At two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the owners of each team received a notice from the league management committee that a voting meeting would be held at the NBA headquarters in New York a month later.

……

Richard still cares about this, and since he wants to vote, he will definitely have to find more allies within this month.

Judging from the current situation, the four teams of the Pirates, Trail Blazers, Pistons, and Thunder are properly on Richard's side.

In addition to these four teams, the Mavericks are estimated to be on Richard's side, not to say how deep the friendship between Cuban and Richard is, the main thing is that Cuban has been dissatisfied with Stern for a long time, as long as Stern wants to do something, he has to make Stern uncomfortable if he has the opportunity.

The Magic boss has a good relationship with Richard, and it is expected that he will also be on Richard's side......

In addition to these teams, Richard has actually helped a lot of teams over the years, and they have no reason to do things that will take revenge.

……

Several of the new players on the team this year are already playing in the summer league, and Richard is ready to take advantage of this time to talk to O'Neal to see if O'Neal is willing to play as a substitute.

As a result, I called O'Neill and learned that this guy was on vacation in Miami......

During his two years in Miami, O'Neill fell in love with the sea and beaches of Miami.

It was certainly not appropriate to talk about this on the phone, so Richard simply took Tiana and the child and flew to Miami to talk to O'Neill in person, and by the way, he also took a vacation.

"Shaq, you're good enough to enjoy it, just stay by the beach if you're fine." Richard saw O'Neill in leggings on the beach, and the picture was too beautiful to describe.

"Then for sure, sharks can't live without the sea." O'Neill said with a smile.

"Lee, it's definitely not a good thing for you to come to me in the offseason, tell me, what are you thinking."

Richard smiled bitterly, O'Neill was not stupid at all.

"I want to ask you if you can play Greg as a substitute next season, I know this arrangement will make it difficult for you, but you should know that it is a pity that Greg does not play as a starter at the moment." Richard didn't hide it, and directly said the purpose of his coming to O'Neill this time.

O'Neill was momentarily stunned, then quickly smiled bitterly.

"Lee, I thought it was going to happen after the season, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon."

"Actually, I also know that for the Pirates right now, it's a better choice to let that kid Greg start, and it makes sense to work out that kid, I'm just an old guy in the late career after all."

"But, even if I'm old now, there's no way I'm going to play as a substitute, you know what I mean?"

Richard nodded, O'Neal has his own pride, he is a super inside line who has dominated the league for more than ten years, before Richard entered the league, O'Neal had already made a name for himself, let him give a new melon egg as a substitute, his pride can't accept this kind of thing.

Even if Oden is not a simple new melon egg and is known as O'Neal's successor, but now that O'Neill has not retired, he can't accept letting him play as a substitute for his successor.

"Shaq, aren't you going to think about it anymore?"

"You should know that if you refuse to play off the bench, we might trade you and stay with the Buccaneers, and you'll have another championship ring for the rest of the season."

Richard doesn't particularly want to trade O'Neal, if O'Neal is willing to stay and play as a substitute, such a veteran with quite good immediate combat power is still of great value to the Pirates.

"That kind of championship ring, it doesn't mean much to me, it's not like I haven't gotten a championship ring, and now I have three championship rings on hand, not much, but it's a lot."

"If it's a championship ring as a substitute, you should know that it doesn't mean much to me, and one more ring won't make me go up in history, and one less ring won't make me go down in history." O'Neill said with a smile.

"As for the transaction, I hope to trade back to the West, preferably a team with a strong foundation in the West, I want to play while I can still play, and then I will meet Kobe Bryant's kid when I go back to the West."

Richard nodded, since O'Neill had already made up his mind, there was no point in continuing to persuade him.

"Well, Shaq, then I wish you a great future career." Richard sighed......

……

After returning to Charlotte, Richard asked Myers to contact the Suns, and O'Neal wanted to go to the Western powerhouse, so the Suns were probably the only option.

The Spurs, Lakers or Jazz have little interest in O'Neal, their lineups have been perfected, and rushing to have more O'Neal may not necessarily improve their strength.

The Suns have been coveting O'Neal for a long time, and last offseason, they contacted the Heat about trading O'Neal, and if it wasn't for Pat Riley's asking price, the deal would have been successful.

Now seeing O'Neal's excellent form this season, the Suns management is also remorseful.

But when they got Myers' call, the entire Suns management was stunned, is this pie in the sky?

Richard is going to sell O'Neal to their Suns? And the asking price is just a Marion plus a cannon fodder to match the salary.

Marion maintained a good state last season, averaging 16 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1.5 blocks per game, although the scoring is a little less, but the scoring efficiency is good, and the average shooting rate can reach more than 52 per game.

But in the eyes of the Suns management, O'Neal is obviously more likely to lead the Suns further, because the two strongest teams in the West, whether they are the Spurs or the Lakers, have quite strong interior lineups, and every time they meet these two teams, the Suns lose badly.

