Chapter 537 I will always like it
If we say that the real contradiction between the capital and the capital is the uneven development of the large market and the small market, the large market is getting richer and richer, and there is more and more capital to make the salary go beyond the luxury tax framework, so as to achieve market profits and the championship, leading to The long-term imbalance in the NBA, so what are the conflicts among the player camps?
The answer is clear.
That is the unequal status of star players and basic-salary players.
This is a secret that cannot be told, because since the establishment of the players union, its mission has been to plead for the people.
Because when the players union was first established, that is, in the era of Bob Cousy, the NBA could only be regarded as a mediocre professional league. Professional players could not support their families with the income from playing games alone, so many star players were on vacation. There are other part-time jobs during the season.
Because of poor benefits, they need a union, because management controls everything, and they need a union. When it was first established, the union was a platform for players to complain. After joining, it gradually became a platform for workers and capitalists to fight.
So there was the uprising before the All-Star break, there was the antitrust lawsuit that blocked the merger of the NBA and ABA, and there was completely free agency. Today, players no longer have to stay away from playing for a year in their prime to get free agency.
The struggle that really changed the nature of the players' union was the series of battles between labor and management over the salary cap in 1983.
In the end, the employer won and the salary cap was introduced, but some players also won - agents who were good at maneuvering reserved a BUG when the salary cap was introduced.
That is, there is no upper limit on the maximum salary.
This bug that made the management miserable led to Jordan signing a one-year $30 million contract with the Bulls in the summer of 1996, and led to Garnett's infamous long-term maximum salary contract with the Timberwolves, which directly led to the summer of 1998. of suspension.
Since then, the nature of the players' union's struggle has changed.
Ostensibly, they are fighting for the benefit of all players.
In fact, it is a battle of interests between star players and the owners, because no matter what, the money paid to the bottom players is only a few dollars and will never be seriously considered.
Therefore, when Derek Fisher wanted to take the overall situation into consideration and reached an agreement with the league with a 47% dividend, he was supported by the bottom players, and then was regarded as a scum by the middle and upper players.
Agents representing star players were outraged.
This is not a fair world.
The interests of lower-level players are not the union’s primary interest.
Yu Fei's agent, Arn Tellem, is firmly opposed to Fisher's behavior of sacrificing the interests of stars to compensate for the poor management of small-market teams.
"Listen, we are not slaves!" Tellem told the Associated Press reporter. "If the final agreement is 50:50, I have no problem with it. From a numerical point of view, it is fair. But if the agreement The distribution ratio is 47:53. I’m sure someone made an unplanned concession to the alliance! We will never accept such a concession!”
Treme's stance was supported by several other agents who handle numerous star players.
Among them, former NBA chief agent David Falk made the most intense and thorough statement.
"In my opinion, it's natural for a player like Frye to get $100 million a year." Falk said, "Frye is the reason why this league has prospered and developed in the past few years, and no matter how much money he gets, it's not too much. . But now someone wants to reach a new CBA agreement through humiliating compromise? Whoever made this decision, I feel ashamed of him!”
As a result, rumors began to emerge that Fisher had been bribed by management and had made a private agreement with Stern to sell out the collective interests of the player camp for personal gain.
The trigger came from the Internet.
A Fox Sports columnist named Jason Whitlock published an article called "Is Derek Fisher Being Pawned by Stern?" "Article.
Whitlock made it clear that the uncertainty between labor and management lies in the distribution of basketball revenue.
The player camp wants a fair 50:50, but the management is determined to let the players reduce their dividend income to 47% when the big market bosses decide to fully support the small market bosses.
Whitlock wrote: "The fact is that NBA Players Association President Derek Fisher was bribed by commissioner David Stern with the promise that he could secure the union's support on a 47-53 split. This belief led to Players Association executive director Billy Hunter and at least one member of the union's executive committee confronted Fisher at last night's meeting and asked him to reassess his plans."
Whitlock then began comparing Fisher to his predecessor, Michael Curry.
Curry is an 11-year NBA player who has earned approximately $15 million during his career. He served as the union's players president from July 2001 to the end of June 2005. At age 36, he played 18 games for the Indiana Pacers in 2004-05, his final season. The NBA and the union reached in principle the CBA agreement on June 21, 2005 that was torn up by the owners this summer.
Disturbingly, a week after the collective bargaining agreement was reached, Curry announced his retirement and resigned from the players' union. A few months later, David Stern announced that his tough opponent in collective bargaining agreement negotiations would become the NBA Development League's vice president of player development.
A year later, Curry was promoted to NBA vice president, responsible for basketball operations.
Another year later, Curry joined Detroit and received a three-year contract worth $7.5 million. He was soon bought out and received the entire guaranteed amount of $7.5 million.
