Chapter 567 God Clause

The grand celebration made Seattle revel for a whole week.

The Seattle City Government officially designated June 28, the day when the Supersonics won four consecutive championships, as Lin Dong Day, which not only commemorated the glory of the Supersonics, but also praised the incredible miracle that Lin Dong brought to the people of Seattle on this day.

The name Lin Dong has become Seattle's business card, the real prince of the Supersonics, the uncrowned king of Seattle!

It's a pity...

No matter how lively the dinner is, it will end, and no matter how sumptuous the banquet is, there will be only leftovers.

After the crazy all-night revelry in Seattle, and the whole world cheering for the Supersonics and this group of Asians, the unfortunate news came that the invincible combination of the Supersonics is destined to disband this summer.

First of all, it's because of salary.

Lin Dong and Sakuragi Hanamichi have been selected to the league's first team for consecutive years. According to the league's salary regulations, this must be matched with a maximum salary contract.

And Iguodala and Chandler have been selected to the second defensive team twice in a row, and Rukawa Kaede has also won a third-team best offense this year, which at least has to match a large middle-class contract.

The combined salary of these five players alone can trigger the fourth-tier luxury tax, not to mention the substitutes.

Admittedly, the Sonics have made a lot of money in recent years, and they can afford the high luxury tax.

At the same time, the five players clearly love the Sonics and are willing to reduce their salaries to stay with the team.

It's a pity that the entire league doesn't agree, and Stern won't agree either.

Admittedly, since the day Lin Dong joined the Sonics, Stern can be said to have been escorting him. When Lin Dong was still "weak", it was Stern who withstood the waves of attacks from Nike for him, which also made Stern receive a lot of praise in Longguo and even the world.

But in fact, Nike is not only Lin Dong's enemy, it is also Stern's.

Two years ago, Stern had already seen that Nike wanted to control the league and even wanted to undermine him.

In addition to the superficial pursuit of fairness and justice, Stern's biggest purpose in supporting Lin Dong is actually to cultivate a trump card for himself against Nike.

Now, Nike has fallen. Since Phil Knight's death on the 28th, Nike's stock price has suffered a Waterloo. It has fallen to the bottom in just half a month. All shareholders who want to cash out are trapped and cannot sell out. At the same time, those financial tycoons on Wall Street who shorted Nike have made a lot of money and reaped a lot of wealth.

In just over half a month, Nike is on the verge of delisting. The entire company is insolvent and it is only a matter of time before it declares bankruptcy.

And when Nike, the biggest enemy, falls... Stern's trump card personally cultivated has become his biggest concern in turn.

This is not just Lin Dong, but the entire Supersonics.

This team is too strong, strong enough to destroy all the suspense of the entire league.

This is a commercial league. How can there be a 4:0 finals every time? Even the Bulls, who won three consecutive championships twice, never showed such dominance.

Now the whole country and the whole world admire them, making the Supersonics feel superior to the league. Although they have not shown anything, Stern, who has a keen sense of smell, can already imagine that if the Supersonics continue to dominate like this, it will not only lose the balance of all the teams in the league, but sooner or later, the entire league will have to rely on the breath of the Supersonics to survive, including the headquarters and him, Stern!

Nike once wanted to control the league and control the league's discourse power, and Stern regarded it as an enemy.

Now that the Supersonics have such a trend, they naturally become Stern's new enemy.

Therefore, the new league rules were released in July when the player trading market opened.

God clause, this is a new clause named after Lin Dong, Sakuragi Hanamichi and Payton.

God clause 1: Those who won the league's best first team in the previous year, whether they are the first team of defense or the first team of offense, will have their salary rigidly increased to the maximum salary of the 6-year level (30% of the team's salary cap, no salary reduction is allowed). Those who won the league's best second team in the previous year shall not have their salary reduced to less than 18% of the team's salary cap.

God Clause 2: Players who have won a championship as a main force (average playing time in the regular season or playoffs is more than 20 minutes per game), the salary will automatically increase by 5% in the next year (including signed contracts, automatically effective).

God Clause 3: The luxury tax can only reach four levels at most. After exceeding the fourth level, it is a hard restriction clause, that is, if it exceeds the salary cap by 40%, it is not allowed to sign.

At the same time, the league directly canceled the luxury tax preferential clause.

As soon as the clause came out, everyone saw clearly that this was a clause against the Supersonics, and the Supersonics were to be forcibly disintegrated.

