The end of the 2004-05 season does not mean that the 2005-06 season will proceed smoothly. The first thing that is in front of everyone is the negotiation to decide who is the boss between the players and the boss - the labor negotiation for short.
The NBA has faced shutdown crises many times due to labor negotiations. The most serious one occurred in 1998. Due to unsuccessful negotiations between labor and management, the start of the 1998-99 season had to be postponed. This ultimately led to the 1998-99 regular season being significantly reduced, from 82 games to 82 games.
Reduced to 50 games.
After seven years, labor negotiations began again in 2005.
In fact, while the finals are being played here, negotiations over there have already begun.
Although the players union threatened the management with a strike this time, fortunately, the two sides quickly reached a consensus through negotiations and signed a new labor agreement at the end of June, only five days after the Spurs won the championship.
What's interesting is that the person who was mainly responsible for negotiations at the time was Curry, the chairman of the players union.
Curry earned a total of $15 million in his 11-year career. He was 36 years old in the 2004-05 season. He only played 18 games for the Pacers that season, which was also the last season of Curry's career.
Just one week after the negotiations were reached, Curry quickly resigned as president of the players union and announced his retirement. On September 8 of the same year, Stern announced the hiring of Curry as NBA vice president, responsible for NBA player development matters.
Many people think that Curry reached a private "secret agreement" with Stern in order to ensure that he would still have a high source of income after retirement, regardless of the interests of the players.
But in fact it's not that dirty. After the lockout in 1998, both the players and the owners knew how much damage they would suffer if there was a lockout. So both sides are restraining themselves and taking a step back to try to ensure that nothing happens.
Therefore, the tone was set from the beginning. Most of the work of both parties was to make up for the loopholes in the previous negotiation. Neither the management nor the labor side had any constructive new proposals. Therefore, this negotiation was conducted twice with a lot of noise and a small amount of rain.
The cutscene is complete. Even those rumors were deliberately released by Stern and the Players Association to increase attention.
But it's different in 2011. There are not many players in the league who have experienced the 1998 lockout. The current core players are basically those who entered the league after 2000. These newcomers have no intuitive understanding of the lockout, just an empty understanding.
Vocabulary. Maybe he knew that he would stop paying wages, but they didn't know what the specific state would be at that time. Most of the players who experienced the lockout that year were already old, and many of them no longer had a say in the league. The only result was that
The first one to come out was Garnett. What a fiery temper this guy has. He is a boss who is not afraid of getting into trouble but is afraid of losing face, and he is not short of money. In the end, he was supposed to come out to appease the players, but instead he turned against the boss.
Pioneer, this is really speechless.
The situation on the boss side is similar. Many small teams have changed owners, and they also don't understand the horror of the lockout. So when we look at 2011, the owners who had the most objections from the management were the owners of the small teams, such as the Bobcats' Jordan.
Teams in metropolitan areas such as New York, Lakers, Chicago, etc. are not so aggressive and appear peaceful. This is because the owners of these teams know how disastrous the shutdown will be and how much money they will lose.
The players didn't know the seriousness of the lockout, and the bosses didn't know the losses. As a result, these guys got together. No one gave way to anyone, they all froze, and then the lockout happened.
.
Edison is very concerned about the outcome of the labor negotiations. Because the outcome of the negotiations is directly related to the team's salary ceiling, it also determines the composition of his team. Therefore, he also specially proposed a proposal to Pat Lao, who is the representative of Magic management.
Let him put forward the suggestion in the negotiations and see if it can be passed...
As a result, when Old Pat brought up Edison's proposal at the bosses' gathering, it was quickly recognized by most of the bosses. Then when it was brought up during negotiations, the players union had no objections and passed it in one go.
When Old Pat told Edison the news, Edison was not particularly excited, because historically, the suggestion he made was also passed and implemented.
While the labor negotiations are going on, another major event in the NBA is also going on at the same time, which is the lottery draw.
After Edison's trade, the Magic now have three draft picks, the Bobcats, New York, and the Kings' first-round picks. Neither New York nor the Bobcats have entered the playoffs, so these two picks involve the lottery.
Especially the Bobcats. They ended up ranking third from the bottom in the league with a record of 16 wins and 64 losses (the Eagles were first and the Hornets were second). But the problem is that the Bobcats are now in the top 4 protection. If there are two teams behind them,
If he gets in front of them, Edison can get the No. 5 pick.
New York is ranked eighth from the bottom in the league, and his pick is also protected by the top three, but under normal circumstances, it is impossible to draw him.
So Pat Lao was negotiating in the conference room, while Edison was sitting in front of the TV waiting for the results of the lottery.
The final result of the draw deviated greatly from the historical results.