Americans who like conspiracy theories naturally believe that Curry must have made major concessions to the league during his tenure as chairman of the players union, otherwise Stern would not be able to reuse him, and the Pistons would have no reason to give him $7.5 million like a bribe.
The article immediately caused waves within the player camp.
It shows one thing, Derek Fisher, the top leader of the players union, and Billy Hunter, the second leader of the players union, are not on the same page.
For some reason, Fisher tends to compromise with the management, while Hunter's position is that the player camp needs at least 52% of the dividend before negotiations can continue.
Therefore, when the news comes out that Fisher has been bribed by the union, whether true or false, his credibility as the union president will be severely damaged.
Fisher quickly issued an open letter to the players.
He wrote in the letter: "Normally, I would not respond to ridiculous media reports with comments. But before these reports spread further, I want to publicly state to each of you that my loyalty has always been and will always be with the players." Together.”
However, some of the words he used in the letter made superstars including Yu Fei feel that there was indeed a problem within the players union.
"Anyone who questions or doubts that doesn't know me, my history and what I stand for. Frankly, anyone who questions that is disrespectful. The players union is united and any reports to the contrary are false There are no private agreements, private negotiations or anything like that. We are here to serve you and provide you with the best options to get everyone back to work."
Finally, it indicted FOX Sports for its coverage: "The comments made in recent articles on the Fox Sports website are inexcusable," Fisher said. "Among many unfounded accusations, it alleges that I acted for personal gain." It is simply wrong to work with the league to suggest that anything I do is not in the best interest of the players is disgusting, defamatory and a complete lie.”
Which is basically saying: Billy Hunter doesn’t know me. How dare he question my loyalty to the union?
For Fei, what he cares most about is whether the relationship between Fisher and Hunter has cracked as rumored, or even, as outside articles said, the two have drifted apart?
In this letter, Yu Fei could not find Billy Hunter's name.
Wade told Yu Fei that Hunter did question Fisher's position at the meeting.
Fisher's letter convinced Yu Fei that there were things going on within the players' union that he didn't know about.
In a few days, labor and management will negotiate again. If no agreement is reached this time, the remaining games in 2010 will be cancelled.
And when such a scandal breaks out within the union, it is impossible for them to have a unified consensus.
On the day of the negotiation, Hunter claimed in an interview with Sports Business Daily: "Derrick and I have a very good relationship and there was no confrontation."
But when asked whether Fisher had reached some kind of under-the-table agreement with Stern and Silver privately, Hunter's answer made people wonder: "What if he did it without my knowledge?" A consensus was reached, how would I know?”
No matter what, the split in the player camp is inevitable.
From the moment Fisher sent that letter, he fell into a self-evident trap.
And when Hunter questioned Fisher's stance in an internal meeting, seeds of doubt were sown among the players.
Fisher is no longer credible.
The players union is no longer credible.
The boss who facilitated all of this and forced the players to accept 47% dividends is even more untrustworthy.
Yu Fei recalled the phone call that Arne Trim had made to him before, and suddenly thought that maybe this "Fisher was bribed by Stern" was a joint effort by vampires in the sports world with superstars in their hands.
They don't need to solidify Fisher's identity as a traitor, they just need to make everything chaotic.
That's when Stern threatened the players union in negotiations to cancel the entire season if they couldn't reach an agreement before New Year's.
Billy Hunter said: "Fuck you!"
And just like that, the last negotiations before 2011 fell apart.
As a result, all competitions in December were cancelled.
This shutdown is evolving into an ending with no winners.
On December 30, 2010, Billy Hunter proposed to dissolve the players union and then formally sued the league in the name of an industry association.
Fisher objected, which was an irreversible move.
However, Fisher, who could no longer gain the trust of the players, had lost his function as union chairman under the influence of other backbones of the players union. Fisher threatened to resign.
Then, the players agreed to his resignation.
But they took a more aggressive approach to unseat Fisher.
In order to demonstrate the "democracy" of the union, Hunter proposed holding a general vote to decide Fisher's stay. If there is a majority supporting Fisher's stay, the union will still be led by Fisher. If not, Chairman Fish will be sent away.
Under the influence of the "liaison" scandal, few people were willing to support Fisher.
As a result, Fisher was voted out in an overwhelming vote, officially ending his five-year term as union president.
Then Chris Paul stepped in as interim players union president.
Fisher's downfall means one thing: Labor and management have lost the possibility of reaching an agreement in the short term.
At this time, the league has canceled the regular season in November and December. Once the impact of the shutdown spreads to the New Year, even if it compromises with labor and allows the league to resume play through a temporary CBA agreement, it will be a heavy loss for the owners.
In this case, both sides will lead to an ending where no one survives.
What's more, the radicals headed by Billy Hunter and Chris Paul, who is determined to implement a hard line, have decided to dissolve the players union and formally embark on legal proceedings.
