The previous day's draft was held at Madison Square Garden, and the next day's Charlotte expansion bid voted went to league headquarters.

In the conference room of the league headquarters, representatives of various teams took their seats.

The representative of the Rockets is naturally Qiao Hai, the Lakers are Mitch Kupchak, and the Heat is Pat Riley.

Of course, not all teams come with team management, such as the Grizzlies, and they come from team owner Michael Hasley.

The reason is very simple, because Billy Knight has left class, and the Grizzlies have not yet found a successor, and such a big thing can only be Michael Haesley himself.

Joe Hai sat in the Rockets' position, flanked by Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson Jr. Buford.

Qiao Hai has no friendship with these two general managers, but Qiao Hai has a good relationship with Don Nelson and Greg Popovich, so the three of them are also talking and laughing, at least they are not idle.

David Stern and the staff of the League office walked in and sat down on the podium.

Then, as a thick stack of materials was handed out, David Stern began to announce: "We will have a vote on the expansion of the Charlotte Army." ”

"Before the vote, we first invited representatives of the two consortiums participating in the bidding to give a speech......

Then, amid a round of applause, Robert Johnson and Tom Benson, the big boss of the Larry Bird Consortium, also stood on the podium.

The two gave speeches on the changes they might bring to the NBA league and canvassed for one last time.

In fact, before voting, Qiao Hai was already full of confidence.

He didn't think there would be any surprises, because as far as he knew, he already had a base of 15 votes, which was far more than half.

Coupled with the canvassing on Robert Johnson's side, the votes they were able to get in the end must have been stable at more than half.

So, Qiao Hai was not worried at all.

……

Instead of voting by show of hands, the coalition handed out a blank sheet of paper to each person, and whoever they chose wrote their name.

Qiao Hai wrote Robert Johnson's name, folded it, handed it over, and then glanced at both sides.

Not surprisingly, both Buford and Nelson Jr. wrote Robert Johnson's name.

Then, after collecting all 29 ballot papers, the staff of the coalition office began to count the ballots.

Robert Johnson one vote, Tom Benson one vote, Robert Johnson another vote, Tom Benson another vote......

At first, the two consortia seemed to be a tie.

But in the middle of the call, suddenly there was a paragraph where the name of the league staff was Robert Johnson.

Almost instantly, Robert Johnson was 6 votes ahead of Tom Benson!

Joe Hai had an excited smile on his face, and he glanced at Larry Bird, who was sitting in the walker's seat not far away.

Forcing King Bird looked expressionless at this time, but in fact, everyone knew that Robert Johnson was 6 votes ahead at once, and Larry Bird was already in the ......

In the second half of the roll, the two sides were evenly matched, but Robert Johnson always led by 6 votes.

All 29 sheets of paper were read, and the results were released.

David Stern stood in front of the microphone to the applause of the audience and announced: "At 18:11, congratulations to Robert Johnson and his buddies, Charlotte's new team belongs to them!" ”

Bang Bang Bang!

Amidst a round of applause, Robert Johnson received the signing of the new team, which symbolized victory!

……

……

After the bidding vote, the general trend was set, with Robert Johnson becoming the big boss of the new team, and Joe Hai also becoming one of the small owners of the new team.

The expansion bid meeting is not over, because the league still has to discuss what kind of treatment the NBA will give to the new team after the new team enters Charlotte next year.

For example, where the players on the new team will come from, and how many draft picks the new team will get.

Where the players of the new team will come from, there is nothing to discuss, according to the treatment of the previous expansion teams, after discussion, it was directly decided.

"Existing teams in the league can protect up to eight of their own players (including restricted free agents) from the Expanded Draft, but each team must bring out one player for the new team to pick, and that player cannot be eligible to become a free agent through the option."

"The new team will have to pick at least 14 players in this expansion draft, and a maximum of 29 players."

"In the expansion draft, the original team in the league can compensate the new team (usually with draft picks) in exchange for the new team to pick or not pick one of its players."

The draft expansion plan is no different from the previous expansions, so it was easy to decide, and neither the management of the existing team nor Robert Johnson had too many objections.

Then, the debate began over how many draft picks to rank the new team.

Robert Johnson insisted on a first-round pick with the top three picks, but Magic's general manager, John Gabriel, disagreed.

Chicago Bulls' John Paxson and Pacers' Larry Bird also objected.

In the midst of many opposition, the league quickly proposed a plan, referring to the plan when the Raptors and Grizzlies entered the league, giving a No. 4 pick to the new team, and voting on the two plans by show of hands.

As a result, the No. 4 plan was supported by most of the teams and was quickly voted on.

As a result, the new team will receive a No. 4 pick in their debut season instead of the top-three picks that Robert Johnson requested.

……

After the discussion of the draft and draft picks ended, the meeting was still not over.

Clippers owner Donald Sterling said: "The new team should not get all the dividends of the league in its first season! ”

Every season, the league takes a sum of money from the luxury tax and broadcast fees and distributes it to the teams in the league, and Donald Sterling is clearly eyeing that income.

Robert Johnson, of course, was again against this proposal.

However, the coalition still voted by a show of hands, and the result was voted on.

Representatives of most of the teams raised their hands, and the end result was: "The new team is not eligible for any luxury tax or annual basketball-related income in the league until the 2005-2006 season." ”

Robert Johnson was a little helpless, but there was nothing he could do.

Although this income is not very large, no matter how small the mosquito is, it is still meat, and it is quite distressing that it cannot be handled.

Soon, however, Robert Johnson countered with the proposal that "the league's basketball-related revenue for the next year will not include the fees that new teams pay to join the league." ”

The rationale is that since they don't get a share of the league's dividends from the first season, the money they contributed shouldn't be included in the dividends.

This proposal was directly approved by the league on the basis of respect for the new teams funded and the reasons of the funders.

……

After the lengthy meeting, Buford and Donnie Nelson turned directly to congratulate Qiao Hai, and Mitch Kupchak was also full of envy.

No one thought that Qiao Hai had only been in this alliance for five years, and he had already completed the transformation from a part-time worker to a boss.