Champions Creed

Chapter 149 Chapter 148: Crazy summer under the influence of the butterfly effect (asking for monthly tickets!)

In the summer of 1996, news of Michael Jordan's transfer bombarded the sports world.

But the world of sports still belongs to the Olympics.

Although Roger did not participate, he still watched a few games to make his presence felt. After all, the venue was in the United States, which was very convenient.

Roger watched the game between the Chinese team and the Dream Team. He witnessed Grant Hill, a young man chasing the wind, and Liu Yudong scored 28 of the team's 13 points in the first half.

Although the final result was still a miserable loss, Roger felt very satisfied when he thought about the men's basketball team in the 2023 World Cup!
At the end of the game, the live camera turned to Roger in the stands and then to Wang Zhizhi.

Steve Jones, who was commentating on the game, said: "Wang Zhizhi will be the second world-class player from China after Roger. We will have to wait and see."

A few days later, Roger went to watch the Olympic basketball final again to cheer for his good brother Shark.

But the result was heartbreaking for the shark.

Before the finals began, Dream Team coach Lenny Wilkens pulled over O'Neal, who was warming up, and said, "Hey Shaq, you know, this is David Robinson's last national team game, so I want to give him more playing time. I hope you understand."

O'Neill nodded and agreed. Although he hated the admiral, he was not the kind of person who had no emotional intelligence at all.

This is the Admiral's last Olympics and it is also the final, so it is indeed no problem for him to play a little longer.

Anyway, I will have about twenty minutes of playing time.

But the Sharks never expected that in the final against Yugoslavia, the coach only let him play for five minutes!

In 1992, the Dream Team abandoned Shark and chose Laettner over him. Shark has always been upset about this and thinks it was a humiliating moment.

Four years later, O'Neal had become an NBA superstar with two rings. The only one on the team who had more rings than him was Pippen.

Shark believes that with his current status, he will never be disrespected again.

The results of it?
He felt like he was no different than he was in 1992, when he was benched like a cheerleader and nobody cared about him.

The moment he won the gold medal, Shark didn't feel too happy. He just swore to himself that he would never play any damn game on behalf of the US team again.

After the game, outside the stadium, a reporter asked Roger: "When will you play for the Chinese team in the Olympics?"

"Maybe when the Olympics are held in China one day?" Roger smiled.

Everyone thought Roger was just joking.

For O'Neal, the summer of 1996 was extremely depressing. Even though they had won two consecutive championships, he still felt very upset.

He won two championships, but the Magic management didn't respect him.

He won two championships, but his teammates on the Dream Team did not respect him.

He won two championships, but the coach of the Dream Team only let him play for five minutes in the most important final!

This is fucking hilarious!
Why can't I get any respect?
O'Neal kept thinking about this question in his mind.

In addition, the Sharks' reputation in Orlando has also hit rock bottom.

He has not officially signed the contract because of the Olympics, but under the guidance of some media with ulterior motives, Orlando fans think that the Sharks want to raise the price and that is why they have not signed the contract.

He is called a greedy, profit-seeking villain.

For a moment, a terrible thought flashed through O'Neal's mind: "Otherwise, screw Orlando?"

But this thought was just a fleeting thought. He longed for three consecutive championships, and he longed to win a FMVP to prove that this was also his three-peat team.

However, his feelings towards Orlando and the Magic have definitely changed.

So the Sharks called their agent, Almato, and said, "We're going to sign the contract tomorrow, but the contract needs to be changed."

The next day, the Magic finally released the official announcement that Shaquille O'Neal had officially signed his name on the four-year, $8000 million contract.

But few fans noticed that O'Neal added a player option in 97.

This means that he can opt out of the contract and enter the free agent market again just one year after the contract takes effect.

What does this mean?

It means that the Sharks don't want to tie their future to Orlando.

The opportunity to win three consecutive championships was the only reason he chose to stay.

This decision may seem small, but it actually has a huge impact.

Jerry West stopped all recruitment for this reason and decided to keep the salary space to wait for the Sharks next year.

In his opinion, the Sharks will definitely opt out of their contract next year. Whether they win the championship or not, O'Neal has no reason to stay with the Magic.

Because the Sharks must have been thoroughly disappointed with Orlando.

Moreover, West's previous meeting with the Shark was quite pleasant, and he thought they both left a good impression on each other. So if O'Neal becomes a free agent again, the Lakers will be closer to him than any other team!

Even if the Lakers go all out this summer, they can only sign Alan Houston, Juwan Howard and the like.

It would be better to wait until next year and do the big thing directly!

The Atlanta Hawks also terminated their contract with Dikembe Mutombo for the same reason as the Lakers: Atlanta wanted to save salary space so that they could fully pursue the Sharks next summer.

Dikembe Mutombo is great, that's for sure.