Yu Fei received the news that the players union was disbanded on the night of his 28th birthday.
He knows how the next process will go, and he also knows that there will be no 2010-11 season.
This birthday present was definitely a bad one for him.
This is equivalent to losing a peak season out of thin air without illness or disaster.
But it was definitely not Yu Fei who suffered the greatest loss.
Because as a player, he achieved the ultimate achievement of an NBA player last season - the carry GOAT.
For the rest of his career, all he has to do is continue to consolidate this position.
And for those bent on revenge against him, a precious year was lost.
Such as the Lakers.
Kobe is already 32 years old. If the 2010-11 season is cancelled, he will be 33 when he returns to the court. James is still young, but where are their helpers?
What about Richard Hamilton and Antoine Jamieson, to be exact?
These two are both at the end of their prime, and they may have degenerated into what they will be by then.
But the Sonics have no such worries.
Yu Fei also lost a season's data accumulation. Anyway, he has become the highest mountain and has no interest in becoming the longest river. What the Lakers lost was a valuable championship window.
Of course, the SuperSonics also lost an opportunity to win four consecutive championships, but as long as the personnel are in place, they still have a great chance to complete their four consecutive championships even in the 2011-12 season.
After all, youth is capital.
After Yu Fei calculated the gains and losses, he decided not to think about it anymore.
It just so happened that he could use this long vacation to do some things that he didn't have time to do before, such as finishing the long-prepared movie in one go, or going to China to host the first Yu Fei Scholarship training camp in person.
After entering 2011, the battle between labor and management became increasingly fierce.
With the players disbanding their union and taking the league to court, David Stern announced on January 20 that the entire 2010-11 season was officially canceled.
Following MLB and NHL, the NBA became the third North American major league to cancel a full season due to acute labor disputes.
This allows local audiences in the United States to pay more attention to the NFL.
From the fans' point of view, they are equally disgusted by the struggle for power between labor and management.
What does the divide between millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires mean to them? They just want to watch the game and follow their team.
Every shutdown is a serious blow to the league and will result in the loss of a large number of viewers.
This usually takes four or five years to recover from.
From this point of view, the renaissance brought to the NBA by the myth of Yu Fei and Seattle is over.
In fact, Yu Fei is still thinking about what role he played in this shutdown.
Initially, he was a hardliner in the players' camp, but later realized that the players were not willing to fight, so he withdrew. However, things have still reached this point.
He can be sure that the lockout that occurred during this period in his previous life did not affect the entire season.
In this world, a series of events such as his team's monopoly on the championship, the revival and rise of the Sonics, James' decision, and teaming up with Kobe seemed to have produced a butterfly effect that he had not expected at all.
This is the shadow of the great era, and the torrent it generates washes away everyone.
When the labor and management sides argued in court, the owners suffered heavy losses, and the players also paid the price of not playing for a year, the two sides decided to renegotiate in April 2011.
After the negotiation, David Stern said with satisfaction: "The negotiation was fruitful. We reached a consensus on shortening the maximum contract period. This is the first step to start from scratch."
The president's smile was so bright, as if he had become a winner again.
He may have forgotten at that moment that the league's second golden run under him had been blocked by this lockout.
So he can be so happy about a small progress in negotiations.
"We have reached a consensus on shortening the maximum contract period." In layman's terms, the players agreed to shorten the maximum contract period from five years to four years.
This is what the NBA has accomplished after 274 days of shutdown.
Yu Fei once believed that the lockout was a rare rest for him, just like Jordan's baseball vacation.
Jordan took a season and a half off that year, and he could have taken a full season off without engaging in other sports.
Years of competition, countless training sessions, seven or eight months of flying
The long season is a severe test for the body and mind.
After becoming the GOAT, Yu Fei really needs a rest.
He thought he could devote himself to other things, and he did.
Anything he could think of, he did.
However, he found that he could not find sustained pleasure in other things.
Even women cannot provide him with passion for long.
Even if this woman is the heroine in his new movie, the 21-year-old Elizabeth Olsen.
Olsen is a special woman. She comes from a famous family and is a child star, but her stardom is not as smooth as Scarlett, who was also a child star. Now she is studying and filming at the same time, and she will fight for every opportunity to enter the big screen. As a time traveler with foresight, Yu Fei certainly would not miss Olsen in her "rookie period". He fell in love with her at first sight among many people.
They were dating while filming, and to Yu Fei's surprise, this woman who dared to show off her sexiness in the movie was quite conservative in reality. For her, nudity in the movie was a work requirement, but in reality, she dreamed Have a romantic and delicate love affair with Prince Charming.
When Yu Fei finally kissed Fangze after several months of filming, he finally touched Olsen's charming Baixue.
However, what he was thinking about afterwards was:
I still enjoy playing games.
I always like it.
(End of chapter)