Champion Creed
Chapter 862 - 862 286 Off-season Defending Champion Request for monthly tickets!_2

862: 286: Off-season “Defending Champion” (Request for monthly tickets!)_2 862: 286: Off-season “Defending Champion” (Request for monthly tickets!)_2 The champions defeated all opponents that season, but in the free agency market, when faced with those contracts with countless zeros, champions often find it difficult to “defend” their players.

Roger experienced this during his time with the Magic, as the team lost Snow and Robinson last summer.

This situation will not change regardless of where you are.

It’s like infidelity; because both parties have needs, this kind of thing will never end.

The first major hurdle for any defending champions is personnel loss during the offseason.

Bruce Bowen is a “nice to have” if retained, but his departure could be bearable.

This year, in the free agency market, players like Reuben Patterson and Dan Majerle can, to some extent, replace the role Bowen played.

However, Ben Wallace is an asset the Hawks absolutely cannot lose.

He is the DPOY and a pillar of the Hawks’ defensive system.

Without him, the Hawks’ undersized lineup would be devastated on defense.

Granted, when the Hawks won the championship for the first time in 1998, Big Ben hadn’t yet flourished, but the Hawks’ defense was still solid.

But don’t forget, at that time Scottie Pippen was still a defensive-level player.

Hence, a role like Big Ben’s wasn’t needed, and the Hawks’ defense could reach the top level in the league.

But with Pippen’s serious decline, Big Ben’s presence becomes especially important.

Looking across the entire NBA, you can’t find another defensive player like Big Ben; he is unique.

Therefore, Roger hopes to use his strength to urge the team to renew Big Ben’s contract, even if he demands a maximum contract.

And Big Ben is indeed worthy of a maximum contract.

However, it’s not that easy, especially since the team’s major shareholder Steve Belkin is still in a “constant” state.

Many attentive fans have noticed that he didn’t even appear at the Hawks’ award ceremony last night.

This afternoon, Roger’s agent Eric Fleisher brought the news he knew.

“Steve is being stripped of his franchise ownership shares by the league because he was sued by half of the shareholders who want to revoke his shareholder status.

The cause was his unilateral decision to give Big Ben a maximum contract despite opposition from half the shareholders, which violated the rules.

Before the verdict is reached, Steve is not allowed to contact any player or participate in any team affairs.

This issue has been ongoing for a long time; the league just controlled public opinion, and David didn’t want the outside world to see this messy side, so everyone thought he was ‘missing.’

The league’s top officials are currently holding a meeting, and it’s the first time in many years that the league is stripping an owner of their shares, so the process is much longer than people imagine.

But it’s close; there should be a result in a few days.”

Roger wasn’t particularly surprised; previously, when he called Bo Turner to understand the situation and sensed the seriousness in the tone, he knew something bad might happen.

As for the outcome, Roger feels it’s not optimistic.

The league definitely has the right to strip an owner of their franchise rights; Donald Sterling from the original timeline is an example.

After his racial comments surfaced, the league’s board of directors voted to force him to sell the team.

Steve Belkin’s situation isn’t as severe, but the process isn’t much different from Sterling’s incident.

As long as you break the rules, the league can indeed make you lose your team.

This is a bad news, and the worse news is that half of the shareholders are unwilling to give Big Ben a maximum contract.

Roger doesn’t know if his pressure will change this outcome.

Two days later, Roger participated in the championship parade.

This year’s championship parade was special because there were many direct interaction segments between fans and star players.

Orphanage kids came on stage to temporarily show the paintings they made for the Hawks players.

Some disabled individuals from Atlanta came on stage to tell how Hawks players encouraged them.

Andy’s parents even came on stage to tell the story between Roger and Andy.

Reebok always considered the story between Roger and Andy as a promotional opportunity, but Roger didn’t want to disturb the deceased, so he never took the initiative to talk about it to the media.

This time, the team actually invited Andy’s parents to come.

There’s no doubt that this year’s championship parade greatly deepened the bond between Hawks players and fans.

Big Ben even began questioning himself: “Am I really going to leave this place for money?

The fans here love me!”

After the parade, the 2001 draft took place as scheduled.

The Washington Wizards still picked Kwame Brown, proving that picking Kwame Brown wasn’t a mistaken vision of Jordan.

Even without Jordan, the Wizards would have continued to select him.

After all, Kwame Brown still outperformed players like Tyson Chandler in workouts.

There wasn’t much change in the draft afterward.

Although the third pick wasn’t the Hawks but the Warriors, they still selected Paul Gasol and immediately traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies for the already famous Sheriff Abdul-Rahim.

The Hawks originally had two targets, Tony Parker or Gilbert Arenas.

But because Pete Babcock sought to trade up draft picks everywhere, the Spurs and Warriors’ management knew his plan.

It’s natural; as the defending champions, you can’t escape everyone’s attention and everyone targeting you.

Thus, the Spurs traded up and picked Parker in advance, while the Warriors used their first-round draft pick to select Arenas—who they were initially hesitant about but, considering the Hawks’ successful selections in recent years, decided to gamble on this ticket.