But how does it compare to O'Neal?
They decided to wait another year, and it wasn't a difficult decision.

After that, there were all kinds of crazy transfers in the summer of 96.

Reggie Miller stayed in Indianapolis as he promised.

When he was interviewed by reporters, he deliberately teased Jordan: "If Patrick called me to go to New York, I would say fuck you."

This undoubtedly angered Jordan, but poor Reggie Miller didn't know it yet, but he was already on Jordan's kill list.

The Miami Heat used a billion-dollar contract to keep Alonso Mourning and are preparing to use another billion-dollar contract to sign Juwan Howard.

But the Bullets appealed to the league, arguing that the bonuses in the contracts offered by the Heat to Tim Hardaway and others were higher than normal and should be considered part of the salary cap, so the Heat did not have enough salary space to sign Juwan Howard. So Howard returned to the Bullets.

After losing Juwan Howard, an angry Riley took a risky move. He used a $500 million contract to sign Dennis Rodman, who was wearing a wedding dress all day to promote his new book.

Given Rodman's performance in the All-Defensive First Team last season, Riley believes he is a good fit for his physical system.

Riley also has the confidence to control Rodman. If even a rubbish coach like Phil Jackson who only knows how to coach superstars can do it, then I can definitely do it too.

Then the Heat gave up the pursuit of Dan Majerle and signed Alan Houston to fill the salary space.

After a series of operations, the Miami Heat have formed a very competitive lineup. Considering that they may trade for Jamal Mashburn in the middle of the season, the Heat's competitiveness is actually stronger than people think.

After seeing Roger score 54 points and slaughter the team in Miami last season, Heat owner Micky Arison thought the Heat would not be able to continue.

But now, the Heat has become one of the most competitive teams in the East.

That's why he needs Pat Riley.

Many years later, Riley will certainly be very grateful to the Bullets for their appeal, because it allowed the Heat to miss out on a super bad contract and also allowed them to truly rise.

Riley's excellent management made all Heat fans excited. This issue of Sports Illustrated also chose Pat Riley, who has been very popular recently, as the cover, but the title on the cover was the names of two other teams: "For the Orlando Magic, the trouble is far more than just the New York Knicks."

The Magic, Heat, and Knicks form a very ambiguous triangle relationship.

Sports Illustrated is right, the Heat will indeed become a problem next season.

What Roger knew was that the Miami Heat had won 96 games in the 97-61 season.

Now, with Rodman and Alan Houston, maybe they can really do something. The Florida Derby next season will be even more exciting.

But, it's just a little troublesome.

The west side was in great chaos as well.

After the Hawks gave up signing Mutombo, Mutombo received invitations from many teams, but he finally chose a place that no one wanted to go to - Salt Lake City.

In order to get Mutombo, the Jazz gave the Vancouver Grizzlies next year's first-round pick for free, asking them to help digest Chris Morris' $250 million contract.

But even so, Salt Lake City's space is not enough to sign the African mountain.

Therefore, the most crucial step for Mutombo to join the team was that John Stockton chose to cut his salary by 200 million to make room for Mutombo.

Last season's loss to the SuperSonics in the Western Conference Finals made Stockton and Karl Malone, who had stayed in Salt Lake City for more than ten years but still had nothing to show for it, very upset.

What’s even more frustrating is that the Supersonics, who defeated them, didn’t even have the strength to fight back after reaching the finals.

So how big is the gap between the Jazz and the championship?
It's simply unimaginable, this is a gap that makes people's spine cold.

This year, it is rare for a big-name free agent to be willing to come to Salt Lake City, a godforsaken place, and John Stockton believes that he cannot miss this opportunity.

His decades of perseverance here must have a result. So Stockton chose to cut his salary and moved the African mountains to Salt Lake City.

Of course, everyone loves money, so Stockton's reduced-salary contract was only signed for one year. After one year, the team could use the bird rights to sign him to a big contract.

Stockton still has a lot of confidence in the Jazz.

Sir Charles Barkley was not affected by this series of butterfly effects. He left the Phoenix Suns as in the original history and formed a gorgeous Big Three lineup with Dream and Glider.

Although all three of them are over 33 years old, they are already past their prime.

But the world still believes that these three can be strong championship contenders.

This crazy offseason has put a lot of pressure on Orlando fans, and many teams are armed to the teeth.

And what about magic?

Instead of making any progress, they went out and let go of the important starter Horace Grant.

The reason is that the Dallas Mavericks are willing to offer him an annual salary of 1000 million.

For the Magic, who already have two $2000 million annual salary contracts, they really don't have the ability to match Grant's contract.

Although there is no such thing as luxury tax in this era, for the Magic, keeping Shaq for $2000 million is already an overspending.

The Mavericks offered such a high price out of desperation. They were trying to unite the talented 3J, so they wanted to find a veteran with a successful resume and championship genes to stabilize the locker room.

