Chapter 986
A fight broke out! Two Lakers superstars clashed head-on!
But clearly, Lin Tian wouldn't feel sorry for it, since they had no idea about it anyway. Lin Tian is a very generous person!
At most, I'll treat these guys to a few drinks when we go out together in the future!
With this, the NBA lockout crisis has been completely resolved. Everyone knows that the reason why the labor negotiations were able to proceed so smoothly and rapidly is because of Lin Tian's enormous influence.
Therefore, many people have given Lin Tian another nickname.
Jesus!
This guy has become a savior.
A savior who truly changed the game, the league, and even the entire basketball world.
In the days since Lin Tian announced his comeback, the person who called him the most was Li Yuanwei, the director of the Chinese Basketball Association.
"My God! Are you going back to the national team? We lost terribly 10 years ago! We were getting completely dominated! They kept shouting as they beat us: 'Without Lin Tian, we're going to beat you!' The more they called out your name, the more energetic they got!"
"They're just getting revenge, they're just bullying your guys! We need you, we need you back to lead us to another world championship!"
These past few days, Director Li has been taking every opportunity to complain and play the victim to Lin Tian. If he doesn't answer the phone, she sends text messages; if he doesn't reply to the text messages, she sends emails and video calls on QQ. In short, she's been relentlessly pursuing him.
However, Lin Tian has not yet agreed to Director Li's request.
"I'm getting old! It's time to give young people a chance, to let them try their luck. Temporary achievements are not important; stability over the next 10 years is what matters. I can't be so selfish; I can't stop young people from making progress!"
"Let the young people do it! I believe in them, I have faith in them!"
Lin Tian's decision to shirk responsibility and not report back to the Chinese team left Director Li quite helpless.
Sometimes Director Li even regretted that he was too principled and too humane. Otherwise, he would have just exposed their chat history and put pressure on Lin Tian from fans all over the country, instead of sighing and complaining every day.
Unfortunately, I'm a good person.
Director Li was at his wit's end!
After many attempts to persuade him, Director Li gradually gave up and stopped bothering Lin Tian every day. However, he would occasionally think of him and suddenly ask, "Want to participate? Come and have some fun! It's okay if you don't win the championship."
The main theme is unwavering loyalty.
Unfortunately, Lin Tian, who was even more thick-skinned, still declined Director Li's invitation.
It's not that Lin Tian is lazy, nor that he doesn't want to serve his country.
Lin Tian was very clear that the men's basketball team was on the decline. With Da Zhi retiring and Yao Ming losing weight, many of the sharpshooters from back then were also getting old and retiring. The Chinese men's basketball team was not exactly facing a generational gap, but it was time for a generational change.
On the contrary, the US team is now at its strongest, with the 03-05 generation all at their peak, each one more ruthless than the last.
Lin Tian was too old to risk his life fighting these young people anymore.
Especially with all the team's helpers, particularly Yao Ming, declining in skill, and the team lacking a reliable second option to defeat the opponent, if Lin Tian wants to beat the American team again, he might really have to play the full 40 minutes and aim for a 100-point blitz.
It's so tiring, and if it crashes, it'll be embarrassing.
So it's not like we haven't won championships before. We won five consecutive world championships and dominated the world basketball scene for almost 10 years. That's good enough.
It's time to give others a bite to eat.
On the other hand, with the conclusion of labor negotiations and the resumption of the season, Lakers' Kupchak also began his operations.
The content is quite simple: just clean up your storage space!
The Lakers currently have a healthy salary cap with no bad contracts, so clearing them out shouldn't be too difficult.
Currently, the Lakers have players under contract: Kobe Bryant with an annual salary of $2000 million, Andrew Bynum with an annual salary of $1000 million, and Andrei Kirilenko with an annual salary of $800 million. The rest are all minimum-salary players.
Most notably, although Buss didn't initially intend to recruit Lin Tian, he had already planned to bring in another star player this year, which is why he didn't extend Durant's contract early last offseason.
If he had signed a contract extension earlier, Durant would now have occupied an additional $1500 million in salary cap space. However, since he did not sign an extension, according to the rules, Durant only occupies 150% of his salary from last season.
That's 900 million US dollars!
This frees up $600 million, allowing Kupchak to provide Lin Tian with as much salary as possible without trading Bynum.
Then, the first thing Kupchak did was use that amnesty slot to grant amnesty to Kirilenko, who had played for the team for many years but whose performance had been declining, and send him to the free agent market.
