Chapter 1020
Stern's Decision! A Textbook Example of Crisis Management!
In a sense, the alliance entered its darkest hour after Lin Tian hung up the phone.
The prestige, credibility, unchallengeable status, and many other things that the alliance has painstakingly built will all become a joke.
Even if it's just a temporary joke, it will definitely deal a significant blow to the league.
The hope is that the influence can be as small as possible.
The best way, of course, is to use a few exciting games or shocking statistics, or some transfers, inside stories, or other things to divert the attention of fans and the media.
After hanging up the phone with Lin Tian, Stern had already thought out a series of follow-up responses and a strategy to shift the focus of public opinion.
It has to be said that after nearly 30 years in charge of the league, Stern is really good at this kind of thing. As long as he finds a way, he can quickly execute it and turn it into a complete plan.
After hanging up the phone with Lin Tian, Stern felt a headache coming on. He took another long breath and looked up at Xiao Hua, who was standing in front of him.
No matter how resolute his words were, Stern was still quite conflicted about his feelings.
This successor, whom Stern had personally groomed, couldn't wait to get rid of him even as he was about to officially take over.
Stern was well aware of Silver's ambitions, which was one of the reasons he chose him.
How can someone without ambition lead the league to become bigger and stronger? Stern himself was an ambitious guy.
But when Silver's ambitions actually fell on Stern, Stern was still quite distressed.
But beyond the pain, Stern couldn't deceive himself; he actually felt a sliver of relief.
You made the right choice!
The problem now is that Xiao Hua's methods, his target, and the timing of his moves are all wrong, quite wrong.
It could even be a big problem.
You're still young!
If Lin Tian is willing to take over this job...
Stern's mind was once again filled with images of Lin Tian and his cunning nature.
This job is perfect for me.
Unfortunately, Lin Tian looked down on the Alliance's small territory.
Xiao Hua was completely terrified by Stern at this moment. He didn't say a word for a long time, having heard what Stern had just said.
Is he no longer the next league president?
This consequence was something Xiao Hua never expected.
If he could even conceive of this possibility, no matter how small the odds, he would never have done it.
This guy is very clear-headed; he knows what's more important to him and what he shouldn't touch.
But this time, he clearly miscalculated.
Because of miscalculation, there is fear.
"President, I..."
"Alright, go on with your work, do what you need to do." Stern waved his hand. He hadn't decided how to deal with Silver. Should he fire him completely, or let him continue working in the league because of their past relationship?
After all, when he was talking to Lin Tian, he didn't make any definitive statements, and he didn't say that Xiao Hua would leave the league directly, right?
Stern is getting old, and sometimes he still feels nostalgic.
Xiao Hua had completely broken down at this point. He felt that he had worked so hard for so many years and was about to lose everything he was about to achieve. Anyone would be anxious and lose their composure in this situation.
"Go out." Stern felt exhausted, and he waved for Xiao Hua to leave.
As for Silver, he hadn't heard the news of his dismissal, nor that Stern was going to kick him out. Although he could no longer become the next president, for him, this was the best outcome. At least there was still a chance, wasn't there? Who could say what would happen two years from now?
Xiao Hua nodded and quickly left the office.
The rest became much simpler.
Before it even got dark, Stern personally attended the press conference and then directly and decisively admitted his mistake.
He said that a manager within the league who was in charge of such matters privately disliked Lin Tian and was a hater of Lin Tian. Therefore, he implemented an unfair suspension standard in this incident, causing Lin Tian to suffer unnecessary and excessive suspension and fines.
The alliance expresses its sincere apologies and will impose appropriate and compliant penalties on the staff member involved. It will also conduct a self-examination of all departments within the alliance to ensure that similar incidents do not occur again. Furthermore, to express its apology, the alliance will allocate an additional substantial amount of funds for charity.
Of course, Lin Tian still needs to be punished, but the punishment has been changed from $5 and a 5-match suspension to $1 and a 1-match suspension.
This punishment is quite reasonable.
