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Chapter 182 He is the real GOAT! ( words updated per day, begging for monthly subscription!)
When Qin Yue was like Robertson, he united all the players and took the lead in putting pressure on the league
David Stern and the owners of the league's teams immediately started to have a headache.

"They are threatening!" said Clippers owner Donald Sterling. "I don't believe they dare to refuse to participate in the All-Star Weekend game!"

Hearing this, Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who knew Qin Yue better, said, "The Messiah always keeps his word, and the players just hope that we can come back to the negotiating table with reason."

Jordan, who had been stabbed in the chest by Qin Yue's boomerang earlier, said: "You should have managed your players instead of letting them use social media to put us in such a disadvantageous position!"

Seeing this, Lacob helplessly spread his hands towards Jordan, which clearly meant:
——Come if you have the ability.

The bosses couldn't make up their minds for a while.

Finally, Lakers owner Jerry Buss concluded: "What Joe said is right. Since the players just hope that we don't use the lockout as a threat, there is no need for us to end this year's All-Star Weekend unpleasantly for the so-called toughness."

Old Buss's statement was recognized by the vast majority of bosses.

Especially Matt Cuban.

after all
In preparation for this year's All-Star Weekend, Cuban rented the home stadium of the NFL Dallas Cowboys and was waiting to make a fortune.

"But if we choose to compromise with them, they will only get more aggressive!" Sterling disagreed with Old Bass's statement, "They are a group of vampires that you can never feed!"

The next second, Buss stood up with his sick body and said, "I spend tens of millions of dollars on Kobe every year, but I never complain about it. Do you know why? Because I know Kobe can earn more for me!"

After a pause, Buss added: "The players are willing to make concessions. We obviously agree with the super luxury tax proposed by Bobby Marks. Do we really need to go to war with the players?"

"Believe me, once the NBA is suspended, you will be the only ones who will suffer losses! As for me and those owners who know how to run a team, we will only make more and more money in the future!"

At this moment, Jerry Buss was not exaggerating.

Because historically, after this labor-management negotiation, the bad effects of the shutdown
Many team owners, including Sterling, who originally advocated putting extreme pressure on players, were forced to sell their teams due to their own poor management and various reasons.

The interesting result is that when these owners who are unwilling to spend money on the team gradually leave the market.
A few years later, the market value of teams in the league skyrocketed, and even a small team like the Bucks had a market value of more than 2 billion US dollars.

Although the skyrocketing market value of teams in the league in later generations was related to many objective factors, starting from 1998, the team owners who often threatened players with lockouts also hindered the development of the NBA during this period.

Old Bass has always been ashamed to be associated with these bugs.

Especially Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

In Buss's view, other small-market team owners can use the lack of attractiveness of the team's city as an excuse.

But why did Sterling, who bought the Clippers at almost the same time as Buss bought the Lakers, attribute his poor management of the Clippers to the fact that the players only knew how to suck blood all day long?

The market in the City of Angels is large enough to accommodate two NBA teams.

In the future, even if the Clippers under Ballmer did not win the championship until Qin Yue traveled through time, the Clippers' market value has always ranked among the top five in the league under Ballmer's operation.

In the conference room, after Buss briefly explained the main and secondary contradictions, Stern, who knew he had to step in to smooth things over, said, "In that case, we will negotiate with the players' union on the morning of the All-Star Weekend. I hope you can stay rational during the negotiation and stop using a lockout to provoke the players."

In fact, if possible, Stern does not want the league to shut down again.

Stern is well aware of how much the league paid in the aftermath of the 1998 lockout.

Today, the NBA has finally regained its momentum.

In Stern's view, once a lockout occurs, even if the owners can force the players' union to compromise, it will still do more harm than good in the long run.

……

April 2st morning.

Representatives of the players' union, led by Qin Yue, Kobe, Paul, Garnett and Fisher, formally held a meeting with representatives of the capital side, led by Buss, Jordan, Sterling and Lacob, at a location arranged by the league.

In order to ease the tense atmosphere of the meeting.
Stern first affirmed the outstanding contributions made by the new generation of players headed by Qin Yue to the development of the league in recent years, and specifically mentioned the BIG3 league founded by Qin Yue, which brought additional income to the league's teams.

Since the establishment of the BIG3 League, Qin Yue has never thought of monopolizing the income of this senior league.

In order to host the games, the BIG3 League needs to rent the game venues of the league's teams and provide these teams with corresponding ticket revenue shares. Therefore, privately, some teams even hope that the BIG3 League can hold more games every summer.

Compared with the same period in history, the positive impact Qin Yue has brought to the current NBA is visible to the naked eye.

Historically, the league has lost a large number of fans due to the impact of Jordan's retirement and the 1998 lockout.

In addition, the negative news about the star players of each team has never stopped, and the Donaghy incident has caused a crisis of confidence in the refereeing of NBA referees.
This almost caused the NBA's brand value to stagnate in the first decade of the 21st century.

