Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 417 - 139: When the Noise Dies Down (6000-word - , pleading for subscriptions and monthly votes!)
On the night of winning the championship, the Warriors did not linger in the city of failure, Cleveland.
After all, Cleveland is really not suitable for hosting a celebration party.
According to the plan before departure, the team’s championship party will take place the day after returning to Oakland.
This luxurious party, organized by Qin Yue’s personal manager Evans, is divided into two halves.
The Warriors players with families will only participate in the first half, while the second half belongs to the single aristocrats led by Qin Yue.
At dawn.
Oakland.
As Qin Yue returned triumphantly with the O’Brien Cup and FMVP trophy for two consecutive years, tens of thousands of Warriors fans were vying to shout his name.
"He brought the dream back to the promised land again." — Many years later, The San Francisco Chronicle reporter Anthony Lester recalled when he spoke of the 2007 triumph ceremony.
Imitating Pippen back in the day, Artest intentionally gestured "3" to the crowd, immediately drawing cheers.
In 1992, when the Chicago Bulls held their championship celebration in Grant Park, then a near-dynasty team, it was Pippen’s "3" gesture that sparked their pursuit of a three-peat.
For Artest, who always boasted of being the King’s right hand...
Reproducing the classic at this moment was both a tribute to the Bulls of old and a hint to people that he was this Golden State Warriors’ Scottie Pippen.
However...
At the triumph ceremony, when Artest reproduced another classic by imitating Shaq’s "counting money" gesture towards the Warriors’ owner Chris Cohan...
Cohan’s expression was obviously not looking good.
As early as during this year’s finals, Cohan learned that the league would formally introduce the "Messiah clause" this summer.
How should this upcoming new clause be described?
Simply put, this latest clause, similar to the "Rose Rule" in Qin Yue’s memory, is essentially a stronger version aimed directly at the Warriors.
Although last summer, the Warriors renewed contracts with Richardson and Little Deng Liwei consecutively.
From the salary structure, they are still a team with a healthy salary structure.
Because their absolute core, Qin Yue, is currently in the "rookie salary" stage.
And Artest’s cheap renewal contract with the Pacers in the summer of ’03 makes him only occupy $7.4 million in salary cap space even next season.
Indeed, the rookie Head of the Family and the cost-effective deputy are the keys to this Warriors team being able to assemble a luxury lineup at the current time point.
After all, how many NBA teams in the current era can afford high-salary substitutes like Little Deng Liwei and Murphy?
However....
Once the Messiah clause is implemented, the past good times will cease to exist.
Because according to the clause tailored specifically for Qin Yue—the additional clause states that as long as a player wins NBA Finals MVP at least twice during their rookie contract, they can earn a super-max contract worth 35% of the team’s salary cap, ignoring the years-of-service restriction.
Qin Yue’s current rookie contract is already halfway through, and after his third career season, the Warriors can negotiate an early contract renewal with him.
Cohan knows very well that the current increase in the Warriors’ market value is entirely due to Qin Yue.
So no matter how much he detests the new league regulations, he will immediately offer Qin Yue that super-max contract.
However, since Qin Yue must be given this super-max contract, to ensure the Warriors maintain a healthy salary space, the Warriors naturally have to make choices about their roster.
In Cohan’s view...
The introduction of the Messiah clause is almost setting a rebuild date for the Warriors.
——The 07/08 season will be the last dance of this Golden State Warriors.
"I remember Ron’s contract will end at the same time as the Messiah’s rookie contract, right?" Cohan turned to ask Lowell.
"Yes, his agent has been hinting to me recently that Ron wants a max contract matching his contributions after this contract ends," Lowell replied.
"Max contract?" Cohan spat disdainfully, "We need to keep enough surplus to offer Messiah a super-max and retain most of the championship players, where would we have the extra salary space to give him a max?"
Lowell nodded, "It’s not just Ron.... our biggest headache right now is that Barang’s contract will expire after next season."
"Barang also wants a max?"
"Barang’s agent said that he bled and made contributions for this Warriors’ championship, he believes Oakland is the place God guided him to as his final stop, so he hopes to secure a respectable max contract..."
Upon hearing this, Cohan directly waved to interrupt Lowell, saying: "These damn vampires, how come he doesn’t think, in the past two seasons he has already received nearly 30 million dollars in salary?
If he really regards the Warriors as his final stop in his career, he shouldn’t be opening the lion’s mouth to the team at this time!"
After pausing for a moment, Cohan asked, "I remember that usually, within the team, Kwame, Jarrett, and Messiah have the best relationship?"
"Kwame’s contract also expires after next season; however, we have his team option, we can choose to keep him for another year or sign a renewal contract with him."
"I heard, Kwame has already changed his agent to Jeff Schwartz?"
Lowell answered: "Jeff has always maintained a good cooperative relationship with us, I’ve inquired about Kwame’s demands, we should be able to retain Kwame with a market-matching contract in the future."
