Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 858 858 534 Yu Feis Team_2

?Chapter 858: Chapter 534 Yu Fei’s Team_2 Chapter 858: Chapter 534 Yu Fei’s Team_2 “Sam is just like us during negotiations,” Yu Fei said, “We just want to maintain the status quo, while the bosses would rather abandon a season to achieve their goals.”

Yu Fei asked, “How many of you are willing to give up a season like the bosses are?”

“You,” Roy said, “Aren’t you willing?”

“I can’t make decisions for 325 people alone,” Yu Fei said, “and besides, I don’t want to put all my energy into this and end up with a bad result. Then everyone’s happy, but soon, this group will find out they’ve lost a lot of money and turn back to question us decision-makers, wondering if we colluded with the bosses to harm them.”

This was something Roy had never considered.

He had participated in many labor negotiations and knew that Derek Fisher and Billy Hunter were popular.

Because Fisher made every decision considering the bigger picture, he wasn’t just serving the stars, he was serving the lower-tier players as well.

That was the reason everyone supported him.

Not to mention Hunter, he was an old man from the Dr. Bob Lanier era, having witnessed the birth of the salary cap system and had a big fight with Ewing and the capitalists in 1998. Now, twelve years later, he was assisting Fisher.

No matter how the times developed, Hunter was there. He was the most experienced veteran in the player union.

“How could this happen?” Roy couldn’t conceive something like that happening, “Before we make any decisions, we headline internally. It’s not just one person’s decision, but a decision of the players’ camp. If there’s something wrong with the decision, it would mean everyone made a mistake. How could you blame them?”

This reminded Yu Fei of the plot in “Green Book” when the protagonist flies into a rage because the black pianist doesn’t listen to him and runs around everywhere, fearing that such actions might impact his future. However, the pianist thinks he’s just worried about not getting paid should anything happen to him.

Sometimes it’s just like that, even if you wholeheartedly consider others’ well-being, you still end up being the target of their anger.

Yu Fei used a quote from the movie to respond to Roy: “Brandon, you need to understand, this is a complicated world.”

Roy certainly didn’t believe the world was a blank slate.

But he also didn’t think things would go to such an extreme.

However, he didn’t voice his thoughts.

What would happen, he could see for himself.

Later, Yu Fei gathered the team and talked about things to pay attention to in China.

“If people there like you, you might end up with unexpected gains in China. The most important thing is to make yourself look good; no matter whether you are a jerk or not, act appropriately, and don’t do stupid things,” he said.

Beverley made his stance clear right away: “Frye, you can ask my agent, I had no misconduct in Europe last year.”

“I know,” Yu Fei said, “That’s why I invited you to join the team.”

It wasn’t just Beverley; Yu Fei had also scrutinized others. Since he had to organize a team to go prospecting, he had to make sure, at least, that the team’s members were clean of any legal or disciplinary records for at least a year.

Afterward, they all went for a barbecue. While they were chatting, everyone received a text message from the player union.

The content of the message was essentially about popping champagne.

The person writing was Fisher.

He summarized the events of the day.

The union had proposed reducing the players’ share of revenue from 54.5% to 53%, and the League had accepted this concession.

However, the owners of the Phoenix Suns, Robert Sarver, and Dan Gilbert, strongly opposed it.

Fisher said this showed that there was disunity among the owners.

Nevertheless, those few hours of talks were beneficial, positive, and crucial in breaking the ice.

Fisher believed that the prospect of the new season starting on schedule was not pessimistic.

The news of Fisher’s so-called “owners’ disagreement” rapidly spread to the outside world.

Sources confirmed to Chris Broussard of ESPN Magazine that there was disagreement among the owners.

However, David Stern firmly denied the truthfulness of this: “I don’t know what basis Derek’s thoughts have. But I can tell you that at the just-concluded meeting, the vast majority of the owners did indeed support the concessions made by the player union. Despite this, they still authorized the committee to be ready to negotiate on all issues, and indeed, the committee was ready.”

Despite the bosses appreciating the concessions from the union, they still demanded the introduction of a “hard salary cap,” which is a major sticking point in the new collective bargaining agreement talks.

This was indeed a bad signal.

The player union had made concessions, but things had not improved.

Yet, a day later, Fisher and Billy Hunter returned to New York, convened the local players, and briefed them on the latest collective bargaining situation. Fisher described it as “a productive and engaging meeting” held in a hotel.

At that moment, Yu Fei thought to himself, if I were a boss and heard that the union was giving up so much in dividends, he too would make the meeting engaging.

But what was the result? Did they reach any consensus?

Then, Fisher told the media: “Our team has not been as divided and separated as some reports have suggested. We want to reiterate this point.”

Chris Paul, a strong candidate for the next union chairman, stated: “I’ve never seen the union as unified and strong as it is now.”