Apologies, punishments, admitting mistakes and contradicting oneself, and changing or adding penalties.
Stern acted with astonishing speed. Before Lin Tian's suspension could even be widely discussed, Stern quickly stepped in and resolved the matter.
Because Stern reacted quickly, resolving everything almost within hours of the incident, the related discussions and buzz didn't really get very high or big.
Many fans don't even know what happened.
Because of his timely response, the impact of this incident was smaller than Stern had imagined.
Of course, there were still negative impacts. At the very least, on that day, this was the most discussed topic among all fans and media, and everyone was criticizing the league.
Yes, even though Stern apologized quickly and knelt down immediately, he still attracted a lot of criticism. And this criticism was not limited to this one incident. It was as if the fans had finally found an outlet for their anger, and they criticized all kinds of measures, reforms, policies and playing styles of the league.
Stern himself was subjected to insulting terms and ridicule such as senile, dementia, and Alzheimer's.
In short, the impact of the event was still quite significant, though it was slightly smaller than expected.
To be honest, if Lin Tian hadn't called Stern as soon as he woke up, and Stern hadn't made a decision immediately, this matter would have been far more complicated if it had only been brewing for a day or two.
There will definitely be a lot of fan protests, questions, and expressions of various dissatisfactions and anger towards the league. The fans will definitely riot.
If we wait until then to react and respond, needless to say, it will be too late, all too late. The impact of the incident and the subsequent negative reputation will explode exponentially.
After all, the difference between you apologizing voluntarily and being forced to apologize after someone comes to your door is worlds apart.
Even if you apologize after being attacked, it's a huge question whether anyone will accept it. From the league's perspective, proactively apologizing has the least impact on the league! If you're attacked, the league can't even apologize at all.
The more they are pushed to the brink, the more they have to grit their teeth and refuse to admit their mistakes, continuing these punishments even when faced with an even greater public opinion crisis and condemnation.
That was the scene Xiao Hua had imagined.
The immense pressure overwhelmed Stern, ultimately leading to his early retirement.
Unfortunately, nothing happened. Stern used his incredible speed and terrifying decisiveness to minimize all the negative impacts in the first instance.
At this time, the most heartbroken people were the Lakers staff.
After learning of the punishment, the first thing they did was to collect information, including but not limited to the punishments for similar incidents in the past, how other players were punished in similar situations, game footage, detailed replays from various angles, and of course, a lengthy speech.
The Lakers are known for their speed in standing up for their players, a trait that's among the best in the league.
But they weren't ready yet; the spokesperson was still checking his prepared remarks word by word to see if there were any oversights.
The league over there has apologized.
The Lakers' preparations over the past half day have been in vain.
It's all useless now.
Ugh...it feels so bad!
Then, Bass obviously contacted Stern and immediately reached out to the public relations department, asking them to reach out to the media and say something like that they understood the alliance and were willing to accept apologies and punishments.
Well, not only was all the preparation wasted, but it also resulted in preparations going in the completely opposite direction.
The Lakers' PR team must be exhausted!
But of course, overall, these are all minor matters.
The real big money still belongs to Lin Tian.
If Lin Tian were to post something on social media at this point, saying something like "Go to hell with your apology, I don't accept it," then the alliance would continue to face a barrage of criticism.
There's nothing we can do about it. He has a lot of fans, including a lot of brainless fans. These fans don't care about things like "forgive and forget" or "the league has already apologized, what more do you want?"
They would only think: Lin has sounded the charge, brothers, let's charge together!
However, after accepting Stern's sincere apology, Lin Tian clearly had no intention of escalating the matter further.
You can't hit someone who's smiling, especially someone like Stern, with whom you've always had a good relationship and who offered a very sincere apology.
Instead of adding fuel to the fire, Lin Tian, during an interview, calmly expressed a sentiment akin to "to err is human." The two parties quickly reconciled, and this embarrassing blunder by the alliance itself was destined to be prevented from escalating further.
Stern once again executed a textbook crisis management strategy, keeping everything under control to a minimum.
And this is just the beginning.