The No. 1 pick did not change and was still taken by the Bucks. However, the Bobcats' character exploded and they got the No. 2 pick, which meant that this pick had no chance with the Magic. After some decisions, David Stern finally decided
Reason prevailed over personal emotions, and there was no secret manipulation to leave this lottery to magic.
The No. 3 pick was the same as in history, and was lucky enough to be taken by the Trail Blazers. The tragic Hawks were ranked last, holding 25% of the selection possibilities, but they were kicked to fourth place. The difference in character is obvious.
A spot.
Then there are the Hornets, Jazz, Raptors, Knicks ranked eighth, and the Kings with the 19th pick.
"No. 8, No. 19. Let's see how we can do it."
Edison knows very well that there are two great players in this draft, Paul and Deron.
Among them, Deron has always been on the opposite side of the coach, disobeying discipline in various ways, and forcing the team to fire the coach. Edison has never considered this kind of person. His character is too poor to let him lead the whole team to bad by himself.
And Deron has always had problems with defense. First of all, there is a problem with his defensive enthusiasm. He lacks concentration when defending and sometimes gets distracted. His investment on the defensive end is far less than that on the offensive end. If there is a way to remedy the lack of active defense, how many years will it take?
It would be fine if he figured it out on his own (he can only point to himself as he was unable to defend well under Sloan, so it would be useless if someone else did it), but the disadvantage of slow pace is not so easy to solve.
Deron is indeed very strong, but his foot speed is too slow and he is not flexible enough. Although Deron has the best scoring ability among NBA guards, he also blocks the most shots. Because he is slow, the opponent's inside line can make up for it in time.
Because of the shortcomings of speed, Deron did not do a good job in guarding pick-and-rolls and protecting the penalty area. And the most frightening thing is that Edison knows very well that future point guards will become faster and faster, and Deron is unable to defend these players.
Particularly incompetent.
Edison was already pulling out his hair strands because of Nash's defense. If Deron comes over, he will be pulling out his hair in handfuls.
Besides DeLong, another great figure is Paul.
I won’t go into details about this guy. In one sentence, he is definitely a Hall of Famer and a top 50 player in the future.
So Edison made a phone call to Bobcats manager and coach Bernie Beckstaff.
"Bernie, I want your No. 2 pick, what do you think?" Edison went straight to the point, cleanly...
"No chance." Beckstaff answered more simply.
"Don't be so firm. Tell me what you think. I can pick No. 8 and add the current players."
"Sorry, Paul, we really have our own team building plan. So you can't give me anything in exchange for it. Sorry, goodbye."
With that said, Beckstaff hung up the phone.
Edison stared at the phone for a full 5 seconds, and then suddenly burst out, "I curse Jordan to become your boss immediately, nnd, you don't know how to flatter me."
Edison immediately set his sights on the Trail Blazers, who held the No. 3 pick. The Blazers' management had just experienced a major earthquake. The original general manager John Nash was fired by Paul Allen, and the team chairman Steve-
Patterson became part-time general manager. "This should be a good opportunity." Edison secretly encouraged himself.
"I'm sorry, Paul. Our team is in the process of reorganizing. We don't have a clear idea from top to bottom right now, so we don't plan to make a trade now. Once our ideas are finalized, if we want to trade draft picks, we will be the first to do so.
I’ll contact you when the time comes.” Even though he was on the phone, Edison could still hear Steve Patterson’s irritability and helplessness.
"Well, I'll wait for your news."
After putting down the phone, Edison didn't give up and called the Eagles, Hornets, and Jazz. Unfortunately, no one agreed to the deal. Instead, they tried to beat around the bush and asked Edison who he wanted to choose. The result was a round of phone calls.
After calling it, Edison wanted to throw the phone away on the spot, "It seems that I was too sharp last year, but now it's tragic, and people are starting to be wary of me."
After Edison calmed down, he decided to put his hope in the Blazers. After all, the Blazers in history traded their rights to pick the ball.
But the sad thing is that two days later, Edison discovered on the ESPN news that the Trail Blazers had traded the draft rights to the Utah Jazz. This made Edison very angry, but after venting his anger and punching the table, Edison also
I figured it out. After all, Mr. Sloan has been in the league for so many years. In terms of connections and connections, he is incomparable with others.
"Now that we have Nash, there is no point in getting Paul. It will waste his talent and prevent him from growing up. Besides, it will be troublesome to renew in the future." Edison can only comfort himself now.
On June 28, 2005, the draft was officially held at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City, USA. The draft was broadcast live to 202 countries and regions around the world through the US ESPN TV station.
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When you read this chapter, I am no longer in front of the computer. This is a scheduled post.
