the rest, only noise

Chapter 598 Quietly Changed Game Rules

"Just put how much you want on it and we'll get it right, shall we?"

The New York Knicks are owned by the Madison Square Garden Company, which in turn is a subsidiary of Gulf and Western Industries Inc.

As the president of MSG, Jack Kruger can be regarded as a regional leader.

It is the highest standard negotiation for him to negotiate contract renewal with Louis.

As a result, Kruger had no intention of "quarreling", and his attitude was unimaginably low, and he asked Louis to fill in a number he wanted on the blank check.

"Jack, although I know you want to keep me, can you talk about something else anyway?" Louis asked, "Don't you have anything to say to me?"

Kruger is intimidated these days.

Louis was rumored to have an affair with Paul Allen again, and was photographed having dinner with Jerry Buss again. Both of these two are well-connected.

Thinking about Louis's character that likes challenges, if he doesn't think there are any challenges in New York, should he change jobs?

It's not impossible. Who would leave Boston in 1984?

So Kruger felt that it was useless to talk too much, and it was enough to negotiate the contract, and Louis signed his name in a hurry, ensuring that Louis would be born as a Knicks man in the next few years and die as a Knicks ghost.

"There are no differences between us, and we have a happy cooperation." Kruger said bluntly, "This is actually a question of numbers. You still have everything before, but we will give you more money."

If you think about it carefully, that's really the case.

Louie has got all the power, it's really just a matter of numbers.

However, his agent, Marcel Thielen, had other ideas: "Mr. Kruger, of course Louis wants to stay in New York, but the conditions you put forward have no advantage over Portland and Los Angeles."

Kruger snorted: "I don't care how much Portland and Los Angeles offer, I will give you 150% of the highest offer."

"It's not about money." Thielen is very professional. He knows that staying in New York is beneficial to both parties, but he wants to help Louis get more. "Of course we want to establish a long-term relationship with New York. Louis also hopes to become New York's Reed Auerbach."

Kruger sent a rainbow fart decisively: "He is already!"

"But he's not the team president yet."

"It's not the president of the operations department either. In fact, the president of the Knicks' basketball operations department has been vacant. I think that compared to the general manager, the two titles of president and chairman are what Louis wants."

Marcel Thielen's proposal surprised Kruger and Louis.

Louis' face remained unchanged, but his heart was a little moved.

Yes, compared with the two positions of president and chairman, the general manager is sometimes more like a doll at the front desk.

Just like the Celtics, Jane Walker has been the general manager of the team since 1984, but Auerbach is the president of operations and the team chairman.

Nominally, Auerbach retreated to the background, but in reality, he was still the one who made the decisions.

Kruger is the president of MSG. Even if Louis becomes the president of the operations department and the chairman of the team, he is still his subordinate, so there is no change, but Louis has changed from one person with two positions to one person with four positions.

Head coach, general manager, president, and team chairman all in one, isn't this Auerbach?
Moreover, if Louis wants, he can sign four contracts and receive four salaries.

Kruger didn't hesitate. Since Louis can be a good general manager, he can also be a good president of the operations department.

The 28-year-old president of the basketball operations department can be said to be unprecedented, and it will be difficult to recover.

"Lu, I will let you know how much I want to keep you." Kruger said affirmatively, "You will be our head coach, general manager, president, and team president. Whatever you want, you will get."

"Wait, Jack." Louie smiled, "If I become the president of the basketball operations department, the position of general manager should be given to someone else."

Kruger said with a smile: "You are the president, you decide."

Two days later, the Knicks announced a news that shook the league.

First they announced: "'Leader Lu' will leave the position of general manager."

This makes people think that Louis will once again leave a champion team to seek challenges elsewhere.

However, within a few minutes, the Knicks announced: "'Leader Lu' will become the second president of basketball operations in Knicks history."

Then, the Knicks announced one after another like a machine gun.

"'Leader Lu' successfully negotiated a multi-year contract extension with the Knicks."

"'Leader Lu' to be Knicks team president."

"Elgin Baylor will take over as general manager."

It looks like something has changed, but nothing has changed.

Baylor turned from a deputy to a full-time job, but still worked under Louie.He would be Louis' Jane Walker.

And Louis, at the age of 28, became the head coach, president, and team chairman of a team unprecedentedly.

Dave Anderson of The New York Times revealed that Louie and the Knicks signed one of the largest coaching and front-office contracts ever.

No one knows how big his presidential contract is.

The coaching contract is an unprecedented six-year $6 million.

Even compared with players, this is a maximum salary.

Compared with other coaches, in the era when the top contemporary coaches earned 50 yuan a year, he earned 200 million yuan a year.

