Larry. Bird was a Celtic superstar in the '80s. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 In his short 13-year career, he won three championships for the Green Army, and he also has three consecutive MVPs and two FMVPs. In terms of achievements, he is undoubtedly in the top 10 superstars of NBA history. After retiring, Bird did not leave his beloved basketball career and entered the management of the Pacers. He served as head coach when the Pacers reached the Finals in 2000.

Today, however, his name is often mentioned in the league not because of his outstanding contributions to the game of basketball, but because of a salary clause.

"Larry. Bird" clause, when a player has played for three years in a row and has not transferred as a free agent, he is granted a Bird exception. Teams can ignore the salary cap and renew the contract of a player with a high salary or even a maximum salary for a player with a Bird exception. The origin of this clause was in 1984 by Larry. Bird wants a good salary, and the Celtics can't meet his expectations under the salary cap. President David. In order to continue the era of the confrontation between black and white, Stern wanted to keep the superstars of the two top teams in Kay Lake, so he introduced this clause. Bird became the first person in NBA history to use this clause, hence the name Bird clause.

(Quick fact: A renewal contract signed using the Byrd clause can be signed for one more year than a regular contract.) Under the 2004 rule, regular players were signed for a maximum of six years, and the Bird clause was signed for seven years; In 2005, the collective bargaining agreement was adjusted to 5 and 6 years; In 2011, it was 4 years and 5 years after the re-collective bargaining. The Byrd clause also supports higher wage increases, which are 12.5%, 10.5% and 7.5% respectively in the three decades, all higher than free agent signings.)

Generally speaking, the Bird clause can be seen as a convenient clause that opens the door for the team to renew the contract of the team's stars. But for a team like the Rockets with a lot of young players, it's more troublesome. Jefferson, Turkoglou and Parker are all Level 01 players who have been with the team for three years and all have Bird exceptions. They were very envious of their classmates Kirilenko and Randolph signing fat contracts (note: Kirilenko was a 99-class rookie, but only joined the NBA in 2001). Turkoglu is a 00-level rookie, who joined the NBA in 01 in the novel, so these 5 people are at the same time), and naturally they are also eager to renew their contracts with high salaries. And at this time, another unexpected player joined the salary chaos, and he turned out to be the team's top superstar - McGrady.

It stands to reason that Maddie had signed a seven-year contract, which did not expire until 2007. But there is a player option added to it, which means that Maddie has the right to end his contract in 2005. Maddy also has a good reason for renewing his contract, when he signed as the Raptors' sixth man, a young potential star. And now he's a two-star MVP, a superstar on par with O'Neal Duncan. In this case, he is naturally not satisfied with his previous treatment. Maddy's agent said he hopes to get a three-year, high-salary contract extension of about $63 million, so that Maddie can play for the Rockets until 2010.

On this issue, Yuanfei and Dawson had a clear disagreement.

Dawson is a traditional, old-school manager who believes that the team should be their home, and the team should offer the star a contract that matches the value of the team. Maddie is already an MVP and has won a long-awaited championship for the Rockets, and he certainly deserves a contract extension with a high salary from the team. And Yuanfei seems to have a valid reason, Maddie has just been injured in the finals, although it seems to be recovering well, but once the contract is renewed, he will have to bear the next 6 years of contract, 6 years is too long and unpredictable for professional sports.

In fact, Yuanfei has a hard time, and the things that come through can never be made public, Maddie's health risks are a big problem, and he has gone down to the top early before the age of 30 due to injuries in history. But from a realistic point of view, he knows that he is at a loss. The team has just won the championship, and he refuses to renew the contract with a high salary. If he really refuses to renew Maddie's contract, he will have to endure criticism from Houston fans and the media.

After thinking about it, Yuanfei didn't have any good solution, so he could only visit in person and talk to Maddie with his personal relationship.

Although he failed to participate in the Olympics, Maddie has a full schedule this summer, in addition to the necessary treatment, he also used the influence of his teammate Da Yao to start a round of visits to China, and a large number of Rockets fans came to support him everywhere he went, which can be described as popular. The regular season is about to start after this round of activities, and Maddie has returned to Houston for a few days of rest. Yuanfei successfully made an appointment and visited the door as a team manager. However, the two still chatted about family life first, and they talked happily.

