noveldrama
Chapter 850 850 531 The Honeymoon Period Ends Here_3
Chapter 850 850 531 The Honeymoon Period Ends Here_3
?Chapter 850: Chapter 531: The Honeymoon Period Ends Here_3 Chapter 850: Chapter 531: The Honeymoon Period Ends Here_3 Ratner went to check on Green’s rookie season stats.
He played in 20 games, averaging 2 points, and his shooting percentages were 38%, 27%, and 66%.
So, there was a reason he couldn’t get playtime with the Cavaliers.
Ratner even doubted if he could play in the development league.
However, precisely because he was so terrible, if the Supersonics wanted him, the cost would be very low.
As long as the Supersonics were willing to give up a second-round pick, the Cavaliers would probably agree without a second thought.
Half an hour later, Yu Fei sent a text to Presti asking him to try to acquire Danny Green.
After Presti reviewed Green’s performance for the past season, he felt the same as Ratner.
He really didn’t know which aspect of Green’s pathetic on-paper performance caught Yu Fei’s eye.
Maybe they were friends?
But a terrible player has its benefits, and it would be easy for the Supersonics to get Green.
If doing so would please Yu Fei, Presti couldn’t think of a reason not to do it.
So, he went to the Cavaliers to ask for a price.
The Cavaliers were quite generous, asking for just a second-round pick and leaving it up to the Supersonics to decide whether it would be this year’s or a future second-rounder.
It seems the Cavaliers were at a point where they could no longer stand having Danny Green on their roster.
Then, Presti called Yu Fei, suggesting they use the 29th pick of the second round to exchange for Danny Green.
At that time, Yu Fei, who had already entered sage mode, said flatly, “This will be the most cost-effective trade you’ve ever made.”
Whether it was the most cost-effective or not, Presti didn’t know.
But this would definitely be a trade that could damage his reputation.
Even if second-round picks were no longer valuable, they shouldn’t be traded for someone like Green, who had been proven by the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference to have no qualifications to play in the NBA.
June 20, less than a week away from the draft conference.
It was supposed to be an ordinary day, until the League announced that the Supersonics had traded the 2010 second-round 29th pick from the Cavaliers for Danny Green.
“Trading a dollar for a penny? That’s why I love the NBA,” Bill Simmons commented on Twitter.
The Seattle Times argued that the outlook was not optimistic, “We should give Sam Presti more praise, otherwise he’ll end up like Jerry Krause, ruining a dynasty by not getting enough respect. Sam, good job, but fewer trades like this would be better!”
Marc Stein made a sharp comment on ESPN, “Danny Green managed to score an average of 2 points per game with a 38% shooting percentage last season and was cut by the Cavaliers—that’s the team even LeBron couldn’t stick with. Sam Presti actually traded a precious second-round pick for Danny Green? I wonder how Frye is feeling now.”
Then there was the unanticipated new Supersonic recruit, Danny Green.
A few hours after the trade was announced, his Twitter followers increased by twenty thousand.
Among them, a small part were Supersonics fans, who wished him well, and a considerable part consisted of Yu Fei’s army, who were launching offensives after the season ended.
“You mess with Big Fei, you’re dead!”
They left messages in Green’s past tweets.
This scared Green, who was still unclear about the situation, into quickly tweeting a reassurance: “Please rest assured, I will not let the team down. Playing in the NBA is my dream, and I would do anything for it.”
Shortly after, Yu Fei liked this tweet, which then increased Green’s followers by tens of thousands.
However, the intimate actions of Yu Fei and Christina on the beach were soon exposed by gossip websites.
Yu Fei was very angry. These paparazzi are truly disgusting. Can’t the GOAT have a little privacy and fun? I’ll sue them!
However, as a public figure, one inevitably attracts attention, and that’s what paparazzi do.
Presti was very grateful to Yu Fei. When he was being attacked by the public, Yu Fei suddenly created a big news story that shifted public attention away from the trade of the second-round pick for Green.
