Chapter 719: Chapter 493: Get Lost if You Can’t Play (Part 1) Chapter 719: Chapter 493: Get Lost if You Can’t Play (Part 1) This year’s All-Star Weekend took place in Dallas.

In addition to the All-Star Weekend festivities, primary negotiations over the CBA agreement were set to take place between the employers and players, lending a different meaning to this year’s All-Star Game.

As a leader among the players, Yu Fei had already promised Derek Fisher, the President of the Players Union, that he would be there to support, so he rushed to Dallas after starting his holiday.

Not just leaders like Yu Fei, but also league executives, including President David Stern, Vice President Adam Silver, and several NBA owners representing all the league’s owners, attended the negotiations.

Specifically, the reason the labor agreement was contentious was that most owners claimed they had been suffering long-term losses and thus determined that the current CBA was unfair to employers and sought to establish revised terms.

Rumors abounded the day before the negotiations.

At the NBA level, due to the trade deadline, several star players were on the market, destined to stir things up in the off-season.

In addition to the Denver Nuggets dismantling for rebuilding, the Wizards were looking to offload Tony Parker, the Pacers wanted to sell Troy Murphy, the Chicago Bulls wanted to sell Kirk Hinrich, the Spurs were selling Caron Butler, the Detroit Pistons were offloading Tayshaun Prince, and the 76’ers were selling Andre Iguodala.

Among these, the 76’ers’ reason for selling Iguodala was the most incomprehensible and unacceptable.

Iguodala himself loved Philadelphia and had no intention of leaving–even if the team lacked competitiveness, he was willing to stay with them through a rebuild.

But the 76’ers owner, affected by the financial crisis, suffered severe losses in other businesses; then, seeing the accounts, realized that after sending Iverson away, they had lost tens of millions of US dollars in just a few seasons, hence he requested the team to cut costs, starting with clearing Iguodala, their highest-paid player.

His contract was long and at a maximum salary, and although his ability was that of a mid-tier star without Iverson’s ticket-selling capability.

Many of NBA teams’ outrageous moves, once combined with real-world reasons, were rarely made purely out of stupidity.

However, the reason for the 76’ers wanting to get rid of Iguodala was too straightforward and uncompromising, making it hard to accept.

That they would let go of their own superstar not because he was underperforming or couldn’t help the team, but because the owner was blinded by his losses, thinking of trading $100 for $10?

This was a betrayal of the fans.

However, the Spurs were happy about this.

They could provide what the 76’ers most needed–a max salary contract expiring at the end of the season.

The night before the employers and players met in Dallas, the Spurs fired the first shot before the 2010 trade deadline.

Years later, the Spurs realized that trading Jason Kidd from the Lakers Team for Caron Butler had been a mistake. This rough and tough guy suited many teams but not the Spurs.

After several years, both sides never quite meshed, and Butler had refused an extended contract with the Spurs. To minimize losses, the Spurs had no choice but to trade him.

Conveniently, the 76’ers wanted to save money.

For the Spurs, Iguodala was the perfect replacement for Butler.

Every aspect of his skill set was to the liking of the Spurs’ coaching staff, and he was a team player, unlike Butler who was more vain.

The two sides made contact, and did not make it difficult for each other.

The Spurs wanted youthful prowess, the 76’ers wanted to save money, so a one-for-one swap of Butler for Iguodala was rational, but the 76’ers thought that if it was just a one-for-one swap, Philadelphia fans might do something drastic, so they asked the Spurs to throw in a bit more.

Thus, the Spurs “generously” gave three restricted draft picks.

These included a 2010 first-round draft pick, protected for the first 25 selections, and an option to swap first-round picks in 2012 and 2014.

This trade essentially meant the Spurs traded half a season of Butler for four years of Iguodala from the 76’ers.

When the trade went public, it shook the league.

Suddenly, the Spurs became a force that couldn’t be ignored.

Not because Iguodala was much stronger than Butler, but because Iguodala was far more suited to the Spurs than Butler was.

The Spurs’ “feat” made other teams realize that the rumors swirling around might well be true, and that if they were willing to make an effort, they maybe could obtain a valuable player at a low cost in the current economic market.

The Lakers Team ended up being the most stimulated.

They even went so far as to offer Ron Artest to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Tayshaun Prince.

The buzz on the trade market was deafening, and in Dallas, another storm was brewing.

Opposite the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, a hotel named “W” had been booked by the NBA officials.

It was a super luxurious party. The secrecy of the guest list was comparable to the secrecy of the Oscar envelopes.

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The glittering bar on the top floor of the W Hotel became a playground for the wealthy, the famous, and the beautiful. They gathered together on the eve of the All-Star Weekend, praising each other and partying like college students.

The black movie star Denzel Washington entered the party and shouted, “Kevin Frye and I have business to discuss; where’s Frye?”

“Frye hasn’t arrived yet.”

Then, Kevin Durant and Chris Bosh of the Supersonics walked in, circling the venue to get into the party mood. Before long, the Rising Star James Harden and Stephen Curry also arrived.

Subsequently, Miami Heat’s rookie Patty Mills asked Durant for a photo together, jokingly saying, “We almost became teammates.”