The rest is just noise

Chapter 1401 Circus

The people leading Garnett's contract extension negotiations were Jerry West and Jim Buss.

West is the team representative, and Buss is more like a bystander. This is his first year officially entering the team management, and he is not proficient in many businesses.

West is frowning because this is a hard job. Talking well will benefit the team but offend the players.

If the negotiation is not done well, it will increase the burden on the team and lead to scolding from Louis.

After Garnett's agent Eric Fleisher arrived, the two sides briefly exchanged polite greetings.

Later, Fleischer simply quoted the price Garnett wanted: "$130 million over six years."

"How many?!"

Little Bas, who had not cultivated enough, cried out.

West was equally shocked, but not as superficial as Buss Jr. This is definitely a contract that the Lakers can't afford. It's not that Buss can't offer such a big contract, but it's based on the actual situation inside the Lakers.

, in any case, it would be unwise to give such a contract.

First of all, the team's leader, Benjamin Wilson, just completed an early contract extension last summer and signed a two-year, $30 million contract.

In other words, Wilson's annual salary next season and the next season will be US$15 million.

As for Garnett, he is neither the boss nor the second in charge of the team. Whether he is the third in charge is still up for debate.

Such a player needs 130 million in 6 years to open his mouth? I'm afraid only the Dolan family can afford it.

There is no problem with giving Garnett this contract, the problem is what will happen after giving this contract.

The team's second-best player, Barkley, only has an annual salary of US$8 million. Dumars, who was betrayed by his old club and chose to join the Lakers at a low price, has an annual salary of less than US$3 million. These people can watch as Garnett becomes the highest-paid player in the league.

Player?

What's more, in terms of strength, Garnett is not worthy of this contract. This is a contract for a superstar, and Garnett can only be regarded as an All-Star with great potential in the future.

Just an All-Star, can he earn the league's highest salary? West knows that there is something to talk about this time.

On that day, the negotiation lasted for an hour. The two sides argued over the issue of money, and the progress was 0.

The Lakers' psychological price for Garnett is 80 million to 90 million over six years. This guy's price is only 130 million. It's really hard to bargain.

Bass Jr. reported the situation to Louis truthfully.

After hearing the quotation from Garnett's team, Louis just wanted to complain about whether this collective bargaining agreement can die?

How dare a person whose rookie contract has just expired ask for such an exorbitant price? It’s not that there are loopholes in the collective bargaining agreement!

"How's Jerry?" Louis suddenly became concerned about West's mental condition.

Little Bas smiled and said: "It's okay, I just like to talk about it." "It's hard for him."

Although Louis really wants to feel sorry for Uncle Wei, he can't. He is an enlightened CEO and doesn't like to be dictatorial. A wise godfather should know how to let his subordinates perform their duties, rather than expecting to be like Auerbach or Pitino.

Everything is decided by oneself.

Where is this godfather? This is the emperor.

"Yeah, I didn't know until today how difficult it was for Jerry. These players really have bad consciences!" Bass Jr. couldn't help complaining, "I see Jasmine is usually a very down-to-earth person. What's up with her appetite?"

With 130 million in six years, he thinks my family owns a mine?"

Louis said calmly: "The difference between progress and retreat is a matter of tens of millions of dollars. Do you know what tens of millions of dollars can do? No matter how honest a person is when encountering such temptation, he will feel wronged and become a greedy person.

.”

Bass now knows how difficult it is to run a business, and at the same time, he is in awe of James Dolan's fearlessness in signing contract after contract.

This is true. There is a mine at home!

"Sir, do you have anything to tell Jerry?"

Louis raised his eyebrows and said, "Tell him that our psychological price is 80 million in six years. If we can't negotiate this amount, he will stop doing it."

Little Buzz shuddered.

This requires cutting off the price by 50 million. How could Garnett agree?

Little Bas then thought about it, if he could really negotiate this price, he could save a lot of money.

If Garnett is given an extra 10 million, his family will have to pay more money in luxury tax, so bargaining is very important.

He faithfully conveyed Louis' instructions to West.

It is said that when West received the instructions, he immediately started to curse.

Although he did not name anyone, everyone knew who he was criticizing.

Little Buzz waited for him to finish scolding, and then gave him a can of "Victory Moment" Coca-Cola endorsed by Louis, "Jerry, calm down, no matter how great the difficulties are, we have to face them."

