Almighty Coach

“Coach Li, congratulations on being the nominated for the best coach of the season!” Chenggong Sun said with the brightest of smiles. “There are only three people nominated. They must recognize your ability as a coach. Congratulations on becoming the best coach in advance!”

“The best coach of the season award will not go to me this season. I may be able to get it next season if I fight for it. After all, the Rockets and Raptors did really well this season. We didn’t even make the playoffs. The NBA officials won’t give such an award to me,” Dai Li said, smiling.

“Fight for it a little. You’re already nominated, so you might actually have a chance!” Chenggong Sun suggested.

Dai Li smiled mysteriously. He lowered his voice and said, “In truth, I’ve already spent quite a lot in PR just to get nominated, so I think this is as much as I can hope for.”

“Oh, spending a lot in PR also works in the U.S.! I thought that it only worked back in China.” Chenggong Sun nodded.

Dai Li really did spend a lot of money to get this nomination.

The annual NBA awards ceremony was usually held in the latter part of May every year, where nominees for all sorts of awards were announced. Some awards (such as the scoring leader, the rebound king, and the assist king) were supported by data. Whoever had the best stats would win, so there was no suspense at all.

However, some awards (the MVP, the best sixth man, the best defender, the best growth, and the best coach) were more subjective. The final winners in these categories are decided through the voting procedure.

Previously, the head coaches of each team would have one vote for each award. However, this had changed recently. Now, well-known sports journalists and sports pundits voted. In recent years, the NBA had also tried to involve the fans in the voting process.

People often fell into habits when voting. For example, a player was named the best defender last season would likely win it again if he was still a good player. He would at least be put in the best defensive line up. So, for players, it was hardest to win their first award. As long as a player got his first award, then the next awards became far easier.

Dai Li wanted to be nominated for the best coach award. The best method to get a nomination was to do PR with sports journalists who had votes. These journalists were certain to be backed by well-known media firms. Dai Li sent a message to these media firms by buying multiple advertisements for his training center from these firms. The sports media firms knew that Dai Li purchased those advertisement space with conditions and, when there’s money to be earned, who would say no. Naturally, they would let their journalists vote for Dai Li if he was willing to buy advertisements.

In truth, he basically purchased his nomination for the best coach award. Other coaches did not have that enough money to throw away media advertisements.

Dai Li’s physical fitness training center budgeted a certain amount for advertisement and public relations annually, so Dai Li had to spend that money sooner or later. Since it was money that needed to be spent, why not benefits it a little extra?

Dai Li also really needed this nomination. His identity as “Outsider” had plagued him for over half a season. Since the day he arrived at the NBA, an endless stream of people had coined him as “Outsider.” He needed an award like this to support him. Even if he could not really win the award, being nominated for the best coach award would be sufficient in shutting up the people who had dubbed him “Outsider.”

It was similar to the way that acting careers worked. If critics don’t like an actor they say he isn’t believable or can’t capture an audience’s attention. Other people are affected by these negative comments and believe that this actor is bad. However, when the actor receives an award, the negative criticism vanishes. If he received several heavyweight awards and became a master actor, then everyone who critiqued him would change their tune. All the negative comments would become excuses for absolution.

The coaching industry was similar. After receiving a few awards, people would naturally start praising someone.

In truth, the voting was also very lopsided.

The annual NBA awards ceremony was an appraisal of the award winner’s season. A team had to play 82 games in a season. The players who could win an award would have at least played 70. It was impossible for the journalists to focus on too many players. They could not watch all 82 games of every team in the NBA. When they voted, they could only vote for players from the pool of players that they followed, or perhaps choose a few players with good stats from the statistics table.

Based on that, when the candidates for the annual NBA awards were released, there were always debates and arguments. Some fans always felt that the nominated players did not deserve the awards.

Dai Li and Chenggong Sun chatted casually for a while and began discussing the next stage of the training plan. At that moment, someone’s phone rang.

Dai Li picked up his phone and his expression suddenly changed.

“Coach Li, you should go if you’re busy. I’ll be here to keep an eye on things,” Chenggong Sun said kindly.

“Alright, I’ll be right back,” Dai Li said. As he left, he called for Cassel and walked to the meeting room.

…

“Coach, what happened?” Cassel asked as he walked in behind Dai Li.

“Ronny’s contract renewal talks collapsed. He rejected the contract we offered,” Dai Li said.

“He rejected a five-year contract worth 90 million dollars?” Cassel was a little surprised.

“Before the season ended, the team wanted to renew Ronny’s contract, so they offered him a five-year contract worth 85 million dollars. He did not accept it. Now that the season is over, the team offered him a 90 million dollar five year deal, with the last year being his option. That averages out to 18 million dollars per year, but he still rejected it. He wants more!” Dai Li said.

Cassel nodded and asked, “Then how much does Ronny want? Does he want a super contract of 20 million per year? That’s 100 million over five years!”

“His appetite has no limit. He wants a five-year contract worth 150 million dollars!” Dai Li said as a cold light flashed in his eyes.

“What? A five-year contract worth 150 million dollars? That’s about as much as we could pay anyone. Has Ronny gone mad!?” Cassel exclaimed.

“It’s a good thing he is a restrained free player and we have the right to a contract renewal. We can match the offer of any other teams. According to the rules, the other teams can only offer him a four-year contract, while we can offer him a five-year contract,” Dai Li said coldly.

