One Year Left to Play

Chapter 624: Chapter 192: The Time Has Come! (Part 3)

Another sharp, decisive topic, Henry Thomas and Pelinka felt chatting with Zhang Hao was quite dull... However, watching the Bulls was still pretty entertaining.

Henry Thomas figured out that no team would use this clause, it was just to get Dolan’s promise of increasing each team’s game broadcasts, and getting a share of money from the New York Knicks each season. This was a matter that many media and experts realized in the two-day signing window.

Those people, like the three of them, watched the excitement of the Bulls.

Finally, on the evening of July 3rd, a team broke the deadlock...

Moning renewed with the Heat, a 7-year deal worth 105 million US Dollars, and right after, Juwan Howard renewed with the Washington Bullets for the same salary, a 7-year deal worth 105 million US Dollars.

Both players’ agents were Bill Duffy. Moning renewed with such a contract, having Bird rights, meaning he didn’t use the unlimited re-signing clause, while Juwan Howard, with only two years of experience and no Bird rights, used the clause to accomplish an over-the-cap renewal.

...

Time flew by.

On July 3rd, Zhang Hao took a day off, didn’t train, and just happened to be the crew’s off day, shooting empty shots.

On the morning of July 4th, Jason Williams returned. He reached a verbal re-sign contract with the Lakers for two years totaling 4.5 million US Dollars.

After farming for over a month, he finally finished the farm work for his family.

As soon as he returned to Los Angeles, Jason Williams went straight to the indoor court rented by Zhang Hao. Upon seeing Zhang Hao, Jason Williams started to complain: "Zhang Hao, it’s obviously my farm that I bought, why do I have to go back and farm every year?"

"If you didn’t buy this farm, your parents wouldn’t need to farm, would they? It’s so tiring, you bought it, so you have to farm it yourself."

"..."

This response made so much sense! Jason Williams had no idea how to refute it.

Leaving Jason Williams behind, Zhang Hao continued with his shooting training. Alan Houston would be coming in a few days. Currently, Alan Houston was busy with his re-signing process. Originally, due to Bird rights, the Pistons held the upper hand, but now with the unlimited re-signing clause, even though no team would offer Alan Houston a Jordan-type contract, the power shifted to his agency.

The key is, these days, there’s no luxury tax yet...

Learning from Alan Houston will surely trigger a learning mode. Not much to choose from, focusing on running position and catch-and-shoot abilities.

But now, Zhang Hao found himself learning quite a variety, quite a lot. He agreed with the Magician and James Worthy to visit Jabbar after he returned to Los Angeles at the end of the month. There would be more to learn then... But he still wanted to learn, to first learn how to practice, then find the focus, and then reinforce what was most useful at the current stage.

For example, in the past month, his main practice remained shooting, dribbling, passing, footwork on defense. He started reinforcing spin cuts and off-ball cuts to the basket, high-low passing...

Learning diversely, but with a very purposeful direction in reinforcement.

He was still puzzled by some team-related matters.

The team neither recruited any major stars, seemed like some big plan was in the making.

But the big plan he could think of...

Last night, after the Heat and Bullets announced the renewals of Moning and Juwan Howard, the Lakers also announced their renewal plans, reaching verbal agreements with Campbell, Jason Williams, and the Magician.

The Magician had a deal of 1 year for 1 million US Dollars, almost a symbolic salary, Jason Williams, 2 years for 4.5 million US Dollars, fitting his market value.

But another team offered Campbell, the Lakers matched the verbal agreement with a contract promise of 3 years for 22 million US Dollars, with 7 million in each of the first two years, and 8 million in the third year, higher than the 7 million average annual salary offered by other teams!

This move utterly baffled Zhang Hao...

Currently, with the Magician and Jason Williams back in the team, adding in Campbell, Doug Christie, George Lynch, Barkley, and the rookie Fisher, along with Mr. Zhang himself, the Lakers still only had 8 players.

...

...

After acquiring Barkley, the Lakers only had contracts with Zhang Hao, Barkley, George Lynch, and Doug Christie. The rest of the players hadn’t signed contracts yet.

The total sum of the four didn’t exceed 8 million US Dollars, and the latest salary cap announced on July 1st was 27.11 million US Dollars, leaving the Lakers with an enormous salary space of 19 million US Dollars. All the sports media and basketball fans were watching the Lakers, waiting to see which backcourt star the Lakers would compete for.

Because the Lakers didn’t have a point guard! Just an old veteran in the Magician and the newly selected rookie Fisher, with no one in the shooting guard position.

But Mark Jackson joined the Nuggets with a 4-year, 13.7 million US Dollars contract, Avery Johnson re-signed with the Spurs with a 4-year, 11 million US Dollars contract, Tim Hardaway re-signed with the Heat for 22 million over 4 years... One after another, point guard stars found their teams, some even showed clear interest in the Lakers, but the Lakers remained silent.

And so, a month passed, reaching early August as the Olympics concluded, and in the world of basketball, it was the Dream Team III led by Barkley winning the world championship.

Barkley achieved the best performance in the Dream Team III, with an 85% shooting rate and an average of 6.6 rebounds per game, making him the best in the US Men’s Basketball Team.

On August 5th, a big piece of news appeared!

The Bulls, who hadn’t completed any signings in more than a month, announced reaching a re-signing with Michael Jordan for the NBA’s highest single-season salary in history at 30.14 million US Dollars, matching the extended contract clause offered by the New York Knicks, giving the player the power, the so-called player option.

As soon as this news broke out, a certain chubby guy, after the Olympics, who didn’t even participate in the US Men’s Basketball Team’s celebration party and went straight back to Orlando, received a phone call, hurriedly opened the door to see a man whose dribbling moves anyone who watched the NBA would recognize standing in the yard...