unfinished glory

Chapter 273

Chapter 273

When the Heat formed the unprecedented Big Three, people thought they would create a new history, but they did not expect to become the stepping stone of the Grizzlies for two consecutive years, witnessing the opponent's three consecutive championships.

This is the third time for Stern to award the championship trophy to the Grizzlies. He is happy to see the Grizzlies stand out from the teams that beat the two Big Three.

Over the past few years, superstars have continued to report to the group, making life more difficult for small teams.Stern himself tends to balance within the league.In the years he has been in power, basically every team has no shortage of stars. Fans who know a little bit about NBA can name the stars of most teams.

However, after group reporting became popular, stars gathered in a limited number of cities, and the NBA became less and less attractive to small ball markets.Take the Knicks as an example, the cost of forming the Big Three is that the Suns did not have Stoudemire, the Rockets did not have McGrady, and the Nuggets did not have Anthony.

There are four such teams, which means that there are eight to twelve teams that have lost their star players.

The Grizzlies are different. They can be regarded as a civilian team, with only one superstar added.

This is the model that Stern likes. The small ball market takes root in the local market, and the arrival of superstars brings starlight and honor.

At the same time, he was a little worried that the Grizzlies were too strong, making the championship race lose suspense.This will make many fans lose interest in the NBA.

This is like the relationship between live broadcast and replay, the unknown can attract people.If you know the result of the game, I believe many people will pay attention to the data at most, and watch it again if they are not interested.

Two recent examples, one is the 2007 finals, the Cavaliers were swept 4:0, not only did not exceed the expectations of experts, even many fans guessed.As a result, the ratings of the finals dropped sharply that year, which was not as good as the defensive battle between the Spurs and Pistons in 2005.

The other one is the Lakers who won three consecutive championships. The OK combination is too strong, so that fans who did not pay attention to the 2002 finals know that the Lakers won the championship. The topics asked are "How many games did the Lakers win?", "Is the FMVP Kobe or O'Neal? ".

In this case, it will naturally lead to a drop in ratings.If the Grizzlies can still win, the same problem will definitely appear on them.

Worried about the Grizzlies thriving, which is why Stern did not prevent the Hornets from trading Paul to the Lakers.

But in any case, Stern has no objection to Li Chongxiao.It took years of hard work to open a hole in the ancient Eastern market, and then Yao Ming and Li Chongxiao helped the team gain a firm foothold.

In recent years, the overall income of the NBA in China has continued to increase.In order to maintain the league's largest overseas market, Stern has no reason to suppress China's number one basketball superstar.

What's more, Li Chongxiao is not only attracting attention in China, he is now a world-class superstar and the number one player in the NBA.

李冲霄六场比赛分别拿到41、44、50、43、51和56分，场均47.5分，毫无争议的球队第一功臣。继奥尼尔之后，他也拿到了三连FMVP。

Domestic fans are still relatively reserved, discussing in secret whether his historical ranking can enter the President Hill.The American media directly placed him second in history, and even many fans believed that Jordan's position was already unstable.

Five championships, four FMVPs, three regular season MVPs, these big honors are already very powerful, and Li Chongxiao is only a little over 26 years old, the current lineup of the Grizzlies can still be strong.

……

After the celebration, Li Chongxiao rushed back to China to participate in the Olympic training.When Yao Ming had to undergo surgery, Li Chongxiao became the lifeline of the national team.

The Grizzlies need to do more. Li Chongxiao's contract extension is undoubtedly the first to be offered. There is no doubt that the maximum salary will continue until 2018, including the player option for 2016.

At least three people were identified as leaving.Daben chose to retire, and he was satisfied with winning two more championships at the end of his career.

Matt - Barnes chose to leave.After the Grizzlies have won enough honors, he also has to think about his future life.

The contract between Gasol and the team has not been negotiated, and the maximum salary and team status he asked for are not what the Grizzlies can give.

Next season's salary cap is $5800 million and the luxury tax point is $7030 million.The Grizzlies don't count the contracts of Gasol and the two players who are confirmed to leave the team, both of which are already about 7000 million.

If you add the 1300 million maximum salary contract that Gasol asked for, the Grizzlies will definitely have to pay the luxury tax.

This is still within the tolerance of the boss. After all, he spent money to win the championship, but the status of the team cannot be satisfied.Gasol's possession of the ball has been fixed, and it is impossible to drop it any more. The scattered data of other players is not worth fighting for.What can be fought for is naturally Li Chongxiao's possession of the ball and shots.

But Li Chongxiao was unwilling.He has been with the Grizzlies for four years. In the first season, Gasol was still a rookie, and he used high scoring to help the team get the first place in the league.In the second season, Gasol was only a sophomore, and he won the championship with a record-breaking average of 50 points in the finals.The score increased in the next two years, and also completed the great cause of three consecutive championships.

Li Chongxiao proved the correctness of his style of play with facts, and there is no need to give way to anyone like Kobe.As the best player in the league, the team and teammates should surround him, and there is no reason for him to sacrifice himself to help others.

Neither will the Grizzlies.Since Li Chongxiao's style of play can achieve results and attract more fans, why change it.

If the commercial value of Gasol is one, Li Chongxiao is more than one thousand.Only a fool would change one thousand to eight hundred in order to increase one to five without changing the record.

If there is no agreement, there is no need to settle.Except for Li Chongxiao, the Grizzlies can replace any player.

……

After determining that the two insiders were going to leave, the Grizzlies made a targeted choice in the draft.

They have two draft picks in the first round, the seventh pick from the Cavaliers and their own No.30 pick.

The Cavaliers were in a lot of pain. They thought James was on the team and the draft pick was not much higher, so they gave the Grizzlies two.Unexpectedly, chickens fly to eggs, people are gone, and draft picks are gone.

This gave the Cavaliers no motivation to play poorly, but relying on Bynum and rookie Irving, they couldn't even make the Eastern Conference playoffs.What makes them even more painful is that Bynum and Irving are not dealing with each other.

After the little shark left Kobe, he openly claimed that the latter delayed his precious rookie period, otherwise he would have been comparable to the four major centers.

He did show his worth and entered the All-Star team.But Bynum's temper is greater than his ability. From McGrady to Wade to Irving, he dislikes every star guard.

But this is a good thing for the Grizzlies. Not to mention the seventh overall pick this year, there is another one in 2014.

They used this pick to select Drummond, who was less than 19 years old.Then Ai Zeli was selected with the [-]th overall pick.These two players are insiders and can fill the vacancy caused by Gasol's departure and Da Ben's retirement.

(End of this chapter)