NBA: Full Jordan

On the second day, Knicks head coach and team management, including general manager Ernie Greenfield and head Dave Chekets, were busy.

They constantly shuttled between the office and the conference room, just for one man.

“My God, isn’t the boss too excited, it’s irrational that this contract is simply difficult to complete.”

“No, no, no, you still underestimate his value, please note that we can’t sign him at all without such a price.”

“Yes, he hasn’t renewed his contract with the Bulls yet, it’s a good opportunity for us, you know?”

“But I think we should be more practical, and Detroit’s Alan Houston is good.”

“No, no, we don’t want a pseudo-star, he’s the guy we need the most, haven’t you been having a headache and the team’s lineup has been missing a tough weapon?” Only he can do it. ”

“It’s so irrational, this contract is out, we can all sign two or three superstars, but now it’s just for him, is it worth it?”

The sane Van Gundy and the two executives of Dolan Alexander’s team, Greenfield and Chektz, fought over each other, and the central figure of the debate was Michael Jordan.

Yes, the hot man led the Bulls to 72 regular season wins this past season, and made the playoffs all the way to the fourth championship in team history. Jordan won the regular-season, All-Star Game and Finals MVP this season, entered the All-NBA and All-Defensive First Team, and won the scoring title for the eighth time.

However, he has yet to renew his contract with the Bulls.

Michael Jordan renewed an eight-year, $26 million super contract with the Bulls in the summer of ’89 after his four-year rookie contract expired.

However, this super contract, in 95, after the NBA league and major TV stations re-signed broadcast contracts, the era of player salary explosion, suddenly became a cheap contract.

At the end of this illustrious season, Jordan’s contract with the Bulls expired at this time.

Jordan retired in 1993, but the Bulls did not stop paying wages, which allowed the Bulls to extend their old contract with Jordan into 1996.

Jordan received $3.85 million in the 1995-96 season, when there were 27 players in the league with an annual salary of more than $4 million, and even if Jordan’s off-court income exceeded $40 million at the time, it was difficult for him to continue to accept a “low salary”, especially if his friend Ewing was also an NBA career loser with an annual salary of $18 million.

Alonzo Monin also received tens of millions in salaries from Pat Riley.

Even Patrick Ewing can get nearly $19 million in big contracts, and 27 guys in the entire league who are inferior to me can get more than my salary.

Jordan is calm on the surface, and seems to be in the joy of winning the championship, but MMP in his heart.

So during this time, he chose to enter the free market with agent David Falcao and wait and see.

As for whether he is putting pressure on Bulls management and owner Reinsdorf, or whether he wants to make a splash in the free market and see what he is worth, only he knows.

In short, Jordan is now a super nuclear bomb in the free market, setting off a huge wave, many teams, including the Knicks, began to plot to get him, and all information about other players in the free market was blocked, just to bring him back to his team, even if he offered a super top salary.

James Dolan was even more arrogant and gave orders to management to sign Jordan at any cost.

At this time, the Knicks had more than ten million salary space that was simply not enough to complete such a task, so the management and the Dolan team, racking their brains, finally discussed a feasibility.

The next day, they offered Jordan himself a super large contract that included a hotel’s business endorsement and dry shares, totaling an annual salary of more than $30 million, so that Jordan would have a real income after his retirement and could make money comfortably.

At this time, there was no cap salary limit in the league, and how much a player would take was entirely decided by the agent and the GM negotiation. There is also no luxury tax, and the salary cap simply restricts “space when there is not enough to sign people from the free market.”

It was only the new collective bargaining agreement reached after the future 99 shutdown that increased cap limits and luxury taxes.

In the past period, the Lakers’ general manager logo man West did not hesitate to trade All-Star center Divac for rookie Kobe in order to sign O’Neal, in addition to valuing Kobe’s potential, more importantly, to free up salary space for O’Neal.

Now, Dolan’s boldness and simplicity directly shocked the entire alliance.

You know, in the past season, the league’s salary cap was just over 24 million.

Such a terrible contract, while shocking the entire league, also silenced Jordan.

Although this contract is large, it is very difficult for him to leave the bulls who have just won the championship and have made this home since entering the league.

While Van Gundy was still arguing with management, General Manager Greenfield’s big brother suddenly rang.

“Who are you?”

“I’ll give you ten seconds to finish it.”

Feeling irritable as if trying to convince Van Gundy, he roared with his head covered his face.

Who expected the other side to be more unceremonious, “Please bring the phone to Jeff.” ”

Well?

Greenfield pondered for a while, he was remembering who the voice on the other end of the phone belonged to, and subconsciously handed the phone to Van Gundy.

“Hello, I’m Jeff Van Gundy.”

Compared to him, Van Gundy is much more restrained and his tone is quite calm.

“Jeff, I’m Don, Don Cheney, I think it’s necessary for you to come to our training gym.”

“Training gym? Is something wrong? ”

Hearing that the person on the other side was his assistant Don Cheney, Van Gundy asked a little puzzled.

“We found a Michael Jordan!” Don Cheney rushed back.

Found Jordan?

As soon as Van Gundy heard the man’s name, he directly ignored some words in the other party’s words, and asked with great shock: “What is Michael doing with you?” ”

“Not Michael Jordan himself, but a little guy who is more talented than himself. God, I’ve never seen a guy with such great physical fitness, you hurry up. ”

After urging over there, I just wanted to hang up the phone, but suddenly thought of something, and added, “It’s best to bring one or two people from the management and let them come and see it too.” ”

“We may not need to pay so much to sign Jordan himself, we can raise one ourselves.”

(There is so much information to look up, it’s really hard to write!) Ask for all kinds of support! ）