Hearing Richard's words, the five newcomers relaxed in their hearts.

"Okay, then you are ready to sign a rookie contract, the first round of the show is a standard contract, as for the second round of the show, you go and talk to Olhi yourself, all of them are three-year guaranteed contracts, as for how much money you negotiate, that's your own ability, I don't care here!" Richard commanded again.

The five people nodded again and again, especially the three second-round rookies, and their hearts fell to the ground.

Originally, they were worried that the Trailblazers would give a one-year non-guaranteed contract, and if they didn't get it out in the year, it would be difficult to find a job in the future......

Now the Trail Blazers have directly given a three-year guaranteed contract, and the odds of playing it out will increase exponentially.

……

On July 1, the labor and salary negotiations between the players' union and the NBA management committee officially began.

Although the wage negotiations were started in '98, history still calls the 1999 wage negotiations.

This labor negotiation has left a very strong mark in the history of the NBA, and it can be said to be the most serious labor negotiation in the entire NBA history!

Prior to this, the NBA had been shut down three times, in 1964, 1976, and in 1994, the year Richard crossed over......

However, the three suspensions did not affect the NBA regular season schedule, and each team ended up playing all 82 games.

The 1999 shutdown interfered with the regular season, with teams playing only 50 games, a full 32 fewer regular season games......

It wasn't until February that the teams really started the regular season!

According to the regulations, the NBA's labor and salary negotiations are held once every seven years, and if you think about the last labor and salary negotiations in 1994, it has only been less than five years since now, and you can know that this time the contradictions between the two sides have reached the point of irreconcilability.

Because of Garnett's sky-high contract, Stern realized that the maximum salary regulation must be introduced as soon as possible, otherwise there will be a crisis in the NBA......

His arguments are to lower player salaries, introduce salary cap regulations, and raise the bar for players to enter the NBA, that is, not allow high school students to participate in the draft directly after graduation.

The players' union, represented by Chairman Ewing, naturally could not agree to this condition and put forward their demands to the management committee and the bosses.

They're going to raise the salary cap for the team, and if the salary cap goes up, the players will naturally get more pay.

In addition, the introduction of the maximum salary regulation is completely unacceptable to them, and they are also unacceptable to the age threshold......

Compared with the claims of the former president of the players' union, Isaiah Thomas, Ewing's ideas are supported by all the players.

Ewing's proposition is relatively tactful, taking care of both ordinary players, those supergiant players, and even those high school players, so it has won strong support from all players.

And Isaiah Thomas just takes care of the idea of most of the average players, and the supergiants don't buy him......

It can be seen from the propositions of both sides that it is completely a needle against Maimang, and both sides are unwilling to make concessions, and the contradictions have reached the point where they cannot be reconciled!

At this juncture, when Stern was interviewed by the media, he said a classic sentence, "The salary of NBA players is much higher than that of ordinary people, and they should not ask for more."

These words directly caused strong dissatisfaction among the players, and a general strike was directly carried out!

In this labor and salary negotiation, in fact, both sides are not wrong, but their positions are different......

The management committee of the alliance and the bosses must be thinking about making money, and it is the nature of businessmen to pursue profits, and they are not engaged in charity.

And the players naturally want to make more money, who has a grudge against money? If you can make more, why don't you make more......

In this way, the two sides did not make concessions to each other.

Until the end of the year, on Christmas Eve, Stern has obviously reached the limit of patience, and directly said that if there is no negotiation before January 7 of next year, he will cancel the season directly!

In this case, the two sides finally sat on opposite sides of the negotiating table, after all, neither wanted to cancel a season.

If the season is canceled, the player will naturally lose a year's salary, which is a big loss for the players who eat youth, especially those marginal players, who know how many seasons they can play in total and get one less season's salary, what a big loss.

And the owners naturally don't want to cancel the season, after all, the rental or maintenance of the venue, the logistics salary, these are all costly, and without income, they lose even more.

In the end, the two sides gave way to each other......

Of course, Stern is a person like Stern, so that he can completely give up this idea, it must be unrealistic, a few years later, he successfully raised the age threshold and put an end to the occurrence of high school students entering the league.

Stern and the bosses also gave in and raised some salary caps, but not much, which was an explanation to the players' union.

It's just a salary cap of about $3 million, which is definitely a drop in the bucket compared to the $7 million increase in wage negotiations in '94.

The thing about the maximum salary regulation is that the players' union has given in, which is the bottom line of Stern and the bosses!

It is also the basis for Stern and the bosses to make concessions on the salary cap and age threshold, if the players' union does not agree to introduce a maximum salary regulation, then Stern and the owners will definitely not give in on the salary cap and age threshold.

After much thought, Ewing and other representatives of the players' union still agreed.

Ewing is about to retire, and the salary cap has nothing to do with him, anyway, the salary cap has been raised, and most of the players are satisfied with it, which is enough......

After the labor and salary negotiations are over, it is impossible to start the schedule the next day, because compared with the normal season, the competition will start more than a month later, so the management committee has to hold a meeting to study and formulate a new schedule plan......

There are also some details of the negotiations, which need to be added.

In this way, it was not until the beginning of February that the season officially started.

……

Richard felt that this should actually be a good thing for their pioneers.

The main reason is that they got too many newcomers this time, according to the normal season start time, the newcomers are estimated to be able to fight, and now it's good, the season doesn't start until February, Richard can use the more than half a year to polish the newcomers.