Yang Rui lives in Toronto, hangs out with Thomas during the day, and chats with Scarlett at night using the Minion app, and time flies. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Heading into December, the All-Star Game was also canceled and the players were starting to feel the pressure. Back on October 20, Arbitral Judge John Flick ruled that management was not required to pay players during the lockout.

The stock market has been rising, and Yang Rui's value continues to increase without being affected by the shutdown. He signed with the Raptors with an annual salary of only 1 million, and he earned it in the summer, and he didn't care about that loss.

On December 23, Christmas Eve, Stern issued an ultimatum, saying that if no deal was reached on January 7, he would announce the cancellation of the new season.

At this time, there was a split within the players' union, and the high-paid players, led by the chairman of the players' union, Patrick Ewinge, broke with other players under the manipulation of the famous agent David Falke.

The fact that these high-paid stars don't want to take a pay cut is the main reason why the deal can't be reached.

It's a situation where no one can afford to be hurt, with players losing more than $500 million, the league losing more than a billion dollars, and ABC losing $200 million.

Although NBA owners have a lot of money, and running an NBA team is not the only industry, after all, the NBA has an annual revenue of about $4 billion, which owner is willing to give up a share? The players can't afford to be hurt, everyone eats youth rice, and they can afford to fight for a short time, once they enter the tug-of-war, how many can really "big deal and stop playing"?

The concessions on the players' side allowed for a new collective bargaining agreement to be reached quickly, and the change in attitude of the players began with a timely appeal from Suns captain Kevin Johnson, who called on both sides to take a step back.

If you really shut down for a season, the fans run away and want to pull it back, I don't know how much time and energy it takes.

The end result was that the management made some concessions, saying that as long as the stars accepted the maximum salary cap, they would increase the salary packages of middle and lower level players. Under pressure, the players' union decided to accept the employer's proposal and signed a new collective bargaining agreement.

This is the most reasonable solution, which is equivalent to giving some of the superstar's money to the role players, so that the owners will capture the hearts of most of the players, and those superstars who want to use the NBA as an ATM can only give up.

The worst is the Timberwolves, in 1997 they gave Garnett a huge contract of 126 million for 6 years, and if it was signed this year, the contract would definitely be much smaller.

Garnett's contract accounts for half of the team's salary, resulting in the Timberwolves' salary has been magical, and there is no money to find stars to team up with the Wolves.

In Yang Rui's previous life, in 2004, the "F4" Lakers with a salary of 61.93 million defeated the "three-headed monster" Timberwolves with a salary of 67.77 million yuan 4-2. The Timberwolves spent 67.77 million to finally pass the first round, which is such a luxury!

On January 20, the employer and the employee signed a new contract, ending the 204-day suspension. The new season will begin on February 5, and the time set aside is for teams to trade in reinforcements.

The management introduced a "luxury tax" that would put the average salary of NBA players between $9 million and $14 million, and stipulate that rookie salaries would be paid according to draft picks. As compensation, the employer retained the "Byrd Clause".

Previously, the team could only sign a three-year contract with a first-round rookie, so Maddie and Billups were free agents in 2000. Now, teams can sign rookies to four-year rookie contracts, which is good news.

The bad news is that Jordan officially announced his retirement in January, and the Bulls dynasty collapsed.

Fans regret it, insiders are not surprised at all, Pippen, Rodman, "Zen Master" Jackson have all confirmed that they will not stay in Chicago, Jordan wants shares are not available, and the contradiction with manager Klaus is irreconcilable.

Time is pressing, free agency signings and team trades are going crazy, and teams are hiring.

Last season, the butterfly effect of the Eastern Conference finals appeared, and Scott Pippen, who was in declining form, joined the Trail Blazers on a five-year, 58 million contract.

In Yang Rui's previous life, Rocket and Pippen signed a terrifying 5-year 73 million contract, and they were pitted very badly by Pippen. Rocket management hopes to fight for a championship in the last years of Barkley and Olajuwon. Pippen didn't win the championship last season and had a very low rating, so owner Alexander was reluctant to make a trade that was obviously losing money.

Rodman, the "big bug" who has had a poor performance in the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, has no one to care about after leaving the Bulls, and his agent has been denied the initiative to contact the team, even if it is a weak team.

Rodman's ankle sprain has long been healed, but no team is willing to risk it on him, and the management believes that he is a restless factor who hurts the team more than it helps.

Under these conditions, no team offered Rodman a high salary, and unless he was willing to accept the veteran's base salary, his career would be over.

The Timberwolves signed 1995 No. 1 pick Joe Smith for significantly less than market value. Everyone thought it was strange that Yang Rui knew how this signing happened, and the Timberwolves would be unlucky in the future.

The Timberwolves reached a "yin-yang contract" with Joe Smith in an attempt to evade the sanctions of the luxury tax.

The original of the contract, which was shown to the league office, was $1.75 million in 1998-99, $2.17 million in 1999-2000 and $2.25 million in 2000-01.

Timberwolves boss McHale conspired with Joe Smith that as long as Smith is willing to join for the first three seasons with a low salary, he will get a seven-year contract with a contract amount of no less than $40 million and a maximum of $86 million. The copy of the contract bears the autographs of Timberwolves owner Glenn Taylor, Joe Smith and his agent.

A year later, the media revealed that the Timberwolves had signed Joe Smith by illegal means, and they were severely sanctioned by the league office, stripped of their first-round pick for the next five years plus a $3.5 million fine, and Joe Smith was forced to transition to free agency and sign with the Pistons for one year.

Later, the 2003 and 2005 draft picks were returned to the Timberwolves by the league, and the Timberwolves still couldn't escape the fate of the bad team, even if Yang Rui traveled back in time, this did not change.

The Knicks and Warriors have made the biggest trade in free agency, and management is looking to defend the title.

Knicks get "Madman" Sprewell; The Warriors acquire Chris Childs, Chris Mills and John Starks.

The conflict between Sprewell and Warriors head coach Callesimo is well known. The former All-Star's personal image is worse than Rodman's, as he chokes the head coach's neck.

Because of the famous "lock throat door", "Madman" was suspended for 62 games and could not continue to stay with the Warriors. The ban and suspension made the Knicks pick up a big leak and exchange a relatively modest price for a backcourt star, and the team put together the "Big Three" of Ewing, Houston, and Sprewell.

The Knicks also signed a two-year extension for role player Bowen, plus Larry Johnson, Oakley, Ben Wallace, Ward and others, and countless media exclaimed - who can stop the Knicks?!