During the Knicks' championship parade, rumors began to fly.
The first thing that came out was the news that head coach Riley was leaving the team.
The news capabilities of the paparazzi in this era cannot be underestimated. I don’t know where they got the gossip. They learned that the Heat wanted Riley to serve as both the team’s general manager and head coach at the same time.
For the head coach of any team, being able to concurrently serve as the general manager is the best thing about his coaching career. This means that he can directly decide what kind of players he wants, and no one will tell you what kind of players he wants.
They don't know a thing about tactics and strategies, but they sign this and that deal, and as a result, they turn a good team into a mess.
Although Riley has just won the championship with the Knicks, it may be difficult for the Heat to refuse such a generous offer.
Moreover, after the Knicks won the championship, anyone with a discerning eye could see that they might not be able to retain their championship-winning lineup.
The Knicks have no way to solve the problem of how to renew Wang Feng's contract, not to mention that Ewing has long been clamoring for a big contract.
Regardless of whether they are missing Wang Feng or Ewing, in everyone's opinion, it will be difficult for the Knicks to defend their title next year. Even if it is not a mess, it is not much better and there is little room for operational improvement.
Sailing against the current will lead to retreat, and has helped the Knicks win the championship. If Riley stays here, he will leave sooner or later as long as he cannot continue to win the championship.
As soon as this news was announced, teams across the league were ready to take action, even the Bulls were no exception.
Wang Feng's performance in the playoffs was so strong that anyone who watched it would be salivating.
The faster teams have already started to act.
In the next day, Wang Feng received calls from more than seven teams. They all had the same purpose, trying to persuade Wang Feng to join their team.
However, Wang Feng's casual words scared away most of the teams.
"Want to sign me? OK, I want an annual salary of 10 million."
Ten million annual salary? Are you kidding me?
Don't look at the future. Even a substitute role player in the league with a little bit of ability can get an annual salary of tens of millions. In the 1990s, the situation was completely different.
Unsurprisingly, the first contract in NBA history with an annual salary exceeding tens of millions will be signed by the Knicks and Ewing in the near future.
The Knicks reached an agreement with Ewing. Ewing's salary for the 1995-96 season was as high as $18.72 million, which shocked the entire league.
But in the 1996-97 season, Ewing's salary became US$300 again, because he signed a two-year contract with the Knicks for US$21.72 million, but at that time the Knicks wanted to free up the contract in 1997.
There was enough salary space to pursue Jordan, whose contract was expiring, so he signed such a contract with Ewing. The salary in the first year was ridiculously high, and in the second year it was only 3 million.
In this way, the Knicks not only have the salary space to pursue Jordan, but also can compensate Ewing for not suffering a salary loss.
Therefore, Ewing's average annual salary in the past two years should actually be calculated as US$10.86 million.
Even if it was only US$10.86 million, it was still the highest annual salary in the league in those two years. No one in the league could match it, including Jordan. At that time, Jordan led the team to a record of 72 wins and 10 losses and won the championship, and his annual salary was only US$3.85 million.
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Of course, as the Bulls won the championship, in order to retain Jordan the next year, the team offered an annual salary of 30.14 million that shocked the league, and the salary directly exceeded the team's salary cap.
At that time, Jordan had caused the league to ignore the salary cap and luxury tax rules, and the Bulls became the only team in the league with a salary of up to 58 million US dollars. At the same time, the league's salary cap was only a little over 20 million.
There is a story to tell. At that time, the Bulls were somewhat cheating. Was Jordan worth 30 million? Of course it was worth it. But while getting Jordan with an annual salary of 30 million, the Bulls also spent 9 million to retain Rhodes.
Mann, making the Bulls completely ahead of all teams at the same time in terms of lineup.
Therefore, in fact, the strength of the Bulls after three consecutive championships is still somewhat controversial.
What Wang Feng is thinking now is, since Ewing can get tens of millions of annual salary, why can't he get it? In other words, teams that are not willing to pay tens of millions of annual salary for him will definitely not pay attention to his important position in the team.
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But Wang Feng's lion opened its mouth and really scared away many teams.
There is no way, this kind of thing will be known with a little reference.
Olajuwon's annual salary next season is 5.31 million, David Robinson is 7.7 million, Karl Malone is 3.68 million, and even Barkley, who wants money but not a championship, only has 4.76 million.
