The rest is just noise

Chapter 757: The first summer of the 1990s

The Knicks held a grand celebration.

At the same time, the league took advantage of the rising ratings of the finals to negotiate with CBS and NBC.

The first person to finalize the contract was not the television broadcast contract, but the cable TV contract.

TNT cable TV network company completed the contract with the alliance at a price of US$300 million over four years (30 million more than the actual price).

But the league's focus is on television contracts.

NBC initially offered $600 million over four years, but faced a bid from CBS, which raised the price to $750 million over four years.

For this reason, NBC raised the price to 700 million in four years, and then CBS raised the price to 800 million in a vindictive manner.

This can’t help but remind people of the overt and covert fight between ABC and CBS for the broadcast rights of the NBA more than ten years ago. In the end, the NBA chose to abandon its verbal agreement with ABC and fall into the arms of CBS.

But at that time, the commercialization of professional basketball was just beginning, and it was far from the two TV companies competing for it like today.

On July 4, the league held its annual meeting two days before completing the new television broadcast contract.

At the annual meeting, representatives of all clubs had a heated discussion about whether to sign with NBC or CBS.

Louie stands unequivocally on NBC's side.

Because NBC is willing to broadcast the games of civilian teams.

If the league still signs a contract with CBS, it will certainly gain greater revenue from television broadcasts in the short term, but the damage suffered may affect the future.

Why do searches for NBA games from the 1980s on Youtuoduo often only find Lakers, Celtics and Bulls games? The reason is simple. CBS values ​​its audience and always chooses games from highly popular teams for live broadcast.

Like some low-popular teams, there may not be a national broadcast for four years (four years is equal to one contract period).

In this way, although the commercial value of the strong teams is improved, the reputation of the weak teams is limited to the home court, which is not conducive to the promotion of the league.

Louis argued with several short-sighted bosses on this matter.

Clippers owner Sterling, Rockets owner Charlie Thomas (Charlie Thas) and Spurs owner Reid McComb (RedMbs) were all made red-faced by him.

"By signing with NBC, we will lose 100 million in revenue in the next four years, but as long as more teams enter the ranks of national live broadcasts, through our efforts, all teams will appreciate in value in four years.

At that time, we can fight for more money in the next contract. On the contrary, if we sign with CBS just to make an extra 100 million in the next four years, then the false prosperity of the 1980s will continue. New York, Los Angeles, Porter

Teams in places like Lanzhou will be taken care of, while other teams will be ignored. If these teams lose their competitiveness in the next four years, what will CBS do? Yes, they will reduce the live broadcast of NBA games. They will do

Gotta come out.”

Afterwards, Stern asked the crowd to vote.

Except for the Clippers, Spurs and Rockets, all other teams voted for NBC with Louis.

At this point, the TV broadcast contract matter has been settled.

Two days later, the league announced a four-year, $700 million television broadcast contract with NBC (100 million more than in reality).

With two big contracts signed, the salary cap next season will also see a substantial increase.

In the new season, the league's salary cap will rise from the original $10.2 million to $14.27 million.

This is a good thing for the Knicks. In addition to Bowie, Ainge and Hornacek, they also have an important player who wants to sign a new contract.

That is Benjamin Wilson, who won the Grand Slam of personal honors last season.

Although Wilson has already signed a long-term contract, his management team has already foreseen that the new television contract will greatly increase the salary cap, so they played some tricks in the contract and Wilson got a player option to opt out of the contract in the second year.

The Knicks can also choose to re-sign him to a new contract this summer.

In addition to the above four, the Knicks' current total team salary adds up to only US$8 million.

This is actually thanks to the expansion drafts in previous years.

In those expansion drafts, the Knicks lost several good players in vain, but they also obtained exceptions to the expansion draft. They made flexible use of these exceptions to renew Rodman's contract for 5 years and 8 million, and renewed Mike's contract for 5 years and 6 million.

Haier, and Anji signed for 1.6 million in 2 years (expired).

These three contracts do not count against the salary cap, and two of the contracts do not expire until 1994.

Therefore, they can face this summer calmly.

Regarding Wilson's contract extension, work will begin after the salary cap number for the new season is determined.

On July 7, Wilson and his agent, Bob Wolfe, came to Elgin Baylor's office.

Every year during the signing season, Baylor shows off its talents.

He is not good at judging people, and his operational skills are mediocre, but he is really good at bargaining.

Back then, Wolf also wanted to get an Ewing-style offer of 30 million over 10 years for Wilson, but Baylor got it to be 8 million over four years.

How did he do it? On the one hand, although Wilson achieved brilliant success in college and led the team to win the championship as a freshman, on the other hand, the league's predictions about his prospects were not as exaggerated as Ewing's in 1985. Also, Wilson did not

Not greedy.

Even he himself felt that he shouldn't take so much money before proving his ability. Ewing made everyone yell at him because of that contract in the first year of his career, and he didn't want to follow in the same footsteps.

But today, Wilson's identity is no longer a super star with unlimited potential, but an accomplished superstar.

How to negotiate a contract that is acceptable to both parties depends on Baylor's ability.

Louis originally didn't care about this matter, but on the day of the incident, he heard that there was a fierce battle in Baylor's office.

