You are the pearl, Mo Mengchen

Chapter 456
After entering December, the lockout will be a costly war for both sides.

In previous years, the regular season has been going on for two months, and now this group of millionaires is doing everything on the negotiating table to prove who is more greedy.

Then, David Stern gradually took off the hypocritical mask of always smiling.

He will let the players union know that this old lady who always smiles and seems to be no threat to anyone can be so decisive.

12月23日，斯特恩宣布如果在1999年1月7日前劳资双方仍然没法达成一致，整个赛季都将被取消。

Chaos started to emerge.

If the entire season is cancelled, those big-name players with an annual salary of more than [-] million will suffer the most, because they simply cannot sign such a large contract elsewhere.

As soon as this incident happened, some of the determined big-name players began to have a different heart.

As that deadline loomed, disunity began to emerge within the players union.

The players union originally planned to hold a meeting in New York on January 1 to vote on the proposals put forward by the owners. Rajuwon wants to be able to vote by secret ballot. At the same time, some people said that they want to return to the game regardless of the result of the vote.

Association president Kevin Johnson believes most players will fight if a new deal cannot be reached.Facing divisions within the union.

Under heavy pressure from the outside and inside, the players union and Stern finally reached an agreement one day before Stern's original deadline, and the new agreement was also passed by the union and the NBA Board of Governors.

This lockout can be seen as a victory for the boss camp, and it was not until January 1 that the two sides successfully signed a new contract.

The 204-day lockout is finally over.

The new agreement limits the team's salary, the salary is based on the length of time the player has played in the league, and there is also a specification for the rookie contract, the Larry Bird clause is retained, and the league's basic salary level has also increased to 28 U.S. dollars, an increase of 15000 U.S. dollars from before.

The lockout is finally over, but the negative impact of the lockout is immeasurable.The fans are very disgusted with the practices of both labor and management. In their view, both labor and management are comparing who is more greedy than whom.

Both labor and management have been greatly damaged both financially and in terms of image, and there is no winner at all.

Although Stern said in an interview later that he had made many concessions, the players union was insatiable, but the arbitrator of this lockout said that both sides were actually evasive.

1998-99赛季在2月5日正式开始，每支球队的常规赛被缩短到50场，204天的停摆使得464场常规赛被取消。

The party held by Mo Mengchen ended in mid-December, because everyone was uncertain whether the season would start. If the entire season was suspended, the players would have to think about their own way out.

Mo Mengchen has always been very confident. He knew that the lockout would be resolved, but he didn't disclose much information to his teammates.

He wanted to use this to see clearly what these people were thinking.

The result was similar to what he thought. Some people don’t care, such as Barkley and Joe Dumars. Both of them are about to retire, and they don’t care whether they will play in the final season; some people believe that the dispute will be resolved, such as Hill And Rasheed; there are guys who are too anxious to eat and drink, just want the lockout to end quickly so they can start playing.

The day the league announced the end of the lockout, Dean Osgers personally called the players and asked them to gather in Detroit.

The biggest problem for the Pistons now is that they have not yet selected a new head coach.

Because of the suspension, the team cannot have any operations, but this does not prevent them from selecting the right people for such a long time.

Mo Mengchen believed that they already had the answer.

After the lockout ended, Michael Jordan announced his retirement.

"This time I'm leaving basketball forever."

Haha, believe me.

However, Jordan, who can affect the league structure, has indeed left the game forever.

At the age of 36, with six championships and countless honors, he sat on the first throne of the Pantheon and smiled proudly, leaving an eternal legend in the world.

"Even if we're successful in the future, some people will still say that our success is because of MJ's retirement."

Henry Ford Center, Mo Mengchen said to Hill.

Hill didn't think much about it, he just said, "Do you know anything about the new coach?"

"New coach?" Mo Mengchen remembered the team's notice.

This is unexpected news. Not long ago, he had watched the legendary battle played by this coach as a player in the finals.

The new head coach of the Detroit Pistons is Paul Westphal.

Westphal has been resting for two years. The last time Mo Mengchen saw him on the court was his rookie season, which was his last season with the Suns.

He gives the impression that he is seldom excited, and he hardly leaves the coaching bench. The so-called handsome never leaves his position.

