632: 223: You Spineless Shark (Monthly Ticket Please!)_2 632: 223: You Spineless Shark (Monthly Ticket Please!)_2 Shaquille O’Neal was the leader of this viewpoint.
This is just a dispute between tall millionaires and short millionaires.
We need to end all this crap and then keep playing and making money!”
Ewing could no longer control him.
Now, no one could control Ewing.
In the original history of 1998, Ewing had the support of Michael Jordan, with Michael Jordan backing him up.
But in this history, Jordan didn’t want to take sides because his next goal was to join the capital side.
He didn’t want to be the leader against the capital side during this sensitive period.
However, he equally didn’t want to stab his former teammates in the back.
So, he chose to watch from the sidelines.
For this reason, the players’ union now lacked influential figures to preside.
Just then, as O’Neal, who was furiously outspoken, saw Billy Hunter enter the internal meeting with Roger.
He immediately became annoyed, “Billy, why did you bring this asshole here?
He can’t help us; he’ll only create problems.
Do you think we don’t have enough trouble already?”
I’m not an asshole,” Roger retorted, getting even angrier upon seeing O’Neal.
“Shaq, Roger is here to help us speak up,” Billy Hunter calmly explained.
“We absolutely cannot accept a hard salary cap agreement, anyone who compromises is an idiot,” Roger expressed his standpoint.
“Roger, who the fuck are you calling?”
“Whoever kneels and accepts the current agreement, I’m talking about them.”
“Fuck, I’ll kill you!”
“Enough!” Ewing shouted, stopping the argument.
“We can’t accept a hard salary cap agreement, but we need to retaliate.
Right now, those owners are acting like ‘you don’t get paid if you don’t work,’ they are fearless.”
“Then we also need to take a stand.
It’s simple; we refuse to participate in the 1998 World Championship.
It may not involve the owners directly, but at least it shows something: we’re not desperate hookers.”
The whole room was somewhat shocked.
Wait, is a Chinese person now affecting the United States team’s participation in the World Championship?
O’Neal laughed, “See?
But Ewing nodded, “This is an opportunity to restart negotiations!”
“What!?” O’Neal thought this was ridiculous.
“Patrick, are you really going to listen to him?
Listen, if we go through with this plan, I’m out of the negotiating committee!”
This is a story about double happiness arriving at the door.
Roger replaced O’Neal on the negotiating committee.
The next day, David Stern and a few owners came with the agreement.
But the players’ union categorically refused the hard salary cap demands and announced the NBA players would boycott the 1998 World Championship.
In the end, the United States team had to find players from overseas leagues to participate in the World Championship.
A Chinese man indeed affected the United States team’s lineup, and this crazy thing became a reality.
Afterward, Roger’s role in the negotiations became increasingly significant.
He realized that if he chose to stay out of it, the agreements that were supposed to exist in the original history would vanish completely.
During this time, Roger was both attending negotiations and training to stay fit.
As for other stars, their off-season activities were even richer.
Karl Malone and the Worm even went to WWE for a match.
Of course, through this process, Roger and O’Neal’s relationship got worse.
O’Neal felt disgraced by being replaced.
He publicly berated, “A lunatic who doesn’t care about the season’s welfare has no constructive role in negotiations!”
Roger called O’Neal a ‘soft shark’ and remarked, “Without him, our opinions are more consistent.”
Their conflict escalated drastically.
And embarrassingly for Shaq, Roger really did solve everything.
On December 31, the players’ union announced that they would submit their final proposal by January 7.
On the night of January 6, the final negotiations took place.
Eventually, both sides reached an agreement, with revenue sharing unchanged, the soft salary cap unchanged, and the Bird exception not canceled; these major tenets were retained under Roger’s insistence.
However, the league would limit the maximum player salaries, introducing the concept of a ‘maximum salary,’ making the NBA the first league in North American professional sports to limit player salary ceilings.
Additionally, the league imposed restrictions on rookie contracts, ending the era of rookies demanding exorbitant salaries.
At the same time, the new agreement increased the minimum salary and introduced a mid-level exception.
Each team could sign veterans to a mid-level contract exceeding the salary cap, equivalent to the NBA average salary.
This greatly increased the income of mid- and low-tier players.
Beyond that, the luxury tax became a reality, preventing the NBA from becoming a ‘pay-to-win’ game unless a lot of money was involved.
It can be said that both parties made concessions during the negotiations, and there were no winners.
Because 32 games were canceled, both sides suffered significant losses.
But Roger still won fame, as he managed to save most of the players’ benefits while preserving the 98-99 season.
Most of the reports about him were positive.
“Without Roger, relying solely on the great Patrick Ewing, all the players might as well follow the path of the Kandi Man and go overseas to play.
By the way, our ’98 top draft pick is averaging less than five points per game in the Italian league.
Is Elgin Baylor sweating yet?
Poor Elgin, fooled year after year, each betrayal unique.”