Bishop of the Devil

After hearing Richard's words, the five newcomers felt relieved.

"Okay, now you are ready to sign a rookie contract. The first-round picks all have standard contracts. As for the second-round picks, go and negotiate with Olshey yourself. All of them are guaranteed contracts for three years. As for how much you can negotiate, Money, that's your own business, I don't care about it!" Richard ordered again.

The five people nodded repeatedly, especially the three second-round picks, and felt a stone fall in their hearts.

Originally, they were worried that the Trail Blazers would give a one-year non-guaranteed contract. If they didn't get a contract within this year, it would be difficult to find a job in the future...

Now that the Trail Blazers have directly given him a three-year guaranteed contract, the chances of success will increase exponentially.

…

On July 1, the labor salary negotiations between the Players Association and the NBA Management Committee officially started.

Although this labor negotiation started in 1998, history still calls this labor negotiation the 1999 labor negotiation.

This labor negotiation left a significant mark in the history of the NBA. It can be said to be the labor negotiation with the most serious consequences in the entire history of the NBA!

Prior to this, the NBA had suspended three times, in 1964, 1976 and the year Richard traveled through time, which was 1994...

However, these three suspensions did not affect the NBA regular season schedule. Each team eventually played all 82 games.

The lockout in 1999 interfered with the normal progress of the regular season. In the end, each team only played 50 games, a full 32 fewer regular season games...

It won't be until February of next year that each team will really start the regular season schedule!

According to regulations, the NBA's labor negotiations are held every seven years. Thinking about the last labor negotiation in 1994, which was less than five years ago, you know that this time the conflict between the two parties has reached an irreconcilable point. .

Because of Garnett's sky-high contract, Stern realized that the maximum salary regulations must be introduced as soon as possible, otherwise the NBA will be in crisis...

His proposal is to lower player salaries, introduce maximum salary regulations, and raise the threshold for players to enter the NBA, that is, not allowing high school students to directly participate in the draft after graduation.

The players union, represented by Chairman Ewing, was naturally unable to agree to this condition and made their demands to the management committee and the owners.

They want to increase the team's salary cap. If the salary cap is increased, the players will naturally receive more salary.

In addition, the introduction of the maximum salary regulations is completely unacceptable to them, and the age threshold is also unacceptable to them...

Compared with the claims of former players union president Isaiah Thomas, Ewing's claims are supported by all players.

Ewing's ideas are relatively smooth, taking care of both ordinary players, super giant players, and even high school players, so he has received strong support from all players.

And Isaiah Thomas only takes care of the ideas of most ordinary players, and those super giants do not buy his account...

It can be seen from the claims of both sides that they are completely at odds with each other. Neither side is willing to make concessions. The conflict has reached an irreconcilable point!

At this juncture, when Stern was interviewed by the media, he said a classic saying, "The salary of NBA players is already much higher than that of ordinary people, and they should not ask for more."

These words directly aroused strong dissatisfaction among the players, and they directly launched a general strike!

In this labor negotiation, both sides are actually right, but their positions are different...

The Alliance Management Committee and the bosses must be thinking about making money. It is the nature of businessmen to pursue profits. They, the bosses, are not engaged in charity.

And the players naturally want to make more money, who has a grudge against money? Why not earn more if you can earn more...

In this way, both sides refused to give in to each other.

Until the end of the year and Christmas Eve, Stern had obviously reached the limit of his patience and directly announced that if an agreement was not reached before January 7th of the following year, the season would be cancelled!

In this case, the two parties finally sat on both sides of the negotiation table. After all, no one wanted to cancel a season.

If the season is cancelled, the players will naturally lose a year's salary. This will be a big loss for the players who have been fed by youth, especially those fringe players. Who knows how many seasons they can play in total and get one less season of salary? Salary, what a loss.

Naturally, the bosses don't want to cancel the season. After all, venue rental or maintenance, and logistics salaries all cost money. If there is no income, they will lose more.

In the end, both sides finally gave in...

Regarding the age threshold for players, Stern gave in and did not introduce this rule in this labor negotiation. Of course, it would be unrealistic for someone like Stern to completely give up on this idea. A few years later During the labor negotiations, he successfully raised the age threshold and prevented high school students from entering the league.

Regarding the salary cap, Stern and the bosses also gave in and raised the salary cap somewhat, but not by much, which was an explanation to the players union.

The salary cap is only raised by about $3 million. Compared with the increase of more than $7 million in the 1994 labor negotiations, it is definitely a small change.

Regarding the maximum salary regulations, the players union gave in. This is the bottom line for Stern and the bosses!

This is also the basis for Stern and the bosses to make concessions on the salary cap and age threshold. If the players union does not agree to introduce maximum salary regulations, then Stern and the bosses will definitely not make concessions on the salary cap and age threshold.

After much deliberation, Ewing and other players union representatives agreed.

Ewing is about to retire. Whether he gets a maximum salary or not, it doesn't have much to do with him. Anyway, the salary cap has been increased, and most players are satisfied with it, which means it's enough...

After the labor negotiations are over, it is impossible to start the schedule the next day, because compared with the normal season, the start is more than a month later, so the management committee has to meet to study and formulate a new schedule plan...

There are still some details of the negotiations that need to be added.

With so much going on, it wasn't until early February that the season officially started.

…

Richard feels that this matter should actually be a good thing for their pioneers.

The main reason is that they got too many newcomers this time. According to the normal start time of the season, the newcomers are expected to be able to fight and support themselves. But now, the season does not start until February, and Richard can fully use this more than half a year. Polish the newcomers well.