Written by | Mitsui
Editor｜Li Kexin
As the first domestic defender for a long time, Guo Ailun, who is about to enter the 30-year-old official age, wants to jump out of the place called “home” where he has grown up for 20 years and make a final fight for his career.
Xinhua News Agency reported in just a few lines of text that Guo Ailun had submitted a transfer application to the new CBA champion Liaoning through his agent team. As soon as this news came out, it caused a sensation in the sports circles, and fans expressed that they felt a more violent sensation than the transfer of big-name NBA stars in decades.
Guo Ailun said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that this was the most important decision in his career, no one. This also shows Guo Ailun’s determination to leave the team. But many things are not up to him.
01. The best players miss out on awards
Guo Ailun successfully helped the Liaoning team to be crowned the CBA championship last season. Guo Ailun performed well in the playoffs, leading the team to win the cup with nine wins. Guo Ailun also led the team with an average of 20.4 points per game throughout the playoffs. It can be said that Liaoning won the championship first, but the MVP of the finals was won by Zhao Jiwei, who is also the top defender in the country.
The reason is that the MVP of the CBA finals does not come from a voting system, but a formula calculation model(The calculation formula is: SPR=scores-2 points attempted-0.8×3 points attempted-0.3×free throw attempts+0.3×offensive rebounds+0.2×defensive rebounds+0.5×assists+1.5×steals+ 0.7×blocks-1.2×turnovers), this formula is more friendly to organizational players like Zhao Jiwei.
For Guo Ailun, who prefers to attack, the more the attack fails, the lower the SPR value will be. Guo Ailun scored only 4 points in 2 of 10 shots in the second game of the finals and made 4 turnovers. After this campaign, Guo Ailun basically withdrew from the competition for the finals MVP.
But this is not the first time Guo Ailun has missed his personal honor.In the 18-19 season and the 19-20 season, Guo Ailun has twice lost his name because of the change in the selection method of the CBA regular season MVP.
The regular season MVP award is an evaluation of an athlete’s overall performance over a long season, including factors such as personal data, team records and efficiency values.
In the 18-19 season, Wang Zhelin won the regular season MVP with an average of 24.5 points per game. At that time, the default criteria for the selection of the CBA regular season MVP was the local player with the highest average score per game in the regular season. In the next season, the selection criteria were changed to the local player with the highest score in the team with the best record. As a result, Guo Ailun “successfully missed” again.
In the next two seasons, Guo Ailun did not even make it to the shortlist due to the number of appearances not up to the standard. One of the seasons was put aside because of injuries, and the other season was in the Xinjiang cotton incident. As the spokesperson of Jordan Guo Ailun chose not to appear and wait for Nike’s official solution, and he did not hesitate to miss the MVP for this.
In addition, the CBA began to select the best lineup in the regular season from the 19-20 season (a total of 10 players in the first and second teams). In the past three years, Guo Ailun has been the most dazzling defender in China almost every year, but due to the selection mechanism, only entered Best second team at a time.
Although Guo Ailun has repeatedly stated that he does not care about personal honors, the championship has always been the ultimate pursuit of himself and the team, but the best players have long missed the honor due to the awarding mechanism and various reasons.
02. Contract rules lock players in place
Earlier, the official Weibo of the Liaoning team released a promotional poster for the new season. Guo Ailun, the absolute core of the Liaoning team, became a leftover in the picture. Zhang Zhenlin, a new star of the Liaoning team, appeared in the C position impressively.
Afterwards, Guo Ailun angered the official Weibo in the comment area, saying: “Selection, beauty pageant or martial arts contest, you’re doing it for you. I don’t think it’s necessary to put my photo on it. Take me down next time, don’t get in your way, thank you. .
Although this Weibo has been deleted, it has caused heated discussions among basketball groups in China. Guo Ailun’s remarks did not directly name names, but he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Liaoning team in his words.
According to common sense, in the team’s publicity photos, star players occupy the C position is a conventional sports ethics. Although the new star Zhang Zhenlin also has a very high popularity, combined with the historical status and achievements of the Liaoning team, compared with Guo Ailun Obviously inferior, which has to arouse the reverie of netizens.