The words were kind, but when West saw the Louis pattern on the Coke can, an unknown fire suddenly filled his chest.

Aren't all the difficulties caused by this bastard Louis? So he couldn't help but curse a few words in the air.

Louis doesn't think Garnett's team is crazy enough to think the Lakers can accept and sign this contract.

Therefore, such a big opening by the Lion is more like leaving room for the bargaining behavior that the Lakers will definitely implement.

Assuming that Garnett and the team behind him are normal people, their psychological price is not difficult to guess.

Last year, Alonzo Mourning caused an uproar over a seven-year, $100 million contract extension, forcing the Trail Blazers to let him go without compensation.

This contract can be used as a reference.

Mourning signed a 7-year, 100 million contract, and Garnett is in a wealthy family and cannot ask for money at will like the Timberwolves in his previous life.

Therefore, their psychological price should be US$90 million over six years. They do not seek to surpass Benj, but they must at least be on par.

Just because the psychological price is US$90 million over six years does not mean that the agent should strive for this.

As an agent, it is their duty to take as much meat from the employer as possible, so he will keep going back and forth with the Lakers for a long time in order to seek a larger contract.

Whether it is for the present or the future, Garnett's contract extension must be cautious and cautious.

If the Lakers do not handle Garnett's contract extension well, others will also encounter problems with their contract extensions.

A contract must be reached that is acceptable to both parties, and this will serve as a reference for others to renew their contracts later.

Therefore, West will continue to push, and Louis only cares about the results, regardless of the process.

A few days later, when Rodman attended his press conference wearing a wedding dress, the Lakers became the laughing stock of the public.

This incident hurt West again.

He valued the team's reputation above all else, and Rodman was basically taking advantage of the Lakers

A person's fame pays for his own show, and Buss seems to be happy to see it happen, because the joke is only temporary, but the attraction brought by Rodman is long-term.

As long as some people become interested in the team because of Rodman's antics and become fans, then he has value.

Louis can defeat 99% of the players, but there is nothing he can do against Rodman.

He was able to tolerate Rodman entirely because the other player did not pose any obvious harm to the team, so he was allowed to stay on the team out of past friendship.

The two people who could decide whether Rodman should stay or not ignored the fact that Rodman had tarnished the team's image. West was so angry that he actually fell ill.

As the team representative in Garnett's contract renewal negotiations, anyone can fall, but he cannot.

But this disease doesn’t come at any time without being reasonable with others, so we can’t let people persist despite the disease, right?

After much thought, Louis summoned Zhao Yuanzheng and arranged for him to be the leader of the trip.

Special advisers to the negotiations were involved.

On the surface, Bass Jr. was leading the negotiations. In fact, it was Zhao Yuanzheng who was at loggerheads with Eric Fleischer and tried his best to lower the price.

It seems that this is a thankless task.

Because if things get done, this is the credit of Bass. If things go wrong, the little boss will not

The main responsibility for sticking the pan is Zhao Yuanzheng's.

For Zhao Yuanzheng, this matter is a combination of danger and opportunity. He has already established a good relationship with Bass Jr. Therefore, he needs to continue to consolidate this relationship.

In the future, when this dandy comes to power, the first person he will recommend will be Zhao Yuanzheng.

After that, Louis focused on coaching.

The Lakers had an amazing momentum. After being defeated by the Magic at the super home buzzer, they started another winning streak.

Although Garnett was disturbed by the contract renewal issue and his performance declined, Bodiloga and Duncan played more and more games and were completely accustomed to the rhythm and intensity of NBA games.

Bodilloga had six triple-doubles in nine games. Duncan averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds per game in a single month.

The Lakers are like a circus, giving the audience everything they want.

If you want super rookies, you have Bodilloga and Duncan. If you want superstars, Wilson is there.

You want farce, pick any one from Garnett's contract extension gossip, Rodman's off-court gossip, or Barkley's belly.

If you want a joke, benj’s jersey memes are definitely not to be missed. At the beginning of the month, when the news about Mei Lianzong’s affair with an intern spread, everyone asked, did the president wear benj’s jersey?

This may be the most embarrassing moment of Benj's career. Whenever there is some scandalous news, his jersey memes will appear. Compared with these things, the Lakers' record of 43 wins and 2 losses to end the January schedule does not seem so.

It's important.