After all, judging from the restrictions of several clauses, the salary of Sakuragi Hanamichi and Lin Dong, two players who have been selected for the first team and won consecutive championships, has reached more than 80% of the team's salary cap after the increase. The remaining salary space can basically only be given to some newcomers and ordinary substitutes. After all, a team must have at least a roster of twelve people.

So, either Lin Dong and Sakuragi Hanamichi stay at the same time, let Iguodala, Chandler and Rukawa Kaede go, or Lin Dong and Sakuragi Hanamichi can only be split up.

The fans of the Supersonics cursed at the beginning. Lin Dong and Sakuragi Hanamichi have long become the totem figures of the Supersonics, while Iguodala and Chandler have always been the meritorious veterans of the Supersonics' glory. Even Rukawa Kaede, who has only been here for two seasons, already has a wide fan base in Seattle.

It's a pity that the fans' curses are useless. The league's rigid regulations, and even if Stern's little thoughts are put aside, these clauses are completely reasonable.

After all, except for the fans of the Supersonics, no one wants to watch a game dominated by one team. Even the fans of the Supersonics themselves, no matter how much they want to see the strength of the home team, have been crushing for four consecutive years. If they continue to crush, it seems that there is no point to watch.

Is it still a game without an opponent?

As for forming another super team to compete with the Supersonics, they have already done so this season, forming the Super Cavaliers and the Super Lakers, but they all ate a duck egg 4:0 at the hands of the Supersonics, which is enough to prove that this road is simply not feasible.

The opposition on the Internet did not last long. The new policy of the league has been accepted by the whole United States. Obviously, the only one who needs to make changes is the Supersonics.

…………

July 16, 4:20 p.m.

The summer trading market opened on July 9, and the period from the 9th to the 16th is the time for various trials and offers in the free market. By tomorrow, on the 17th, all teams and players can enter the free signing stage.

The stay or departure of these Supersonics players is obviously the top priority for basketball people in the United States and even the world.

Is it Sakuragi Hanamichi who leaves, or Chandler, Iguodala, Rukawa Kaede and others who leave?

Long before today, many teams have already made high offers to these four people.

According to the league's horrific income last year, this year's team salary cap has doubled from more than 40 million last year to 85 million US dollars.

Nine teams, including the Cavaliers, Lakers, and Clippers, offered Hanamichi Sakuragi a salary exceeding this year's maximum salary, which is 160 million for 5 years, which is more than 5 million higher than the maximum salary that Sakuragi would have if he stayed in the Supersonics.

More than a dozen other teams offered Iguodala, Chandler, and Rukawa Kaede 26 million, 25 million, and 22 million, respectively, all exceeding the salary cap that the Supersonics can offer by 18%.

Regardless of whether money can impress these people, according to the existing league terms, some of these people will definitely leave.

As the core of the team, Lin Dong will definitely not leave. In fact, no team has made an offer to Lin Dong.

What offer should be made?

Everyone is not stupid. The Supersonics' change of direction is equivalent to Lin Dong's own team... Leaving his own team for salary, leaving Seattle, which has made him the emperor, unless Lin Dong has a brain cramp.

So either Sakuragi Hanamichi will leave, or at least two or even three will leave.

The eyes of the whole world and the whole United States are now focused on Seattle and the Supersonics.

What will the Supersonics do?

Who of these people who helped Lin Dong create the Supersonics dynasty will leave?

Seattle, God Arena conference room.

There are many people sitting in the conference room. In addition to the team management, Lin Dong, Sakuragi, Iguodala and other main players are all there.

These days, there are rumors about the disbandment of the Supersonics, and there are all kinds of people who are leaving.

Some people say that they can send Sakuragi Hanamichi away and retain more meritorious officials, which can not only help the Supersonics more, but also find a substitute for the No. 4 position, which seems to be easier than finding three qualified 3D players.

There are also people who say that even if Iguodala, Chandler and Rukawa are sent away, Sakuragi Hanamichi must be kept. After all, he is the strongest defender in history and the most important part of the god combination. Payton has already left. If Sakuragi Hanamichi leaves again, the god combination will be completely disbanded. On the contrary, the team can always train 3D players like Iguodala, and it is not completely impossible to find a replacement.

There are even suggestions to cut salaries from other players. For example, in addition to these five main players, the team can use all rookie contracts, which is about one million per person. The 12 players with a mandatory requirement and 7 million only account for 10% of the salary cap, which can barely reach the edge of the fourth-tier luxury tax. Then the full main lineup can be retained, or at least four can be retained. At most, one Rukawa can be sent away.