However, the appearance of Qin Yue changed all this.

On the court, he led the Warriors to play offensive basketball, which not only made the fans excited, but also influenced the Warriors.
As A. Smith said before, in this era of both offense and defense, the increasingly interesting NBA is increasing its ratings every year.

Overseas, with the further development of the Chinese market, it is true that the Warriors and SuperSonics took the lion's share, but other teams in the league also got a piece of the pie.

Although there are always scandals in China, Qin Yue has never been a high-quality idol in the strict sense.

But in the United States, Qin Yue is always able to keep the NBA hot off the court.

Each episode of "Qin Says Sports" hosted by him has over 10 million hits on the Internet.

Even Stern was amazed by his cross-era way of interaction.

The most direct impact of Qin Yue's appearance was the last television broadcast agreement signed by the NBA.

This six-year television broadcasting agreement, with a total value of US$90 billion, has far exceeded the historical period that Qin Yue can remember.

Therefore, after meeting with Robertson, Qin Yue was more convinced than anyone else that this labor-management negotiation, which was likely to lead to a shutdown, was by no means impossible to reach an agreement.

The so-called losses of the investors have long been ruthlessly exposed by Bobby Musk.

Qin Yue knew very well that as long as the players could unite and let the employer calm down and return to the negotiating table, this labor-management negotiation could be resolved through dialogue.

So, after Stern's opening remarks, Qin Yue said on behalf of the players: "You know, we just want to play the basketball we have played for a long, long time. If anyone wants to threaten us by not letting us play basketball, we will never compromise at any time."

Hearing this, Jordan snorted coldly and said, "But it is precisely because you want to play basketball that we suffer losses! You account for 57% of basketball-related income, you get most of the income, and you have all kinds of guarantees! But you never understand the difficulties of those of us who provide you with a stage to perform. Is this reasonable?"

In response to the question raised by capitalist Jordan, Qin Yue smiled and said, "Michael, do you know whose famous quote I borrowed from my opening remarks just now?"

Jordan frowned.

Qin Yue said: "My opening remarks just now were exactly what Michael Jordan said to the owners of the league back then."

"."

Capitalist Jordan obviously didn't know how many boomerangs Jordan left for him when he was a player.

Then, ignoring Jordan who had been killed by his blow, Qin Yue continued, "Besides, who says we don't understand the difficulties of each team? I have made it very clear on the show I host that all of our players agree to reduce the proportion of our basketball-related income to 54%."

But Sterling, who thought the players' union was just bargaining, said, "We can only accept 47%! You have already made enough!" Seeing this, Qin Yue sneered, "Then in tonight's All-Star Weekend game, please invite Mr. Donald Sterling to perform for the fans on stage!"

"Don't even think about threatening me." Sterling said firmly, "What storms and waves haven't I seen?"

Sterling's attitude has brought the negotiations to a standstill.

However, the tough attitude of the players led by Qin Yue obviously exceeded Sterling's expectations.

"If Mr. Donald Sterling can represent the position of the capital side, then this negotiation will end here." Qin Yue said as he stood up and prepared to leave.

On the side, Stern quickly came out to smooth things over and said, "We can talk about the proportion of basketball-related income later."

Unexpectedly, Qin Yue said in an extremely firm tone: "54% is our bottom line! If you are unwilling to accept it, then from now on, all our players will not participate in any NBA games!"

In the conference room, all the investors' representatives took a deep breath when they saw Qin Yue's bright eyes.

Because as long as they understand there is no problem.
Qin Yue was clearly imitating Robertson's threat to strike!

So what this means is that we didn't threaten you with a lockout, but you threatened us with a strike first?
Sterling said angrily: "You are not here to negotiate, you are here to threaten us!"

Qin Yue knew very well that if the season was fully played out, even if the players threatened to strike again, it would be difficult to achieve the same effect as it is now.

According to the agreement between NBA and TV broadcasters.
If the NBA becomes a shortened season due to a lockout, the only revenue lost by the NBA is the revenue from the lockout.

Moreover, because the league owners will be mentally prepared before the lockout, even if there is a lockout, it cannot shake the idea of these team owners to gain more benefits in this labor-management negotiation.

But once the NBA is suspended in the middle of the season.
That time.
The loss to the NBA will inevitably be an astronomical figure that no owner can afford.

However, at this moment, Jordan still didn't believe that the players were willing to follow Qin Yue in striking.

Until Paul personally showed a signature to the capital representative.

This is the signature that Qin Yue collected from those NBA stars who were willing to follow him after arriving in Dallas.

In the conference room, when the representatives of the capital side saw the names of the stars one by one, they knew very well that even if there were still a large number of players who had not signed on this list,
But if these stars don't participate for the rest of the season, what's the point of the NBA?
So, after the management requested a meeting suspension and held an urgent discussion, Jerry Buss said on behalf of the management: "I am very happy that we can reach a consensus. We are grateful for your concession."

Bobby Musk wasn't wrong.

