Chapter 1 The First Day

Second-round picks don't have salary restrictions, but in reality, teams generally only offer the minimum salary because it affects the team's salary cap. Take the Spurs as an example; they haven't signed anyone in the free market yet, but they're already over the salary cap, so they can only sign Tang Tian using exceptions.

Exceptions include the mid-level exception (available to teams not exceeding the luxury tax, with a mini mid-level exception for teams exceeding it), the bi-annual exception, and the minimum salary exception.

The Spurs will definitely save the mid-level exception for the free market. As for the bi-annual exception, using it would trigger a hard cap (cannot exceed the luxury tax at any point during the season), which the Spurs might not want to do, so they can only use the minimum salary exception in the end.

The so-called minimum salary exception is when a team over the salary cap has no room to sign players, they can use a special exception to offer a minimum salary contract, with a maximum term of two years, where the salary for both years is the minimum salary of that year.

The first year's salary is 470,000, the second year is 760,000, totaling 1.23 million for two years. This is the contract the Spurs signed with Tang Tian.

Tang Tian quickly signed his name on the contract.

"Welcome to the Spurs." Buford, despite the somewhat unpleasant negotiations, was a professional general manager. After the contract was signed, he extended his hand to Tang Tian.

"Thank you." Tang Tian smiled, stood up, and shook hands with Buford. Buford is the general manager of the Spurs, and there was no need to sour the relationship.

"I'll take you for a tour," Popovich said to Tang Tian.

"Gregg, let me take him," Buford said, standing up. Popovich had already taken Leonard and Joseph out for a tour.

"It's alright, I just want to chat with this kid," Popovich said, already standing up.

The two of them left the office.

"Are you that confident in yourself?" Popovich didn't say it inside, but asked as soon as they came out.

After all, Popovich had been in the league for over twenty years, and he could see through Tang Tian's intentions at a glance.

"Yes, I'm very confident in myself, Old Man," Tang Tian replied with a smile, understanding Popovich very well and not hiding anything.

Popovich was taken aback for a moment, stopped to look at Tang Tian, and then burst into laughter.

"You're really interesting, more interesting than that cold-blooded Leonard," Popovich said with a smile.

The AT&T Center was significantly larger than XL Center, UConn's home court. Or rather, it was more than just a stadium, with a considerable number of supporting facilities inside. There were 32 lounges just for the audience, and a restaurant with the most complete selection of Texas food, including barbecue, pizza, sandwiches, and hot dogs.

"I like it here the most. The arena added a shoe-shining service this year. I can sit here and wait for them to shine my leather shoes before entering the locker room," Popovich said with a smile.

Tang Tian was stunned. As expected, Popovich was a strange person, focusing on things differently than most people.

As they spoke, they walked through the corridor to the home team's locker room.

Pushing the door open, the Spurs' locker room came into view.

A room of about forty square meters, with lockers lined up against the wall. In front of each locker was a simple armchair. The lockers were mostly open, with only a small cabinet in the upper right corner and two clothes racks hanging above, with the player's name on the racks.

Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Danny Green, Richard Jefferson, DeJuan Blair…

No massage chairs, no wide-screen TVs, not even a sofa.

Honestly, this locker room was a bit "low-key," similar to Tang Tian's college locker room at UConn.

However, after entering, Tang Tian was quickly drawn to a maxim hanging on the wall directly in front of him in a black frame.

"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before."

There was a signature in the lower right corner of the passage: Jacob Riis.

The general meaning of this sentence is perseverance, meaning that if you keep doing something, you will eventually succeed.

After reading this sentence, Tang Tian suddenly felt that this locker room really had the Spurs' style.

Low-key and resilient, these seemed to be the labels of the Spurs.

"There are only two preseason games this year. You, Leonard, and Joseph will get opportunities in these two games. Perform well." After visiting the arena, Popovich finally said to Tang Tian.

He should have said these words to Leonard and Joseph as well.

"I will," Tang Tian nodded.

He reduced weight to play as a swingman, so competition on the Spurs was actually quite fierce.

At the small forward position, there was Richard Jefferson, the starter, Leonard, who would most likely be the first substitute, and James Anderson, the team's 20th overall pick from last year.

At the shooting guard position, there was Ginobili, who was good enough to be a starter, Danny Green, the substitute, Gary Neal, who was one of the main rotation players last season, and Cory Joseph, who joined with him.

Popovich specifically said this, indicating that he valued these two preseason games very much.

After signing the contract and touring the arena, Tang Tian's first day with the Spurs was basically over. However, after leaving the AT&T Center, he put his luggage in the hotel and went with a real estate agent to look for an apartment.

Playing in the NBA is actually similar to working. Teammates are together during games, but before and after games, everyone has their own lives.

The team doesn't provide three meals a day, nor does it provide accommodation.

San Antonio is the second largest city in Texas, but compared to Houston, it is much calmer.

Tang Tian eventually chose a studio apartment not far from the Riverwalk. Although the price was a bit expensive, he could see the San Antonio River and a patch of green when he opened the window, the environment was very good, and it also had a parking space.

The Krypton System only consumes Krypton value and doesn't actually cost money. Unlike other rookies, after signing a series of endorsement contracts, he now had more than 1.5 million in cash, so this rent was just a drop in the bucket for him.

(Note: Except for some players with max contracts who can pre-draw contract salaries, most players' contract salaries are paid monthly. The 1st and 15th of each month are the salary distribution dates stipulated by the league, but players can also request to have their salary paid on a single day of the month.)

After renting an apartment, Tang Tian's next plan was to buy a car.

When he was in New York, he could run to training because it was only five or six kilometers from where he lived, but here it was ten or twenty kilometers, and he couldn't bear to run that far every day.