Basketball starts with breathing

The Bulls won the championship, and in addition to the normal festivities such as Chicago's city-wide parade, the Bulls threw a different championship lineup party.

The Bulls dynasty players led by Jordan and the current Bulls players led by Lu Yu had a big party.

Jordan brought his sons to the party, along with the Pippen couple, Coach Cartwright, and the hard-core bodyguard of Charles Oakley.

Oakley has decided to retire, and the Bulls are going to hold a grand retirement ceremony for him.

Although he did not win a championship with the Bulls in the last two seasons, everyone knows that it was because of him that he was able to trade to Hamilton in the Wizards, and the Bulls completed the final piece of the championship puzzle.

Lu Yu was walking in the crowd with a wine glass. He didn't bring his girlfriend. Each of them had their own work to do. Bellucci, the only one who was free, had just had a baby in his belly, so he was not suitable for this kind of thing. occasion.

Lu Yu met Pippen and his wife Larsa.

Pippen and Larsa met in 1995, when she was slim, young and beautiful, dreaming of becoming a world-class model.Before getting to know Pippen, Larsa heard that most NBA players are rough and reckless and difficult to approach. After getting to know Pippen, she once hesitated whether the two should continue their relationship.But through a few contacts, she found Pippen to be a very honest and hard-working person.

So they got married in 1997. Pippen took his mother and raised two sons with Larsa. The family of 5 was happy and loving.

Lu Yu looked at Larsa and Jordan's second son, Marcus Jordan.

Hey, who would have thought that after more than ten years, the two of you would be able to date together?
To say that the two of them are sincere, the relationship between Jordan and Mrs. Pi is a little unclear. Is it possible that everyone is different?

I call you sister-in-law, you call me dad?

Look at Jordan's second son, who is only 14 years old now. It's really "the concubine gave birth to the king before he was born, and the king gave birth to a concubine before he was old".

It's a pity that Lu Yu is not interested in her, and Pippen is half his own teacher. When he was playing small forward last year, Cartwright begged Pippen to come and teach him for a while. Lu Yu could not have anything wrong with his teacher's wife. think.

However, Larsa was very interested in Lu Yu.

She kept chatting with Lu Yu, especially the shirt she was wearing was big and round, just like the table next to it, it was long and wide.

Well, the button of the shirt was reluctantly, it was really eye-catching, and Lu Yusheng was afraid that it would burst open.

On the other side, general manager Klaus, Michael Jordan, and Bulls owner Reinsdorf were sitting next to each other. They were chatting casually, but when they were chatting, the topic naturally came to Lu Yu.

Jordan is now unofficial and light, he no longer has anything to do with the Wizards, and he plays his golf with peace of mind.

However, he really wants to be the owner of the NBA team. Although he and Krause don't deal with each other, at least it can be said on the surface. Sitting together and chatting will not cause a fight.

The topic of their chat was about Lu Yu's early renewal of the contract.

A few days ago, the NBA issued a clause, the NBA's new clause in the new collective bargaining agreement, which stipulates that only those who have been elected MVP during the rookie contract, or have been selected as a starter in the All-Star ballot twice. All-Star Game, or two-time All-NBA players are eligible to use this clause to get a big contract.

And this contract today can account for 30% of the team's salary cap, an increase of 5% over the old contract.

Because Lu Yu is the only player in the league who meets this condition, this clause is also called the "Lu Yu clause".

In addition to Lu Yu, only Arenas is likely to get such a contract.

The question Jordan asked was whether the Bulls would give Lu Yu such a contract?

Klaus and the boss Reinsdorf looked at each other, and then Klaus said: "Of course, Lu Yu deserves this contract, and the contract amount is only more than 2000 million a year."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Jordan with a smile.

Jordan knew what he meant, because Jordan's 1996 contract was already worth more than $3000 million.

In 1996, Jordan, who had already led the Bulls to four championships at the time, "forced" the Bulls to sign a two-year, $4 million contract with him. This price can be said to shock the entire league.