Curiosity drove Louis to Baylor's office to take a look.

When Louis arrived, there was a silence for half a minute.

Wilson said hello.

His agent Wolff and Louis are old acquaintances. When he took Bird to the Greek Academy to negotiate a contract, Louis was still a young scout.

"Coach Lu, I want to ask you, back then Patrick Ewing, who had nothing, could occupy 70% of the team's salary cap alone. Today, Benj only needs 33% of the salary cap. Is this excessive?"

Louis smiled and said: "I only brought my ears."

Then, Wolfe quarreled with Baylor again.

Louis listened for a while and probably heard the needs of both parties.

Baylor wanted to sign Wilson according to the same standards that the Celtics signed Sampson last year, but Sampson's contract was the maximum salary under last season's salary cap. The new season's salary cap is several million more than last season.

, the maximum salary is naturally different.

Wolf offered a five-year, $26 million contract.

After hearing this, Baylor became anxious and screamed that he would never sign it even if he died.

Louis left quietly, and the negotiations lasted for half a month.

In the end, both parties reached a consensus.

July 20

Benjamin Wilson signs a four-year, $18 million contract extension with the Knicks.

When this contract expires, the existing television contract also expires.

By then, the salary cap will skyrocket again, and Wilson will be able to sign a larger contract.

This is a choice that maximizes personal interests and is beyond reproach.

Moreover, starting from the new season, Wilson's annual salary will reach 4.5 million, ranking first in the league.

After signing Wilson, the Knicks still have $2 million in salary cap space.

Danny Ainge turns down 4-year, $6 million contract with Lakers.

At the same time, he also rejected other contracts that were higher than the Knicks' offer.

Although the Knicks have enough space to give Ainge a contract that is worthy of his worth, in Baylor's view, it is not worth taking a mid-level offer to sign a veteran who can only play 10-15 minutes per game.

But for Angie, he just wants to play on a competitive team.

Louis' coaching style is something he also admires.

The commercial value brought by being a member of the Knicks dynasty is enough to offset his loss in contract value.

Therefore, he renewed his contract with the Knicks for three years and US$3 million.

After Ainge, Lionel Simmons and Elton Campbell also successfully signed rookie contracts with the Knicks.

The season hasn't even started yet, and the Knicks' 15-man roster has been filled up again.

However, Wilson's signing caused a fierce reaction from the Ewing camp.

Back then, Ewing signed a 10-year, $30 million contract that was extremely prestigious. From 1985 to 1989, he always received the highest salary in the league.

Last year, Sampson surpassed him in salary, and this year, it's not just Wilson, but several other players as well.

For the people behind Ewing, it may not be important to let outsiders surpass him. What is important is that Ewing's salary should remain the first in the team.

Wilson's new contract has spurred them on.

At the end of July, Ewing's agent David Falk called Louis directly and asked to re-sign a contract with Ewing based on the market's maximum salary.

At that time, Falk proposed to add special clauses to Ewing's contract. If Ewing's contract is not among the top five in the league in a future season, he would be able to re-sign out of the existing contract. This proposal was refuted on the spot.

Ewing finally signed that famous big contract and had a player option in the seventh year.

Now that the contract has just entered the fifth year, without any option provisions, Falk proposed to re-sign on behalf of Ewing?

"Is there a re-signing clause in our contract?" Louis asked jokingly.

"No, but it's entirely up to you, unless you think Patrick doesn't deserve a bigger contract."

"Don't do this to me!" Louis sneered, "If there are no relevant clauses in the contract, the only thing you can do is to implement the contract honestly, and I will never have anything to do with you on this matter again.

Even Elgin doesn't know how to communicate."

"Coach Lu, Patrick is the best center in the league and the leader of the Knicks, but now his salary is not even among the top seven in the league. Do you think this situation is reasonable?"

"You tell me it's reasonable?"

"I would like to ask you whether it is reasonable for Patrick, who had nothing at the beginning, to occupy 70% of the team's salary cap? The contract was signed after we both reached an agreement. Now, the only thing you can do is to wait for it to end. As for the resumption

Sign? Just dream, Falk, it’s impossible!”

The Knicks are not short of money, but they have to spend it in the right place.

Once they meet the requirements of the Ewing camp, there will be endless troubles.

Ewing can re-sign if he is dissatisfied with the contract, but what about other players? Can't they re-sign? If only Ewing is allowed to re-sign, what will others think? At the same time, this will also cause dissatisfaction in the Wilson camp, and the relationship between the two parties is already tense.

, although they have no personal grudges, due to interest disputes, the people behind them are bound to push them to the front and tear them apart.

If the internal and external core are openly at odds with each other, how can they maintain competitiveness?

The moment he hung up Falk's phone, Louis took a deep breath.

Since the 1970s, all great teams have been destroyed by internal turmoil.

This summer, the Knicks won three consecutive championships, ushering them into the heyday of the Louis era, but those deep-seated shadows are gradually emerging.

Perhaps this will not ultimately lead to the collapse of the Knicks, but it must be the starting point for the internal and external ups and downs that all dynasty teams must experience when the Knicks transform from a united team.

When the wind blows, who can escape?