Moreover, every time he is caught by the camera, he always has an artist's calm expression of "well, this painting has skill, it's not sweet and vulgar, but it's just not enough."Occasionally frowning and turning around to call a timeout, it's just a raised hand.The field is full of turbulent waves, and the clouds and smoke pass by under the eyebrows.

The team under his rule still has ups and downs and lackluster defense.But the offensive end is chic and freehand, and it is coherent.

He is one of the most tragic head coaches in NBA history.

He led the Phoenix Suns to three great losses from 1992-1995, and he joins Charles Barkley as one of the greatest supporting players of all time.

In 1995, the Suns and the Rockets fought to the seventh game, and then got a long-range lore from Mario Eli's kiss of death.

In 1994, in the seventh game, Barkley played closed and was still killed by the Rockets.

In 1993, the Suns forced Jordan to score an unprecedented 41 points per game in the finals, and then was killed by John Paxson.

and,

As the protagonist of the tragedy, the Suns of these three seasons are the first three seasons of Westphal's coaching career.In other words: In his first three years in the industry, he has become the most tragic supporting role in history, and half of it is due to player injuries (Kevin Johnson, Barkley).

As a coach who has not been coaching for a long time, he has left enough tragedies in the playoffs.

When he left the Suns in 1996, he walked indifferently.

The quotes he leaves behind are as calm as his expression. In 1993, when the Lakers were in a playoff stalemate with the Suns, everyone suspected that the Suns were "just a regular-season team."He said succinctly: "We're a better team than the Lakers, and we're going to win this series."

In the finals, when Jordan scored 55 points to defeat the Suns, he said: "I didn't say we could guard Jordan. No one could guard Jordan."

In 1996, when injuries hit the Suns and brought him to the brink of dismissal, he didn't care: "This topic is not interesting. I don't want the outside world to talk about myself. For me, every step I take is to see three steps that may be taken in the future."

He's a bit like Adelman -- he values ​​player dynamics, offensive strengths, and overall consistency; a bit like Phil Jackson -- he doesn't like to call timeouts to force control and let players figure things out on their own.

His fate is more or less related to this.Too free and indulgent, sometimes out of control; too protective of players, sometimes unavoidable pampering.However, his teams have always been able to play good-looking games that are fun and hopeful to watch.

"You shouldn't ask me, you should ask pregnant women."

Mo Mengchen frowned, and looked at Barkley not far away.

In the past three months, Barkley's only task has been to lose weight. Currently, his weight is 131 kilograms, which is 20 kilograms away from the end of last season.

Losing weight is painful, and he screams every day.

Why does an old guy like him who is ready to retire at any time still lose weight?This is not fair at all!

"Chuck, what do you think of Paul?"

The peak of Barkley's career was spent under Westphal, and he should have a good understanding of this coach.

Hearing this, Barkley said: "Paul is a good man, very smart, and very patient."

Regarding smartness, Mo Mengchen absolutely believed in it.

Many things can be seen in that finals. A person like Westphal can only let the world see the aura in him at critical moments.

Half an hour later, Paul Westphal, an elegant old man who had left his coaching position for two years, walked into the Henry Ford Training Center.

Before that, he had coached two teams, but neither of those two teams had such a strong personnel reserve like the Pistons.

This will be the biggest challenge of his career, and the fate of this team in the past few years has great similarities with him.

He experienced three regrettable losses in the Suns, and this team has also experienced three regrettable defeats in the past three years.

They, like Westphal, want to succeed.

Westphal, not a stern coach, walked in and patted Barkley affectionately on the shoulder.

"Coach, I just said we will meet again." Barkley said with a smile.

Westphal let the players concentrate, he stood in front of the crowd, accompanied by the assistant coach team headed by Frauses.

"Guys, we don't have much time."

Westphal doesn't tell everyone those old-fashioned chicken soup. He is very pragmatic and organizes players to play a match as soon as he comes.

"I need to see your strength and style of play, which means you have to give your best in the game, is there a problem?" Westphal asked.

Hill replied: "Coach, it's never been a problem for us to give our best in the confrontation game."

Because there is Dad.

"Very good," said Westphal expectantly. "Let's get started!"

(End of this chapter)