The invincible kryptonite of basketball

"If we had won the University of Texas, maybe we would have played against you in the Western Conference finals, Kawhi, speaking of which, you and Don have played against each other in the tournament, we are all from the Western Conference, this is really fate ..." Joseph only played NC one year, at the University of Texas.

The University of Texas is the No. 3 seed in the Western District this year. Before UConn, it was a pity that they were upset by the University of Texas when they entered the 32th at 16. Otherwise, the three of them are really opponents who have all played against each other. Teammates, it really is fate as Joseph said.

Tang Tian smiled and patted Joseph on the shoulder, while Leonard remained expressionless.

"Kawhi, be happy, we will be a member of the Spurs soon, this is a great team." Seeing his expression, Joseph said with a smile.

Leonard turned his head and glanced at Joseph, still expressionless, then turned his head away again.

Joseph smiled awkwardly, then continued to chat with Tang Tian, ​​and didn't bother himself anymore.

Tang Tian also took a look at Leonard at this time, not knowing what this child has gone through to have such a personality.

A group of people had already entered the arena while talking, and a staff member came to guide them to the direction of the office.

After entering the office, the general manager of the team, RC Buford, was already inside, but to their surprise, the team's head coach Popovich was also inside, sitting by the window, and saw them come in. Time to look up.

Fagan and the others went to greet Buford, Tang Tian greeted Joseph, and went to greet Popovich.

"Old man, do you want to drink red wine tonight?" Tang Tian said with a smile.

Popovich laughed out loud after hearing this, Tang Tian is really the funniest rookie he has ever seen.

Joseph looked at Tang Tian with some surprise from the side. He thought he was already talkative enough, but he didn't expect Tang Tian to be more fierce than him.

"Drink the red wine another day. Sign the contract today. After signing, I will take you to familiarize yourself with the arena." Popovich said with a smile.

"Thank you, old man."

Tang Tian called Joseph to sit down.

Popovich smiled and looked at Leonard who was silent behind him, a strange look flashed in his eyes.

Tang Tian was enthusiastic, but Leonard looked as cold as ice. The rookies drafted by the team this year were really poor in style.

Both Leonard and Joseph were first-round picks, and their contracts were fixed. After the agent was confirmed, they signed quickly.

Tang Tian is quite special as a second-round pick. His contract has multiple situations, so it needs to be discussed now.

Popovich first took Leonard and Joseph to familiarize themselves with the arena, and Fagan and Buford were left in the office. The two sat down and began to negotiate.

Tang Tian sat aside and listened.

Buford showed the sincerity of the Spurs, they are willing to provide a four-year fully guaranteed contract like the first round pick.

However, Fagan insisted on only signing a one-year guarantee contract, and the two sides had great differences.

The negotiation lasted for more than half an hour. In the end, Buford changed the four-year full guarantee to a three-year guarantee, but Fagan still insisted on a one-year contract, even if it was not guaranteed.

It seems to be just a change in the contract period, and the conversation seems to be calm, but it is actually the same as a real fight on the battlefield.

NBA contracts are complicated, and only professional agents and general managers can negotiate.

Take the simplest number of years as an example. A four-year fully guaranteed contract means four years of child labor, and the next two years are team options. For three years, Tang Tian’s bird rights can be retained according to league rules. There's an early bird and arenas clause, but one year is nothing.

Buford talked about looking at Tang Tian with a frown at the end. To be honest, he really didn't want to deal with Fagan.

Tang Tian smiled and looked at Buford without saying a word. Obviously, he meant that this kind of matter should only be handled by the agent.

The negotiations failed, and at this time Popovich returned to the office.

Buford saw Popovich come in and gave him a helpless look.

Although Buford is the general manager, he was only promoted in 02. For 8 years before that, the team's general manager was Popovich.

Popovich sat down in the past and asked about the differences in the negotiations between the two parties.

At the end of the talk, he also took a look at Tang Tian. After seeing the latter's expression, he turned his head and communicated with Buford for a while, and finally made a decision.

"Two-year guarantee contract."

Obviously, what Popovich gave is the limit that the Spurs can bear. It is impossible for them to spend a year cultivating a rookie.

Tang Tian stood up and sat next to Fei Gen at this time, which was a secret signal between the two.

Fagan nodded in agreement.

