Chapter 1270 Internal Negotiations with the Investor
An hour later, the Suns held a press conference to announce that Li Ba had torn the meniscus in his left knee due to a slip in the shower at home, resulting in a season-ending injury.
This news caused an uproar in the media.
Most of the American media were about to sing and dance, predicting that Li Ba would fall from now on and his status would no longer be the same. And it would not be a simple decline, but a cliff-like decline.
The reason is very simple. Even if the meniscus is torn, the physical fitness will decline. For an insider, this is a very serious injury. Think of the time when Duncan went from a flying devil to a floor player.
A small number of media lamented that the world basketball world has lost another new generation of basketball gods.
After the news was announced, Li Ba received countless calls from Jordan, James, Kobe, Duncan, etc., as well as Yao and Alian. He couldn't tell the truth, so he had to continue to make up lies.
"Hammer, what's going on, you can get hurt even if you take a shower?" Director Li Jinshen of the Basketball Management Center called, his tone was urgent.
"No, no, that's what happened..." Li Ba quickly explained.
"You kid, you have nothing to do but engage in these monsters." After heaving a sigh of relief, Li Jinshen said angrily.
The next day, a large number of media rushed to Li Ba's hometown and surrounded his home.
"Yuanyuan did something wrong. It should be said that my hand was injured, so I still need this thing when I walk."
With the wind blowing, Li Ba waved one of his father's crutches. After practicing the Crazy Magic Wand technique in his living room, he went outside to accept interviews with the media.
"This bastard has always liked to cause trouble since he was a child and mess around when he has nothing to do." Li Dacheng said angrily.
"Whatever, Sissi is pregnant. What's wrong with him staying at home? After all these years, it's rare to stay at home." Zhou Yuehe said.
The media reporters struggled with Li Ba for a week before they slowly dispersed and the family returned to peace.
On November 20, Li Ba received a fax from the alliance.
This was passed to him by the Suns and was part of the agreement in the latest labor negotiations.
This agreement has not been passed yet because there are some things that have not been agreed upon.
But some basic contents have been determined. For example, the league still implements a soft salary cap system, which means that the employer's goal of implementing a hard salary cap has not been achieved.
But this agreement has made changes to the luxury tax, placed great restrictions on wealthy teams, restricted them from burning money, and helped improve the competitiveness of small teams.
For example, if the luxury line is within 5 million U.S. dollars, the ratio is 1:15. That is, if it exceeds 2 million U.S. dollars, a luxury tax of 3 million U.S. dollars will be paid. Adding wages, it is an additional expenditure of 4 million U.S. dollars.
For every additional five million dollars, the ratio increases by a factor of 0.5.
If a team exceeds the luxury line by $22 million, it will need to pay luxury tax at a ratio of 1 to 3.75, which means it will have to pay $82.5 million, plus the salary paid, that is Expenses exceeding $100 million.
According to the league's rules, up to 50% of the luxury tax is allowed to be allocated to teams that have not paid the luxury tax. This is an agreement to rob the rich and give to the poor. If passed, it will be a victory for the small team.
Li Ba couldn't help complaining when he saw this: "Now I know I wrongly blamed the league. The league doesn't want to see teams like the Lakers and Heat survive! How much luxury tax do they have to pay? Two hundred million dollars a season?"
"Husband, does that mean that even superstars can't be in a group anymore?" the girl asked.
Li Ba chuckled and said: "The luxury tax is so high. Not to mention the Lakers and Heat, the Knicks can't stand it. It's going to be lively for a while."
"Then if you come back, you can win the championship again?" the girl said with a smile.
"That is, they can't beat me even if they join forces. Now that this agreement is passed, they can only watch me win the championship." Li Ba said proudly.
"Has this clause been passed?" the girl asked again.
"No." Li Ba shook his head.
The girl rolled her eyes at her husband, "Why are you so happy if he doesn't pass?"
At this time, in a hotel in New York, Kupchak was sweating profusely. He was calculating the luxury tax based on the recent negotiations.
The salary cap for the 2011-12 season is 58 million, which is similar to last season, and Kobe alone accounts for 25 million.
For the remaining players, Howard has 18 million and UAE has 16 million. Just these three people have reached 59 million. The remaining 12 players combined have at least 10 to 20 million.
If it exceeds 20 million, then the luxury the team needs to hand over will be as high as 70 to 80 million US dollars, but this lineup cannot beat the Suns.
If Chris Paul is traded in, the luxury tax will be exceeded by 35 million to 37 million. According to the ratio of 1 to 4.75, the Lakers will have to pay a luxury tax of 1.7 billion US dollars. Including salaries, more than $200 million will be spent.
By the time he reached this point, there were already beads of sweat on his head.
"This is not going to work. This agreement must not pass. If it passes, we will never win against the Suns again."
The boss, Old Bass, was opposite him. After hearing his calculation results, his face was gloomy.
"Immediately contact the Knicks, Heat, Trail Blazers, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Celtics and other teams. We need to work together to reject this agreement."
He thought about it for a moment and then said.
Several team owners and general managers who had to pay a large amount of luxury tax every year quickly gathered together overnight to discuss countermeasures.
This labor-capital negotiation is not only a game between labor and capital, but also a game between the wealthy big teams and the poor small teams. A very important point is the luxury tax.
Small teams should limit the big teams from burning money to increase their competitiveness, especially after the expansion of the ball market in recent years, the big teams have made a lot of money, and the small teams have just been busy for a while, but have not made much money. Therefore, this negotiation is very difficult because the teams are not a monolithic entity.
On November 21, Stern held a board meeting, and all team owners and their agents participated in the meeting.
The content of the meeting was only one, which would eliminate the differences within the capital.
Suns owner Sarver was also among them. He watched coldly and was the happiest person.
With Li Ba in his hands, he didn't need to sign a second top-paid player at all. He couldn't pay much luxury tax, so he didn't worry at all.
Old Buss spoke first: "If the luxury tax is implemented according to this agreement, then the only result is that the Suns will continue to win the championship, and other teams will not be competitive at all. I don't think this is what everyone wants to see, right?"
"Sorry, let me remind you that we won the championship based on our strength." Sarver interrupted immediately without caring about being polite.