However, on the one hand, you can't find so many rookie contracts, and on the other hand, it is equivalent to completely cutting off the future of the Supersonics.

A team, you don't train players? You don't need substitutes in case of injuries? You don't need to rotate players in the regular season?

Not to mention that everyone knows what the league is thinking now. If the Sonics really do this, then perhaps the league will soon add a god clause 4.

The Sonics executives have not given any decisive news in the past few days. It seems that they have not figured out how to renew the contracts with the players. Even Sakuragi Hanamichi went to Lin Dong and couldn't find out.

It is obvious that the Sonics management is also struggling.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Sakuragi can hear from Lin Dong's tone that the Sonics do not intend to send him away.

Then they must let Iguodala, Chandler and Rukawa go, at least two of them will go to the free agent market, and it is very likely that all three will go together.

Today is the time to announce the result.

Sakuragi Hanamichi sat at the table with a worried look on his face.

Frankly speaking, he didn't want to leave the Supersonics, absolutely not. He had already settled his family here, where he had everything he cared about, and the city of Seattle seemed to have become his second home.

However, he also knew that whether it was letting Iguodala, Chandler or Rukawa leave, it would be a more unacceptable result for them.

Iguodala might be better, he has no obvious weaknesses, and he is the type that can be plug-and-play for any team.

But the boxing champion is not good. Chandler's achievements today are largely based on the cooperation between the double towers and Sakuragi Hanamichi. After all, he has been injured and is not as tough as imagined. If he leaves Sakuragi Hanamichi's cooperation, his value will definitely drop next year.

If even Chandler can't adapt to other teams, then Rukawa is even worse.

His defense lacks a bit of confrontation after all. Sakuragi Hanamichi and Lin Dong are just Asian exceptions. If Rukawa is taken as an example, if he is put in Japan's B League or Dragon Country's CBA, he may be a strong player who can compete with the inside line, but in the NBA, he is too weak to compete with the back line.

His defense is basically based on the rotation defense system of the Supersonics, and the main focus is not confrontation but speed; his offense is also based on Lin Dong's ability to attract enough double-teams and always create open space for him.

So if there is no rotation defense system of the Supersonics, Rukawa's defense in the NBA can only be considered second-rate, and if there is no super king like Lin Dong who attracts firepower and is willing to pass the ball to him, then Rukawa's three-point skill package will obviously be eclipsed.

If he leaves the Supersonics, Rukawa Kaede will soon become a second-rate player. He should have no problem finding a job in the NBA, but it would be a pipe dream to expect him to get a salary of more than 20 million.

At this time, Yang Dong was still in the "warm-up" stage at the conference table, and was still talking to everyone with a smile, including the outlook for the Supersonics next season, etc. He didn't seem to think the question of who would stay and who would leave was very troublesome and would be discussed at the end.

But an impatient person like Sakuragi Hanamichi couldn't wait any longer.

He didn't want to wait for Yang Dong to speak out the question of "who would stay and who would leave" in public. After all, once the boss opened his mouth, even if he made sacrifices to keep his teammates, there would inevitably be a gap between them and the Supersonics.

"The Celtics have offered me a good contract." Sakuragi Hanamichi interrupted Yang Dong's speech, stood up in the stunned eyes of everyone, and said with a heavy face: "I'll quit... But I hope the team will keep Andre, Rukawa and the boxing champion, I..."

Rukawa, Iguodala and Chandler all sighed.

They knew Sakuragi Hanamichi's thoughts very well. For this guy, Seattle and the Supersonics are his second home. He chose to leave on his own initiative, not because of the 5-year 163 million contract offered by the Celtics, but because he wanted to help the three of them stay.

After all, the three of them knew very well that their honors and achievements were given by the Supersonics. If they left the Supersonics and this system, their value would inevitably be greatly reduced.

But Sakuragi Hanamichi is different. He has really reached the realm that Lin Dong said, so no matter where he goes to any team, no matter what system he integrates into, he can still get the top salary and realize his value on the court without being buried.

But... that would also sacrifice all the good things he had in Seattle in the past few years.

He could either stay in his comfort zone and drive away his teammates, or he could leave his comfort zone and let his teammates stay. He chose the latter.

Frankly speaking, this seems to be the best outcome for everyone.

But...