Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 853 853 532 The Longest Vacation_3

?Chapter 853: Chapter 532: The Longest Vacation_3 Chapter 853: Chapter 532: The Longest Vacation_3 The draft lottery’s destiny was decided.

After that, Eric Bledsoe was selected by the Miami Heat.

The Supersonics’ favored player, Quincy Pondexter, was snapped up by Houston at the 20th pick of the first round.

More surprisingly, Jeremy Lin, previously projected as a mid-second-round prospect, was selected by the Golden State Warriors at the 26th pick of the first round.

The Supersonics’ top choices and backups were chosen before it was their turn to pick.

When the draft came to the Supersonics’ turn, Presti reluctantly selected Lazar Hayward, a junior Small Forward from Marquette University.

The Supersonics’ draft this year hastily concluded against the backdrop of labor disputes.

Presti didn’t believe at all that Hayward could help the team in the short term, and the Supersonics needed to strengthen through free agency.

But now he wasn’t really sure if they even had a free market, nor could he be certain if the next season would start as scheduled.

Of the remaining draftees, Yu Fei was only impressed by two people.

One was Nemanja Bjelica, a member of the Golden State Warriors.

The other was Lance Stephenson. Due to his age, Yu Fei had not seen Stephenson’s peak in the NBA, but he knew that later, Stephenson had come to the CBA in China to play as a foreign aid, and he had played for the popular team Liaoning.

Interestingly, after being selected by the Pacers, Stephenson compared himself to Roy in an interview, claiming that Roy was his model and their styles were similar, both being versatile.

This triggered a humorous comment from Jeff Van Gundy on ESPN.

“The Pacers should trade him. This young man had a troubled past in school, and now he dares to compare himself to Brandon Roy?”

Thereafter, the draft proceeded without any surprises, and the trades on draft day didn’t look anything special either.

The only one that shifted future dynamics was the Spurs trading Luol Deng for Paul George.

Due to many players withdrawing, the 2010 draft class, which was originally between average and a down year, is now completely seen as a down year.

However, a genius like John Wall would still attract continuous tracking from experts.

Then came the activities on draft day itself.

The rookies were about to face the ironic reality.

On draft day, they were still the darlings of the teams. The general managers told them over the phone that the teams saw them as the future, some even had the owners showing up.

Then the next day, the rookies were informed that the teams couldn’t sign them; they could not participate in team training, nor could they use the team’s facilities to maintain condition.

Because the league was about to lock out.

The day after the draft concluded, the labor and management held collective bargaining.

Before the negotiations began, both parties pressured each other in front of the media. Union president Derek Fisher said, “Our disagreements are still very, very large.” He added that the main obstacle to reaching an agreement was still the division of revenue in the next collective bargaining agreement.

David Stern, however, said expressionlessly in front of the media, “I am not optimistic about whether the players are willing to participate seriously.” Stern blamed the impending failed negotiations on the players “not willing to participate seriously.”

As a leader of the players’ camp, Yu Fei showed up at the negotiation site. Though he was not a main negotiator, his close ties with the management and his unreserved stance with the players provided the player’s camp with a belief in victory.

“The owners claim they are committed to keeping the league as it is, but that’s not the case,” Yu Fei told a New York Times reporter.

San Antonio’s owner, Peter Holt, and the chairman of the board, Glenn Taylor from Minnesota, also joined in reducing the players’ revenue shares. They, as aggressive as Jordan, called for an end to the history of players receiving more than 50% of TV broadcast contract dividends, arguing that since labor and management are partners, the dividends should be split fairly fifty-fifty.

Veteran Kevin Garnett, seeing Taylor, this treacherous villain, now meddling with the players’ share, stepped up as a veteran, confronting him directly, “If you think that’s fair, then I think shares like home ticket income and store rental fees around the stadium should also be included. If you agree to this, we can concede.”

“You greedy bastard!” Taylor broke down, “Don’t think about dipping your hands into my bowl!”

Garnett retorted furiously, “You’ve already dipped your hands into our bowl!”

Garnett was the main force in confronting the owners that day.

Few people would do this, but given that Garnett was facing Taylor, with whom he had completely fallen out, he had the confidence to do so.

To everyone’s surprise, Yu Fei did not mind Clay Bennett’s feelings at all, repeatedly stating that he had made some people a lot of money, but now he was standing with those poorly managed teams, supporting their proposal to reduce the players’ share.

“You can’t make hundreds of millions in profits while crying poor with those idiots who don’t know how to manage a team,” Yu Fei told an Associated Press reporter.

“Frye is entitled to his conclusions,” Bennett said, “This matter won’t affect our relationship.”

The day’s negotiations, rather than being negotiations, turned out to be two groups representing different interests yelling at each other. Everyone vented their usual dissatisfaction, and naturally, nothing was agreed upon.

Fisher stated that the lockout had not officially started yet, and both sides would try to hold at least two to three more meetings before August.

Stern said that there’s always a reason to meet, but he also made it clear that the owners felt there was no progress, and if the status quo couldn’t change, they would take the step they least wanted to take.

Despite this, the lockout had already begun. The summer league was canceled, and all team management took a vacation. Rookies couldn’t sign contracts, free agents didn’t know their next destination, agents wanted to contact GMs, but the answer was that now was not the time.

Although a few more negotiations will take place before August, the lockout had already started. Both sides had not officially announced a stoppage, merely maintaining a façade of decency so that the television stations with whom the league had broadcast contracts would not pressure them before the lockout officially began.

Yu Fei had a premonition that he was about to experience his longest vacation of his career.