"Aix, are you in any trouble asking for a higher salary than Garnett?"

"I asked? I didn't ask. I said I wanted a three-year contract. Miss Bass directly filled me with this salary.

We only took 20 minutes to talk about the contract, and 18 minutes were my agent and Mr. West touted each other.”

After the contract renewal, Zhang Hao's interview was still concise and concise, and he told the truth.

But it aroused the Lakers' pride!

Zhang Hao will receive 15 million from the fourth year of his career. Like O'Neal's salary, he was evaluated as worthy. The Lakers were praised for being tied.

It was also the fourth year of his career that he had to earn more than 10 million US dollars, and Garnett scored 14 million, and was ridiculed by the crowd. The Timberwolves were slandered and became the thorn in the eyes of the bosses of major teams with poor salary conditions.

The eyes of the masses are so sharp, they are so upright and not double standards at all.

In people's opinion, the Lakers are trying to give Zhang Hao a higher salary than Garnett to help Zhang Hao save face.

In fact, the last three years of Garnett's large contract are the highlight. The total salary in the three years after the contract is 75 million, and the average annual average is more than one Pippen's peak period.

But under the press release, people saw that Zhang Hao’s salary was higher than Garnett!

However, under such public opinion, Zhang Hao received such a salary. Some experts commented that the two best players in the "95 Golden Generation" will make negotiations on labor-management agreements more difficult and will inevitably make the free market more chaotic in the next few years.

It is not just the players who will renew or early renewal in the four years from 93 to 96. Perhaps the geniuses who have not started their rookie seasons in the 97th class, but have signed three-year rookie contracts in the summer, will also see a large number of players moving in 2000.

The Timberwolves' behavior is regarded as purely "sacrificing oneself and achieving others". When young players are flooding into the free market, teams without high-paying players, regardless of the size of the market, have another opportunity to get talented young players besides the draft, and are the opportunity to train talented young players by other teams.

...

...

The training camp is over and the pre-season race is about to begin.

The Lakers have 7 preseason games this year, with the first two being home games, then two consecutive away games, and finally the home and home are alternating.

The opponents are not strong. As the defending champion, the league did not arrange their favorite opponents in the preseason, and put the most popular game at the beginning of the Lakers on the opening match, facing the Bulls at home.

The Clippers at home on the 10th, the Warriors at home on the 13th, the Mavericks away on the 16th, the Clippers away on the 18th, the Kings at home on the 21th, the Kings away on the 23th, and the Rockets at home on the 25th.

During training camp, the Lakers have already prepared for the preseason stage. They have a day off on the 8th and the 9th, which is the players' free practice time.

Zhang Hao's three-year contract renewal of $53 million was surprised, but his teammates were surprised but not surprised.

The young superstar renews his contract for only three years, which is what surprised his teammates.

It has been a day since the contract renewal, and many media have already analyzed the reasons why Zhang Hao has renewed his contract for three years.

The mainstream saying is that this is the maximization of Zhang Hao’s personal interests.

After the rookie contract is finished, the rookie contract is finished. Zhang Hao is only 21 and a half years old. After three years, he is 24 and a half years old. He can sign a 6-7-year contract, and then in his early 30s. If he maintains his condition well, he can sign another 6-7-year contract, without having to bet on his status at the age of 33 and 4.

After all, most stars and even superstars will experience a cliff-like decline in their 30s.

The three-year contract of 53 million is still very exaggerated. Because Garnett compares it, people always look at Garnett's entire contract amount, and Zhang Hao's salary in the first three years is higher than Garnett.

But the teammates were not surprised. After Garnett renewed the contract, although the Lakers did not publicly discuss how Zhang Hao would renew the contract, there were still discussions in the small circles in private.

Zhang Hao got the same high salary as O'Neal in the second to fourth years. His teammates felt that it was just right. They were worried about the trouble in the team because of salary issues. Now the two are as high as the two are, which is just right.

Just like the Supersonics, Kemp is clamoring for a larger contract than Payton, which makes the Supersonics team chaotic and use Kemp to exchange for Wen Baker. It seems that there is no difference. Wen Baker also wants a big contract, but he doesn't put this matter on his lips every day like Kemp.

Zhang Hao is likely not to make trouble, but if his salary is higher than O'Neal, his teammates really think O'Neal will make trouble.

Now it's the same high, O'Neal feels nothing wrong and breathes a sigh of relief.

The possible negative impact of the Lakers' defending season start was easily solved. The atmosphere inside the team is quite good, and everyone is actively preparing for the preseason.