Of course, Buss, who has always valued the team's humanistic development, had already contacted Kirilenko early on, apologized to him, and promised him some things. Moreover, as soon as Kupchak announced the pardon of Kirilenko, Buss, on behalf of the Lakers, bought a large number of billboards in Los Angeles.
The advertisements all contained messages of blessing and gratitude for Kirilenko's contributions to the team over the years.
It must be said that although Bass is decisive and efficient in his work and seems to be a complete businessman, he always manages to handle things in a respectable and respectable manner.
Compared to Cuban's refusal to renew Nash's contract and his buyout of team legend Finley, Buss, as the league's top owner, truly deserves the title.
Then Kupchak made several small trades, offering small favors and half-selling/giving away several players who were earning 2-300 million dollars a month, in exchange for a lot of cap space.
Ultimately, after a series of trades, the Lakers' roster consisted of Kobe Bryant's $2000 million contract, Kevin Durant's $900 million contract, and Andrew Bynum's $1000 million contract. Apart from these, there were no other players on the roster.
As of now, the Lakers' roster only has 3 players, but according to league rules, they need to add 12 virtual minimum contracts to fill the roster spots.
The so-called virtual minimum salary is when a team has fewer than 15 players, the team is paid the minimum wage in the league to make up the number of 15 players. This year, the league's virtual minimum salary is still $100 million.
This means the Lakers will have to add another $1200 million to their payroll.
As a result, the Lakers' total salary is now $5100 million!
A rather extreme number.
The salary cap for this season has been announced, and it is still much higher than Lin Tian knew, reaching $7200 million.
And it's not just higher than Lin Tian remembered, it's a whopping $6400 million more than last season's $800 million, a 12.5% increase.
This figure far exceeded everyone's expectations and was much larger than the increase stipulated in the rules. Moreover, this increase was clearly greater than the total revenue of 48% divided by 30 as stipulated in the alliance rules.
This time, however, all the bosses remained silent, offering no opinions or objections. Compared to Lin Tian's return, this small amount of money was really nothing!
After all, each boss has their own top salary experts, and Lin Tian joining the Lakers is an open secret, so they only need to do a little calculation to know why.
This is to give Lin Tian face; it's a face that must be given!
This would allow the Lakers to offer Lin Tian a contract worth $2100 million per year, which would surpass Kobe's $2000 million and make him the highest-paid player on the Lakers team.
Given Lin Tian's influence and ability, as well as the situation of his previous contract, 2100 million is already a result of a significant pay cut.
There was nothing that could be done. No matter how much the bosses welcomed Lin Tian's arrival, Stern couldn't offer any more outrageous conditions or blatant custom terms to give Lin Tian preferential treatment.
This alliance still has to keep running, right? We can turn a blind eye to some minor details, but if you really do something even more chaotic, the bosses really won't tolerate it.
Kupchak didn't delay any longer; almost as soon as he cleared space, he announced that the team had signed Lin Tian to a one-year, $21 million contract.
However, the Lakers have not yet announced a contract extension for Durant.
Because re-signing Durant means the team's salary will reach the luxury tax threshold, the Lakers' already limited room for maneuver will be squeezed even more. If they don't re-sign Durant, the Lakers will temporarily have an extra full mid-level exception to use.
For the Lakers right now, a full mid-level exception is crucial.
Whether it's split into several parts or spent directly on one person, this is the largest contract the Lakers can currently afford.
Besides the $550 million full mid-level exception, the Lakers only have a $200 million bi-annual exception left. As for the rest, they can only use minimum contracts to sign veterans who are willing to come and rookies who failed to be drafted.
As the saying goes, breaking down is easy, but rebuilding is hard. It was easy for Kupchak to replace the players in the team, but rebuilding the roster was a huge undertaking.
Fortunately, Kupchak has worked as the Lakers' general manager for many years. He is not a stubborn person, nor is he someone who is particularly concerned about face or dignity.
Kupchak didn't dwell on his feelings for long before going straight to Kobe's house and knocking on the door.
He came to me for help.
Of course, I'm not asking Kobe for help, I'm asking the people here who trained with Kobe.
"You grandson! Get up!"
"Little mudfish, is that all you've got? You'll never beat me even once in your entire life!"
"I'm 40! I'm 40! Can you stop me?"
"Trash, or you could send Jaina. She might be able to hold her own against me for a few rounds."
"I wouldn't even bother peeing on your head, you don't deserve it, you understand? You don't deserve it!"
