noveldrama
Chapter 865 865 536 Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His
Chapter 865 865 536 Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His
?Chapter 865: Chapter 536: Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His Reputation_3 Chapter 865: Chapter 536: Chairman Yu Decides to Ruin His Reputation_3 Afterward, following Yu Fei’s advice, Beverley went to Seattle to train with Roy, who had fully recovered.
Roy organized a private training camp in Seattle, specifically for players who still harbored fantasies about the end of the lockout to maintain their training.
Anthony Morrow and Alonzo Gee joined the camp.
Then, DeAndre Jordan also joined.
Roy extended an invitation to Yu Fei as well, but Yu Fei, a very busy man, couldn’t stay in Seattle for long.
The first thing Yu Fei did upon returning to the United States was to get a brief understanding of the progress of the labor dispute.
Although he had been out of touch for the past one and a half months, Yu Fei discovered that he could still keep up with the latest developments.
This indicated that in the past month and a half, both sides had made no progress, not only failing to reach any consensus but also running into new problems.
First, the League signaled a significant concession by no longer insisting on a “hard salary cap,” but their demand to share only 47% of basketball-related income with the players was seen as ridiculous and unreasonable by the player’s union.
Then, within the ranks of the owners, many of the perennially failing teams proposed “anti-trust” measures.
Since 1991, and for sixteen years, NBA championships had been monopolized by six teams.
In the past decade, four teams had cornered all NBA championships.
Furthermore, looking at the last eight years, the Bucks accomplished a four-championships-in-five-years feat, Supersonics did a three-peat, and only the Spurs squeezed in to take the championship of 2005.
Those unsuccessful managers believed they were in an unfair League, where championships were effectively monopolized.
Not long ago, Cavaliers Boss Dan Gilbert, who saw Yu Fei as the NBA’s “Savior,” changed his stance.
Now, he thought that the Supersonics, represented by Yu Fei, the Lakers with Kobe and James, and the Knicks represented by Stoudemire, were destroying the NBA’s competitive balance.
“I hope the League becomes more competitive and, to some extent, reduces the advantages of Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York,” Gilbert said, “because they have so much revenue to spend on salaries and luxury tax far beyond the cap, which is an unbearable burden for small markets.”
This compelled Yu Fei to respond, “We hope every team starts from the same point. But if you tell me that all the enterprises and companies around the world are equal, then that’s a lie. Some businesses are on top, and some are below. That’s competition. We have some big markets, as well as some small markets. This has always been the pattern.”
Then, Yu Fei cited the Spurs as an example, “I don’t think it’s a matter of who has more money, but of who manages the team. Small-market teams can also win championships, like San Antonio, which won twice in the past eleven years.”
Around the anti-trust issue, the small-market teams’ owners proposed a more severe penalty than the luxury tax.
They wished to impose a 1:5 fine on teams like the Supersonics and Lakers, whose total salaries reached 1.5 times the salary cap.
In other words, every dollar over the cap would incur a five dollar fine.
This was the embryonic form of the “super luxury tax,” which seemed even harsher than the super luxury tax.
The players’ union strongly opposed this move because it looked like a reiteration of the hard salary cap. The dreadful super luxury tax would limit how much teams could spend.
Owners of big markets were equally opposed.
Especially Clay Bennett.
He did the math and found that if the super luxury tax were enforced, out of his season’s $140 million US Dollar profit, $100 million would go to taxes.
Even though there was still a $40 million profit left, for him, what mattered was the additional $100 million he was paying.
This was essentially an indirect way of sharing the profits of big-market teams with small-market ones.
Owners like Old Buss and James Dolan expressed opposition but approached the issue with a more measured stance, while Bennett was in a completely different state.
Ever since he decided to keep the Supersonics in Seattle, he had betrayed the elders in his hometown, and whenever his wife’s relatives asked him if he regretted that decision and sought to mock him, he silenced them with the profit the Supersonics brought him.
He knew the only reason for today’s Supersonics was Yu Fei’s arrival.
In order to cement his place in history, Yu Fei had to have a strong team, which would definitely incur salaries well beyond the cap.
As long as the profits stayed the same, Bennett could afford the team’s salaries and a 1:1 luxury tax.
However, if the punitive luxury tax passed, he would face two choices.
Reluctantly paying a hefty luxury tax.
Or, dismantling the team to reduce the salary burden.
The former would make his profits less appealing, while the latter would rapidly sour his relationship with Yu Fei and the team.
Neither was tolerable to him.
So, what should he do when the situation turned unfavorable to him?
The answer was to muddy the waters.
Now that everyone was focused on anti-trust, he had to bring the discussion back to the starting point.
As a big-market owner, and as the League’s big winner with annual profits of $140 million US Dollars, Bennett clearly stated his support for small-market teams; he was staunch in backing the proposal that players should only get 47% of basketball-related income.
With Bennett, the money-grubbing rascal, leading the charge, other big-market owners such as Old Buss and James Dolan joined the camp of small-market owners.