145: 080: Competitive sports, everything depends only on the champion (ask for monthly tickets!)_3 145: 080: Competitive sports, everything depends only on the champion (ask for monthly tickets!)_3 But Phil Jackson’s defense was precisely caught by “The New York Times.”
The next day, the headline of “The New York Times” read, “Yes, he’s only human!
Michael Jordan is tumbling off his pedestal!”
The fall was comprehensive.
After the Bulls lost the Christmas game, the results of the first round of All-Star voting were officially announced.
Grant Hill ranked first in the total number of votes in the first round, second was Roger, and only third was Jordan!
This was the first time since 1986 that Michael Jordan had not become the periodic All-Star vote leader.
Although it was just the first round of voting, in the past nine years, except for the season he retired, Jordan had been elected the vote leader in every round.
The defeat in the Christmas game, the lagging behind in All-Star voting…
whether Jordan admitted it or not, his reign was increasingly loosening.
The more Roger used it, the looser it got.
Now, he had to guard his only stronghold—the championship.
The best outcome this season was for the Bulls to win the championship; an average outcome was for neither the Bulls nor the Magic to win.
If the Magic secured this season’s championship, Jordan’s reign would be thoroughly ended.
After December’s games were over, the Magic entered 1995 with a record of 23 wins and 6 losses.
There was half a year until the finals began.
In half a year, people would know whether Jordan would be crushed by the wheels of history or advance further.
For the Magic, they had experienced a perfect two months, making a perfect start to the season.
But troubles began to follow one after another; if the Magic wanted to extend this perfection, they had to pay a hefty price.
On the very first day of the new year, Magic Team’s general manager Pat Williams met with Roger and his agent Fleisher.
They wanted to negotiate an early contract renewal with Roger.
Currently, Roger had no reason not to opt out of his contract when the 95 salary cap was set to increase significantly.
He kept the player option precisely to seize this opportunity.
This era of renewing contracts with marquee players was very headache-inducing because the concept of a maximum salary did not exist yet, so it was impossible to know how much was appropriate to offer.
Since Roger had early Bird rights (Bird rights also transferred with a trade), Roger’s salary for the next season was uncapped.
How much, was entirely up to the owner.
And next season, the salary cap was set to rise again.
So Pat Williams never knew at what price he should renew Roger’s contract.
The hardest part was that the Magic had to consider issues beyond just Roger, as Shaq’s contract was also expiring in ’96.
However, the team owner DeVos commanded Pat Williams, “Make retaining Roger the highest priority.”
The league truly had become an era for perimeter players; even though Michael Jordan dropped to third place in the All-Star voting, he still ranked above O’Neal, Olajuwon, Ewing, and David Robinson among other interior giants.
The top three players in the All-Star voting were all perimeter players, and the top three jersey sales were also for perimeter players.
Even though Olajuwon won the championship last season, it still couldn’t stop the skyrocketing popularity of perimeter players.
So although Roger was relatively new, DeVos was even more eager to keep Roger.
Of course, the Magic’s goal was to keep both Roger and Shaq.
But if they had to choose one, they were more inclined towards a perimeter player.
Pat Williams offered Roger a nine-year contract for $80 million, which averaged out to about $8.88 million per year.
Considering that David Robinson, who had the highest salary this season, earned $7.3 million annually, this was undoubtedly a very sincere offer.
But Fleisher decisively refused, “Roger and I expect a contract that’s at least eight figures per year, as you and I both know, starting next season, it’ll be normal for annual earnings to hit tens of millions.”
“But we still have to keep Shaq,” Pat Williams spread his hands.
“Shaq’s contract doesn’t expire until ’96.
Moreover, he also has Bird rights, so we aren’t actually impacting his renewal,” Fleisher replied smilingly.
Theoretically, Roger and Shaq indeed had the conditions to sign big contracts at the same time.
However, this would cause two effects; the first being that after the salary space got locked, the Magic would find it very difficult to make exhilarating reinforcements like they did last summer in the coming years.
The second effect was that the team owner DeVos’s wallet would suffer significantly.
Right now, what the Magic wanted to avoid was actually the second effect.
DeVos wasn’t Paul Allen, nor a future Mark Cuban or Steve Ballmer who would spare no cost for a championship.
He certainly hoped to win championships, but it had to be financially balanced.
There was no luxury tax in this era; yet due to the uncapped nature of player salaries, the cost of retaining two highly paid players was still very significant.
Pat Williams expected to push down Roger and Shaq’s asking prices as much as possible, so even if he took the contract, the owner wouldn’t feel the pressure.
But from what was seen, this plan was hard to execute.
If Roger was asking for an eight-figure contract, what about Shaq?
“So, does this eight-figure contract have a specific amount?” Pat Williams inquired.
If it was $10 million, that might be acceptable.
If it was $12 million, he would have to think about it.
If $15 million, that was pie in the sky—this season’s NBA salary cap was only $15 million.
But Fleisher did not give a specific amount, “That depends on the free agent market next year and how other teams will bid.”