First in scoring

Chapter 435 434. For the Dream
With the NBA Christmas game and the end of the NFL regular season approaching, the North American sports world has been very lively recently, and hot topics are changing at a very fast speed.

Last night, the "internal conflict" between Biao Biao and his teammates caused the Magic to suddenly collapse and suffer a bizarre defeat. The record was overtaken by the Bobcats, and they failed to maintain the second place in the Eastern Conference. Zhang Yang also scored 40+ in a single game... It did not take long for it to become a hot topic. After the Bulls-Horse battle ended, the popularity was taken away.

邓肯24投16中外加15中10的罚球，拿到42分，率领马刺队通过加时赛以133比128险胜小牛队。

Since the Spurs' record is not very good, with 9 wins and 7 losses in the first month and only 15 wins and 11 losses after defeating the Mavericks, their presence has not been high this season, but in this game, Duncan and the Spurs stole the limelight.

这是邓肯时隔5年后再度拿到单场40+，上一次还是2003年12月5号打爵士队暴打老马龙拿到46分。

And after this game, Duncan's average points per game reached 21.5 points, the highest in 4 seasons. Since his athletic ability was destroyed by plantar fasciitis in the 04-05 season, his average points per game have gradually declined in the past 3 seasons, but he has picked himself up again this year!

The Spurs' average score per game reached 102.8 points, which was also surprising. The news noted that this was the highest in 95 seasons since the 96-13 season. To be precise, the Spurs' average score per game has been below 12 in the past 100 seasons.

However, the heated discussion caused by Duncan and the Spurs' offensive performance was limited to last night. Before it had time to ferment and spread, a new topic emerged this morning - the NFL's weekend battle for a playoff spot.

But Zhang Yang's contract extension with the Bobcats has stolen the limelight from the upcoming NFL playoff battle this weekend. Once the news was announced, it quickly became a hot topic among sports fans.

The media and fans have been paying close attention to Zhang Yang's contract renewal. The Bobcats started to make a profit in the second year of the team's establishment, which is the fastest since the NBA started keeping statistics on team income.

The team that grew from its establishment to profitability the fastest was the Magic, which became profitable in the 93-94 season, the fifth season in team history. The core reason for the profitability was that Jordan's three consecutive championships and the Dream Team expanded the influence of the NBA and the entire NBA's revenue soared. The Magic happened to form the popular combination of O'Neal and Hardaway in that season and reaped the benefits of the era.

Most teams with a short history have never made a profit, such as the Grizzlies; the only profitable season in the history of the Raptors was the 00-01 season, the second year after Carter became a dunk god and the most popular season.

Those teams that applied to join the NBA in the mid-90s due to the huge increase in NBA revenues joined when the NBA's revenue surge period had just passed.

When the Bobcats were founded, the market environment was actually worse than when the Grizzlies, Raptors and other teams were founded. The United States had just experienced the Internet bubble, and the real estate bubble had also reached its climax. Fans had most of their assets in the stock market and real estate market, with little disposable income, and spending on hobbies was greatly reduced. Except for a few teams such as the Knicks, Lakers, and Rockets, the income growth of most teams has stagnated or even declined.

In fact, after the first season of the Bobcats, the market value plummeted by one-third, the ratings were ranked last, and the attendance was second to last... But in the second year, they bucked the trend and became profitable, and in the third year, they won the championship season and the net profit broke into the top five in the league. All this was thanks to Zhang Yang!

Jordan acted decisively and bought the Bobcats at a price higher than the market price before the Bobcats' market value was declining and Zhang Yang's commercial value had not yet been realized. This is regarded as the best investment in North American sports in the past 30 years.

The last time the Buss family made such an outstanding investment was in 1979 when they bought the Lakers for $6700 million.

As for James Dolan buying the Knicks for $1997 million in 3000... In 96, the Knicks were willing to pay Jordan $3000 million a year. That was actually just a transfer of assets from one Dolan family company to another. Dolan didn't want other family members to interfere with his "big toy."

Many netizens hope that Zhang Yang is unwilling to stay in a small city to play basketball... In fact, they just want to see Jordan get into trouble and hope that Jordan will become the next Alexander.

When the player has already become a god, and the boss still builds a team and wins the championship in the third year, how can that be possible?

In the 06-07 season, the Rockets were eliminated in the first round, but their net profit was higher than that of the championship-winning Bobcats, ranking third in the league. The Rockets' market value also ranked fifth in the league. After Yao Ming left last season, the Rockets' profits were still considerable, but they were supported purely by low salaries and unexpired brand sponsorship fees. Their market value has dropped from fifth to seventeenth, and this season will inevitably usher in another double drop.

But what disappointed them was that Zhang Yang did not even test the free market and completed the contract renewal ahead of schedule. Yao Ming even listened to the Lakers' offer in the summer of 06.

Of course, the most mainstream topic about this matter is still related to the championship. Felton had already renewed his contract in advance last season, Okafor's new contract has begun to take effect, and Zhang Yang has also renewed his contract in advance. Including this season, the Bobcats are regarded as a hot candidate for the next 4-5 championships...

While people were discussing the matter enthusiastically, Jordan was holding a celebration party at his estate. The main guest was, of course, Zhang Yang, the cash cow that people talked about.

Zhang Yang was definitely not the only guest at the party, the whole team was there. Jordan was holding a team party to celebrate Zhang Yang's contract renewal, and the whole team was celebrating Christmas in advance.

