The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 328 - 185 Urine Test Incident_4

Chapter 328: Chapter 185 Urine Test Incident_4

I dare not!

Because by doing so, they’d attract the attention of politicians seeking votes—an occurrence as genteel as three dissidents in a day—NBA would be ruined if plunged into such chaos.

This was the underlying rationale behind David Stern’s resolute action.

As both sides had expressed their attitudes, Su Wan sounded the retreat, and external interest once again returned to the League itself.

Su Wan became the first NBA player in the first two years of their career to win the Finals MVP, and also the first in history to achieve the "MVP Grand Slam" in a single season.

Many media personnel were discussing what Bill Walton said last night—just how far away Su Wan was from being the top active player in the NBA.

In terms of honors, Shaquille O’Neal was definitely the "top dog" in the League, but the problem was, his decline was evident to anyone with eyes after losing to Su Wan two years in a row.

And following him, there weren’t many who could surpass Su Wan in terms of honors.

Despite only being in the League for two years, Su Wan had already won 2 Championships, 2 Finals MVPs, one regular season MVP, and made it to the All-NBA Team twice—one First Team and one Second Team—as well as one Second Team on the All-Defensive Team.

Kobe had more Championships and All-NBA Team selections than him, but when it came to decisive honors like the regular season MVP and Finals MVP, Kobe’s count was zero.

He clearly couldn’t suppress Su Wan.

As for the others, well, there’s no need to mention...

After a round of discussions, the only active player left who could surpass Su Wan was San Antonio’s "Stone Buddha"!

With two Championship Trophies and two Finals MVPs, Tim Duncan also had 2 regular season MVP awards to his advantage.

On these fronts, he held the upper hand.

No need to talk about other All-NBA Team honors.

Even so, Su Wan’s momentum was terrifying enough.

He was just a sophomore!

Yet he was already second on the active players’ honor roll, looking up to first place.

Even if you included Shaquille O’Neal, who was rapidly declining, Su Wan would be among the top three players on the active honor roll.

What kind of monster rookie was this!

If he won another Championship Trophy next season...

Wouldn’t he directly become the top active player on the honor roll?

Three years to become the "top active player in the NBA"?

This is easier than playing in the CBA!

These media folks now had a thorough understanding of Su Wan’s experience in the CBA; the guy played in the CBA for just 3 years, winning the Championship and Finals MVP in his last year.

His dominance was much slower than in the NBA.

Perhaps that’s why, even though Zhu Fangyu wasn’t as sensational in the NBA as Su Wan, this year’s CBA Finals MVP still garnered a lot of attention from NBA scouts.

Notably, it was Yi Jianlian again!

Guangdong successfully defended their title this year, with Yi Jianlian averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds in the Finals.

His explosive physical prowess reminded scouts of Su Wan back in the day.

Why the reference to "back in the day"?

Because Su Wan’s physical ability had obviously improved even more now.

For that reason, even more teams were interested in Yi Jianlian this year than in Zhu Fangyu, mainly due to Jianlian’s younger age, just 20... It’s just a little regrettable that, after careful consideration, Yi Jianlian chose to gain one more year of experience in the CBA before entering the NBA draft.

Returning to Su Wan.

The media’s eager discussion about Su Wan’s ranking among active players’ honors was partly because:

This summer, Pacers only had one expiring player contract, that of Boris Dior. The other players were all under contract, though many would be expiring next summer, including Su Wan.

But at least for the upcoming season, the Pacers’ roster was complete.

And Larry Bird had already stated that he would lock down a renewal with Dior’s team before July 1: "He’s an essential part of the Pacers, and he’s found his shine with us. I’m confident that, based on Boris still wearing the Pacers’ uniform next season, negotiations will progress smoothly. Everything will go well!"

The Pacers’ main players’ salaries for next season were: Jermaine O’Neal’s $18.08 million, followed by Ron Artest’s $7.53 million, Tinsley’s $5.85 million, Foster’s $5.5 million, and Calderon’s $3.5 million, with Su Wan’s $2.02 million...

A total of $42.48 million.

Of course, if you added the other players, the Pacers had already spent about $50 million of their total salary space.

However, even so, taking last year’s salary cap into consideration, Pacers still had nearly $4 million of salary space left. And based on the League’s increasingly fierce revenue generation, it’s certain that the salary cap for the new season would be at least $6 million higher than last year, totaling $10 million.

With such salary space, could they not secure Dior?

Bird’s real headache would come next year: Su Wan and Calderon’s contracts would expire, Artest would also be eligible for an extension, and other players would be in their contract years. How to retain them was the real test!

In the end, without any surprises, it only took a day for Su Wan to learn that Dior had agreed to renew: a 5-year $40 million deal, averaging about $8 million per year. This was about Dior’s market price, a million less each year than he was initially making.