“Zhang Zhenlin’s mother is Wang Fang, a meritorious figure in the Chinese women’s basketball team, and is currently the deputy director of the Liaoning Provincial Sports Bureau”. Subsequently, Xinhua News Agency reported that Guo Ailun’s application for leaving the team made the conflict between Guo Ailun and the club more public.
A few days later, the Liaoning team responded to Guo Ailun’s request to leave the team through Shenyang Daily. The Liaoning team said that it would do its best to keep Guo Ailun and provide Guo Ailun with a maximum salary to renew the contract.
On the other hand, the Liaoning Men’s Basketball Club also emphasized in its response that if Guo Ailun can obtain an overseas high-level league contract such as the NBA or the Euroleague, the team will fully support it. The Liaoning Men’s Basketball Club also stated that it will insist on using the contract with Guo Ailun. The “priority right to renew the contract” stipulated in the signed contract finally stated that whenever Guo Ailun is willing to play in the Liaoning Basketball Team, the door of the “home team” will always be open.
The decent response of the Liaoning team has been highly recognized by the industry and fans.However, under the current CBA league system, once the Liaoning team provides Guo Ailun with a maximum salary renewal, it is almost impossible for Guo Ailun to transfer in China, and it may be a foregone conclusion to play abroad.
The contract signed by Guo Ailun and the Liaoning Men’s Basketball Club is a maximum salary contract (category D). According to the “2022-2023 Season CBA League Player Draft, Salary Cap, Employment and Transaction Management Regulations” announced by the CBA sponsor, the club will continue to have the exclusive right to sign the player’s D-type contract after the D-type contract expires. If it refuses to renew the contract due to player reasons, the club still retains the exclusive right to sign the D-type contract until the club waives or transfers this right.
In other words, as long as the team doesn’t nod, a D-type contract can permanently lock a player in place. This means that Guo Ailun will face the same situation as Zhou Qi last year, and there is a high probability that he will be forced to play in overseas leagues.
Therefore, the salary system of the CBA league has been widely questioned. The two best players in the country cannot play in the local league due to salary issues. The CBA league may not be able to give domestic fans a reasonable explanation.
03. Weird salary system
October 17, 2019, is destined to be an important day in the history of Chinese basketball and CBA. On this day, the CBA company held a shareholders’ meeting. The meeting passed the implementation of salary restrictions on domestic players starting from the 20-21 season, requiring all players. The contract must be made public (the contract that has already been signed will not be changed).
According to the above salary limit regulations, the salary cap for the first season has also been released. Starting from the 2020-2021 season, the baseline value of the initial salary cap is 36 million yuan, the buffer value is 12 million yuan, and the upper limit of the initial salary cap is 48 million yuan. The lower limit is 24 million yuan. The maximum contract salary limit for a single domestic player is 9 million yuan.
Clubs whose actual contractual salary expenditures exceed the upper limit of the salary cap or are lower than the lower limit of the salary cap shall pay a youth training adjustment fee to the league (the ratio increases year by year, and is 100% from the 2022-2023 season). No foreign aid salary cap will be set for the time being.
Among them, the E-type contract with an annual salary of 9 million needs to meet one of the following two conditions: first, at least 34 years old; second, at least 32 years old and has played for a single team for 12 years. This type of contract is mainly for veterans in the league and can be signed for up to two years.
After the E-type contract expires, if the team and the player do not continue to reach a contract renewal, the player will be transferred to a new team, and the old club may not charge a training fee. This is also widely considered to be the number of years for a youth academy player in exchange for a free agency, that is, at least 35 years old, or at least 13 years of playing for the team.
Guo Ailun is 29 years old this year. Although he has played for the Liaoning team for 12 years, his career started early. He does not meet the requirements of the E-type contract and can only sign a D-type contract with the club. The annual salary of the D-type contract is 6 million yuan, less than 4 million after tax,For Guo Ailun’s popularity and ability, it does seem that the salary scale does not match the coffee position. Guo Ailun’s last contract was signed before the CBA issued a salary limit order, and the salary must be much richer than it is now.