The one-year contract is what Tang Tian wants most, because the shorter the term, the shorter the time he will be a child laborer, but he also knows that the Spurs will probably not agree to it, so two years is completely acceptable to him. Before the Heat committed to the draft, he asked for the same.

ps: The author of the vip chapter needs to open the background of the website to update it. There is a delay on the website, so we can only wait. Sorry for the late update.

Thanks to Yu Lingfeng, book friend 20180124171929363, Xingfeng Xiaoye, and QQ user Xiaohuangshu for their rewards.

Chapter 148 Proverbs in the Locker Room (2/10)

There is no salary limit for second-round picks, but in fact, most teams will only pay the basic salary, because it involves the team's salary cap. Take the Spurs as an example. They have not signed anyone in the free market, but they are already over the salary cap. If you want to sign Tang Tian, ​​you can only use a special case.

Exceptions include middle-class exceptions (teams that do not exceed the luxury tax, teams with super-luxury tax have mini-middle-class exceptions), bi-annual exceptions, and basic salary exceptions.

The Spurs will definitely use the mid-level exception in the free market. As for the biennial exception, it will trigger a hard salary cap (the luxury tax cannot be exceeded at any time during the season), and the Spurs may not use it, so in the end they can only Exception with basic salary.

The so-called special case of the basic salary is that teams that exceed the salary cap have no room to sign people. A special case of signing the basic salary is given. The maximum number of years is two years, and the salary of the two years is the basic salary of the year.

The salary is 47 in the first year, 76 in the second year, and 2 million in 123 years. This is the contract signed by the Spurs and Tang Tian.

Tang Tian quickly signed the contract.

"Welcome to the Spurs." Although Buford was a little unhappy in the negotiation, he was a professional manager after all. After signing the contract, he stretched out his hand and said to Tang Tian.

"Thank you." Tang Tian also smiled and stood up to shake hands with Buford. Buford is the general manager of the Spurs, so there is no need for this relationship to become stalemate.

"I'll take you around." Popovich looked at Tang Tian and said.

"Greg, I'll take him." Buford said and stood up. Popovich had already taken Leonard and Joseph out.

"It's okay, I just happened to chat with this kid." Popovich said and stood up.

The two came out of the office.

"Are you so confident in yourself?" Popovich didn't say inside, but asked after he came out.

After all, Popovich has been in the league for more than 20 years, so he can tell what Tang Tian is thinking at once.

"Yes, I am very confident in myself, old man." Tang Tian replied with a smile. He also knew Popovich very well, so he didn't mean to hide it at all.

Popovich froze for a moment, stopped to look at Tang Tian, ​​and then burst out laughing.

"You're really interesting, more interesting than Leonard's cold guy." Popovich said with a smile.

The AT&T Center Arena is obviously much larger than the XL Center Arena, the home of UConn. In other words, this is not just an arena, it has quite a lot of supporting facilities, just the lounge for the audience. There are 32, and there are restaurants with the most complete food in Texas, including barbecue, pizza, sandwiches, and hot dogs.

"I like this place the most. The arena has added a manual shoe shine service this year. I can sit here and wait for them to help me polish my shoes before entering the locker room." Popovich said with a smile.

Tang Tian was stunned for a moment after hearing this. Sure enough, Popovich is a weirdo with a different focus from most people.

While speaking, they walked through the corridor to the home team's locker room.

Pushing the door open, the Spurs locker room came into view.

A room of more than forty square meters, there are compartments near the wall, and there is an ordinary armchair facing the front of the compartment. Most of the compartments are suspended, except for a small cabinet in the upper right corner. , with two clothes racks hanging from the top, and above the clothes racks are the names of the players.

Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Danny Green, Richard Jefferson, DeJuan Blair…

No massage chairs, widescreen TVs, not even couches.

To be honest, this locker room is really a bit "low-key", similar to Tang Tian's college locker room at Kangda.

But after entering, Tang Tian was quickly attracted by a motto hanging in a black frame on the wall in front of him.

"When everything seemed to be going nowhere, I went to see a stonemason knock on a stone. He knocked 100 times in a row, and the stone still didn't move. But when he knocked the 101st time, the stone split in two. But I know, let the stone It is not the final blow that splits, but the result of the previous hundred blows."

In the lower right corner of this passage there is a byline, Jacob Rees.

The general meaning of this sentence is to persevere, and the meaning of water dripping through stone is to encourage people to persist in doing one thing, and there will always be a day when it will succeed.

After reading this sentence, Tang Tian suddenly felt that the locker room really looked like the Spurs.

