Since coming to New York, Min has spent at least one day a week having dinner with David Stern.

The location is chosen at a Chinese restaurant called "Chen Kee", which specializes in Cantonese cuisine and Cantonese dim sum, and among the many Chinese restaurants in New York, it is quite in line with Min Congda's taste - most of the so-called Chinese restaurants have long since changed their taste to cater to American fetishes.

Min Congda spent money to book a small private room here for a long time, specifically for the two to dine and talk, and Stern also found people from the FBI to set up anti-eavesdropping in this private room.

Of course, the content of their conversation was not very unusual, most of them were some news from within the NBA league, as well as some views of the two on the future policy of the league, which was a normal exchange.

However, if someone wants to eavesdrop and record the content, it will inevitably cause a small storm if it is disseminated.

After all, in the conversation between the two, Stern's intention to expect Min Congda to become the president of the NBA became stronger and stronger.

Especially in September, before the official start of the new season, Min Congda showed unprecedented toughness when negotiating with the players' union on the salary cap issue for the 2016-2017 season.

The players' union is demanding a one-time wage cap increase for the 16-17 season after the new collective bargaining agreement is implemented.

This will cause the salary cap to skyrocket from $70 million in the 15-16 season to $94 million, a whopping $24 million, or 34%, and each team will be close to an extra salary cap.

Such a huge increase is naturally a huge benefit for the stars, and their salary level will be greatly improved.

The top salary will also enter the 30 million era directly from the previous 20 million era, and the 30 million annual salary that Kobe Bryant once had in the distance will become a common salary level in the near future.

For players, playing is a meal of youth, and it is best to get the money in hand right now, and to get it immediately, because you don't know what will happen tomorrow.

It can be a devastating injury that can end a player's career and never get a big contract again.

Therefore, the players are hoping that the excess income brought by the new broadcast contract can be added to the salary cap immediately, and it can bring direct benefits to the players in the signing of the contract next year.

However, the league does not think so, not to pick the player's money, the proportion of income is fixed, and the player should not be given a penny.

But the league is more rational in its belief that a direct and drastic increase in the salary cap will produce a lot of garbage contracts in '16, allowing teams to sign with checks and disrupt the free market.

Once this type of junk contracts increases, the adverse effect in the coming years will be that teams will tighten their monetary policy and significantly reduce their spending on some mid-level contracts, especially middle-class treaties, and reduce the number of years and amounts, so that the middle and lower level players in the league will not be adequately protected.

To put it bluntly, a one-time increase in the salary cap is conducive to the excess and stable income of football stars, especially superstars, and harms the stability of middle and lower stars.

Although the players' union represents the interests of all players, it, like the referees' association, is mainly the stars who can really speak out.

This year's president and vice president of the players' union, Chris Paul and LeBron James, respectively, are stars standing at the top of the league.

Once they sign a new contract, it will be at the level of 30 million to 40 million a year, and the income will be twice as high as that of the previous generation of stars.

No one will get along with money, and the stars have high returns, even with the agents and teams behind them, the profits are rising.

A large number of people are vested interests, how can they not want to eat the 24 million excess salary cap increase?

The new president, Silva, had decided to compromise in the face of a strong star and players' union, because no matter how you distribute the money in batches, it will always end up in the hands of the players, and it makes no difference to the league.

As for those middle and lower-level players, their rights and interests are not the league's concern in the first place, you don't play, some people play.

Stars are scarce, there is no shortage of middle and lower level players, and there are always talents from all over the world who want to squeeze into the NBA to play.

In such a situation, the voices of the middle and lower level players cannot be heard, and it is a joy for the superstars and stars to get super-sized contracts.

But Min Congda, as a vice president, as a person who has the right to speak in the alliance, does not approve of such a thing.

Balance, so that every group in this alliance can benefit from the benefits, has always been his purpose.

The emergence of garbage contracts harms the interests of the team and reduces the protection of middle and lower-level players, which only fattens those stars and agents, which is undoubtedly inconsistent with the socialist core values upheld by Min Congda.

