This was twenty percent higher than the price offered by other purchasers, but for Paul Allen, this money was just a drop in the bucket.
A year ago, he invested $194 million in acquiring the Seattle Seahawks, and immediately after the acquisition, he invested another $140 million to build a brand new stadium.
During the acquisition of the Nets, no one was a match for this Microsoft giant. These IT wealth newcomers, led by Microsoft, fully took the big stage as behind-the-scenes players in the sports industry in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Compared to owners of traditional, heavy-asset industries who have a lot of wealth but little cash and face the embarrassment of needing to rally people to form consortia when playing professional sports, IT guys like Allen, who are protagonists of stock market wealth tales, often have an asset pressure comparable to Mount Tai, with tens or hundreds of billions at their disposal, and a very ample cash flow.
Starting from 1995, America entered the era of the internet financial bubble, with the stock prices related to computer technology skyrocketing, and Microsoft was a definite leader among them.
In 1995, Microsoft released an innovative operating system, Windows 95, achieving an annual sales of $6 billion, and by 1996, their market value had reached a staggering $149 billion.
As one of the co-founders of Microsoft, Paul Allen naturally saw a substantial increase in his wealth, and the swift speed of wealth creation in the booming stock market meant that Allen couldn’t spend his money fast enough.
Each morning he woke up, his net worth had increased by several billion more, prompting him to rush to spend the money as quickly as possible.
After easily buying the Nets, the biggest regret in Allen’s mind was why didn’t he have more cash at hand back in the day?
If in 1988 he had a bit more cash, or if Microsoft’s market value was higher, he could have acquired the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Nets seemed like a substitute, so after acquiring them, Allen became noticeably more impatient; the first thing he wanted to do was sign superstars to build a strong team.
At this moment, Hakeem Olajuwon, the former MVP and the only center considered to rival Ah Gan, became Allen’s primary target.
The negotiation went very smoothly, and Olajuwon soon donned the New Jersey Nets’ number 34 jersey, making his appearance in the New Jersey Continental Airlines Arena.
Unable to return to Houston, he eventually walked down the same path as his predecessor Moses Malone, donning the jersey of his third NBA team after winning a championship.
However, aside from signing Olajuwon, the Nets’ management made no bigger moves, with their only notable operation being signing former All-Star forward Buck Williams with a veteran minimum salary to assist Olajuwon.
The two veteran interior players didn’t seem to bring a qualitative change to the Nets.
In fact, Paul Allen’s ambitions were not focused on this season; in 1997’s free market there were no big fish, and the Nets, limited by the salary cap, lacked space.
After acquiring Olajuwon, Allen placed his hopes on the summer of 1998. For this, the Nets chose not to renew the contract with inside player Jason Williams, and they gave Olajuwon a very special contract.
"Hakeem, did you really accept that contract? It’s basically cheating."
"This isn’t cheating Ah Gan, it’s within the rules; by 1998, it won’t be possible anymore."
"You’ve changed Hakeem, you weren’t this unprincipled before."
"Allah is the only principle guiding me, I have no issues."
During the warm-up chat, Gan Guoyang learned about the contract situation from Olajuwon.
The Nets gave Olajuwon a unique contract, giving him a salary of $17 million in the 1997-1998 season, throwing all their salary space onto Olajuwon.
But come the next year, in the 1998-1999 season, Olajuwon’s contract would drop to $3 million, thereby freeing up over $20 million for the Nets.
With an anticipated total salary cap of about $30 million, having over $20 million in space allows for a lot of possibilities, enough to change the Nets’ fate.
And Olajuwon’s second year $3 million salary was extremely important as it freed up nearly $10 million more for the Nets, while he still received his money.
This was clearly aimed at landing big fish in the summer of 1998, a year where free agents with expiring contracts included Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, and Michael Jordan with a player option.
If the 1998 labor negotiations went well, and the max salary system planned in the 1996 agreement was implemented, the New Jersey Nets would have the chance to sign at least two superstars in 1998, forming a big three with Olajuwon to aim for the championship.
And a key part of this plan was Olajuwon’s special contract with $17 million in the first year and $3 million in the second year.
Olajuwon was no longer that pure African boy; after experiencing the vicissitudes of fate, he knew how to weigh the pros and cons.
Using this special contract to exploit rules for assembling a super team in the future seemed not very fair, but you Trail Blazers also played by the rules and signed Sabonis, who had been away for four years, using Bird rights.
So Ah Gan, let’s not point fingers at each other.
Your past words ’loyalty will ruin you’ shattered my way of thinking and left me adrift in the sea of desires.
Now Allah is guiding me, don’t think too much, eliminating the enemy is the best result.
However, from the gameplay status this season, the gap between Olajuwon and Gan Guoyang widened even further.
Olajuwon’s weight further increased, and his once-proud explosiveness and speed were rapidly declining.
When explosion and speed decrease, his once mesmerizing ’dream shake’ could easily turn into a clumsy dance.