“But if Ronny keeps insisting on the five-year 150 million dollar deal, what do you plan to do? Do you really plan to lose him?” Cassel asked.

“I don’t know,” Dai Li said, shaking his head. He then said, “But I don’t feel that he is worth the highest wage for five years! Worst case: we give him a qualification offer, use him for another year, and ask him to scram!”

…

Back when the Clippers accepted Wood’s rubbish contract, Ronny was one of the conditions. Back then, Ronny only had a rookie contract. He was only a bench player and his game time was limited, but he still contributed an average of 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.

The Clippers fancied Ronny’s potential and planned to make him into the core of the team. They gave him a lot of chances. They let him become a starting forward and developed a lot of plays that centered around him. Ronny’s stats continually increased. In the most recent season, he reached an average of 19.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game.

As a forward, 19+5+3 was a decent result. The previous season was the last year of Ronny’s rookie contract, so contract renewal became one of the Clippers’ main task over the summer.

Before the season ended, the Clippers had already decided to renew Ronny’s contract and they offered him a five-year 85 million dollar deal. Although that contract was not the top wage, it was still considered pretty high among for a newbie’s contract. After all, Ronny had never been a higher ranking player and wasn’t considered an all-star.

Ronny rejected this offer and informed the media that he was fighting for the top wage.

After Dai Li joined the Clippers, they played quite a number of overtimes, which improved the average statistics of several of the Clippers players. They played several more minutes each game, so, naturally, they got higher stats. Ronny’s average points per game went above 19.

The Clippers did not want to lose Ronny; they even offered him a five-year contract worth 90 million dollars. This was five million more than the previous offer, and his average annual salary would be over 18 million dollars. However, Ronny was still unsatisfied; he wanted the top wage!

Based on NBA rules, Ronny had already played four full seasons in the NBA, so he fulfilled the requirements of the Larry Bird exception clause. Although he had been traded once, his rookie contract inherited the Larry Bird exception clause. The team that obtained the player after the trade could still execute the Larry Bird exception clause. As such, Ronny could use the clause to obtain a top wage during contract renewal.

The Larry Bird exception clause states that free players could play for a team for over three years. Teams can re-sign their own free agents, at an amount not affected by the salary cap for a maximum of five years. The starting salary for the first year of the contract would be 25% of the current salary under the restriction of the salary cap. Every consecutive year, the salary would rise by 12.5% annually. However, if the player moved to another team by the end of the season, then his salary only rose by 10.5%, and the contract length was limited to four years.

The 12.5% annual salary increase in the Larry Bird exception could only be used on first-round drafted rookies. Ronny was a first-round drafted rookie. His wage in the first year was close to 25 million dollars, and the 12.5% increase in consecutive years would make his five-year salary 150 million dollars.

If he made 90 million dollars over five years, a loss of 60 million, he would lose 12 million dollars per year. Naturally, Ronny did not want to lose that much.

…

In the meeting room, everyone was discussing Ronny’s contract renewal.

“150 million over five years is impossible. Ronny isn’t worth this much. Although his stats improved to 19+5+3, he is still not an all-star. He’s not worth such a high salary.”

“Ronny’s stats are based on the fact that there’s more time to improve. In truth, his shooting rate hasn’t improved that much since he was on the Chicago Bulls. If he weren’t the tactical core of the team, he would not have the ball so much. He would never have gotten stats like these.”

“I believe that Ronny can become an all-star player. However, it’s difficult to believe he can become a game-changing leader of a team. A five-year deal worth 150 million dollars is really too much.”

Everyone in the meeting room began stating their opinion.

If one were an all-star or had similar stats to an all-star, then a team could offer him a top wage without having to worry about facing a loss. Of course, this did not guarantee teams would earn profits.

A mega superstar, on the other hand, was guaranteed to make a huge profit for a team even if they offered him a the top wage.

Some players had strategic value. They occupied the slot of the top earner but they helped the team make the playoffs. For the team, these sorts of returns were well worth the investment.

Apart from them were mega super rookies. These players were definitely going to become mega superstars in the future. They could very well bring teams the championship or even create a golden era for the team. Teams were naturally going to offer players like these the top earner clause because it was the equivalent of paying for the future in the present,

Ronny wanted to become the top earner with a five-year deal worth 150 million dollars. Clearly, he felt that he was the kind of player who could develop into a mega superstar.

Unfortunately, he was not such a player.

In the meeting room, the management of the Clippers discussed this for at least half a day before finally reaching a consensus. They decided that they would not satisfy Ronny’s demands for the 150 million dollar five-year deal.

“At the moment, it looks like we still have the initiative in Ronny’s contract renewal. However, I’m worried that the other teams will start causing problems once the playoffs are over. If other teams offer him huge contracts, then it will be up to us to see if we want to match their offers. In that case, we become the passive party. I would prefer to complete contract talks as soon as possible,” Xiao Yunan said and looked at Dai Li.

“A man who is not content with what he deserves is like a snake that tries to swallow an elephant!” Dai Li sighed. He then said, “I will think of some way to put pressure on Ronny. In the training camp, I will intentionally pay more attention to players in the forward position. I will also follow some free agents. Hopefully,, Ronny will know that we are already starting to look for his replacement. That way, he may be more anxious to renew his contract with us!”