Why is Jordan "forcing" the Bulls to sign a big contract?

In the 1995-96 season, Jordan, who came back again, led the Bulls to a championship, and even saved the NBA without attention.

So after that season, Jordan actually began to express dissatisfaction with the "small salary" he received, and he began to think that he should be paid more than other players.

So, in fact, he expressed that he wants to test the waters of the free market, and if the price is right, he can consider leaving the Bulls.

What was Jordan like back then?

It can be said that it is almost the guarantee of the box office and the championship.As soon as his idea of ​​testing the free market came out, it also instantly attracted many teams to recruit.

One of the most sincere is the then-rich Knicks.

Later, there have been rumors on the Internet that the Knicks boss gave Jordan a blank check and let Jordan write it himself.

Of course, the real situation should be that the Knicks gave Jordan a contract with an annual salary of about 1200 million, and then helped Jordan to get a contract with an annual representation fee of 1500 million US dollars, and then there are other Incentive bonuses, etc., so it is guaranteed that Jordan's annual salary is not less than 3000 million US dollars.

At that time, the Bulls were simply reluctant to send Jordan away, but had no choice but to be "forced" to match the offer, so they finally signed a two-year contract of $6328 million.

After the Knicks bid up Jordan's offer, and after the agent's game with the Bulls, an annual salary of $3314 million was finally determined.

At the time, the NBA's Chicago Bulls had a salary cap of $2690, and the Bulls signed Michael Jordan with the Larry Bird clause.

And it is worth mentioning that the luxury tax was not officially introduced in the NBA until 1999, and this rule was not officially implemented until 2001, so in fact, in addition to wages, the Bulls at that time did not need to pay huge additional taxes.

Jordan just smiled and left their side. He knew Krause and Reinsdorf too well. The Bulls boss, who was a lawyer, was good at calculating and was reluctant to spend money. When Jordan had reached such a position, he could only use means. Force him to spend money.

As soon as Jordan was gone, Krause and his boss started whispering.

"Boss, do we want to give Lu Yu a max salary contract here?"

"What do you think?" Reinsdorf gave him a sideways glance.

Klaus thought for a while and said: "This summer, we have a lot of players to renew. If we give Lu Yu a max salary contract, we will definitely have to pay the luxury tax. We now have several options. One is to renew Lu Yu in advance. At the same time, renew the other players and try to win the championship next season, but once the next season is over, we have to split the championship lineup, otherwise the luxury tax will be a lot of money."

"anything else?"

"Another option is to not renew Lu Yu's contract in advance this summer. After this season, even if Lu Yu becomes a free agent next year, we can match other teams' offers. Lu Yu is still ours, but other teams The offer to Lu Yu is bound to be a max salary, the result of this choice is still the same as the first one, that is, we either split the lineup or pay the luxury tax.”

Reinsdorf nodded and said, "Is there any way to keep Lu Yu and our championship lineup?"

Klaus knew his boss, so he was prepared.

"Of course, we can also use morality to kidnap Lu Yu. We have renewed contracts with other players, and naturally there is not enough salary space to renew Lu Yu. We can ask Lu Yu to consider the team and other players' salaries. Those But his comrade-in-arms, is he willing to take a high salary for himself and let his teammates get a basic salary contract?"

Claus smiled slyly.

Reinsdorf nodded with satisfaction, which is why he trusted Claus, and Claus always knew what he was thinking at any time.

"Then do it, remember, this is your personal behavior." Reinsdorf urged.

Klaus understands that once this kind of thing is done, it will definitely be spurned by fans, and there is a big risk in doing so, that is, if Lu Yu does not accept this relatively low salary contract, then the end of the next season. After that, they still have to face offers from other teams, and they will still choose to match the contract at that time.

At that time, the boss would stand up and scold Claus for his disrespect to Lu Yu.

Then one of them sang the red face and the other sang the white face to appease Lu Yu.

In short, for them, this is an opportunity, an opportunity to bind Lu Yu again for many years with a low-priced contract.

At this time, Lu Yu didn't know that the two old foxes were planning to plot against him.

