basketball hall of fame

On June 2011, 6, the 24 NBA Draft was held at the Prudential Center Arena in Newark, New Jersey, and was broadcast live on ESPN across the United States.

first round:

1. Kyrie Irving (Cavaliers)

2. Derrick Williams (Timberwolves)

3. Nikola Vucevic (Jazz)

4. Tristan Thompson (Cavaliers)

5. Jonas Valanciunas (Raptors)

6. Jane Veseli (Wizards)

7. Bismarck Biyombo (Kings)

8. Brandon Knight (Pistons)

9. Kemba Walker (Bobcats)

10. Jimmer Fredette (Bucks)

11. Klay Thompson (Lakers)

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The night before the draft, Li Kang came to the office of General Manager Ku and strongly recommended the Lakers to pick Klay Thompson. As the second son of the old Thompson, Klay played in and out of the Lakers' arena since he was a child. Now being selected by the Lakers is also a kind of inheritance.

……

12. Alec Burks (Jazz)

13. Markieff Morris (Suns)

14. Marcus Morris (Rockets)

15. Kawhi Leonard (Pacers)

In order to impress the Pacers, the Spurs used the well-known guard George Hill as a bargaining chip. The Pacers were tempted and sent Leonard to the Spurs.

……

The time went back to February 2011, 2, which was the All-Star Weekend of this season. At this time, representatives of labor and management conducted negotiations. Similarly, it was rumored that the process was friendly, but in fact it was not very satisfactory.

Because the NBA claimed at the time that the league had a deficit of 3 million US dollars every year, and 22 teams were in a state of loss, the league hoped to achieve a balance of payments by reducing players' salaries by 40% and introducing a hard salary cap.

Here we must first know that the salary cap of the nba is a soft limit, which is completely different from the hard cap of the nfl and nhl at that time.

The hard cap means that no matter what, the salary cannot exceed the prescribed amount; while the soft cap means that various exceptions can be used to obtain the opportunity to break through the salary cap, such as the Bird clause.

At that time, he was even punished by the league because the owner of the Wizards touched the hard salary cap in advance.

The reason why the league targets players' income is because player salaries account for 57% of the league's total revenue. The league hopes to lower this figure to less than 50%, so that the pressure on the deficit can be alleviated.

Of course, the players are definitely unwilling, and they had already rejected the same agreement at the All-Star Weekend a year ago.

A year later, the league proposed the same agreement again, which made the players and the players union very dissatisfied, so they refused to sign the agreement.

In the ensuing negotiations, although both the labor and management made some concessions to each other, for example, the bosses were willing to change the hard limit to a flexible limit, and the players were also willing to reduce the proportion of salary expenditure. Insufficient sincerity, so consensus cannot be reached.

On June 2011, 6, the day when the old version of the agreement was about to expire, labor and management conducted another negotiation. There were still huge differences between the two sides, which eventually led to the formal breakdown of this negotiation.

On July 2011, 7, the NBA announced that it had entered into a lockout. During the lockout period, the management of each team could not trade players or sign players.

Players also cannot use any team-related facilities and staff, which is why it is called a closure rather than a strike.

Although it was the players who voluntarily rejected the new agreement, the NBA announced the suspension of the league, which caused the players to have no ball to play. The players have long been prepared for a long-term struggle, and then regain their legal rights Before, it will not simply make concessions.

The suspension of the NBA league, in addition to affecting the regular season next season, the preseason games and preseason training camps are also directly suspended, which also makes the players at a loss for a while.

Every summer, some players would train independently, or even spontaneously participate in some local competitions, so thanks to this closure, the organizers of the local competitions also expanded their competitions, inviting many players to participate, and even originally Stars who may not often appear on the offseason schedule also join these local events.

From time to time, there will be star players touring all over the United States, and the local arenas may suddenly gather stars. Suddenly, the whole United States is filled with the atmosphere of top street basketball.

In some areas that were not valued by the NBA, because of the stars' touring games, there were scenes of crowds emptying the streets, which made basketball popular in the local area.

The closure of the stadium may be a lose-lose situation for the league and players, but for fans all over the world, it is a brand new experience.In addition to those stars who are still staying in China, there are actually some players who choose to work overseas.

Because the suspension of the league does not know how long it will last, and ordinary players are not like top stars, even if they are suspended for a season or two, they don't have to worry about income.

For ordinary players without a ball to play, it is like losing their jobs, so playing in other leagues to make money has become their choice, and they can somewhat subsidize their losses due to the closure of the NBA.

For example, some foreign players returned to play in their own country's league, and some players also chose to play in the CBA league. JR-Smith made it clear that he would come to China to play.

Li Kang didn't care about these things. During the offseason, he wanted to complete a lifelong event and hold a grand wedding with An Shili.

Li Kang successively invited Lakers teammates, James, Wade, Paul, Anthony and other NBA first-line stars to gather in China to attend Li Kang's wedding together.

It is worth mentioning that Li Kang also made an invitation call to Klay Thompson.

Li Kang: "Clay, I'm Li Kang. I will hold a wedding in Huaxia in August. I invite you to attend the wedding in Huaxia."

Clay: "Okay, Brother Li, thank you for your invitation. I will go to China to attend the wedding on time."

Clay still looked surprised. As a rookie, he was favored by the Lakers stars. What he didn't know was that the Lakers selected him because of Li Kang.

……

As soon as the news came out the next day, Huaxia fans were completely excited. This was another opportunity to get close to the stars of the NBA.

The bosses of the cba league were also moved after hearing the news, and asked the general manager of the team to make suggestions, taking advantage of Li Kang's wedding as an opportunity to introduce big-name nba stars to play in the cba league.

The Chinese media also rushed to report. The only suspense is that Li Kang never announced the venue of the wedding. He just mentioned that it will be held in China, but he didn't mention the specific location. This made the media reporters hate it!

……