The Rest, Only Noise

Chapter 112: ultimatum

"The rest, only noise new( Find the latest chapter!

In February, the league and the NBPA were in talks again as All-Star Weekend convened.

It has been two months since the last negotiation, and both sides have been unhappy.

Two months can allow both parties to calm down a bit, seriously consider each other's demands, and then come up with a more reasonable plan.

The top priority for the league is to reduce spending immediately, and some teams are already running out of steam.

The players' union's appeal is to share the benefits of the broadcast contract with the league.

It hits the bottom line of some teams.

It is difficult for some weak teams to sell tickets, and the revenue from broadcast contracts is an important source of income for them, which involves another problem.

At the team level, income inequality between the rich and the poor is also a significant phenomenon.

A team like the Lakers that spends money without blinking an eye, they didn't lose money. Buss managed to sell the Lakers out, making the rich and stars of Los Angeles think that going to the Forum Arena to watch football is a face. light thing.

No one knows how much business Bass has negotiated through the Lakers game.

Negotiations progressed slowly. The union began to accept the salary cap, but they did not accept the hard cap. They agreed to set a flexible soft cap, and the amount of the soft cap should be determined by the total income of the league.

Then there is the broadcast contract sharing that the union is most concerned about.

This share determines the size of the salary cap.

The league is only willing to give between 30%-40%, Larry Fleischer sneered, because they can also ask for 60%-70% of the income, but it does not make sense for the negotiation.

After much negotiation, they successfully settled the contract share between 52%-57%.

Things seemed to be going so well that the league thought their negotiations with the union were close to completion, but when the next negotiation opened, Fleischer made a new proposal.

He threw out a contract that said the salary cap would go into effect for the 1986-87 season, the date the Robertson settlement ended. From that year onwards, the league will usher in full free agency, not the restricted free agency that is now taking off his pants and farting.

This contract can eliminate players' concerns about the salary cap and avoid the legal problems caused by the Robertson case, but it hits a bottom line for the owners - the owners' demand is to immediately implement the salary cap from next season. Cutting costs.

The negotiations between the two sides were close to breaking down, and Fleischer immediately called all the players after returning to express his position.

Tensions intensified.

In Boston, the more Louie looked at Archibald, the more he felt like the 2020 George Hill who called the team on strike.

He asked everyone to act together, forcing the team to give them better flights, better hotels.

Bill Fitch didn't allow players to create conflict over this kind of thing, he did something that cost him the respect of all players.

In order to punish the players, he forced the team to arrange economy class for the players.

And the coaching staff all sat in first class.

Even Bird could not accept his approach, and the Celtics' team atmosphere took a turn for the worse.

Louie chose to fly with the players in economy class. He had to appease the emotions in the team. Although Fitch was detonating the team, it was not good for him to let the team explode now.

The same thing happened with other teams.

For example, the Dallas Mavericks, new to the league, were forced to book two flights to buy enough first-class seats to meet the needs of their players.

There are also teams with no money who choose to play against the players.

The relationship between players and teams began to deteriorate, which led to the 1983 All-Star Game in Los Angeles.

Before the game, the NBA brought in comedian Jonathan Winster. He was a funny guy. Before inviting him to come, the league officials also tested him. They agreed that Winster could make everyone laugh. come out.

As a result, on the day of the performance, the players seemed to have negotiated, and everyone was expressionless.

Winster was also stunned to see rows of black people standing in front of him. He knew that he had no common language with these people, not even the same laughs.

Finally, he routinely performed his best show of killing the Japanese — a racist show that sparked Asian-American criticism of the NBA.

Louie jumped out and strongly criticized the show as a representative of the Asian-American community in Boston: "I don't know who arranged it, but I believe everyone is very dissatisfied with it, there is no laughter, and NBA officials seem to feel that this Funny? You racists can't even pretend?"

The ironic scene continued.

Stern came out to apologize to all Asians who felt offended, but he stressed that artistic creation should be free, and comedian Jonathan Winster is very respected in his field.

