<h4>Chapter 584: A Man Who is Not Content With What He Deserves is Like a Snake that Tries to Swallow an Elephant</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Coach Li, congrattions on being the nominated for the best coach of the season!” Chenggong Sun said with the brightest of smiles. “There are only three people nominated. They must recognize your ability as a coach. Congrattions on bing the best coach in advance!”
“The best coach of the season award will not go to me this season. I may be able to get it next season if I fight for it. After all, the Rockets and Raptors did really well this season. We didn’t even make the yoffs. The NBA officials won’t give such an award to me,” Dai Li said, smiling.
“Fight for it a little. You’re already nominated, so you might actually have a chance!” Chenggong Sun suggested.
Dai Li smiled mysteriously. He lowered his voice and said, “In truth, I’ve already spent quite a lot in PR just to get nominated, so I think this is as much as I can hope for.”
“Oh, spending a lot in PR also works in the U.S.! I thought that it only worked back in China.” Chenggong Sun nodded.
Dai Li really did spend a lot of money to get this nomination.
The annual NBA awards ceremony was usually held in thetter part of May every year, where nominees for all sorts of awards were announced. Some awards (such as the scoring leader, the rebound king, and the assist king) were supported by data. Whoever had the best stats would win, so there was no suspense at all.
However, some awards (the MVP, the best sixth man, the best defender, the best growth, and the best coach) were more subjective. The final winners in these categories are decided through the voting procedure.
Previously, the head coaches of each team would have one vote for each award. However, this had changed recently. Now, well-known sports journalists and sports pundits voted. In recent years, the NBA had also tried to involve the fans in the voting process.
People often fell into habits when voting. For example, a yer was named the best defenderst season would likely win it again if he was still a good yer. He would at least be put in the best defensive line up. So, for yers, it was hardest to win their first award. As long as a yer got his first award, then the next awards became far easier.
Dai Li wanted to be nominated for the best coach award. The best method to get a nomination was to do PR with sports journalists who had votes. These journalists were certain to be backed by well-known media firms. Dai Li sent a message to these media firms by buying multiple advertisements for his training center from these firms. The sports media firms knew that Dai Li purchased those advertisement space with conditions and, when there’s money to be earned, who would say no. Naturally, they would let their journalists vote for Dai Li if he was willing to buy advertisements.
In truth, he basically purchased his nomination for the best coach award. Other coaches did not have that enough money to throw away media advertisements.
Dai Li’s physical fitness training center budgeted a certain amount for advertisement and public rtions annually, so Dai Li had to spend that money sooner orter. Since it was money that needed to be spent, why not benefits it a little extra?
Dai Li also really needed this nomination. His identity as “Outsider” had gued him for over half a season. Since the day he arrived at the NBA, an endless stream of people had coined him as “Outsider.” He needed an award like this to support him. Even if he could not really win the award, being nominated for the best coach award would be sufficient in shutting up the people who had dubbed him “Outsider.”
It was simr to the way that acting careers worked. If critics don’t like an actor they say he isn’t believable or can’t capture an audience’s attention. Other people are affected by these negativements and believe that this actor is bad. However, when the actor receives an award, the negative criticism vanishes. If he received several heavyweight awards and became a master actor, then everyone who critiqued him would change their tune. All the negativements would be excuses for absolution.
The coaching industry was simr. After receiving a few awards, people would naturally start praising someone.
In truth, the voting was also very lopsided.
The annual NBA awards ceremony was an appraisal of the award winner’s season. A team had to y 82 games in a season. The yers who could win an award would have at least yed 70. It was impossible for the journalists to focus on too many yers. They could not watch all 82 games of every team in the NBA. When they voted, they could only vote for yers from the pool of yers that they followed, or perhaps choose a few yers with good stats from the statistics table.
Based on that, when the candidates for the annual NBA awards were released, there were always debates and arguments. Some fans always felt that the nominated yers did not deserve the awards.
Dai Li and Chenggong Sun chatted casually for a while and began discussing the next stage of the training n. At that moment, someone’s phone rang.
Dai Li picked up his phone and his expression suddenly changed.
“Coach Li, you should go if you’re busy. I’ll be here to keep an eye on things,” Chenggong Sun said kindly.
“Alright, I’ll be right back,” Dai Li said. As he left, he called for Cassel and walked to the meeting room.
...
“Coach, what happened?” Cassel asked as he walked in behind Dai Li.
“Ronny’s contract renewal talks copsed. He rejected the contract we offered,” Dai Li said.
“He rejected a five-year contract worth 90 million dors?” Cassel was a little surprised.
“Before the season ended, the team wanted to renew Ronny’s contract, so they offered him a five-year contract worth 85 million dors. He did not ept it. Now that the season is over, the team offered him a 90 million dor five year deal, with thest year being his option. That averages out to 18 million dors per year, but he still rejected it. He wants more!” Dai Li said.
Cassel nodded and asked, “Then how much does Ronny want? Does he want a super contract of 20 million per year? That’s 100 million over five years!”
“His appetite has no limit. He wants a five-year contract worth 150 million dors!” Dai Li said as a cold light shed in his eyes.
“What? A five-year contract worth 150 million dors? That’s about as much as we could pay anyone. Has Ronny gone mad!?” Cassel eximed.
