Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 871 871 538

?Chapter 871: 538 Chapter 871: 538 Then, the entire 2009-2010 season turned into a stage play between the Supersonics and the Lakers.

The only empire vs the Evil Empire
What a great gimmick, even the owners were involved. They hoped the Supersonics would win, as only that could defend the justice of professional basketball.

For that, they had to overlook Chris Bosh in the ranks of the Supersonics, who likewise abandoned his mother team to voluntarily join Seattle.

They could say, who cares about Bosh? James is what matters most.

But now, they started to care.

They didn’t want such situations to persist, but as long as there continued to be big markets and small markets in professional basketball circles, a small-market star’s longing for a big market would not cease.

So, completely suppressing such trends was unrealistic. They could only make the big-market teams pay a painful economic price while using their geographical advantages to attract stars.

Thus, the punitive luxury tax was again brought to the table.

The concern of the players’ union was that high luxury taxes would turn the existing salary cap into a de facto hard cap.

Since the cost of exceeding it was too frightful, how many teams would do it?

It seemed that the labor and management sides, who had appeared to be understanding each other, were at a stalemate over this issue.

Time came to May, and the collective bargaining agreement had still not advanced further.

This directly affected the 2011 NBA draft, which was unsure when it could be held.

Due to the first season cancellation in NBA history caused by labor disputes, during the lockout, not only did the players have no games to play, but the management was also on leave, including the scouts.

Scouts are amongst the busiest in the League, their schedule revolving around traveling, evaluating young players, and staying in five-star hotels.

Thanks to the high welfare of modern NBA, these schedule expenses were all reimbursed by the teams.

During the lockout, without financial support from the teams, scouts couldn’t possibly begin to work alone. Thus, NBA teams’ understanding of this year’s draft class could be said to be chaotic.

Instead, those general managers idling at home temporarily acted as scouts. They wouldn’t actively go to the scene, but they could watch live broadcasts and video recordings at home.

Even so, lacking professional scouts’ reports, their understanding of this draft was extremely one-sided.

This led many potential talents to entertain the thought of returning to campus to fight another year.

Among these people, Kyrie Irving from Duke University, a super Rising Star, had the greatest doubts about the draft.

Due to the NBA lockout, he had missed nearly the entire season after only a few games because of injuries, leading to his impressive potential being overlooked in what limited games he played.

He ranked outside the top five in the latest few draft simulation forecasts.

It should be noted that when this year’s draft would be held, or if it would even take place, was unknown. The current simulation forecasts were extremely inaccurate, but these global forecasts could reflect professional teams’ views on the draft class.

Clearly, experts thought Irving had “fallen behind” after entering college.

This made Irving seriously contemplate the feasibility of returning to school for another year.

And Irving’s mentality was a reflection of the psychology of most players whose mock draft positions fell short of expectations.

As time entered June, the NBA had been locked out for 335 days.

Time was becoming increasingly urgent.

Dragging on, the 2011 offseason would also be affected.

Finally, on the issue of “punitive luxury tax,” both labor and management parties relented,
Eventually, they reached a consensus.

A fair share of revenue was mandatory, as was opposition to large cities monopolizing championships.

Thus, the daunting super luxury tax was introduced.

The first part of the super luxury tax was identical to Fei’s former world, with a punitive tier starting at an excess of 5 million US Dollars, where the tax per extra dollar increased by one US dollar for every additional 5 million US Dollars exceeded.

If a team paid the tax for three consecutive seasons, it would trigger the super luxury tax.

The most apparent difference on this plane, compared to reality, is the additional regulation that if a team’s salary exceeded the cap by 20 million US Dollars for the season, the super luxury tax would be triggered that season.

Clearly, this was specifically targeting the Supersonics and Lakers, two powerhouses overflowing with talent.

Despite strong opposition from Clay Bennett, the state of labor negotiations had become clear by that point.

Everyone wanted to end the lockout as soon as possible. There was no room for muddy waters, and moreover, nobody wanted to see the Supersonics or Lakers monopolize championships.

This made Bennett feel like he was the only loser of the lockout.

The canceled season had caused him to lose over a hundred million in profits, and the impending super luxury tax rules would slash his profits drastically.

In mid-June, labor and management parties reached an agreement.

A day later, the players announced the resumption of the players’ union operations.

Another day passed, and a brand-new CBA agreement officially came into effect.

Nearly a year-long lockout thus came to an end.

It could be said the capital side obtained a grim victory during this lockout
This was a victory snatched from the players, securing 7% of basketball-related income, reducing the maximum contract duration to four years, and passing the super luxury tax.

However, the negative impacts caused by losing a whole season needed multiple seasons to recover from.

In this sense, there were no real winners; the past year had been a year of loss for everyone in the industry.

Next, the League first needed to conduct the 2011 lottery draw.

Since the season was canceled, the teams participating in the lottery draw would be selected based on the 2009-10 season rankings.