basketball player

Chapter 44 043: Welcome to Atlanta

So far, among the 07 rookies, only Durant and Joakim Noah have signed contracts with their home team in advance, and they are still five-year contracts.

Signing a five-year contract with a player who has just passed his rookie period is actually very risky for the team.There are countless players in the history of the NBA who have lost everyone after getting a big contract, so signing a high-value long-term contract with a young player in advance is a gamble for the team, a gamble about the future of the player.

However, as the third pick in the 07 draft, Horford has not received an offer from the Eagles until now.To be exact, no official offer has been received.In the first two offers, the Eagles offered Horford 5 million over five years and 5500 million over five years.However, in this summer when Noah took 5 million, after the Eagles dumped 5800 million to Joe Johnson without hesitation, Horford obviously felt that this price was not enough respect for him.

As one of the best performers in the 07 rookie class, the 23-year-old All-Star doesn't think he can get the same price as Durant, but he can't accept that he is cheaper than Noah to the Bulls in the eyes of the Hawks.

The negotiations between Horford and the team have basically reached a deadlock. For this reason, Horford has replaced his manager a few days ago.A manager who can't win a big contract for an All-Star player naturally has no need to stay.

Horford actually likes Atlanta very much, and he also hopes to continue to play for the Hawks.But Horford's father, Totti Horford, a former NBA player and the first Dominican player to play in the NBA, told his son.

If a team doesn't respect you, then you have to carefully consider whether to continue to cooperate with it.

In the past few days, after smashing Joe Johnson with 1.2 million US dollars.Hawks general manager Rick Sander has been harassed by reporters, and most of the reporters' questions are related to Horford.If he doesn't renew his contract, will the Hawks match any offer when Horford becomes a restricted free agent next season?
Faced with this problem, facing the first player selected by the Eagles to be an All-Star in his own draft since Kevin Willis in 1992, Rick Sander did not pat his chest and say "we will keep him", but chose to remain silent.

"Actually, it's not Rick Sander's fault. If it's to blame, the owner of the Eagles doesn't want to pay any more money." Henson couldn't help but smile when he read the report in the newspaper.The negotiations between the Eagles and Horford are still deadlocked, this is their chance!

1.2 million US dollars, when the big owner of the Eagles Michael Geelong paid so much, he no longer wants to invest so much money.And next summer, a new round of NBA labor negotiations is about to start, which is one of the reasons why he has been reluctant to renew his contract with Horford.

If the player's salary drops next year, Horford's salary must also drop, and the Eagles will have more initiative by then.As a team owner, Geelong certainly cares more about his own interests.Horford is a low-key player, and his box office appeal is not as explosive as Joe Johnson.So Geelong's attitude is very clear, that is to compress Horford's contract amount as much as possible!

"The reason why Geelong didn't renew Horford in advance was because of the money. So in this negotiation, we used the money factor to make a big fuss. Silas told me a few days ago that Horford had changed the manager for this negotiation. So I think the negotiations between the two parties were not happy. If we can help the Eagles reduce some financial pressure and give them some benefits, I think Geelong has no reason to refuse." On the plane, Henson and Bird discussed their own negotiation plans.

Bird stared at Henson for a long time, but didn't say a word.

"Bird?" Seeing Bird staring at him in a daze, Henson couldn't help reaching out and shaking Bird's eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was distracted." Bird said, rubbing his temples, "Your plan is very good, we will talk to them according to your plan later."

Henson shrugged, Bird rarely distracted himself while working.Maybe it's the recent sale of some shares in the Pacers that has made this guy a headache.In fact, Bird was not distracted, but rather surprised that a mere head coach, a head coach who had only been in office for less than two months, could come up with such a complete trading plan by himself.

Bird is very clear that the focus of his recent work is not on reinforcement at all, and almost all reinforcement plans are formulated by Henson himself.How many surprises can this guy bring to himself?
"Bird, our capital operation is still safe." Henson couldn't help being a little worried, not because he was worried about his job, but because if the Pacers couldn't renew Horford due to money factors, then this deal would be meaningless.

"Of course it's safe, don't worry. The Pacers are not trying to sell, but there is a big consortium that wants to invest and get a share of the profits. The other party paid a lot of money, and the negotiation went very smoothly. I think we should be able to squander checks in the free agent market in the future." Bird blinked at Henson.

"What consortium? Why do you want to see us who haven't made it to the playoffs for four years?"

"Who knows how these big bosses think about it, but the other party may not care about the money at all, they just like basketball."

"The boss, what's his name?"

"Vivek Ranadive."

"Ranadivi?" Henson's eyes widened suddenly.

"What, do you know each other?"

"No, I just think this name is a bit special." Henson immediately regained his composure, a coincidence, it must be just a coincidence.
※※※

After Henson and Bird arrived at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, they didn't stay long, but went straight to a piece of golf in the wealthy area in the north of Atlanta.Hawks owner Michael Gillon and general manager Rick Sander are waiting for Henson and Larry Bird to visit.

As Henson said, generally speaking, the party who proposes a deal is passive from the beginning of the negotiation.Because of your proposal, others have plans to discuss with you.If the business cannot be done, it may not be a loss to others.

Rick Sander and Michael Gillon were very smart. They deliberately waited for Bird and Henson to visit in a far away place, in order to put pressure on the Pacers.

"You see, we are actually not very interested in this deal, we just want to hear what you will say."

However, Henson seemed extremely confident. The Eagles didn't know why the Pacers wanted to buy Horford, but the Pacers knew very well why the Eagles didn't renew their contract with Horford.Don't let others know your purpose, and then find a way to figure out other people's purpose, and things will be simple.This is how Henson got the money from the Timberwolves before.

Due to the lack of charismatic stars and an excellent record, the Hawks' home attendance has been worrying for many years.In some games, the attendance rate of the stadium is even less than 30%. Even the visiting team players who play in Philips sometimes complain that there are too few fans and it is boring to play.The Eagles have been losing money for almost consecutive years, and their current market value barely exceeds 1.2 million US dollars, which is one of the lowest market value among the [-] teams in the league.These things made Geelong cautious after squandering [-] million US dollars.

Knowing what other people are thinking makes trading easier.

After getting off the plane and taking a taxi for an hour, Henson and Byrd finally arrived at their destination.After the two got out of the car, they found that someone was already waiting at the gate of the golf course.It seems that Michael Gillon has taken over everything here in a few days.

Henson and Byrd walked into the field confidently. Rick Sander, an old white man with a big belly and Mediterranean hair, came up to him and shook hands with Byrd and Henson.

"Welcome to Atlanta, Mr. Bird! This is it." Rick looked at Henson. He obviously didn't expect that Bird would bring this little-known Chinese coach with him when he came to negotiate.Sander didn't know that, in fact, the entire negotiation plan was formulated by Henson.

"This is our new coach, Henson Joe."

"Mr. Sander, I have known you for a long time." Henson politely shook Sander's hand, and Sander deliberately increased the strength of his hand when shaking hands.This is a psychological hint to reflect one's own authority. Of course, these trivial tricks did not frighten Henson.

Behind Sander, a middle-aged man in an ordinary sports T-shirt and jeans came over with a glass of wine.The man's clothes were very ordinary. If he hadn't learned about it in advance, Henson would never have believed that this ordinary-looking guy was actually the big boss of the Eagles.

"Bird, welcome! The weather is fine today, let's play two shots first!" Giron finished speaking, and handed Bird a club, "Let's talk while we play."

(End of this chapter)