“It’s a good thing he is a restrained free yer and we have the right to a contract renewal. We can match the offer of any other teams. ording to the rules, the other teams can only offer him a four-year contract, while we can offer him a five-year contract,” Dai Li said coldly.
“But if Ronny keeps insisting on the five-year 150 million dor deal, what do you n to do? Do you really n to lose him?” Cassel asked.
“I don’t know,” Dai Li said, shaking his head. He then said, “But I don’t feel that he is worth the highest wage for five years! Worst case: we give him a qualification offer, use him for another year, and ask him to scram!”
...
Back when the Clippers epted Wood’s rubbish contract, Ronny was one of the conditions. Back then, Ronny only had a rookie contract. He was only a bench yer and his game time was limited, but he still contributed an average of 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.
The Clippers fancied Ronny’s potential and nned to make him into the core of the team. They gave him a lot of chances. They let him be a starting forward and developed a lot of ys that centered around him. Ronny’s stats continually increased. In the most recent season, he reached an average of 19.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game.
As a forward, 19+5+3 was a decent result. The previous season was thest year of Ronny’s rookie contract, so contract renewal became one of the Clippers’ main task over the summer.
Before the season ended, the Clippers had already decided to renew Ronny’s contract and they offered him a five-year 85 million dor deal. Although that contract was not the top wage, it was still considered pretty high among for a newbie’s contract. After all, Ronny had never been a higher ranking yer and wasn’t considered an all-star.
Ronny rejected this offer and informed the media that he was fighting for the top wage.
After Dai Li joined the Clippers, they yed quite a number of overtimes, which improved the average statistics of several of the Clippers yers. They yed several more minutes each game, so, naturally, they got higher stats. Ronny’s average points per game went above 19.
The Clippers did not want to lose Ronny; they even offered him a five-year contract worth 90 million dors. This was five million more than the previous offer, and his average annual sry would be over 18 million dors. However, Ronny was still unsatisfied; he wanted the top wage!
Based on NBA rules, Ronny had already yed four full seasons in the NBA, so he fulfilled the requirements of the Larry Bird exception use. Although he had been traded once, his rookie contract inherited the Larry Bird exception use. The team that obtained the yer after the trade could still execute the Larry Bird exception use. As such, Ronny could use the use to obtain a top wage during contract renewal.
The Larry Bird exception use states that free yers could y for a team for over three years. Teams can re-sign their own free agents, at an amount not affected by the sry cap for a maximum of five years. The starting sry for the first year of the contract would be 25% of the current sry under the restriction of the sry cap. Every consecutive year, the sry would rise by 12.5% annually. However, if the yer moved to another team by the end of the season, then his sry only rose by 10.5%, and the contract length was limited to four years.
The 12.5% annual sry increase in the Larry Bird exception could only be used on first-round drafted rookies. Ronny was a first-round drafted rookie. His wage in the first year was close to 25 million dors, and the 12.5% increase in consecutive years would make his five-year sry 150 million dors.
If he made 90 million dors over five years, a loss of 60 million, he would lose 12 million dors per year. Naturally, Ronny did not want to lose that much.
...
In the meeting room, everyone was discussing Ronny’s contract renewal.
“150 million over five years is impossible. Ronny isn’t worth this much. Although his stats improved to 19+5+3, he is still not an all-star. He’s not worth such a high sry.”
“Ronny’s stats are based on the fact that there’s more time to improve. In truth, his shooting rate hasn’t improved that much since he was on the Chicago Bulls. If he weren’t the tactical core of the team, he would not have the ball so much. He would never have gotten stats like these.”
“I believe that Ronny can be an all-star yer. However, it’s difficult to believe he can be a game-changing leader of a team. A five-year deal worth 150 million dors is really too much.”
Everyone in the meeting room began stating their opinion.
If one were an all-star or had simr stats to an all-star, then a team could offer him a top wage without having to worry about facing a loss. Of course, this did not guarantee teams would earn profits.
A mega superstar, on the other hand, was guaranteed to make a huge profit for a team even if they offered him a the top wage.
Some yers had strategic value. They upied the slot of the top earner but they helped the team make the yoffs. For the team, these sorts of returns were well worth the investment.
Apart from them were mega super rookies. These yers were definitely going to be mega superstars in the future. They could very well bring teams the championship or even create a golden era for the team. Teams were naturally going to offer yers like these the top earner use because it was the equivalent of paying for the future in the present,
Ronny wanted to be the top earner with a five-year deal worth 150 million dors. Clearly, he felt that he was the kind of yer who could develop into a mega superstar.
Unfortunately, he was not such a yer.
In the meeting room, the management of the Clippers discussed this for at least half a day before finally reaching a consensus. They decided that they would not satisfy Ronny’s demands for the 150 million dor five-year deal.
“At the moment, it looks like we still have the initiative in Ronny’s contract renewal. However, I’m worried that the other teams will start causing problems once the yoffs are over. If other teams offer him huge contracts, then it will be up to us to see if we want to match their offers. In that case, we be the passive party. I would prefer toplete contract talks as soon as possible,” Xiao Yunan said and looked at Dai Li.
“A man who is not content with what he deserves is like a snake that tries to swallow an elephant!” Dai Li sighed. He then said, “I will think of some way to put pressure on Ronny. In the training camp, I will intentionally pay more attention to yers in the forward position. I will also follow some free agents. Hopefully,, Ronny will know that we are already starting to look for his recement. That way, he may be more anxious to renew his contract with us!”