But there were too many teams competing for Horace Grant, a versatile championship piece, so the Mavericks simply offered $1000 million, ending all suspense.

Horace Grant himself was willing to leave. As a role player, he had already won five championship rings and he no longer had much desire for the championship.

So if he has to choose between the two, he would rather choose the big contract.

Considering that he no longer has any desire for the championship and may not be able to return to the same form as in the first two years even if he stays, and Grant himself also wants to leave, Roger did not interfere too much in this transfer.

They spoke on the phone, and Roger wished him continued airplane dining freedom in the future.

In the eyes of fans, the departure of Horace Grant is a huge blow to the Magic, but Orlando fans still believe Shaq's words: "It only takes two things to go well, me and Roger."

Fortunately, after sending Horace Grant away, the Magic quickly found a replacement. The team used a sign-and-trade method to acquire an incredible player - Dominique Wilkins.

A year ago, when he was swept out of the NBA by Roger and the Shark and burst into tears at the press conference, he would never have thought that he would become teammates with these two people one day.

This is the wonder of fate, and Steve Smith may have already felt this in his heart.

Movie Highlights played in Europe last year and received the highest level of treatment.

He signed a two-year, $700 million contract with Panathinaikos of the Greek league, which meant a net salary of $350 million per year—the largest contract for a professional basketball player outside the NBA at the time.

In addition, the club also provided him with a four-story luxury villa, two cars, and even the taxes were paid by the club.

The most outrageous thing is that Panathinaikos Club even equipped him with a team of maids to provide 24-hour personal service in the villa! (This is true!)

There, Dominic Wilkins looked like a European nobleman.

The efforts of Panathinaikos Club were not in vain. The movie helped them win the Champions League and the Greek Cup, and he personally won the MVP of these two competitions.

Although the league lost, the results of the film highlights were already good enough.

However, Wilkins, who was treated like an emperor in Europe, still felt unwilling to accept the result. To him, those European championships and honors tasted like vinegar.

He thought about it for a long time and still wanted to return to the NBA to get a ring.

So he gave up his annual salary of more than 300 million in Europe and asked his agent Steve Kaufman to seek opportunities in the NBA.

Eventually, the San Antonio Spurs extended an olive branch, but could only offer him $25 a year, as that was all the salary space they had left.

The highlight of the movie is that he just wants to fulfill his dream by joining a championship-contending team, but after reinforcements, the championship-contending teams basically have no space left.

Moreover, no one knows how much fuel is left in the tank, after all, he has been out of the NBA for a whole season. European MVPs are not hard currency in the NBA.

Therefore, the Spurs' incredibly low offer of $25 was far ahead. You know, this salary is less than one-tenth of the movie's last year.

Of course, the Spurs couldn't possibly provide a villa for the movie's highlights, let alone a team of maids.

But even so, the movie is still close to completing the signing. In his view, the Spurs have always been a championship team, and the value of the championship is above all else.

At this time, the Orlando Magic made a move. John Gabriel sent a second-round pick and bonus player David Vaughn to the Raptors, allowing the Raptors to snatch the essence of the movie for $60 and then package it to Orlando.

In this way, the Raptors spent $60 to buy a second-round pick, while the Magic spent $60 to sign Dominique Wilkins.

This was a smart deal, as it proved that John Gabriel was not someone who only bullied secretaries wearing black stockings and subordinates who took off their high heels in the office.

After Grant leaves, Derek McKay needs to swing to the four position, so the team needs a new candidate for the three position.

The essence of the movie is a firefighter who is worth a try.

Moreover, he is 940 million cheaper than Horace Grant!
The only question is, how much form can Dominique Wilkins still show?
At this point, the big fish in the crazy free agent market in the summer of 1996 have basically all been in place.

This is really crazy because because of the butterfly effect, many people's sense of belonging has been disrupted.

Most of the strong teams last season have been further strengthened, but Scott Pippen was the only one who looked at Toni Kukoc, the only one left by his side, with a confused look on his face.

Oh no. Why am I the only one who is poor again when I wake up?
Finally, Scott Pippen got his wish and became the team leader.

But unfortunately, he is left alone.

Salute to Scott Pippen, who always has tears in his eyes but can never turn over.

That evening, SportsCenter host John Anderson made a little prediction for next season after a crazy transfer period:

"David Falk has signed contracts worth a total of $4 million for his clients so far, which is an exaggerated figure.

This summer, billion-dollar contracts and tens of millions of annual salaries seem to have become the norm.

But after a series of crazy transfers, we were surprised to find that Roger is still the player with the highest annual salary in the league!

In this alliance, there is still no one more valuable than him!

So, after a series of transfers, will no one be able to shake his rule?
I wouldn’t say Roger is unbeatable, but it’s still going to be a very difficult thing to do.”

(End of this chapter)