Or like the Barry brothers, who want to prove themselves after a failed season and fight for the position they want, Joan Barry wants to be a fixed-point pitcher with stable playing time, and Brent Barry wants to be one of the main players.

Rick Fox is preparing to make a name for himself in Los Angeles, playing a performance that satisfies Zhang Hao, increasing his popularity and improving his relationship with Zhang Hao. He knows that Zhang Hao has his own entertainment company and also signed a student who is very optimistic about Whitney Houston.

O'Neal has Horde's ambitions, Kenny Anderson and Jason Williams have goals to assist, Robert Pike has his own ambitions, and Brian Shaw must stabilize his position as the first substitute in the outside...

Playing in a team that was so successful last season, whether it is a new or an old player, has aspirations and desires.

...

In the office of the vice president on the second floor of the training ground, several Lakers executives watched the players downstairs conduct small-scale cooperation and personal training independently without the coaching staff present, and were very satisfied with the current situation.

The logo man smiled and said, "This contract renewal is very smooth. Jenny, the price you gave is very good. It won't make Shaq dissatisfied, and it can satisfy Aix's face problem of wanting to be higher than Garnett's salary."

Kupchek echoed: "Yes, what I worry most is that Aix must have a higher salary than Shaq, so that's a problem. When I heard Jerry said that Garnett would renew his contract with 6 years, I was so angry. Fortunately, Garnett's salary increase was three years later, and the Timberwolves were not that stupid. They still had room for signings in the first three years of Garnett's contract."

Jenny Bass also breathed a sigh of relief: "After Jerry heard this news, what I was worried about is that Garnett's contract was very average. If it was about 20 million a year, it would be difficult for us. It just so happened that Aix wanted to maximize his interests and only signed a three-year contract, otherwise we would still have to face the situation that Shaq might be dissatisfied."

The logo man and Kupchekziki nodded, which was also what they were worried about. Although the three-year contract renewal will be unstable for the team, the instability in the future will always be better than the instability now.

At this time, Jim Bass, who had no right to speak, could only stand aside and listen to the smart people's words, suddenly thought of a question.

After thinking about it, Jim Buss mustered up the courage and interrupted weakly: "Is it possible that Aix really didn't think about comparing Garnett with salary as he said? If we renew Aix before Garnett's contract renewal, can we renew the contract with a starting salary of about 10 million like Payton and Hardaway?"

The logo man decisively denies: "This possibility is not high."

Kupchek echoed: "Aix's favorite thing is face. He said he didn't want it, but you see, what can he fight for? He won't fight for the scoring champion with Jordan and FMVP with everyone."

Jenny Buss was very straightforward: "Jim, use your brain more, you are dad's successor!"

Jim Buss was ridiculed by his elder sister again. But there was no way. He has been no match for his elder sister since he was a child, and he has always been the one who was pinched and played with by his elder sister.

However, Jim Bass felt that what these three smart people should be right, and he must have taken it for granted.

However, Zhang Hao's contract renewal problem and O'Neal's emotional problem have been solved. There is no need to worry about this next season, but the Lakers still have many problems.

He gave Zhang Hao enough face, but this contract renewal, as experts analyzed, Garnett's contract had already stabbed the labor-management negotiations. Zhang Hao's contract renewal completely pushed the knife that had been inserted into the back.

Since Zhu Wan Howard received the first contract of 100 million yuan in NBA history, NBA bosses have wanted to set a limit on salary, rather than now. As long as they have the right to bird, they can give contracts at will to eliminate the situation like "Jordan exception". Therefore, when the Bulls took the initiative to suspend the contract of "Jordan exception" and did not include the terms of total salary, they received support from most teams.

However, the signing of Zhang Hao and Garnett's contract has put a huge obstacle to the boss's desire to determine the proportion of income and salary expenses in labor-management negotiations.

I want to cut nearly 70% of the total NBA income at this stage as a player's salary and expenditure in half... This is 100% unanimous, and everyone knows that the bosses just regard this as a weapon.

What I want to launch the most is a contract like Zhu Wan Howard... Now, the label has changed, and it has become a situation where Kevin Garnett can get the largest contract in history after three years.

The more large contracts there are, the more unfavorable it is to lower the proportion of players' income. The most objection is, in fact, it is not the big contract players who are quite small compared to the total number of players, but ordinary players are the most uneasy.

Because once the allocation ratio is exceeded, the more money the player gets paid, the more money he will be returned to the league when the season is settled. The teams will definitely take more care of the emotions of superstars who have big contracts, and will inevitably lower their salary while giving ordinary players contracts, forming extreme polarization...