Kupchak had barely stepped inside, and before he could even exchange pleasantries with Vanessa who had opened the door for him, a barrage of nasty insults flooded his ears.
"Are they alright?" Even knowing Kobe's character well, Kupchak couldn't help but look at Vanessa and say, "Won't the team atmosphere collapse before the season even starts?"
“You’re overthinking it.” Vanessa looked helpless, but she clearly understood Kobe better: “I don’t know Lin, and I’m not sure if he’ll be angry, but Kobe is happy. He’s so excited at night that he can’t sleep. And he’s told me more than once that he’s waited all these years for a teammate like this.”
"A teammate who can completely dominate him and beat him to a pulp?" Kupchak asked tentatively.
“I think it’s someone who can train with him anytime, anywhere, keep up with his pace and intensity, and doesn’t hold back at all,” Vanessa sighed, giving Kupchak a slight glare. “Shaq, Tracy, Andre, and Kevin aren’t like that.”
“I was worried that Kobe wouldn’t be able to get along with someone like that. I was worried that Kobe would be resentful that Lin’s salary was higher than his, and that he would cause trouble and be unconvinced.” Kupchak was relaxed at this moment, as he genuinely had this worry.
He even had a dream one day in which Kobe and Lin Tian were both standing in front of him, asking him to trade the other because he and the other could not coexist and only one of them could stay with the Lakers.
But now, all those worries can finally be put aside; these two get along! They get along extremely well!
Then, Kupchak and Vanessa finally arrived at Kobe's basketball court. He pushed open the door and froze. He even rubbed his eyes and blinked hard. If Vanessa hadn't been there, he would have slapped himself to see if he was dreaming.
He heard countless trash talk along the way. He listened to the two of them hurling insults at each other, but he thought they were playing basketball or having a one-on-one match.
Even Kupchak is looking forward to it!
He wanted to see what kind of sparks would fly between the league's best point guard and the league's best shooting guard.
Then, he saw what was happening before his eyes.
Good news: These two are indeed fighting.
Bad news: I'm not playing basketball.
Kobe was lying on the floor in pain, his legs wrapped around Kobe's arms and his hands gripping Kobe's hands, the two of them lying on the floor in a cross shape.
A perfect armbar!
"Is this normal?" Kupchak realized he had a lot of questions today.
But he had never seen such a scene before.
“I had the same concerns as you two days ago,” Vanessa said with an air of smug satisfaction. “But I’m used to it now, and Kobe enjoys it. Okay, you two talk, I need to take care of the kids.”
After Vanessa finished speaking, she turned and left. Kupchak watched as Lin Tian finally released Kobe on the court, but then he charged forward again, only to be tackled and pinned to the ground by Lin Tian in a split second. Kupchak couldn't help but swallow hard as he watched Lin Tian dive down and grab Kobe, pinning him down on his back.
And you're enjoying this?
Is our Black Mamba some kind of masochist?
The two fought for about three more minutes. Kobe once again charged forward with his head down, only to be grabbed by the neck by Lin Tian in a guillotine-like motion. Lin Tian then threw him to the floor like a dead dog, and Kobe was finally unable to get up.
Kobe, a legend in the league, lay on the floor, panting heavily. He was clearly exhausted and unable to move.
"Want to beat me? Train for another 100 years!" Lin Tian gave Kobe the middle finger, then turned to Kupchak and said casually, "What's up, Mickey? Is there anything I can help you with?"
“I think Kobe needs help.” Kupchak swallowed hard, glancing at Kobe lying on the floor. “He’s not going into shock, is he?”
“Your swearing is pretty filthy, Mickey,” Lin Tian said with a smile. “I’m a professional. I control my strength just right. I can make this bastard lie on the floor and not get up, without affecting his health at all. Otherwise, I would have dislocated his arm with an armbar.”
Hearing Lin Tian's words and seeing Kobe seemingly wriggling slightly on the floor, Kupchak reluctantly believed him and said, "There are a few minor issues with our roster setup that I'd like to discuss with you."
"Then let's talk about our current lineup, what does it look like?" Lin Tian took a towel to wipe his sweat, then sat down on the ground.
“I split up the mid-level exception and used 200 million to sign Turiaf, who left us two years ago. He’s an old friend of ours, with ability and attitude, and he’s also familiar with the triangle offense. Keeping him in the team would be a great addition.”
"So, what's our problem now?" (End of Chapter)