There are more and more things burning eyebrows, and the league has not dealt with the bombs it created, Fleischer asked the players to give them an ultimatum.

If they don't reach a new deal by April 1, the players will protest with a strike.

Archibald is more of a Celtic leader than ever.

He made a statement in front of Bird: "If we can't reach a new agreement by then, we will stop work, it's that simple!"

For the first time, Louis felt that he was witnessing some history.

What happened in February of 1983, and what will happen in March and April, is difficult for future fans to know.

From his perspective from the future, the league must have successfully launched the salary cap in the end, but I don’t know how many difficulties and obstacles have been experienced in this process.

For now, he can't see the possibility of the two sides having a negotiation.

Also, the players and owners have annoyed fans over money disputes.

They're fed up with players throwing a steady stream of bills into their pockets while playing a mess, and they don't like greedy bosses who continue to cry.

The players union issued an ultimatum to the league, and then it was the turn of the leading stars of each team to express their opinions.

"It's not a threat, it's a defense," Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told reporters, "We just want to maintain our current income and create an upward channel, but the bosses think we're taking too much money, so Going down I don't think they'll get what they want."

Jazz star David Griffith said: "I can guarantee 100% that if the situation does not change, we will have 11 people choose the same way to respond (strike)."

Bird, who never wanted to be the focus in front of the media, expressed his voice on behalf of the entire team: "We have no obligation to save the boss. The boss should save himself. If necessary, we can give up the game."

Later he added.

"If the league will collapse," Bird said heavily, "let it collapse."

There's only one team that doesn't want a shutdown.

That's the Philadelphia 76ers.

In order to chase the championship, they took the lead in breaking the silence of the offseason and brought in Moses Malone with a big contract that shamed the owners.

They had the best record in the league. Four people on the team were selected as All-Stars. Dr. J won the AMVP. This year is their year.

Tensions are unprecedented, and the next meeting between the union and union is set for March 1.

For owners, the only thing they want to be sure of is if the NBPA really wants to screw it up.

Smashing is definitely one of the last things teams want to see.

Because CBS has increased the live broadcast and publicity of NBA games this year, the ratings have increased. The playoffs are the time for fans to see the real excitement of the NBA. That is the time to make big money. The reputation that has been hard-earned will fall to the bottom.

If they can't take advantage of the deteriorating relationship between the NFL and CBS, they don't know when the next time they will be taken seriously by TV stations.

Nearing March, the league abruptly canceled a meeting with the union.

Not only that, but they also held a press conference and prepared a six-page press release.

It was an aggressive PR campaign aimed at underscoring the NBA's standing, intimidating players, and trying to put pressure on other parties — players, unions and Fleischer — publicly and privately, nationally and locally.

The press release lays out the NBA's current position in the negotiations, explains the salary cap proposal and provides details to the public. The NBA's message was that their demands were fair and reasonable, and that the players union broke the agreement.

The NBA wants to get a head start on public opinion.

Apparently the NBA has a bad reputation ~www.readwn.com~ The players' reputation is even worse.

This will give fans across the country the impression that the NBA has a bunch of bad habits, violent, greedy and discontented bastards.

There is still one month before the strike deadline given by the union, and the two sides have not reached any consensus.

Moreover, the relationship has deteriorated, the negotiations have basically broken down, the masks on their faces have been torn off, and each other is pouring dirty water on each other's bodies.

Louie couldn't believe they would agree before the deadline.

Has the season really stopped?

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of historical ignorance.

The advantage is that he looks forward to the future progress, and the disadvantage is that he is worried that the result will not turn out as he thought.

For the convenience of reading next time, you can click the \"Favorite\" below to record the reading record of this time (Chapter 113 Ultimatum), and you can see it when you open the bookshelf next time!

If you like "The Rest, Only Noise", please recommend this book to your friends (QQ, blog, WeChat, etc.), thank you for your support! ()

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like