Of course, there are several general managers of these teams who know what bargaining is.
An annual salary of 10 million is really too high. Let’s each take a step back. How about 8 million? This salary is currently the highest offer in the league.
There are several teams with similar behavior.
Among them, there is indeed a team that Wang Feng prefers.
Without exception, these teams are all weak teams at the bottom of the league. They themselves lack stars and hope to sign a capable star to enhance the team's strength.
Wang Feng's dominant performance in the playoffs obviously shocked them deeply and made them willing to pay some price.
These teams include the Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors in the West, and the Washington Bullets and Miami Heat in the East.
Among them, the Miami Heat are the most eager. They are even willing to sign a four-year contract worth 38 million US dollars with Wang Feng. The average annual salary of 950 yuan is infinitely close to 10 million yuan in annual salary.
But Wang Feng knew that the Heat had already been in contact with Riley at this time, and the two parties had even reached a cooperation but had not yet announced it. As the general manager of the Heat, Riley had every right to decide on anything.
No one knows Wang Feng’s strength better than Riley. Even though Wang Feng is 30 years old, he is definitely worthy of a high-paying long-term contract.
Since Wang Feng wants an annual salary of tens of millions, then give it to him, as long as he can stay with the Heat for a long time.
The Heat are full of sincerity, not only offering Wang Feng a high salary but also promising Wang Feng the sole core position in the team, but unfortunately Wang Feng does not want to consider the Heat.
The reason is also very simple. Riley's strong coaching style does not fit with him. Wang Feng himself is also a strong person. As the saying goes, there is no room for two tigers in one mountain. When he was with the Knicks, it was only half a season. Wang Feng could tolerate it a little if he wanted to be a long-term partner.
He really couldn't stand it.
Besides, Wang Feng also knew the cold-blooded and ruthless side of Riley, an old fox. Wang Feng didn't like him either as the team's general manager or head coach.
Therefore, Wang Feng directly rejected the conditions offered by the Heat and made it clear that he would not consider the Heat, completely rejecting the Heat's interest.
As for the other teams, Wang Feng also carefully analyzed them one by one.
Among these teams, the biggest one in the market is obviously the Los Angeles Clippers. Although the Clippers during this period have been unilaterally suppressed by the Lakers, the giants in the same city, they are located in the City of Angels after all, and the life of Hollywood in the 1990s was rich and glamorous.
The temptation is quite great.
But consider that the Clippers owner at this time is the notorious Donald Sterling.
If Riley is disliked by Wang Feng simply because of his strong coaching style, then Sterling, the owner of the Clippers, is simply disgusted.
Anyone who knows the NBA knows about Sterling's racial discrimination, but they don't know much about his stinginess.
In fact, since becoming the owner of the Clippers, Sterling has been famous for being stingy. He has never paid luxury taxes. There has been no player with a particularly high salary in the team for more than ten years. In order to save the cost of hiring a trainer, Sterling
Lin also asked the head coach of the Tangtang team to help the players tie bandages. The Clippers were also the last team in the league to rent a special plane and hire assistant coaches.
In addition, Sterling brought his affair girlfriend into the players' locker room more than once.
Wang Feng has no interest in experiencing what Grandet, the most famous boss in the league, is like.
So PASS.
After some screening, Wang Feng initially set his goals on the following teams.
Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors.
Without exception, these three teams have been the weakest teams at the bottom of the league in recent years, which meets Wang Feng's requirements.
Among them, Dallas and San Francisco are both good cities, and the Timberwolves are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although it is not a particularly bad city, it is covered in ice and snow and the environment is somewhat unfriendly.
The reason why Wang Feng likes the Timberwolves is that the Timberwolves are about to select the most famous power forward in history, Kevin Garnett, in the draft in a few days.
Although Wang Feng's goal is to defeat the Bulls dynasty, he is not stupid. It is still too difficult to defeat the top Bulls alone without any helpers.
As a rookie, Garnett was very suitable to be Wang Feng's right-hand man.
Although Garnett was regarded by the Timberwolves as the future core of the team when he first joined the league, in fact not many people were optimistic about him.
On the one hand, as a high school draft pick, no one knows how long it will take for Garnett to adapt to the NBA game.