After all, if we ignore public opinion and let it continue to develop, who knows if it will escalate further and eventually become uncontrollable.
So what the league needs to do next is to change the subject.
The first step is to create new controversial events.
On December 26, the day after Christmas, the first day of the regular season, Darko Milicic became a victim in the Thunder's game against the Nuggets. He fouled out of the game after playing only 21 minutes.
同样也是这场比赛，雷霆队首发得分后卫詹姆斯·哈登11投2中，3分球7投0中，但却靠着25罚23中的罚球，轰下了27分！
Despite making only two field goals in a single game, Harden scored 27 points, making him the player with the fewest field goals made among those who scored 25+ points in league history.
Then, also on that night, the Kings' Kevin Martin, another master of flopping, got 22 free throws and scored a season-high 46 points.
That very night, the fans' attention was successfully and quickly diverted.
Instead of discussing Lin Tian and the league's erroneous suspension, they turned their attention to the officiating standards and whether the player had received too much preferential treatment.
Harden and Martin's overly pragmatic style of play, which focuses solely on drawing fouls, has sparked a huge debate, with fans debating whether this approach is actually effective.
Their fans believe that scoring is impressive, and if the hand is on the defender, they should just not foul.
Opponents argue that they have ruined basketball, made the game unwatchable, and fragmented the rhythm of the game, leading to a significant decline in its entertainment value.
Then the strongest and most hardcore members of the "Ancient Party" from the 80s and 90s began to appear on various forums and websites, participating in the discussions.
Whistles, free throws, standards, playing styles, league evolution.
Discussions and opinions of all kinds flooded in, with fans engaging in a frenzied exchange about which era was the strongest and which era had the most exciting matches.
Then, as if to cooperate with the league's idea of quickly changing the subject, as a new day came, the league officially announced something huge: a seismic trade was made.
The core players in the trade are all top figures in the league, and one of the teams involved is a championship contender.
Calf and Wasp!
After their defeat in the NBA Finals last year, the Mavericks kept their roster largely unchanged. However, as the season progressed, the Mavericks failed to demonstrate a superior level of performance in the regular season.
They have already fallen behind the Lakers to a certain extent. Although it is not entirely impossible for them to overtake the Lakers and reclaim the top spot in the West, the difficulty is absolutely enormous.
The Lakers are too steady!
In this situation, since the end of November, there have been similar trade rumors. Various stars who are not happy with their own teams, as well as strong players who want to chase the championship, have been linked with the Mavericks.
The Mavericks, on the other hand, have been both denying the rumors and maintaining an ambiguous attitude, occasionally expressing their willingness to change the team's roster and make some changes in order to win the championship.
As a result, the Mavericks became the most active buyer before the trade deadline, without a doubt!
And just then, the Mavericks' long-awaited mega-trade finally came to fruition!
The news was first broken by WOJ, a well-known reporter from Yahoo Sports.
Since joining Yahoo Sports many years ago, this guy has been known for his numerous and accurate sources of information and his quick and precise breaking news.
The information he reveals is rarely inaccurate or wrong.
This time, it was he who exposed this earth-shattering deal.
"The Mavericks used Terry as the core of a trade, along with several draft picks and some players, to send them to the Hornets in exchange for Deron Williams from the Hornets!"
WOJ's report was brief and powerful. Although the details were not particularly clear and accurate and further follow-up was needed, the news he broke was like a bolt from the blue, shocking countless fans.
Then, a frenzied discussion ensued. Although the specific details have not yet been announced, fans couldn't wait and started discussing who would win, who would lose, who would go further, and who would fall from grace.
Various discussions quickly overshadowed the free throw debate between Harden and Martin.
"I don't understand." During the Lakers' team practice, Kobe frowned and said, "The Hornets only made it to the Western Conference Finals last year, why did they trade Deron Williams? Terry is great, but he's not the kind of guy who can lead a team to a championship!"
"Not every team's goal is the championship," Lin Tian said, lying on the floor to relieve the fatigue from training. "Don't you know what the Hornets' situation is right now? They need to save money!"
save money!