If O'Neal can be brought in, I am afraid that the situation will be greatly improved, of course, if Marion leaves, it will affect the strength of the Suns' starting lineup.

But Grant Hill is in a good state with the help of the Sun Doctor, and with the help of the Sun Doctor, there is still a Dio on the bench, which is almost enough.

……

The Suns agreed to Richard's trade offer without saying a word, and if Richard asked for other players in addition to Marion, the Suns would probably hesitate......

After all, the Suns had suffered losses in Richard's hands before, selling Joe Johnson to Richard.

But now Richard asked them to choose a random player and match Marion to match O'Neal's salary, which reassured the Suns management a lot, and Richard should have no tricks in this deal.

The doors of the trading market were open, and the Suns representative flew to Charlotte that night to sign a contract with the Pirates representative Myers.

It's no wonder they're in such a hurry, but in their opinion, it's definitely a pie-in-the-sky thing.

Marion has only one year left on his contract, and after this year, they could lose Marion because they are unlikely to give Marion too much to pay......

And now with the soon-to-be-lost Marion in exchange for the inside pillar O'Neal, how to see how good this deal is.

As for O'Neal's aging age and potential injury risk, the Suns are not worried at all, they can even handle a famous glass man like Grant Hill, are they still afraid of O'Neal?

……

After the two sides signed the contract overnight, the two sides jointly announced the news early the next morning.

The Buccaneers sent O'Neal in exchange for Sean Marion and cannon fodder Banks from the Suns, which is the same as the Heat's trade with the Suns under normal circumstances.

This deal is the first blockbuster deal of this offseason, and it has attracted the attention of many fans.

However, O'Neal was not too surprising, mainly because Oden's performance in his rookie season was too good, and it is not difficult to guess that the Pirates sent O'Neal Sr. away and went all out to correct Oden.

……

After the deal was made, the Pirates' forward lineup was well strengthened, and the interior lineup was definitely weakened, but because Richard got Jordan Jr. in the draft this season, the impact was not particularly big.

……

Richard liked Marion as a player.

In his opinion, Marion is probably the most underrated player in the entire history of the NBA, not one of them......

If nothing else, let's talk about the defensive end, Marion's defense is quite good, but he hasn't even won even one of the best defensive second teams in his entire career.

Counting last season, Marion has been playing in the league for nine years, and his worst year of defensive efficiency is 102, and his best year is 93 points.

In the past few years, he has averaged 2 steals and more than 1.5 blocks per game in a row.

It's fair to say that Marion is the kind of player who not only looks good defensively, but also defensively works.

But even so, he still hasn't won any defense-related honors, not even the best defensive second team, let alone the defensive first team and DPOY.

In this situation, Richard feels that it may have something to do with the Suns' long-standing style of play, and the Suns' system makes it easy to overlook Marion's contribution on the defensive end.

Many fans think that this Suns team is a pure offensive team, but in fact, their defense is also very good, and on the Western side, as long as it is a strong team, there is no bad defense.

Players who don't defend well, even if they are strong in offense, will definitely not be able to gain a foothold in the West.

The Spurs and Jazz rely on defense to eat, and the Lakers' current defensive intensity is not low.

Although the Suns' defense is not as good as these three teams, it is much stronger than other teams in the West.

But the Suns' offense is so flashy that people ignore their defense, which may be why Marion has never been able to win defense-related accolades.

Whether you look at the defensive stats or the advanced stats, Marion's defense is at the DPOY level.

In addition to the strength of the defensive end, Marion actually has two top skills.

Old Suns fans should remember a sentence that the Suns have three treasures on the court, one is Nash's playmaking ability, the second is Marion's rebounding ability, and the third treasure is Marion's off-ball ability.

In the first nine years of his career, Marion, who is 201 cm tall, averaged more than 10 rebounds per game.

Xiao Si's rebounding ability is not strong, and Marion's presence makes the Suns' rebounding will not be weaker than the opponent.

Marion's rebounding has risen to the level of art like Nash's playmaking.

In addition to his strong rebounding ability, Marion's off-ball running ability can definitely be called superb.

Because of the poor offensive ability with the ball, off-ball offense is Marion's main offensive method, and the erratic off-ball running position always gives the opponent a headache, but if you want to score too much without the ball, it is definitely unrealistic, so Marion's average points per game has not been much.

With not many points scored, coupled with a strange 38-style push shot, Marion is underrated for granted.

Richard has actually been thinking about Marion for a long time, and it is also quite gratifying for Richard to get his hands on it this time.

Even if it can only be used for a year, Richard feels that it is worth it, at least he has no regrets, and the players he wants to use have been used, and it is not in vain that he has gone through this experience.

……

After the deal was officially announced, O'Neal didn't make any moves, and still stayed in Miami for vacation, and the Suns wouldn't call him back at this point in time anyway.

As for Marion, he called Richard as soon as possible.

Marion is still quite happy to join the pirate team, fools know that this year must be another pirate year, and if you join the pirate team, you can get a championship after joining the pirate team, and you won't lose anything.