On a late September morning, the Charles River in Boston were shrouded in a thin mist.
In the study of Lin Qi's mansion, the television was not muted; ESPN's " SportsCenter " was urgently broadcasting a special program. The red scrolling text at the bottom of the screen refreshed again and again, while on the right side, two superstars wearing different jerseys were displayed side by side.
The host's voice came through the loudspeaker, and he spoke half a beat faster than usual.
"... We have just received major confirmation that the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls officially reached an agreement in principle at 5:00 AM today. This massive trade involving a former MVP has been submitted to the league office and is awaiting final approval from David Stern."
Lin Qi sat at the dining table, sipping black coffee and flipping through the newly delivered reprint of the Boston Globe.
The complete trading framework was written in bold on the front page.
The Chicago Bulls traded: Kobe Brian, Eddie Robinson, and Marcus Fizer.
The Los Angeles Lakers traded Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal and a 2005 second-round draft pick (top 40 protected).
The details of this deal were quickly uncovered by reporters from various media outlets who were covering the team.
With O'Neal's new season salary reaching $26.5 million, the Chicago Bulls simply cannot match Kobe's $13.5 million contract. There is a huge salary gap of over ten million dollars between the two.
In order to force O'Neal to accept his huge salary, the Lakers management had no choice but to swallow two worthless contracts that the Chicago Bulls forced upon them.
The first was Eddie Robinson. In the summer of 2001, former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause used a five-year, nearly $30 million full mid-level exception contract to snatch this athletic swingman from the Charlotte Hornets. Jerry Krause boasted to the media in the locker room at the time, declaring Robinson an "undiscovered Pippen." However, after joining Chicago, Robinson quickly revealed his lack of professionalism, constantly using back spasms and toe sprains to avoid high-intensity contact, passively slacking off on the bench and injury list while receiving a high salary. According to a Chicago beat reporter, after learning he was traded to Los Angeles, Robinson even sent a text message to his agent in the early morning, saying he could "finally enjoy the sun on the West Coast." This overpaid contract, with three years remaining and a total value of nearly $17 million, was already widely recognized as one of the most difficult liabilities to handle in the league.
The second player is Marcus Fizer. As the fourth overall pick in the 2000 draft, Fizer was a star player at Iowa State University, but after entering the NBA, he became a typical "neither fish nor fowl" fringe player. At 2.03 meters tall, he was too short for the power forward position and too slow for the small forward position, with poor defensive awareness. Off-court troubles also plagued him... Last summer, he was arrested for possessing a loaded firearm in his Chevrolet SUV outside a Chicago nightclub. To make matters worse, in January of this year, Fizer suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during a game against the Pistons. The serious injury, coupled with a lack of discipline, caused his weight to soar to over 260 pounds. He is currently still in the jogging rehabilitation phase and has completely fallen out of the Chicago Bulls ' future rotation system.
John Parker, who took over as general manager of the Chicago Bulls from Jerry Krause this April, made it his top priority to clean up the atmosphere at the Beto Training Center and clear out the pile of overpaid, underperforming contracts left over from the Jerry Krause era. Now, by acquiring O'Neal, Parker has swept away the two biggest troublemakers in the locker room in one fell swoop, a move seen within the Chicago management as a textbook example of a thorough overhaul.
The television feed cut to a live interview with a senior columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
"This is an absurd asset swap," a reporter bluntly stated to the camera. " John Parker did clear out the team's surplus players, but Jerry Reinsdorf, in order to get rid of off-court uncertainties, brought in a 368-pound elephant to the United Center. O'Neal's current contract has a player option next summer, Chicago Bulls have essentially mortgaged their salary cap space for the next two or three years to an old player who is ready to opt out at any time. If O'Neal continues to refuse surgery in Chicago and just strolls around on the court, this trade will soon become the Chicago Bulls' new nightmare."
The media in Los Angeles reacted even more strongly.
The Los Angeles Times launched a scathing attack on management in its morning sports headline, columnist Beal Russ wrote.
" Jerry Buss just lifted the O'Brien Trophy three months ago, but now he's traded his NBA Finals Most Valuable Player to the Eastern Conference, receiving in return two fringe players who can't even crack the regular rotation, and a guard whom the Lakers waived three years ago. Even more worrying is that the legal battles surrounding Kobe haven't completely ended."
A file photo of the Eagle County Courthouse in Colorado was displayed on the television screen at the opportune moment.
The sexual assault allegations that Kobe faced this summer were temporarily suppressed under Lin Qi's mediation.
But everyone in the legal system knows that this is just a fragile ceasefire agreement on paper.
Under Colorado's criminal law system, the charges could be brought back to court at any time should the woman or her family have a change of heart in the future, or if the local prosecutor finds new related evidence.
For the team's management, this is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.
Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf is a well-known shrewd businessman and a conservative who abhors legal disputes. For the past two months, Reinsdorf has been deeply concerned about the potential crisis facing Kobe. He fears waking up one morning to headlines about the Chicago Bulls ' star guard being summoned to court, causing the team's brand and sponsors to collapse. Nike and McDonald's's freezing Kobe's commercial endorsements in July has already served as a wake-up call for owners across the league.
When news broke that O'Neal had completely broken ties with management in Los Angeles, Reinsdorf almost immediately pushed for management to contact the Lakers. In Reinsdorf's eyes, it was a worthwhile deal to gamble on a historic center who could still play for two or three more years, using a legal hazard that could explode at any time, along with two worthless contracts that he was eager to get rid of.
For the Lakers, Jerry Buss had had enough of O'Neal's uncontrolled weight gain and contract renewal drama. With other teams in the league trying to lower his price, the Chicago Bulls ' offer of Kobe was the only All-Star caliber asset the Lakers could find.
What's even more ironic is the recurrence of history. Three years ago, the Lakers management, in order to appease O'Neal and establish his dominance as the sole star, chose to send the young and ambitious Kobe to Chicago. Three years later, however, the Lakers, unable to bear the salary burden and injury risks associated with O'Neal's aging, had no choice but to bring Kobe back to Los Angeles.
Just then, the cell phone on the dining table rang.
Lin Qi picked up his phone, glanced at the caller ID, and pressed the answer button.