the rest, only noise

Chapter 113 Ultimatum
In February, on the occasion of the All-Star weekend, the league and the NBPA were negotiating again.

It has been two months since the last negotiation, and both sides have had a bad time.

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 of the league is to reduce expenses immediately, and some teams are almost unable to sustain it.

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

This violated the bottom line of some teams.

It is difficult for some weak teams to sell tickets, and the income from the broadcast contract is their important source of income, which involves another issue.

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 successfully sold the Lakers, making the rich and famous in Los Angeles think that going to the Forum to watch games is a good thing.

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

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

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

This split determines the size of the salary cap.

The league is only willing to pay between 30% and 40%, and Larry Fleischer sneered, because they can also ask for 60% to 70% of the income, but this is meaningless to the negotiation.

After many rounds of negotiations, they successfully set the contract share between 52% and 57%.

Things seemed to be going so well that the league thought their talks with the union were close to completion, but when the next round of talks 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 complete free agents, rather than the restricted free agents who take off their pants and fart like they are now.

This contract can eliminate players' concerns about the salary cap and avoid the legal problems brought about by the Robertson case, but it violates a bottom line of the bosses-the bosses' appeal is to immediately implement the salary cap starting next season to save money.

Negotiations between the two sides were on the verge of breaking down. After Fleischer went back, he immediately telegraphed all the players to express his position.

Tensions rose.

In Boston, the more Louis looked at Archibald, the more he felt like the George Hill who called the team to strike in 2020.

He asked everyone to act together and forced the team to adjust them to better flights and better hotels.

Bill Fitch does not allow players to create conflicts for this kind of thing. He did something that made him lose 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 the first class.

Even Bird couldn't accept his approach, and the atmosphere in the Celtics team took a turn for the worse.

Louis chose to fly economy class with the players. He had to appease the emotions in the team. Although Fitch was blowing up the team, it would not do him any good to let the team blow up now.

The same thing happened to other teams.

For example, the Dallas Mavericks, who are new to the league, were forced to book two flights to buy a sufficient number of first-class seats in order to meet the needs of their players.

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

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

In the warm-up show before the game, the NBA invited comedian Jonathan Winster. He is a funny person. Before inviting him to come, the league officials also tested him. They agreed that Winster could make everyone laugh.

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

Winston was also stunned when he saw rows of black people standing in front of him. He knew that he had no common language with these people, and they didn't even have the same laughing points.

In the end, he routinely performed his best show of killing Japanese people-this racist show sparked criticism of the NBA from Asians.

Louie jumped out and strongly criticized the show as a representative of Boston's Asian community: "I don't know who arranged it, but I believe everyone is very dissatisfied with it. There was no laughter at the scene, and NBA officials seem to think it's funny? Can't you gang of racists even pretend?"

The ironic scene continued.

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

More and more things were imminent, and the league hadn't dealt with the explosive bombs it had created, so Fleischer asked the players to give them an ultimatum.

If they do not reach a new agreement by April 4, the players will protest with a strike.

Archibald Derby looked like Celtic's leader at all times.

He made a statement in front of Bird: "If a new agreement cannot be reached by then, we will stop working, it's that simple!"

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

What happened in February 1983, and what will happen in March and April, it will be difficult for future fans to understand.

From his perspective from the future, the league must have successfully introduced the salary cap in the end, but it is unknown how many difficulties and obstacles there have been in the process.

For now, he can't see the possibility of the two parties coming together.

Moreover, the dispute between the players and the owner about money annoyed the fans.

They're fed up with players pocketing a steady stream of cash while messing up games, and they don't like greedy owners who continue to cry poor.

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

"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 feel that we have taken too much money. If this continues, I don't think they can get what they want."

The Jazz's rising star David Griffith stated: "I can guarantee 11 percent that if the situation does not change, [-] of us will choose the same way to respond (strike)."

Bird, who never wanted to be the focus in front of the media, voiced his voice on behalf of the whole 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 this is going to break the league," Byrd said emphatically, "let it fail."

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

That's the Philadelphia 76ers.

In order to chase the championship, they took the lead in breaking the silence of the offseason and introduced Moses Malone with a big contract that made the bosses ashamed.

They have the best record in the league. Four members of the team were selected as All-Stars. Dr. J won the AMVP. This year belongs to them.

The atmosphere was unprecedentedly tense, and the next negotiation between the league and the union was scheduled for March 3.

For the owners, the only thing they want to be sure of is whether the NBPA really wants to suck.

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

Because this year CBS has increased the live broadcast and promotion of NBA games, and 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 a lot of money.

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

As March approached, the league abruptly canceled a meeting with the union.

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

It was an aggressive PR campaign designed to emphasize the NBA's stature, intimidate the players, and attempt to put pressure on other parties -- the players, the union, and Fleischer -- publicly and privately, nationally and locally.

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

The NBA wants to gain an upper hand in public opinion.

Obviously the NBA doesn't have a good reputation, and the players have even worse reputations.

This will establish the impression in the hearts of fans across the country that there are a group of bad living habits, violent tendencies, greedy and dissatisfied bastards in the NBA.

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 they are pouring dirty water on each other ferociously.

Louie couldn't believe they'd come to an agreement before the deadline.

Is this season really suspended?

Here are the pros and cons of being ignorant of history.

The advantage is that it makes him look forward to the progress in the future, and the disadvantage is that he is worried that the result will not be as he thought.

(End of this chapter)