Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 42: Suwan's Value and the Auburn Hills Palace Incident

Bill Duffy not only brought the news that a team had contacted Danny Ferry, but also informed Suwan of the result: "Danny listened to him patiently and hung up the phone. As far as I know, the person who called Danny was Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. The bargaining chip he offered was any outside player of the Mavericks except Devin Harris, or a first-round pick plus a second-round pick."

I heard it was Mark Cuban.

Su Wan was not surprised.

This summer, the Mavericks owner was reluctant to spend money on Steve Nash and sent him to the Suns for nothing, which led to a falling out with Nelson. Since the summer, all Mavericks transactions have been completed under his intervention.

Mark Cuban has always coveted the Chinese market. From Wang Zhizhi to Yi Jianlian and Ding Yanyuhang, almost all Chinese players have been given opportunities in the Mavericks. If you say that the Mavericks just needed these players to fill the vacancies at the time, and there is no other reason, Su Wan does not believe it.

Right now the conflict between Suwan and LeBron is getting more and more intense. If he doesn't take any action, he wouldn't be Mark Cuban!
People who make money too easily all have one problem, and that is that they love to make trouble!

The chips he offered were also sincere enough:

The Mavericks' current outside players include Josh Howard, Michael Finley, Daniels, Jason Terry, Stackhouse and Tariq Abdul-Wahad.

Even from a salary perspective, the Cavaliers, who have no salary space, cannot get Terry or Michael Finley, but they should have no problem signing Josh Howard and others.

Especially Josh Howard, who only costs 86 US dollars this season, can contribute 12.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game, which is definitely a good value for money.

Besides, the Mavericks also prepared a second option for the Cavaliers:

If you don't want a player, then a first-round pick plus a second-round pick.

This was almost the price of an "All-Star floor", but Danny Ferry refused without a second thought.

It can be seen that in Danny Ferry's mind, Suwan is now at least a serious All-Star player.

Such a player is almost "not for sale"...

"LeBron should have known about this news, right?" Su Wan regretted that he could not personally witness LeBron James' reaction when he heard the news. He could see during this period that LeBron was extremely upset with him.

but……

Dear Zhan, this is just the beginning!
Su Wan thought that this news would appear on the news the next day.

Mark Cuban's move is equivalent to opening Pandora's box, and more teams will come to explore the possibility of a trade.

After all, everyone can see that the conflict between Suwan and LeBron is heading towards a complete break and there is no turning back.

But in the end, the next day's headlines, not just the sports section, but all the news were dominated by a more explosive sports news:
It was the fight at the Palace of Auburn Hills!

Just yesterday, the Pistons hosted the Indiana Pacers.

Although it was just an ordinary regular season game, the two teams had deep grievances. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was the former head coach of the Pistons. The Pistons general manager fired him and brought in Larry Brown to take over.

Last year, Artest won the "Player of the Season Award", allowing Ben Wallace to win the "Defensive Player of the Season Award" for the third consecutive time, adding another achievement to his failure to unlock the "First Person in History" badge.

In addition, there was the "elimination revenge" of the Pistons' 4-2 victory over the Pacers in last season's Eastern Conference Finals.

The emotions of both teams reached their climax.

In the first meeting of the season, sparks flew between the two sides.

The scale is so large that it makes people feel like returning to the 90s.

With 45.9 seconds left in the game, the Pacers led by 15 points. Normally, the game would have entered "garbage time" and nothing would go wrong. But the two teams were still fighting to the death.

Artest's rough foul, coupled with the dissatisfaction of losing, Ben Wallace chose to fight back and pushed back hard, triggering a fierce conflict between the two teams. Fortunately, the referee reacted quickly, and Rasheed Wallace stood in the middle and persuaded everyone.

You read that right, "The Roaring Lord" became the one who tried to mediate the fight at this time.

Referee: How come we don’t know that you have such a personality?
Artest lay down on the technical table.

Both sides returned to their benches to calm down.

However, at this moment, a mineral water bottle flew out from the audience and hit Artest.

This "beast" suddenly went berserk. It couldn't defeat the main force, let alone you, the audience?
He immediately rushed into the audience.

Rushing in with him was the "Martial Saint" Stephen Jackson.

At first he wanted to hold Artest back, but after he was beaten, he decided to join in.

Fred Jones, who wanted to stop the fight but was beaten up by the fans, became the second "fuse".

The chaos escalated again.

O'Neal Jr., Tinsley and others also joined in.

Larry Brown intended to use the radio to call on everyone to calm down, but was ignored by the Pistons fans, who blocked the player tunnel and prevented the Pacers players from leaving.

The scene turned violent again.

It was not until ten minutes later, with full security on the scene, that the Pacers players were able to leave.

After the game, three profound shots were left on TV: a fan still bleeding, a stunned and confused woman, and a frightened little fan who was being comforted.

NBA Commissioner David Stern was furious when he learned about this and responded at lightning speed:

As for the Pacers, Artest is banned from all remaining regular season games this season, and if the Pacers make the playoffs, all games will be banned; Stephen Jackson is suspended for 30 games; O'Neal is suspended for 25 games; Johnson is suspended for 5 games; Miller is suspended for 1 game;
In addition, Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal were sentenced to one year of probation, 1 hours of community service and a fine of $60 each for participating in a fight and disrupting public order.

For the Pistons, Ben Wallace was suspended for 6 games, Billups, Coleman and Campbell were suspended for 1 game;
More than a dozen guards at the Auburn Hills Palace who failed to maintain order in time during this incident were all fired.

As for those fans, they were banned from entering the Palace of Auburn Hills to watch games for life.

Judging from the bloodiness of the scene, the fight at the Palace of Auburn Hills was actually not serious.

However, in terms of its nature and subsequent impact, it was the most serious gang fight in NBA history. Even 20 years later, it was still synonymous with gang fights in the NBA.

Because these guys from the Pacers beat up the spectators!

This is what David Stern cannot tolerate the most.

Of course, the price the Pacers paid for this was terrible.

The year in which they had the best chance of winning the championship became a year of nothingness.

The New York Times gave a scathing comment: "A mineral water bottle ruined the Reggie Miller era for the Pacers!"

The pain spread throughout Indiana, but other teams continued to go about their business as usual.

Su Wan showed up at the gym on time, changed his clothes and started warming up. Seeing that LeBron had also arrived early today, he glanced at him with interest and shouted, "LeBron, do you have the guts to have a bullfight with me?"

(End of this chapter)