After the party, he got on a plane and flew back to China, because for Lu Yu, this summer was destined to be busy - the Chinese men's basketball team was going to prepare for the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games are the top priority for the Chinese men's basketball team. Last year's World Championships for the Chinese men's basketball team had luck in winning the championship, but it also raised the fans' expectations for the Chinese men's basketball team.

Not to mention winning the championship, at least get a medal, right?

But Lu Yu remembered that in the previous Olympics this year, the schedule of the Chinese men's basketball team was not friendly, and it was far worse than the World Championships. And this year's American men's basketball team did not win the championship, but it was not as bad as the World Championships. , got a bronze medal anyway.

This shows that the strength of this American men's basketball team is definitely stronger than that of the World Championships.

The strength of the Argentina team that won the gold medal was at their peak, otherwise Ginobili would not have been consecrated because of this Olympic battle.

The most important thing is that the Chinese men's basketball team did not choose Wang Fei, who won the World Championships, to continue as the head coach because of the butterfly effect of Lu Yu. They chose the men's basketball coach of the Athens Olympic Games in Lu Yu's previous life, Silver Fox Harry. s.

In other words, the appearance of Lu Yu did not affect the course of history.

On the contrary, because the Basketball Association attaches more importance to the Olympic Games, it directly decided to invite a foreign coach to ensure that the Chinese men's basketball team will win a medal this time.

And this period, the most eligible is Harris.

Just like Lu Yu's previous life, it's who's who will be in the end, and Wang Fei only got a place as an assistant coach, and he also served as an assistant coach at the same time, and there is another foreigner, Yunas.

Wang Fei was also very helpless. He thought that the team he built would allow him to win glory for the country again after the World Championships.

As a result, I didn't expect someone to pick peaches.

But there is no way, he can only recognize it with his nose, at least stronger than Jiang Xingquan, Jiang Xingquan is not even qualified to enter the men's basketball team, by the way, there is another assistant coach is Gong Luming.

On the second day after Lu Yu returned to China, before he officially returned to the team for training, a major event happened in the NBA.

On June 6, the fifth day of the finals, the Charlotte Bobcats, a new NBA player, won the right to the expansion draft, and they will select 22 of the other 29 teams who are not protected from this day. The players on the list are actually players with average strength, and generally the main team members will be on the protected list.

The league capped their salary caps at two-thirds of other teams' caps to prevent them from using cap space to go straight to other teams.

With the addition of the Bobcats, the NBA has a total of 30 teams. The league divides all teams into 6 divisions and divides the Bobcats from the west to the east.

The league also gave the Bobcats a top-three protected pick, and the Bobcats were lucky enough to get the second overall pick.

All the fans were eagerly awaiting the start of the draft in three days.

At this time, the NBA's championship team, the Bulls, came out with a piece of news that shook the entire league.

When the Bulls general manager Krause was interviewed by reporters, he cried with snot and tears: "The team is too difficult, many championship players will be renewed this year and next year, they are a very important part of the team, but The team's salary is only so much, especially Lu Yu's salary should account for 30% of the salary cap, so how can the team have the money to sign contracts for Lu Yu's good brothers."

NBA Commissioner Stern threw his teacups to the ground when he saw the news.

The reason why he compromised and was willing to let players sign such a max-paying contract was for Lu Yu. In the past, he complied with Lu Yu probably because of the Chinese market behind Lu Yu, but now Lu Yu is the most popular basketball star in the world.

"Lu Yu Terms" was prepared for Lu Yu!
As a result, the mentally ill general manager of the Bulls, Klaus, actually came up with such a bad move, wanting to renew Lu Yu at a low price, and morally kidnapping Lu Yu, which is really shameless.

"Lu Yu must not stay in the Bulls, it will ruin the superstar I finally won."

Anger welled up in David Stern's eyes, and he was determined that as long as Lu Yu could win the game with Claus this time, he would definitely help Lu Yu win a good way out.

Of course, if Lu Yu compromised, there was nothing he could do.