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Chapter 555 - 240. Boss, can you not go to the negotiations next time?

Chapter 555: 240. Boss, can you not go to the negotiations next time?

Jordan: "The first billion-dollar contract on our team must be yours."

Zhang Yang: "Ah? Thank you."

Jordan: "What kind of response is that? No surprise, no emotion?"

Well, Jordan put himself in the same position, thought about it, and realized he wouldn’t be surprised or moved either—he even thought it was only natural.

Really, it might have been better not to say anything.

Never mind, let’s change the topic, Jordan said, "First Yao joined the Chicago Bulls, now with the Lakers, your road to defending the championship might be even tougher than mine back in the day."

Zhang Yang: "I was already worried that Yao going to the Chicago Bulls would trigger a chain reaction, but the chain reaction came anyway."

Jordan: "No, it’s our championship that caused the chain reaction. Yao and you are actually in competition; he needs to maintain his commercial value, and must have the ability to compete for a championship, otherwise his commercial value will surely plummet."

When a team like the Chicago Bulls shows up, Kidd and Garnett get anxious. Kidd is already 34, Garnett 31. At that age, who knows when they might suddenly collapse, Kobe needs help, it’s normal for those three to band together."

The Nets and Kidd were both clear they wanted to split. Trading Kidd for a top-tier trading asset like Odom, the Nets would definitely trade. When they offered Kidd, the Magic only wanted to give Nelson, the Mavericks only wanted to give Harris, and the Toronto Raptors only wanted to give Ford. These players, though young and promising, I think, even at their peak, wouldn’t match Odom when he first entered the NBA. The Spurs did want to trade Parker for Kidd, but Kidd refused to go to the Spurs."

Garnett could opt-out of his contract after the next season, he had high speaking rights about where he wanted to go. With Bynum’s talent being so great, as long as Garnett wanted to go to the Lakers, the Timberwolves could only agree; they couldn’t get a better core team member back."

"From the moment we won the championship, all this was bound to happen," Jordan said.

Seeing Jordan act all haughty, Zhang Yang almost retorted: do you love Pippen that much, giving French Pippen $120 million...

Zhang Yang thought for a while and said, "I heard Garnett and Kobe are close friends, they often train together in the summer, and Kidd has reached the age where he’s willing to set aside his ego to play a supporting role. Did our championship create two formidable opponents for ourselves?"

Jordan: "Exactly, just like in ’96 when I came back and won the championship, Barkley, who never acknowledged Olajuwon, chose to cling to Olajuwon’s coattails."

Zhang Yang: "And then Barkley resented Olajuwon even more?"

Jordan: "No, it’s hatred, he grew to hate Olajuwon. I too feel it’s a pity; I thought I could beat Olajuwon head-on, but they didn’t even get past the Jazz Team."

Zhang Yang: "Don’t you want to beat the other two?

Jordan: "I had already beaten those two before my first retirement, it doesn’t matter."

Zhang Yang: "..."

He was wrong, he wouldn’t stray off-topic again; he had inadvertently given the man an opportunity to show off.

Having laid the groundwork, Jordan said, "This summer, we weren’t able to bring in an excellent forward like Gerald. We asked the Celtics about Pierce, they wanted Emeka in return, we refused. Pierce himself wasn’t interested in joining us, this summer we can only try to make up for the strength we lost at the small forward position."

Zhang Yang: "Pierce might think coming to us is like clinging to a champion, since we just won the championship."

Jordan: "Isn’t that the case?"

Zhang Yang: "..."

With that attitude, no wonder people don’t want to come!

Grumbling to himself, Zhang Yang said, "Boss, let Bernie make the inquiries with other teams next time."

Jordan: "Give me one reason."

Zhang Yang: "He’s older, more polite when he speaks."

Jordan: "You got me there!"

After talking with Jordan, Zhang Yang was even more looking forward to those two opponents.

Apart from those two, he was also quite excited about the Grizzlies. If the Grizzlies were patient, didn’t make foolish acquisitions, and managed their salary space well, who knows, they might even be able to sign Randolph in the future.

Not to mention the Spurs, although Guy was a bit soft, for the Spurs he was a treasure. They hadn’t had that kind of talented perimeter scorer. They relied on Duncan and Ginobili, and in the future, Conley...

As for the age issue with the Lakers...

Zhang Yang remembered the 09-10 season, when 36-year-old Kidd apologized to all the coaches for his immature comments from the past and was forgiven. After 5 years, he was selected again by the coaches for the All-Star reserve squad.

That year, Kidd’s stats were 10+5+9+2 on average, which means, in the previous 5 years, Kidd should have been an All-Star every year, but no coach chose him.

For the next three years, Kidd maintained an All-Star level performance, even in the 10-11 season, Kidd still had average stats of 8 points and 8 assists per game."

Garnett, even after severe injuries, continued top-tier performances until the 10-11 season, and his performances were still first-rate up to the 12-13 season, only fully breaking down after age 37.

The reason Garnett got badly hurt was purely due to exhaustion. Pierce and Ray Allen’s defense could only be considered excellent, Rondo was still raw in his second and third year, and Rivers’ coaching was quite interesting. The Lakers had already started playing offensive basketball, with average scores of 108 points in the 07-08 season and 107 points in the 08-09 season, with scores against them also around 100. Even the Spurs were continuously increasing their average scores, yet Rivers went against the trend, sticking purely to defense when he had good offensive conditions.

The Celtics’ 08 championship win was impressive, but the team legend and Ring King Russell wasn’t highly impressed with the trio’s achievement—"I thought this combination could build a dynasty, even win four championships in a row, but they only won 1 championship for the Celtics, resulting in the first Bill-Russell trophy going to a Lakers player.