The Hornets are definitely the most miserable team in the entire league right now.
Their owner, George Shinn, is battling cancer and is no longer able to manage the team or continue investing in it; he wants to sell the team.
But in this era, although the NBA is more profitable and each team can make money, it is not the era in 10 years when a team is worth billions.
Aside from big names like the Lakers and Knicks, the average value of a team in the league is only around $3-5 million. Teams in smaller cities with lower popularity are unlikely to fetch that price.
Finding a suitable buyer for a team is not an easy task.
But what can be done if a buyer can't be found? No matter how powerful Stern is, he can't go to heaven and talk to God to take the illness away and give old Shinn some more time to sort out the team's affairs before he gets sick again, right?
Even if Stern had the ability, he wouldn't dare to go.
At his current age, what if God sees that his little brother is about to die and just won't let him come back?
Therefore, with Sean unable to take care of the team and no new buyer being found and negotiated, the league announced at the beginning of the season that it would take over the Hornets.
The league will temporarily manage the Hornets until a suitable buyer is found.
Of course, even though the league is in a trusteeship, it wouldn't completely overhaul the Hornets' management. They retained the original general manager, president, and front office and coaching staff.
The league's requirements for the Hornets were simple: cut costs, avoid selling future assets such as draft picks to prevent affecting the team's value, and if possible, accumulate several first-round draft picks for the team.
That way, the new owner will be willing to spend money to buy the team!
It must be said that the Hornets' general manager is quite dedicated.
The old boss was clearly failing, and the new boss hadn't arrived yet, but he still remembered the alliance's instructions.
Save money and accumulate draft picks!
So he traded Deron Williams, the team's highest-paid player, in exchange for Terry, who had a slightly lower salary and a shorter remaining contract, and several draft picks.
My buddy thinks he completed his task perfectly! He even wants a little red flower (a reward for his efforts).
However, the timing of the leak by WOJ caught him somewhat off guard.
Because the deal hasn't been finalized yet!
Although it was almost a done deal, the two sides were still engaged in a final round of wrangling.
Of course, it's just a small matter of one or two second-round draft picks, or some bonuses and cash.
Unless divine intervention occurs, this deal can indeed be declared done!
"We are indeed pushing this trade forward with all our might, and we are about 90% done." Now that the Mavericks have been exposed by the media, Cuban no longer hides it and admits it directly.
After admitting it, he directly told General Manager Harris: "Don't fucking worry about the side details. It's just a million or two in cash, give it to me! Get the deal done as soon as possible, so I don't lose face."
On the other side, Deron Williams, though somewhat reluctant to leave the Hornets after playing for so many years and having reached the Western Conference Finals last year, was also reluctant.
But he also knew that the team's run to the conference finals last year had an element of luck, and that this might be the ceiling for the Hornets' roster. In addition, he thought that he was joining one of the league's top teams and a strong contender for the championship, and that he could directly become a core player of a truly top team.
So Delong was very happy.
"Everyone can go buy Dallas jerseys now, and I'll be choosing number 8 again." A happy Deron Williams couldn't wait any longer and officially announced it online, stating that he had joined the Mavericks.
LeBron James replied to the post: "Welcome to the Dallas family! The King has been waiting for you for a long time. Let's achieve great things together, brother! Young King #FearlessCowboy #DallasHome #Akron'sPride #AchieveGreatness #NeverGiveUp"
Both sides' main characters have directly announced their relationship and started interacting. What else can we say? This is definitely going to work out!
Historically, has there ever been a transfer or deal that progressed to this stage only to fall apart due to a major blunder?
Never before! Never before in the entire history of North American sports!
At this point in the story, although WOJ had said a deal was about to be reached, nobody cared about it anymore.
Everyone is discussing and analyzing the probability of Dallas winning the championship after the trade.
Hornets fans are crying, Mavericks fans are popping champagne.
At that very moment, while everyone was celebrating wildly, Stern appeared. (End of Chapter)