But the current dilemma Guo Ailun faces is probably more than salary.
In CBA’s salary clause, the parent team has the priority to renew the player’s contract. Once the parent team renews the player with a maximum salary, the player cannot refuse. If they want to refuse the contract, the team still retains the exclusive right to sign the player until the team gives up or transfers. the power. The translation is what we just mentioned above, no matter if you play for 13 years or 23 years, a D-type contract can permanently lock a player in place.
For players who refuse the contract, they can only play in overseas leagues.In just one year, Zhou Qi and Guo Ailun, the two cores of Chinese basketball, both inside and out, have faced such problems.
The original intention of this policy is to increase the importance of CBA teams to youth training, increase the investment of each team in youth training, and lay the foundation for the grassroots construction of Chinese basketball, but it may cause the league to lose two top cards. If the attention of the league declines because of this, is it really beneficial to the future of Chinese basketball and CBA?
These are just to illustrate one thing in the end. The salary cap system currently formed by Chinese basketball is quite unfriendly to transfers. Even a big-name star and veteran veteran who has worked diligently for more than ten years, such as Guo Ailun, is in his contract. After the expiry, there is no confidence to leave. In this way, the road left for him may only be abroad.
04. Domestic players flock to the Southeast Asian League
Last year, Zhou Qi and Liu Chuanxing went to Australia to play in the NBL League. Judging from this year’s Asian Cup performance, Zhou Qi’s experience in Australia has achieved remarkable results. Facing the whole process of Asian-level insiders, he successfully erased the “Poland” through his own efforts. The title of “special agent” successfully took over the Chinese basketball banner from Yi Jianlian.
From this point of view, playing in high-level leagues overseas is indeed conducive to improving the level of top domestic basketball players.
But high-level players are only phoenix water chestnuts, reflecting the overall level of a league is the intermediate level of players.These players have a certain level, but basketball is just work for them, and they have to strive for the most lucrative contracts in their short 5-7 years of their careers to provide security for their lives after their careers are over.
This year, Liu Chuanxing, Zhu Songwei, Zheng Qilong, Liu Xiaoyu and other domestic players signed with the Bay Area Wing Loong Team of the Southeast Asian Super League. These players are either rising stars in the CBA or veterans who have achieved success. They did not go to overseas high-level leagues, but It is to go to a league that is not even as good as CBA,Their departure is mostly due to salary considerations.
A large number of mid-level players choose to pour into low-level overseas leagues, which may cause the CBA league to reflect on the salary and management system.
According to the policy of foreign basketball leagues, after the player ends the contract, he can freely choose the team to sign (except for a small number of restricted free agents). Therefore, after the team learns that the athlete will not renew the contract a year before the contract expires, it will make a trade for the valuable player to stop the loss for the team.
therefore,A complete player trading system is an important part of a league, while CBA is just the oppositeMany player transactions are also limited by the intricate relationship between local sports bureaus and clubs, and it is difficult to achieve complete openness and transparency in transactions. This is a long-standing problem in Chinese sports professional leagues.
It is reported that at present, many general managers of CBA clubs have opposed the behavior of the Bay Area Wing Loong team to poach people, and hope that the league will introduce relevant restrictions.
The interests of the team’s managers and players are always in conflict. At this time, it is necessary to have a players’ union like the NBA, but the CBA currently only has a one-size-fits-all “so-called policy”.
A large number of domestic players flow to low-level overseas leagues, which not only has a serious impact on the value of the CBA league, but also casts a shadow on the future development of Chinese basketball.
The Guo Ailun incident is just an appearance. In the future, more players will be forced to go to Southeast Asia to make a living due to the “dictatorship policy” of the CBA, the attention of local basketball has declined, and the chances of the men’s basketball team entering the Paris Olympics are slim. It will trouble the development of Chinese basketball for a long time.
No one wants Chinese basketball to be like football.