But upon closer reflection, wasn’t this trade entirely Yu Fei’s own idea?
It turned out both pieces of news were orchestrated by the GOAT, yet the GM had to take the blame?
Presti quickly moved past these trivial matters because the draft work was not yet complete.
After several days of evaluation, Presti’s first-round pick at selection number 29 was chosen between Quincy Pondexter and Jeremy Lin, selecting the former.
Because to him, bolstering with Green was practically a giveaway.
Counting on Green to deepen the team’s wing strength for the new season was a pipe dream, so the second-round pick was a waste.
Thus, the first-round pick had to be used to continue strengthening the wing.
The Supersonics conducted a second workout with Jeremy Lin and Pondexter. Lin’s overall quality was better, and Presti believed he had the potential to be a guard in the NBA for over 10 years. However, the best and most suitable choices were always the unclear multiple-choice questions of the draft.
Since ancient times, management had a formula for making selections.
Weak teams pick the best player, strong teams pick the most suitable.
With this, Presti finalized his draft strategy, selecting Quincy Pondexter as the first choice and Jeremy Lin as the backup.
June 24
The day before the NBA draft, the labor and capital sides held their final negotiation in New York before the offseason commenced.
If this negotiation failed to reach an agreement, the NBA would lock out after the draft concluded.
The capital side made a show of stepping back by deciding to withdraw their demand for a hard salary cap.
Yet this was a term the players’ union would never accept.
Back in the 1980s when the two parties nearly locked out over the salary cap issue, the union’s stance was clear: either a soft salary cap or no salary cap at all.
This tactic of proposing a condition that the other party could never accept, only to retreat during negotiations as a sign of concession, thereby demanding a concession from the opposition, made Yu Fei feel that the upper echelons of American society had a path dependency in these matters.
That’s all they would do.
Because they believed in their absolute power.
The capital side never saw the labor as an equal partner.
The union president, Derek Fisher, coldly snorted and said, “Since you’re being so ‘generous,’ we can’t be too stingy either. Alright then, our original demand was to return the league to the status before 1983, aiming to abolish the salary cap. Since you’re no longer insisting on a hard cap, we too will no longer demand the abolishment of the salary cap.”
Then, the vice president of the union, Billy Hunter, added, “However, starting from the new season, we must receive 58% of the television broadcasting agreement’s dividends, no negotiation on this point!”
The small market diehard, owner Joe, panicked, “That’s impossible! The last labor agreement already gave the players 57% of the dividends and caused us heavy losses. Now they actually want 58%?”
You see, this labor war was initiated by the capital side who felt disadvantaged and wanted to renegotiate the division of the pie.
Now they’re wanting to break the deal too?
What kind of defiance is this?
“Before I joined Seattle, the Supersonics were losing money year after year,” Yu Fei suddenly spoke up, using a methodical pace that resonated astonishingly. “Now, my boss, Mr. Clay Bennett, made 150 million US dollars just this past season. Yet, I, who brought all this, cannot get a single cent from these profits. Isn’t there something wrong with that? In my view, it’s not just the 58% of profit-sharing we deserve, it’s only right if we demand 60%.”
Jordan exploded in anger, “Do you want to kill all the small market teams?”
“Should I be blamed for your mismanagement?” Yu Fei replied with a cold laugh, “If you can’t survive, then don’t.”
That’s how Yu Fei and the capitalists’ honeymoon ended.
He was once the capitalists’ champion destroying the Evil Empire, the GOAT maintaining justice, unanimously recognized as the greatest of all time.
Now, he was the defender of players’ interests, and as the leader of the players’ faction, he had only one demand: to ensure the welfare of all players.
No way around it, the GOAT is always busy.
The final labor-capital negotiation before the draft ended as expected—in failure.
David Stern told a New York Times reporter that day, “If the two parties cannot reach an agreement after the draft, the League will completely shut down.”