noveldrama
Chapter 863 863 536 Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His
Chapter 863 863 536 Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His
?Chapter 863: Chapter 536: Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His Reputation Chapter 863: Chapter 536: Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His Reputation The lockout drama continued.
It was October.
Yu Fei’s trip to China was drawing to a close, and in the United States, the NBA, labor and management had held over 30 hours of meetings in the last three days.
After three days of negotiations that failed to bridge what the league called “significant differences on almost all issues,” NBA Commissioner David Stern cancelled the first two weeks of the 2010-11 regular season on Monday night.
For most, it was an extension of the lockout, but for industry insiders, the lockout was causing real damage.
If the 2007 Donaghy scandal marked the nadir of the league’s commercial image in the post-Jordan era, then the just-concluded season was a moment of professional basketball’s return to its peak.
The empire battle between the Supersonics and the Lakers created a viewership record, and the six-year, $7.5 billion television broadcast agreement set to take effect in the new season would further drive development.
It was expected that six years later, such broadcasting contracts would increase significantly, allowing the league to experience rapid growth like in the Jordan era. However, the regular season lockout could damage this prospect. In particular, cable networks would have sufficient reason to renegotiate contracts, which would not only affect the future but could also lead to a substantial reduction in revenue for this season.
Such events might force the owners to adopt a more aggressive stance in negotiations.
“We believe we have made a very fair proposal,” Stern told reporters in New York, expressing regret and disappointment that the league had not been able to start the regular season on November 1 as planned.
Billy Hunter, executive director of the players’ union, had been in a similar position in 1998 when that lockout lasted 204 days and the NBA only managed 50 regular-season games.
Hunter said on Monday that canceling games and forcing NBA players to go without pay had been the owners’ plan for months: “I believe it’s all part of the plan.”
“I think everyone is waiting for the players to compromise,” Hunter added. “They think that once the players are without pay for a long time, all this will end. I want to say… if they think this is going to happen, they are gravely mistaken, because it won’t happen. The players will hold out.”
Under the urgings of Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, NBA players spent all day manifesting their unity with numerous “LET US PLAY” tweets and #StayUnited tags.
Just as the NBA canceled the first two weeks of the regular season and was poised to cancel more, jeopardizing the entire season, international players who had escape plans hastily returned to their home teams.
As a free agent and also the owner of the Shanghai Sharks, Yao Ming announced that he would return to the CBA to play for the Shanghai Team before the end of the lockout.
Suddenly, “the boss is warming up” became a reality.
Then, third-year forward Space Easy of the Trail Blazers also returned to Guangdong.
Then, the players who had come to China with Yu Fei also received contracts from CBA teams.
Players like Danny Green and Wayne Ellington, who dreamed of the NBA, needed to survive first given the background of the lockout and suspension of their salaries.
To lure away NBA talents, the wealthy teams in the CBA spared no expense, bringing players who should not have had to play in the CBA.
With this as a start, thereafter, NBA starting players in their prime, like Kenyon Martin, Aaron Brooks, and J.R. Smith, landed in the CBA.
Then, Tony Parker returned to France.
The Gasol brothers returned to Spain.
International players found their own destinations; the labor struggle became a matter for the American players alone, as after all, the NBA is an American league, and you American players can only choose to fight it out with the owners while they, the international players, had plenty of other options.
What Yu Fei hadn’t expected was that a CBA team was willing to pay him $500,000 per game to play as a short-term foreign aid in 10 games.
Per game, this was more lucrative than playing in the NBA.
Roy said, “If they dare offer me that contract, I’d definitely go play in the CBA!”
Unfortunately, despite the sincerity of the offer, Yu Fei did not accept it.
It really wasn’t about the money.
Just as Jacky Cheung would not accept an invitation to “The Singer,” some people’s status in their field is established, and they will only perform on stages that match their status.
Before leaving China, Yu Fei also contacted some people to prepare for some things he had long wanted to do.
The businessman Yu Fei admired most in his previous life was Joseph Tsai. For no other reason than that each year, Tsai generously supported talented Chinese players traveling to America with scholarship funding.
This was something Yu Fei felt he could do or not; after all, it was a minor thing for him, and not doing it wouldn’t matter much.
Because the basketball strength of a country could not fundamentally change due to the power of one individual.
But the case of Guo? somewhat moved him.
He remembered Wang Quanze. To those who don’t follow Chinese basketball, this was an unfamiliar name. Even before 2018, hardly anyone had heard of him. However, later, he made it into the U18 national youth team and shone in the Asia Youth Games with his versatile skills and American-style court demeanor, earning him the nickname “B Wang” from fans.
Before going to America, Wang Quanze was just an ordinary player, yet he became one of the top Asian players in his age group through his experience in American High.
If he had stayed in domestic colleges, he probably would not have reached his 2018 level.