This is like Jordan's annual salary of 1997 million in 3000, while Ewing's annual salary, the second highest in the league, was "only" 1800 million.Some people are unique.

What's more, he also serves as the president and chairman of the team, and these two positions require additional contracts.

Louie's president's contract and the team's president's contract are put together.

This contract is not publicized, and there are some incentive clauses set at the same time.

The full contract is 6 million US dollars for 1000 years, but if Louis does not meet the standard, the guarantee amount is only 600 million.

However, even if it is 600 million, in this era when the average salary of top managers does not exceed 50, his salary is still too much to envy.

Many people see it in their eyes and feel bitter in their hearts.

Even if you have an opinion, you dare not say it.

Because Louis is not a bubble, he didn't blow it out, the president of MSG is not a fool, and his family doesn't print money.

Louis proved his ability to earn so much.

Louie's unprecedented big contract overshadowed the signing of Tom Chambers.

As the biggest free agent in the first year of free agency, his whereabouts affect the hearts of many people.

There are currently two teams leading the way.

They are the Phoenix Suns and the Utah Jazz.

The sun's geographical environment is better, but Chambers finally chose to sign with the Jazz.

Because the Suns have too many players at the same position, the competition is extremely fierce. On the other hand, the Jazz, playing the UCLA offense he admires, moves like a machine. His athletic ability can help this team take off.

Chambers signed with the Jazz, making Utah officially the big winner of the offseason.

The news of Chambers' signing just shocked Louis, but the news of KC Jones' dismissal made him unable to sit still.

What happened to KC was the reason Louis left the Celtics at that time.

Even if he leads the team to win three consecutive championships, no one thinks how strong his coaching ability is.

In his position, not winning three consecutive championships is the "real" ability.

After KC got out of class, Louis contacted him immediately, wanting to offer help, such as asking him to work in New York.

But KC didn't want to work under his former subordinates.

Moreover, Louis chose to break with Boston in order to arouse the team's blood in the Eastern Conference finals, which he could not accept.

He still had lumps in his heart, but he politely rejected Louis, expressing that he wanted to rest for a while.

On July 7, the Knicks recruited a scouting director.

This position can be directly regarded as the manager of all scouts under the Knicks operation department. This is Louis' idea. The Knicks are also the only team in the league to set up the position of scout director.

Among all the applicants, there was a striking name that Louis would never forget.

That person's name is RC Buford (RC Buford). Those who are familiar with the Spurs should know this person.

Louie interviewed him for one round, and he passed if he felt that it was all right.

Others, such as the fact that the Trail Blazers franchise has completed changes on the NBA board of directors, Paul Allen officially became the owner of the Trail Blazers, and Larry Brown returned to the NBA from the NCAA and was signed by the Spurs with a five-year, 5 million contract, was not taken seriously by Louis.

All he really pays attention to is the negotiation between the league and the players union.

The negotiation lasted for more than a year, and the two sides had a lot of unhappiness. In the past year, the union once again filed an anti-monopoly lawsuit against the alliance.

Their various actions are not to bring down the alliance, but to exert pressure.

Players are greedy for cable TV contracts, and the league is unwilling to push the union too hard, because a new round of TV contract negotiations will start next year. If there is a suspension, it will be detrimental to the negotiations.

In such large-scale negotiations, conflicts are inevitable, but in the end they will all make concessions and compromises with each other.

On July 7, the league and the union reached a new round of labor agreement.

The bosses agreed to share cable TV broadcast income with the players at a [-]-[-] split. As a condition for reaching this consensus, the union agreed to cover the ever-increasing rookie contracts and let the league introduce a standard rookie contract to curb the bad habit of rookies asking for exorbitant prices.

At this point, an era that symbolizes the past, where quarrels, negotiations, threats, and conflicts between the team and their rookies over the contract amount occurred every summer, is over.

A new era is quietly coming, this era is more professional, more systematic and more commercial.

Unbeknownst to Louie, his proposal at the annual meeting allowed the standard rookie contract to land in the league seven years earlier.

Of course, there will be more or less regrets.For example, the big dog who clamored not to sign a contract without a 1 million contract would definitely not be able to sign such a large contract again.It's also a pity for me personally that I can't meme at that time.

Don't you guys think that Dagou, who claims not to sign a contract without giving 1 million US dollars, is strikingly similar to Honjo Ling, who claims that his debut role will not debut without 10000 reservations?

For Louis, this year's labor agreement is beneficial to them.

It is important for them to share the cable TV contract with the players, which means expanding the existing salary cap.

In the past few years, they were overwhelmed by Ewing's contract, and now, they are gradually returning.

　I can say responsibly that you don’t have six chapters to read tomorrow, that’s great, I have lived up to your trust and expectations, my friends, I did it in just one more hour.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)