Cleveland is definitely a sports city with professional teams in all three major leagues.

But since the 1960s, Cleveland has entered a recession, and then their professional sports ushered in a crownless ice age.

In the 1980s, in addition to being unable to win the championship, serious blows also followed.

The Cavaliers changed their boss and ushered in the era of Ted Steeppi. In just two years, he had ruined the Cavaliers.

The NFL Browns scored 11 wins and 5 losses last year, the first in the Eastern Conference of the United Nations. The five teams in the U.S. League zone entered the playoffs this year, all had the same record of 11 wins and 5 losses, which indirectly shows how fierce the competition between the U.S. League was back then.

Brown's rise stems from their core No. 4 Brian Sipe

Spey is the first and only quarterback in Browns' history to cross the 4,000 yards in a single season. He was selected as the first team of the year, UPI AP's best offensive player, the Kansas 101 Committee's best offensive player, and the Pro Bowl of that year. Most importantly, he is the only player Brown has won the MVP of the Year since 1965 Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown.

Speech is successful and defeated. It was him who gave Brown fans a heartbroken pass.

They faced the defending champion Oakland Raiders on January 14 early this year. That day, the Cleveland Stadium was cold and even the grass was frozen, and they had to play at minus 16 °C.

The two sides fought hard until 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Oakland successfully scored another touchdown, and the score came 14-12.

The Browns used all their strength to send the ball to 14 yards in the opponent's position 44 seconds before the end of the game. Now, they faced a choice, 2 points away, whether to choose a touchdown (5) or a goal (3). The wind was very strong that day, and the Browns' shooting success rate was less than 50%, so the Browns' coaching staff decided to pass the ball to the touchdown and drew a tactic "Red Slot Right, Halfback Stay, 88".

The annual MVP Spee made a fatal mistake when executing his tactics. He did not notice the opponent's safety position. It was an incomprehensible mistake, and it was a mistake that should not be made with his level. It was this mistake that caused the Browns to lose the ball, and the opponent completed the steal, ending the Browns' season.

That moment of mistake was called "Red right 88".

It has become a shameful symbol similar to the future "The shot".

The owner of the Cavaliers, the Browns' "Red Right 88", was just the disaster that Cleveland's professional sports encountered in the first few years of the 1980s. They had some optimistic reasons, but they absolutely did not expect that this was just the beginning of a nightmare.

The "Red right 88" tragedy made Louis pay attention to the Browns, but he just tried it briefly.

In the NBA field where he is more concerned, the damage and impact brought by Stepi is not limited to the inside of the Cavaliers. He destroyed the Cavaliers, but at the same time, he also set a bad precedent in the league.

Before Stepi, the NBA had premium contracts, but no junk contracts. The management gave contracts based on professional judgments on the players' professional prospects. The contracts given may be premium, but will not turn into garbage, and will not give an ordinary player a top salary that does not belong to him.

Before the NBA, there was a league called ABA that offered various garbage contracts to grab players.

As we all know, this alliance became history in 1976.

Therefore, from the broader perspective of the garbage contract, the Cavaliers boss Stepi is the "Patient No. 0" in this field.

This makes it hard not to think of the bankrupt ABA, and some bosses are worried that the NBA will follow in the footsteps of the ABA.

Therefore, at the NBA annual meeting held in July, many people said that the unreasonable contracts offered by Stepi were a move to undermine market behavior and other clubs would not follow suit.

Stepi was very dissatisfied. He compared himself to Auerbach and said that if Auerbach did this, other teams would dare to come out and accuse him, right?

Those who made comments at the NBA annual meeting were obviously too optimistic about their peers' self-control and judgment.

It is definitely too early to say the saying “other clubs will not follow suit”.

Just in July, the Seattle Supersonics salivated against the Nuggets' English Mr. Alex English and offered a 3.1 million contract to poach people. The Nuggets reluctantly matched. Then the Supersonics offered another contract for mediocre veteran Steve Hawyce. The Nuggets still matched. This is another junk contract.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss soon lost control of himself, a crazy 7-year, $5.6 million offer stole Mickey Kupchek from Washington, and then offered a 25-year, $25 million contract that shocked the sports world to keep the Magician in Los Angeles forever.

The media shouted: Bass has kept the magician!

Starting from Steepie, symptoms spread across the league, and the NBA's junk contract contemporaries began.

Bass's trick of poaching Kupchek from Washington scared other teams.

This is purely "money ability". It's not that Washington doesn't want to leave Kupchek, they just can't match and are forced to give up.

The vicious impact brought by Stepei increased the cost of teams pursuing free agents.

And what Bass brings is another kind of damage.

Since taking over the Lakers, Buss has never been shy about spending money, and in fact, he is more aggressive than any boss in the league. He often gives his players a raise during contracts — although he doesn't have to.

By 1981, Bass increased the salary of almost all Lakers players. He increased Jabbar's annual salary from $650,000 to more than $1 million; Jamal Wilkes increased from $350,000 to $600,000; Norm Nixon's income increased from $65,000 to $400,000; Michael Cooper's from $35,000 to $250,000... This angered other bosses. Bass's use of money at will will push the league's salary level to a level that other small teams can't bear.

Bass is domineering and arrogant in this regard. He thinks he spends his money whatever he wants. Others can't control it. If other bosses can use hundreds of millions of dollars to play this game, he will play with him. This is the rule of the game. The alliance does not prohibit them from spending money.

The unintentional combination of Bass and Steepie promoted the increase in free agent value.

Therefore, most bosses require a salary cap in the new labor-management agreement, otherwise many people will not be able to persist and go bankrupt. How will players consider it from this perspective? They still want to get the money they have entered their pockets, but they don’t have any doors. They not only refuse harshly, but also ask to share the income from tickets, advertising and TV broadcast contracts.

Now, they stepped on the tail of the bosses, and the two sides were posing forever at the negotiating table. As the date of the end of the old labor-management agreement approached (summer 1983), new negotiations were about to begin. Judging from the current situation, neither side was willing to give in.

Louis was in the age and learned a lot of things he hadn't known before.

The Magician and Bird Save Alliance are a beautiful fairy tale.

They did bring more attention to the league, but the league's downturn did not delay two years after they entered the NBA.

Although stadium violence is not as frequent as in the late 1970s, it is a more serious problem - the proliferation of unique products and the increasing number of contracts are destroying some small teams, and big bosses can throw down sky-high contracts at will to grab people to enhance their own strength.

If the status quo remains unchanged, the poor and weak team can only continue to be weak until the operating costs are too high to be affordable.

If only a few rich bosses are left to support you, the NBA will be done.

Louis hadn't waited for the Magician and Bird to use their magic to save the struggling major league. Although he didn't know what happened next, the league must have found a way out.

He stayed in Cleveland from early July to the end of August, and he didn't pack his luggage until Fitch called him to return.

Before Louis left home, Li Xuanbing gave him a ancestral amulet.

It is said that Louis's father was in a car accident because he didn't bring this amulet when he went out.

Louis originally did not believe in God, but after he traveled through time, he believed a little, so he took his mother's amulet and placed it on her to relieve her, and then left.
Chapter completed!