Houston, in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of a private villa.
Charles Barkley sat on a soft leather sofa, his fingertips repeatedly brushing over the details of the Knicks contract on his phone screen.
The Texas sunset spread across the sky outside, its warm glow spilling into the room, yet it could not dispel the conflict and irritation in his heart.
When he first saw the fully guaranteed three-year contract worth five million a year, Barkley had genuinely been tempted.
After the 1998 labor dispute and season lockout, the NBA salary market in 1999 was far from generous.
The league's new collective bargaining agreement clearly stipulated that the maximum salary for veterans with over ten years of experience was only fourteen million.
But that was a salary ceiling only a handful of the league's superstars could reach.
Across the league, most capable rotation players earned somewhere between two and four million a year.
A five-million-dollar annual salary was firmly above average in the league at the time.
More importantly, it was a fully guaranteed three-year deal with no additional restrictions.
There were no variable payments, no performance-based conditions, and no risk of the team cutting him at any time.
Barkley understood his own condition better than anyone.
He was already thirty-six years old, long past the peak of his career.
His physical abilities declined year by year. His explosiveness, endurance, and ability to withstand contact were nowhere near what they had been in his youth.
In another season or two, his performance on the court would only continue to decline, and he would absolutely no longer be worth five million a year.
Looking across the entire league, very few teams were willing to offer a veteran of his age a stable three-year contract.
The Knicks' offer could be considered top-tier