Low-key, tough, this seems to have always been the label of the Spurs.

"There are only two preseason games this year. You, Leonard, and Joseph will get a chance to perform well in these two games." After watching the arena, Popovich finally said to Tang Tian.

He should have said this to Leonard and Joseph.

"I will." Tang Tian nodded.

He lost weight and became a swingman. In fact, the competition in the Spurs is still very fierce.

At the small forward position, Richard Jefferson is the starter, Leonard, who will most likely be the first substitute, and James Anderson, the team's No. 20 pick last year.

The shooting guard position, the starting strength of Ginobili, the backup Danny Green, Gary Neal, who was one of the main rotations last season, and Corey Joseph who joined him.

Popovich said this specifically, which shows that he attaches great importance to these two preseason games.

After signing the contract and visiting the arena, Tang Tian's first day with the Spurs was basically over. However, after he left the AT&T Center Arena, he put his luggage in the hotel and went with the agent non-stop I went to see the house.

Playing in the NBA is actually similar to going to work. During the game, the teammates are together, but before the game starts and after the game ends, it is their own lives.

The team will not provide meals and there will be no lodging.

San Antonio is the second largest city in Texas, but compared with Houston, it still seems much calmer.

Tang Tian finally chose a bachelor apartment not far from the riverside pedestrian street. Although the price was a bit expensive, you can see the San Antonio River and a green shade from the window. The environment is very good, and there are supporting parking spaces.

The krypton gold system only consumes krypton gold value, and will not really lose money. Unlike other rookies, after signing endorsement contracts one after another, he now has more than 150 million in cash in his hand. This rent is just for him. A drop in the bucket.

(Note: Except for some top-salary players who can advance their contract salaries, most players’ contract salaries are paid on a monthly basis. The 1st and 15th of each month are the salary payment dates stipulated by the league, but players can also request Concentrate on one day in January.)

After renting a house, Tang Tian's next plan is to buy a car.

When he was in New York before, because the training place was only five or six kilometers away from where he lived, he could run there as a physical training, but here it is [-] to [-] kilometers, and he couldn't afford to run like this every day.

Chapter 149 Funny Teammates (3/10)

Although he has lost weight, Tang Tian's height of 2 meters will not change, so if he buys a car, he must buy one with more space.

In the end he picked a Dodge Corvette, which was inexpensive, less than $5.

In the United States, the mainstream cars are Japanese cars such as Honda and Toyota, but the quality of cars like Dodge and Chevrolet in the United States is actually better.

Moreover, this car is a relatively practical SUV with enough space and comfortable seating.

After renting a house and buying a car, Tang Tian lived temporarily in San Antonio.

In the next few days, while familiarizing himself with the environment around the apartment, he insisted on going to the team's arena for training, and gradually integrated into the city.

The time came to December 12th in a blink of an eye, and the new season's free agent market and training camp opened at the same time.

Due to time constraints, various information broke out almost as soon as the free market door opened, and this day became Woj's busiest day.

The Warriors offered Clippers center DeAndre Jordan a four-year, $4 million contract.

Marc Gasol rejected offers from the Knicks, the Rockets and many other teams, and chose to sign a four-year $4 million maximum salary contract with the Grizzlies.

Yao Ming will not renew his contract with the Rockets. He is likely to announce his retirement this summer and end his career.

The Eagles signed Tracy McGrady with the veteran clause, the contract is a one-year minimum salary.

……

The Spurs basically have no movement, except for the departure of some bench players, the core team and even the rotation team are basically retained.

Because the total salary of 7000 million has far exceeded the salary cap of 5800 million US dollars, the biggest change in the team may be the addition of three rookies.

Because the training camp started on the same day, Tang Tian also drove to the AT&T Center Arena to welcome his first training session with the Spurs.

There are more than 6000 parking spaces in the AT&T Center Arena, and players and team staff have an exclusive parking area.

When Tang Tian entered, he happened to meet a car that stopped. He got out, and then he saw Richard Jefferson.

Jefferson was one of the Nets' tridents and a famous dunker. He was traded to the Spurs during the 09-10 season. The starting candidate for the small forward position in the new season.

"Hey, Richard." Tang Tian greeted him with a smile after seeing him.

Jefferson glanced back at him, didn't answer, just plugged in his earphones and walked forward on his own.

Tang Tian froze for a moment, Jefferson's attitude...was a bit unfriendly.