, labor was losing ground in front of capital.
And this history of failure can be summed up in one sentence.
If Larry Fleisher⑴ has a spirit in heaven, he will definitely say this to the NBA players after 1983: "Trash, did I make you too full?"
Yu Fei figured it out.
Before the 1980s, the NBA was in danger. Black people in the NBA suffered similar discrimination as they did in all walks of life. Then, the emergence of cable television and the Magic Birds' historic meeting in the Finals put professional basketball on the fast track toward commercialization.
The golden dollar basketball brought by commercialization has greatly improved the lives and social status of players.
Since then, the NBA has become an empire for black people. Anyone who can survive here can be regarded as an upper class person. In fact, black people can even discriminate against other races in this league. The leap in income, the change in mentality, and the leap in class are like being in another world.
One of the most direct effects of these prosperous and beautiful things is to infinitely weaken the fighting spirit of players in labor disputes.
The older generation of players do not have high incomes, but they are also discriminated against. The so-called barefoot people are not afraid of wearing shoes. If you don't make it easier for me, then don't let it go. Those people really dare to make it impossible for the NBA to continue. . Now, whenever there is a lockout, the player camp will be divided into three factions. One group is lying flat, they don't care about winning or losing, they just want to maintain their current life. The other group is the moderate, who consider everyone's feelings and hope to get a good ending for everyone, and the other group are the hard-liners who are carefree.
To put it simply, hardliners are people like Yu Fei who don't care about not playing for a year or receiving a salary, just to fight for a breath.
This made Yu Fei start to reflect.
If he is a low-level player, does he really have the courage to fight the boss to the end?
Who doesn't want to play ball peacefully, earn millions of dollars every year, and provide a good life for the whole family?
Who is willing to give up this fairy-like life? If only losing a little money can change the situation back to the original state, Yu Fei believes that more than half of the players will give in to the management.
This is why labor is bound to lose.
They are no longer the group of lunatics who are willing to be killed.
Now they are angered by the boss and want to start a war again. But as time goes by, the new season will be really affected. Those who have no money to support their families will immediately kneel down to the boss and start to cause trouble within the player camp.
By then, hardliners like Yu Fei will become clowns who are inhuman inside and out.
Today's events made Yu Fei foresee such a future.
Rather than fighting to the end with the management for this group of people who may turn against them at any time, it is better to step back and step aside after expressing their attitude.
You asked him if he supports the players union? Of course he supports it.
He is willing to give up next season in order to get a better CBA agreement, but how many players are willing to do this?
He has already set his attitude to this extent, what else can he do?
Yu Fei is no longer as actively involved in labor agreement negotiations as he was at the beginning.
He occasionally showed up at negotiations, but always sat on the sidelines as a mascot.
Yu Fei's choice to "hang up" is beneficial to the employer.
If a person with such great appeal and influence really wanted to fight with them, the power of public opinion he would use alone would be a force that cannot be underestimated.
But now, Yu Fei doesn't want to play anymore.
He doesn't want to be a flag-raising person when he is needed, and ignore his advice and do his own thing when he is not needed.
The war had just begun, and Yu Fei officially started his vacation after deciding to fade out.
He first represented Marvel at the premiere of "Iron Man 2" in Los Angeles.
His role in Steel 2 was also revealed.
In fact, Yu Fei became the reason why film critics gave Steel 2 a negative review after watching its premiere.
It's not that Yu Fei didn't perform well, but that Marvel was suspected of false propaganda.
When Yu Fei joined Marvel, there was a lot of publicity, but he only dedicated his "voice" in Steel 2. He replaced Paul Bettany as the voice of Jarvis.
Yu Fei accepted this seemingly boring role because he knew that Jarvis would evolve into Vision later, but how could the film critics in 2010 know how big a game Marvel was preparing. ,
Many people are dissatisfied with Yu Fei. They believe that Marvel has wasted Yu Fei's huge traffic.
Yu Fei declined to comment on this, and Marvel is also trying its best to downplay the impact of this incident.
However, the negative reviews at the premiere did not prevent Steel 2 from becoming a blockbuster movie. In the end, it sold a box office of US$400 million in the United States and more than US$400 million in overseas markets. The final global box office total was close to US$900 million.
In mid-August, Yu Fei put down the work at hand and went to New York again to participate in labor agreement negotiations.
This negotiation was more formal than previous negotiations.
Not only the star players in the league gathered here, but also the five most influential agents - Arne Traim (Yu Fei's agent), Bill Duffy, Mark Bartelstein, Jeff Shi Watts and Dan Fagan were all there.
Stern thanked everyone for attending before the meeting, and then did not forget to threaten the players union. If an agreement is not reached today, next month's pre-season training camp and pre-season games will be cancelled.
"I think it is better to announce the cancellation of next season now, and then we will have time to talk slowly."
Yu Fei chatted.
No one took it seriously. The upper echelons of the United States were well versed in banana-cutting tactics. It is necessary to suspend the game, but not to cancel a season and talk slowly. Just like Stern said, if we can't reach an agreement, we will cancel the training camp and preseason games. If we can't reach an agreement later, we will have to cut the sausage to the regular season.
In 82 regular season games, there is plenty of time for him to cut.
Yu Fei hasn't participated in negotiations for about half a month. He found that although he was absent for half a month, he could still keep up with everyone's rhythm.
The owners are still asking for a hard salary cap, while the players' union is demanding that the status quo be maintained. Only if the status quo remains unchanged will the players be willing to take a salary cut.
For now, the boss holds the initiative.
They can afford it more than the players.
Because the NBA is just an asset in their name, they have other businesses, and 90% of players have no stable income other than salary.
Therefore, players are more likely to feel anxious due to a long layoff.
The agents realized this and wanted to take a tough move. They suggested that the players dissolve the players union and then file a lawsuit against the NBA in federal court.
The specific operation is to have 30% of the players sign a petition supporting the dissolution of the union to promote the dissolution. And that's exactly the proportion of NBA players represented by the five agents here today.
Once the union disbands, the law will treat NBA players as individuals rather than union members, and different laws will apply. In this case, they can file an antitrust lawsuit against the owner and apply for an injunction to force the owner to return the players to work.
However, there is no winnable lawsuit, and dissolving the union and going to court means that there is no possibility of reconciliation between the two parties, and both parties will face risks. Therefore, this suggestion has great differences among the players.
Yu Fei once again spent the most boring three hours in his life.
The two sides did not reach any consensus.
After the meeting, Fisher said: "I think from the results of today's meeting, obviously because of the schedule, we cannot feel that training camp and the season will start on time."
David Stern echoed this sentiment.
"Well, we didn't have a great performance today, I think it's fair to say that," Stern said. "On the other hand, we did say that it was our collective task to decide what each of our sides wanted and what each side needed if we chose to work in a way that would allow us to start the season on time. That's still us ”
But Yu Fei had only one idea. He didn't want to get involved in this mess that was destined to be spinning in circles for a long time.
He has to do something of his own.
At this time, Yao Huang, who had returned to China to participate in the national team training to prepare for the Men's Basketball World Championships, sent a text message to Yu Fei.
"Cuna, you have nothing to do anyway. Do you want to form a team to play a warm-up match with us?"
After Yu Fei inquired, he learned that the men's basketball team's pre-arranged opponent had let them go. There were still two weeks before the start of the World Championships, and they had no warm-up matches to play.
Yu Fei, who was looking for something to get out of the labor negotiations, readily agreed.
⑴Larry Fleischer served as a consultant to the players union for a long time from the 1960s to the late 1980s, and dominated almost all major professional basketball events in these decades.
(End of chapter)