After the NBA signs a new television broadcast agreement, as long as the players are willing to reduce the relevant share of basketball income to 54%, the league's teams will be completely self-sufficient.

So in order to prevent Qin Yue from really leading that group of superstars to strike, no matter how anxious Sterling and Jordan were, old Buss and other bosses would not watch that happen.

However, just as the meeting resumed, Qin Yue made another proposal that broke Sterling's defense: "Since we have already made concessions, it is your turn to make concessions next. Based on the existing agreement, the NBA must increase the benefits of middle and lower-level players."

In Qin Yue's opinion, since players' basketball-related income will decline in the next few years, the league teams should naturally increase the contract guarantee ratio of middle and lower-level players, and provide them with corresponding benefits to reduce their losses.

On this point, the representatives of owners of big-market teams and the representatives of owners of small-market teams have different views.

In the eyes of old Buss and Lacob, since all the extra money has been spent, why bother about this little money?

But in Sterling's opinion.
Qin Yue was simply cutting off his already poor body!
"I don't agree!" Sterling said angrily, "Don't even think about threatening me by going on strike on this point!"

Fisher, who originally thought that Qin Yue was just using this proposal as a bargaining chip, never expected that Qin Yue was actually serious about it!

After Sterling made his statement, the flag of the alliance immediately led the other players to stand up and prepare to leave the venue.

Seeing this, the other representatives of the capital side, who were worried that the talks would be in vain, could only grit their teeth and tell Sterling to shut up while agreeing to Qin Yue's not-too-excessive request.

At this time, Stern, who had been acting as a peacemaker throughout the whole process, also discovered that Qin Yue was completely a replica of Robertson back then.

He is sure that the league cannot afford the adverse effects of a star players' strike at the current point in time.

Just like Iceland in the Cod War, which always made Britain helpless.

As the weaker party, Qin Yue, who successfully united many superstars, not only accurately attacked the weaknesses of the capital side, but also gradually transformed them into his winning advantage in this labor-management negotiation.

In addition, compared with Robertson in 1964, Qin Yue has an advantage.

Because no matter how unwilling the bosses like Sterling are.
They all had to admit that without Qin Yue, the NBA would never have been able to sign that six-year, $6 billion television broadcast contract.

"It seems that we have all underestimated the determination of the league's most outstanding player." In the middle of the meeting, Old Buss commented on Qin Yue, "He doesn't just want to speak for the players to gain reputation, but wants to seek real benefits for the players of this era like Oscar Robertson did back then."

During this labor-management negotiation, Qin Yue became the god of war in the eyes of all the players.

He led a group of superstars to defeat the capital representatives and forced them to sign various "unequal treaties".

"From today on, my idol will no longer be Michael Jordan." Paul looked at Qin Yue with admiration and said, "As a pioneer, the resistance is always the greatest, but you can't say you are the GOAT only when you need others to regard you as the GOAT. I won't say that the Messiah is the GOAT of our time, but he is always seeking benefits for all players, and he is fulfilling the responsibilities of the GOAT!"

Garnett agreed with this and said, "What the hell is Michael Jordan? His ugly face today really opened my eyes! From now on, there can only be one GOAT in the basketball world, and I vote for the Messiah!"

On the side, Kobe wanted to say a few fair words for his idol, but in this situation, even Kobe couldn't whitewash Jordan. "The Messiah's contribution to this labor-management negotiation is enough to make him immortal."

After this labor-management negotiation, the capitalist Jordan's divinity is bound to be completely shattered in the minds of new-age players as the major media outlets reveal.

Especially when there is Qin Yue, the big yellow O, for comparison.

In this meeting, Qin Yue, who argued for the players and was willing to break off relations with many capitalists, formed a sharp contrast with the vain god who had only stolen six championship rings.

The news that the players defeated the management in labor negotiations for the first time since 1983 spread throughout the basketball world at the first time.

Although the specific details of the new labor agreement are still to be negotiated, with the players' great victory in the general direction, Qin Yue almost instantly received the respect of all the players.

James, who did not participate in the labor-management negotiations, said in an interview: "He led us to win a great battle just like Oscar Robertson did. You know, in this negotiation, I always followed him closely!"

Did James really stand firmly with Qin Yue in this negotiation?

Qin Yue didn’t know.

But he knew that James did not sign that list.

However, on this beautiful day when the hidden danger of NBA lockout has been completely resolved, who cares about these?

On the evening of the 15th, the All-Star Weekend game was held at the home stadium of the NFL Dallas Cowboys.

In this stadium that can accommodate nearly 100,000 people, Qin Yue, who had exhausted all his strength in the previous labor-management negotiations, intended to play a supporting role in the game.

Nowitzki was elected AMVP with 36 points and 7 rebounds amid the thunderous cheers of the home fans.

When delivering his acceptance speech, Nowitzki said: "I think every one of us players owes the Messiah a thank you. He is the MVP in my mind."

……

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(End of this chapter)