On the other hand, as an insider, Garnett's weight and confrontational ability gave the league in the 1990s, which was dominated by hard-core centers inside, no special confidence.
If Garnett hadn't shown amazing jumping and agility far beyond that of post players during the trial, it would have been difficult to impress the Timberwolves' management.
Garnett's statistics in the first three seasons of his career were 10.4 points and 6.3 rebounds, 17 points and 8 rebounds, and 18.5 points and 9.6 rebounds.
It is obvious that each season is getting better than the last, but the performance during this period has obviously not reached the level of a top star, and these three seasons coincide with the period of the Bulls' three consecutive championship dynasty.
During this period, even if Wang Feng defeated the Bulls, no one would insist that it was because Garnett was so good that he could defeat Jordan.
What Wang Feng wants is a complete victory that even Heizi can't say anything about.
Therefore, when he communicated with the Dallas Mavericks, he only asked one question: Are you willing to trade Jason Kidd in exchange for this year's top four picks and then sign Garnett?
Then Wang Feng’s phone number was blocked by the Mavericks management.
Jason Kidd was the second pick in the 1994 draft. He was the only player behind Grant Hill in the entire 1994 class. He even shared the Rookie of the Year award with Hill. He has a bright future. The Mavericks regard him as the magician of Dallas.
cultivated.
In a small draft year like 1996, let alone Garnett, even the top pick Joe Smith was not qualified to exchange for Kidd.
Therefore, the Mavericks' management felt that Wang Feng was just taking advantage of them.
But in fact, what Wang Feng said was the truth.
Kidd is indeed very strong, but Wang Feng has always felt that he is a bit overrated. Although the league's famous Kidd is outstanding in passing, assists and defense, his lack of scoring ability alone is enough to determine Kidd's final upper limit.
, it is also destined that his achievements on the court will not exceed those of Earvin Johnson, Steve Nash and other competitors.
Trading Kidd for Garnett is definitely a profitable deal.
More importantly, Wang Feng is preparing to return to his old job as a point guard in the new season. If he goes to Dallas, Kidd will definitely be traded out, otherwise he can only sit on the bench and watch how Wang Feng plays the point guard.
Defender of the ball.
What a joke, these days, if a point guard doesn’t average 30+10+10 points per game, how dare he be called a point guard?
The Mavericks clearly refused, allowing Wang Feng to communicate with the Golden State Warriors again.
On the phone, Wang Feng still meant the same thing.
"Can the Warriors use the No. 1 pick to select Garnett, or trade the No. 1 pick to get Garnett and some good bargains?"
That's right, the No. 1 pick in this year's draft belongs to the Golden State Warriors, and they will use the No. 1 pick to select forward Joe Smith.
Many people know about Joe Smith. It was revealed that this guy signed a Yin-Yang contract with the Timberwolves in the future. This guy can be described as a good example of fun-loving. He averaged only 10.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in his career. He was at his peak when he debuted and basically had no problems.
The value of cultivation.
Because of this guy, the Warriors missed Garnett, the roaring star Rasheed Wallace, and Damon Stoudemire. It is indeed a pity.
Originally, Wang Feng thought that the Warriors management would hang up the phone without hesitation and block him like the Mavericks did.
After all, most people wouldn't be able to tolerate him as a free agent dictating the Warriors' No. 1 pick.
But Wang Feng did not expect that the Warriors management team thought for a moment and then said: "Mr. Wang Feng, this matter is of great importance. We must have a meeting to discuss and think it over before giving you a definite answer. I will give you a definite answer tomorrow."
Call us to let you know our decision."
As soon as these words came out, Wang Feng was stunned.
What's the meaning?
Are the Warriors really ready to take their own advice seriously?
One thing to say, if the Warriors really agree, Wang Feng can really consider the Warriors.
The Warriors were originally located in San Francisco, California, which is the city with the largest Chinese population in the United States and is also relatively prosperous.
And the current head coach of the Warriors is Rick Adelman.
As one of the league's future coaches, Adelman has a very good coaching level, and he is most famous for playing the Princeton Tactics when coaching the Kings.
Many people have said that Princeton's tactics are the tactics that are most suitable for the small ball era, and are even more in line with modern basketball concepts than the Suns' run-and-gun tactics to a certain extent.
Wang Feng still attaches great importance to this point, after all, he is a player who has traveled from the future small ball era.