When Zhang Yang toasted to Jordan, he saw that he was looking at him with a sour expression, so he teased, "Michael, you seem very unhappy about my contract extension. How about we tear up the contract, tell the media that it's fake news, and then I'll test the free market in July next year?"

Jordan sneered and shook his shoulders, and replied, "I want to do that too. Anyway, I have the right to match it. When other teams offer you a 6-year maximum salary, I will match it. But Bernie and Rick are eager to renew their contract with you, so I can only sign my name on that damn contract."

Zhang Yang had already informed Tellem to discuss the contract extension as early as September, but the one who dragged his feet on signing was Jordan!

There is no disagreement on starting salary and increase. Based on the salary cap of 6233 million this season, using the "bad boy privilege", the starting salary accounts for 7% of the salary cap, 30 million, based on the 1870% increase that can be executed by the 7-year bird rights veteran in the last labor agreement. It's just that Zhang Yang wants a 10+3 contract with a total of 1 million for 4 years, while Jordan wants a 8600+5 contract with a total of 1 million for 6 years.

Tellem and Jordan negotiated many times but could never reach an agreement. Jordan insisted on giving the largest single contract in history, while Tellem insisted on a short contract.

But the arm cannot twist the thigh. In the contract renewal negotiation, Zhang Yang was the thigh. Public opinion, management, coaching staff, and even the players were all keeping an eye on Zhang Yang's contract renewal and continued to put pressure on Jordan, so Jordan finally had to compromise.

Seeing that Jordan was still furious, Zhang Yang decisively took back what he had just said: "I won't tear up the contract. The salary cap will probably shrink next season. I will have to take a lot less money to test the free market."

It's not just the NBA. In recent years, the four major sports leagues in North America have all seen a reduction in their salary caps, which means a decline in total revenue.

It first appeared in the 04-05 season, when revenue growth in the four major leagues stagnated.

However, in the 06-07 season, when the total revenues of the other three major leagues began to decline, the NBA still had a small increase. This had something to do with Zhang Yang, but not much. It was mainly the result of Stern's overseas market development plan.

By last season, when the revenues of the other three major leagues had dropped by 5-10 percentage points due to the subprime mortgage crisis and the salary cap had also declined, the NBA's single-season revenue soared by 10.6%.

Zhang Yang played a huge role this time, half of which was because he led the team to a comeback and win the championship in the 06-07 season, and the other half was because of the Big Three of Kidd, Kobe and Garnett, and Yao Ming joining the Bulls. The three teams gave the NBA a shot of adrenaline in the arm last season.

However, the stimulation brought by Snake, Yao and Saner to the basketball market could not last forever. The subprime mortgage crisis broke out completely this year. Even though the Dream Team won the Olympic championship and the Chinese men's basketball team won the Olympic medal for the first time in history, the NBA's revenues inevitably declined.

Next year's salary cap will definitely not be as high as this year, and it will be a success if we can maintain the 6000 million mark.

Jordan naturally understood this, but he didn't care much about it. The Bobcats' revenue has increased this year, and so have the Lakers, Knicks, Bulls and other teams.

After complaining, Jordan wondered, "You know the salary cap will shrink, and you can see that the salary cap growth in the next few years is not optimistic. So in three or four years, when you sign a new contract, your starting salary will definitely not reach the fourth or fifth year of this contract. It will definitely be like Garnett in 3. So why don't you sign for two more years? Do you really want to finish the second contract and leave?"

Zhang Yang hesitated for a moment and replied, "Since we are chatting alone with you, Michael, I won't play dumb. I don't have any intention of leaving, I just want to have more initiative. As for salary, I would be happy to get more, but compared with mastering my own initiative, it is not that important. As long as my salary is the top salary and my face is supported, it's fine. You know very well that the team salary is not my main income.

Jordan's mouth twitched when he heard this. The biggest part of this guy's off-court income comes from sneaker endorsements of his own brand. It can be seen that he has dug a small hole for himself in a roundabout way.

Zhang Yang continued, "And you're going to sign a new labor agreement in 2011, right? By then, I'll have just completed the second year of my contract. Theoretically, I'll become a free agent in one year at the earliest. I guess other teams will definitely gang up on you to make it more difficult for me to renew my contract with the team, such as setting a clause for me to get a higher salary."

Jordan had never thought about this problem before, but when he suddenly heard what Zhang Yang said, he felt a little upset. He felt that this was very likely to happen!

He asked in a negative tone: "Do you think I am so hated?"

Zhang Yang: "Be more confident and don't doubt yourself. When you were a player, the top stars under the bosses of those teams couldn't beat you. Now that you are the boss, those guys will find that they still can't beat you, so they will definitely target you fiercely."

This teasing made Jordan feel much better.

He asked again: "Since you are not going to leave, I can't trade you, so what's the point of you taking the initiative?"

Zhang Yang: "What if you sell the team one day? Judging from your expression, I guessed right. You will definitely sell the team before I leave to maximize the profits. If I leave, the value of this team will at least drop by half."

Jordan: "..."

Zhang Yang: "Don't worry, I will definitely tell you before I leave and help you cheat a group of buyers... But I won't leave in the short term. I still have something to accomplish for the fans of this team and this city."

Jordan didn't care about the embarrassment of having his thoughts exposed, and asked curiously, "What's the matter?"

Zhang Yang: "Dreams about basketball."

(End of this chapter)