After concluding his meeting with Puma CEO Zeitz and EBA President Maurizio, Lin Qi returned to Milan.
In the penthouse suite of the hotel where I was staying, I met Kevin Garnett's agent, Andrew Miller.
The Boston Celtics have completed most of their offseason acquisitions and contract extensions.
Just a few days ago, Rasheed Wallace's early contract extension was finalized: a five-year, $50 million contract with decreasing annual salaries. His starting salary is $12 million, decreasing by $1 million each year thereafter.
Lin Qi leaned back on the sofa, pondering the team's current salary structure.
In team management, he has always believed in the "impossible triangle" theory: if you don't give a talented player a starting position, enough salary, and hope of winning a championship, he will inevitably feel resentful. Status, salary, and championship—a healthy team must satisfy at least two of these three things for its players.
Take Rasheed, who just signed a contract extension, as an example. He played as a substitute in Boston, completely sacrificing his core starting position. Since one corner was missing, Lin Qi had to fill the gap with the remaining two, taking him to compete for the championship every year and providing sufficient compensation in terms of salary.
In today's NBA, no team would offer a sixth man a multi-million dollar annual salary. Of course, Lin Qi is also well aware that with Rasheed's ability, if he enters the market as a free agent next year, the starting salary he can get on a weaker team will definitely be more than $50 million over 5 years.
But this above-market salary, coupled with the promise of a championship, perfectly complements the other two elements of the triangle theory. Only with such substantial incentives will Rasheed obey tactical arrangements without complaint in the locker room.
Similarly, this theory also applies perfectly to Kevin Garnett. In Boston, Garnett held an absolute core position, and the team had the ability to contend for the championship every year. Given that both of these conditions were perfectly met, Garnett's motivation to make appropriate concessions on salary is entirely valid.
Lin Qi snapped out of his thoughts, picked up the decanter, and poured a glass of whiskey for Andrew Miller across from him.
Throughout the summer, Miller had several on-and-off talks with the team. Initially, Miller hoped to secure a supermax contract with the highest starting salary in the league and the highest percentage increase. However, after witnessing a series of moves by the league during the offseason, Lin Qi knew it was time to close the deal.
" Andrew, you should have seen the news from San Antonio in mid-July." Lin Qi picked up his glass and casually got to the point, " Tim Duncan opted out of his final year, $13.3 million player option and signed a 7-year, $122 million extension with the Spurs. To free up $1 million in salary cap space for the team, Tim made a sacrifice."
Miller took a sip of his drink and did not deny it. The news that Tim Duncan had voluntarily taken a pay cut had indeed caused quite a stir in the agent circle and had subtly influenced the contract renewal benchmarks for superstars of the same caliber.
"How's Kevin doing lately?" Lin Qi asked.
Miller sighed, shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "He was watching old Chicago Bulls tapes at the hotel yesterday, and he was talking to me about what Michael Jordan was doing at his age. I roughly know what he's thinking, and you probably do too. Michael means to Kevin."
Lin Qi understood. Garnett was a boy who grew up in Chicago, and the ultimate basketball icon in his heart was Jordan. Garnett's journey to chase Jordan was not yet over. Now Jason Kidd and Carl Malone had both sacrificed their own interests for the championship, and Garnett, as the cornerstone of Boston, knew better than anyone how tight the team's salary cap was.
Lin Qi took out a draft contract from inside his suit jacket and pushed it in front of Miller.
"This is Boston's final offer: 6 years, $107 million."
Miller picked up the contract and quickly did the math in his head. Adding Garnett's original contract of $14.62 million for next season, the total amount was exactly $122 million over 7 years.
Not a penny more, not a penny less, the total amount is the same as Tim Duncan's contract extension.
This offer gave Garnett considerable respect, affirming his status as an equal to Tim Duncan in terms of monetary value. It also preserved valuable salary flexibility for the Celtics.
Watching Miller make his final decision, Lin Qi smiled and offered his long-prepared bargaining chip.
" Andrew, after Kevin, the Converse team should have contacted you immediately, right?" Lin Qi smiled, finally throwing out the bargaining chip he had been preparing for a long time.
Miller looked up, a knowing smile on his face. Everyone in the industry knew perfectly well that Converse, which had been privatized and delisted, was now under Lin Qi's name.
"Yes, Converse's offer was impressive," Miller readily admitted.
It wasn't just a lifetime shoe endorsement contract; it also included an independent signature shoe line and a substantial global profit share. With this commercial contract as a guarantee, Garnett would not only be able to embrace the most perfect championship-contending roster in Boston, but would also become the most commercially valuable big man in the entire league.
Miller was quickly calculating in his mind. Using Tim Duncan's contract with the Spurs as a benchmark for salary, and then using Lin Qi's shoe brand to make up the price difference, Lin Qi's move completely eliminated all the contradictions between the player's "sacrifice for championship" and "commercial interests".
In fact, this is precisely where Lin Qi's greatest confidence lies.
Before the league introduced the strict " Jordan Ban " (which explicitly prohibits team owners from indirectly compensating players by providing equity in other companies or commercial endorsements to circumvent the salary cap), such exchanges of interests that crossed team operations and commercial empires were entirely in a gray area under the league's jurisdiction.
It wasn't until 2015, with a series of fines levied against the Clippers and others, that the league explicitly included this structural conflict of interest within its substantive enforcement scope, thus ending that period of ambiguous rules.
However, before 2015, the reason why such behavior could flourish was that it was extremely difficult to obtain evidence. The alliance only imposed general prohibitions on this kind of "transfer of benefits across business empires," and in fact it was very difficult to effectively regulate it.
In 2003, as long as Lin Qi and Miller did not leave any written documents binding the two contracts, but only reached a verbal agreement, David Stern, far away in New York, could do nothing about it, even if he knew perfectly well what was going on.
Miller took a deep breath and closed the folder in front of him completely. Faced with such a comprehensive offer that avoided all risks and was full of sincerity, he had no room for negotiation and was about to nod in agreement.
Just then, Lin Qi changed the subject and started talking about a seemingly unrelated topic.
"By the way, Andrew. I've been watching the EBA League in Milan these past few days. With the improvement of the promotion and relegation system, the level of competition among Europe teams is increasing year by year, and the demand for high-level United States foreign players from various clubs is surging."
Lin Qi gently swirled his wine glass, as if chatting with an old friend. " The Maurizio president complained to me that they lack a professional channel for importing United States players. You have a wealth of United States player resources. If a professional agency could set up a branch in Europe, specifically responsible for supplying United States players to EBA teams... that would be a very long-term business."
Miller's gaze froze for a moment, then his heart began to race uncontrollably.
Lin Qi and Miller don't need to make any substantial paper deals in this matter. To avoid any appearance of impropriety, Lin Qi doesn't need to have any further contact with Miller; he can simply give instructions to the EBA president and the management of the various teams.
"Lin, your vision is always so far-sighted." Miller's smile broadened completely. He picked up his whiskey and sincerely raised his glass to Lin Qi. "I think President Maurizio will soon receive a perfect Europe brokerage business cooperation proposal."
"As for Kevin's contract extension, rest assured, this is an offer Kevin has been eagerly awaiting."
Lin Qi raised his glass and gently clinked it against his.
Garnett's contract renewal negotiations concluded smoothly amidst a high degree of alignment of interests among all parties and an unspoken gray area.