If it is a player like Zhang Hao, there is no problem. Just like what is being promoted now, Zhang Hao's salary is higher than Garnett's exaggerated contract, but no one thinks it is inappropriate.

But Garnett was selected as the All-Star at the age of 20 in the second grade. Of course, this is very powerful. Including Zhang Hao, Garnett is also the second youngest All-Star in NBA history, but a contract that is bigger than O'Neal. The salary he earned in 6 years is higher than Jordan's entire career. This is too much. He has not proved himself on the playoff stage yet. Not to mention the playoffs, the regular season is the All-Star level.

What the bosses want is to give out a "real standard maximum salary", rather than the situation where 10 million is called a maximum salary at the moment, and 30 million is called a maximum salary.

And this is the direction that superstars don’t want to retreat.

Of course, this can be discussed, such as if you can get more money after a certain period of time... This was originally just a small part of the differences in labor-management negotiations, but because Garnett and Zhang Hao successively obtained such contracts, putting this matter in public, which became an urgent problem.

The Lakers, as one of the most profitable teams in the league, are also a big payroll player with the Golden Yuan strategy. The situation is very awkward. Neither side can offend, so they can only be careful.

At this time, Jim Buss didn't dare to touch his elder sister's tiger tail as usual, so as not to turn the pressure at work into anger on him...

...

...

The outside world's two top geniuses of Zhang Hao and Garnett, the "95 Golden Generation", renewed their contracts, and the hot discussions on labor-management negotiations continue, but the Lakers team did not care much about it.

At least in the next season, they don’t have to worry about anything, just play well.

The preseason came as scheduled. The Lakers ushered in the challenge of the Clippers in the same city at home, opening the actual preparation stage of this season.

Baylor's operations are always unpredictable. In the summer of 1996, when the teams compete for resources and the situation is dangerous, Baylor's tricks are frequently used to improve the strength of the Clippers to the playoff level.

There are many high-quality players and good inside skills. With Los Angeles, a big football market and the world's top city, you can play steadily and take your time, and you may attract a genius who wants to beat the Lakers.

In fact, there are also those of the Grizzlies' Sharif Rahim who expressed his love for many Clippers last season. He had no idea about joining the Lakers, but this idea was teased by Zhang Hao for playing in a team with good roles in big cities.

However, in the summer, they tried to trade Anfini Hardaway with a group of high-quality role players. After the Suns snatched Anfini Hardaway with worse chips, they seemed to have an explosion in their mentality and spread contracts everywhere. Although they were not big, they were contracts of an average annual rate of 10,000, but they directly blocked their own path and traded their leader Malik Healy last season.

Without Malik Healy, a leader who is not outstanding in strength, has a very charming personality. During the training camp, the Clippers were exposed for ranking competition, and almost had a big fight within the team.

Last year's Clippers were not very strong, but they were united and for the sake of sprinting in the playoffs, facing the Lakers, which were far stronger than them, they always tried their best to win. The Clippers really attracted a lot of fans last season.

But this year, in the first preseason game, Kenny Anderson, Doug Christie, Rick Fox, Zhang Hao, O'Neal's first game, played 22-4...

O'Neal scored 13 minutes in more than 8 minutes!

The Clippers' active inside contraction and attacks last season were gone, their tenacious fighting spirit was gone, and their salary was higher. They had a more famous role player than last season, but they completely lost the resilience of last season.

Seeing that there was nothing worth observing, the Silver Fox replaced everything except Kenny Anderson and replaced it with a substitute and training camp contract player.

In addition to 14 players with contracts, the Lakers signed 6 undrafts and low-level leagues. The main role of overseas league players is to be a sparring player during training camp. Of course, they will also give opportunities to those players who perform well in training camp to try on the preseason, and may even give some of them as tactical key points.

If these players are suitable, they will fill out the 15th person list for a non-guarantee contract.

Even if there is only one quota, even if it is absolutely sitting next to the water dispenser, even if it is just a non-guaranteed contract, several training camp contract players are working hard. Perhaps this is their last chance to hit the NBA.

The first battle with the Clippers was easily won.

This game is not very topical, because among the top five, only Kenny Anderson and Rick Fox played more than 15 minutes. Except for O'Neal who made 6 of 6 shots in the beginning, they scored 13 points, nothing else attracted the attention of people outside the scene.

In addition to not watching the game, the news about the Lakers' game was pushed to the back, and there is another reason...

There are 5 preseason games today. In addition to the Lakers' preseason attention, there is also a high-profile game with a high-profile No. 1 pick Tim Duncan's debut in the preseason!
To be continued...