"Jason, I didn't expect you to have a huge fortune in China. Ling Zun is actually a well-known rich man in China, and now we are not only friends, but also direct members of the boss's family and employees. Eventually, Maddie moved the conversation from family to work.

"Haha, I started the basketball industry out of interest, thanks to my father's support. Without capital, how can you work part-time in the team before you are a minor? I think everyone has speculated about this over the years, right? Yuan Fei smiled: "You should know my age, at least you should know that I officially enrolled in Rice University this summer, and I just became a college student." ”

"There have been many discussions about you in the team before, but it's just an internal topic, and everyone has their own guesses." Maddie couldn't help but think about the previous discussion.

"Tracy, although after this disclosure, in your eyes I am inseparable from the team owner. But I hope we're friends the same as ever. Yuan Fei said sincerely: "To be honest, my father has little interest in basketball, and the team's decisions are mainly made by me." Regarding your contract renewal, I don't worry that Mr. Dawson will do it alone, so I came to talk to you myself. ”

"Of course welcome. From a work perspective, it's a matter for the agent and Mr. Dawson. But the two of us can coordinate the contract privately, of course, it's also good. "Maddie is also reasonable, a little bit of understanding.

"I want to start by talking about how we built a championship team. First of all, in the past few years, we have achieved some good draft picks through bad swings, and then after trade adjustments, we have obtained high-pick rookies such as Heaton, Richard, and Yao, who are already the backbone of our championship. And in the next few years, we will definitely be at the top of the rankings, and we won't have such a good draft pick, so we will have problems with reinforcements. And these stalwarts are always slowly draining, like Memet and Gerrard, who have left us. ”

Maddie kept nodding her head in agreement.

"And the turning point where we really went from a weak team to a strong team was also a good signing, and you also have credit for that. We signed Chauncey, and since we had this team brain, we've freed up your offensive firepower and made you the scoring title and MVP. Truth be told, Chauncey doesn't have Jason. Kidd is so good, but he's probably the best point guard in the league. ”

"That's right, I had some doubts about your recruitment judgment at the beginning. It turns out that you're always right when it comes to looking at people. Maddie laughed.

Yuan Fei's words changed sharply, and his tone became heavy. "Now the problem is that Chauncey is a free agent that we signed with salary space, and we have young players on the team who are constantly raising salaries, and it will be difficult to have room for the next few years. In other words, our draft is also difficult, and free agent signings can only be made with the middle class. It will be very difficult to maintain a first-line strong team in the future. Tracy's player value is undoubtedly at the top of the salary scale, and we have absolutely no disagreement on that. The problem is the league's soft salary cap system, because of the salary cap, you don't just take the money out of the team owner's pocket, so to speak, but also out of the pockets of your teammates. The team will do their best to keep you, but given the salary pressures ahead, Richard, Toney and Heaton could all leave next season. At that time, we only had the CTM trio left in the team, and it was awkward to be in other positions. Are you going to try to take a group of base-paid players to compete for the title? ”

"But Jason, aren't all of us on the team all under the Bird Clause? Why can't you use the Byrd clause to keep all these people? ”

"Tracy, of course it's a good idea, every championship team has thought about it to a greater or lesser extent, and the result? Even those dynastic teams will inevitably have personnel changes, and this is still before the shutdown negotiations in '98, when the collective bargaining agreement was not as standardized as it is now. If I do take the risk of signing all these players on long-term contracts, who can guarantee that everyone will be able to maintain a high level of fitness? Who can guarantee that no one will be bothered by injuries? If we have injuries in our main rotation and the salary space is completely locked up, the team will completely lose the ability to adjust, and it may not be able to alleviate for several years. For example, last season, our interior was very nervous, and if Yao suddenly fell with an injury, we would not be the Pistons' opponent in the Finals, and we might even be eliminated by the Lakers or Timberwolves early. ”

Maddie couldn't help but fall into deep thought when she heard this.