Therefore, in the negotiations in September, Min Congda fiercely opposed the salary cap directly skyrocketing to $94 million, but demanded that part of the extra money be taken out and set up a fund to help solve the problem of living security for ordinary players in the league, just like the referee contract.

As for the salary cap, he believes that it should be raised moderately, gradually to a higher position in at least three years, so that the income from the increase can be reasonably distributed to each year's contract.

These views are also held by many of the league's old-school officials, but their voices are not heeded in the face of strong players' union forces and Adam Silva's compromise.

The appearance of Min Congda gave these old-school officials a voice channel, and he received strong support from these "old-fashioned factions", and at the negotiation meeting, Min Congda showed unprecedented toughness, firmness, and eloquent eloquence, and his series of speeches and opinions made the representatives of the players' union speechless for a while.

And the old-school officials of the alliance have said in private, "Smart's style is really like David." ”

As a result, Min has the support of a large number of old-school officials in the league, who believe that Silva is too compromised and weak in his handling of things, and may become more and more weak in future conversations with players, which is not conducive to the development of the league.

For example, in the negotiation of the legalization of gambling, Silva was almost entirely on the side of the majority shareholder, rather than on an objective and neutral position.

A small number of people even gave birth to the idea that "Smart should perhaps become the president of the alliance".

Of course, Stern saw all of this, and on a rainy weekend, he once again asked Min Cong to the restaurant for tea and snacks.

Stern's favourites are shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork buns, and after his retirement, he has become less restrained in his diet, and he is happy to eat every time, and he is visibly fatter than in the past.

"David, you should eat less of these things, it's not good for your cardiovascular health, you know?"

Min Congda looked at Stern's feasting and said worriedly.

In 11 years, Stern had to step down from the presidency due to a cerebral hemorrhage.

As people get older, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of health, and many people die from cardiovascular disease every year.

Of course, 95% of the reason why Stern became ill at the beginning was that Min Congda was doing something behind his back, and he almost made the old man angry.

Now he turned to persuade Stern to eat less, you want him to die later, why bother in the first place.

Stern drank a cup of herbal tea, stopped his chopsticks, and said, "Life is short, I'm retired, why not enjoy it?" ”

Min Congda smiled and said, "Retired? I don't think you're retired. If you really want to retire, you should go to Florida, which is suitable for retired seniors, rather than staying in New York and still being busy until dark. ”

"Florida isn't for me, New York is my home."

"By the way, Smart, you must have been under a lot of pressure lately, right? The media criticism of you has increased visibly with the naked eye. ”

As he spoke, Stern took out a copy of the New York Times and put it in front of Min Congda, and the sports section mentioned the recent negotiations.

The report said, "Smart Min took the side of the team after becoming a league official and started a confrontation with the players. ”

Min Congda took a look at it and shook the newspaper away, saying, "Fuck it!" I'm obviously on the side of the interests of the majority of players, and these media are just on the side of the superstars! ”

"In the eyes of the media and the fans, only the stars are the players, and the ordinary players are just cannon fodder and ants," Stern said. And this is different from referees, star referees are not supported by fans and the media, and the public opinion energy of stars is much greater. Some fans are ants at the bottom themselves, but they like to be on the side of their favorite stars, even if they are actually super-rich. ”

Min Congda said: "I know that people are always irrational. But I need to be rational. ”

Stern said, "You're not the president, you don't have to. I think it's enough for you to do what you are now, so ...... Shut it up, Smart. ”

"Stop? What do you mean? Do you think you should compromise? You're inviting me to dinner today, just for this? ”

"Yes Smart, after all, Silva is the president, and you have been working against him, making it difficult for him to do it, and it will be bad in the long run. He has already courted you the position of vice president, and you should still support him. ”

Stern appears to be a lobbyist.

Min Congda's toughness in the negotiations made Silva, as the president, a little bit different.

"That's... What if I'm the president? ”

Hearing Min Congda say this, there was an imperceptible smile on the corner of Stern's mouth.

"You're the president, so of course I'm going to listen to you."

(End of chapter)