As soon as the draft wrapped up, Zack immediately shifted his focus back to the training court.
After a highly successful draft night, where the Warriors picked according to the GOAT's personal wishes, their main goal this summer was to re-sign Jack and Brown.
Since both players were eligible for the Bird Rights, the Warriors didn't have to worry about the salary cap limiting their ability to bring them back.
Larry Riley, the team president in charge of player renewals, offered Jack a five-year contract worth roughly $25 million.
And, honoring the promise made to Brown earlier, he presented him with a hefty five-year, $50 million deal.
With Jack and Brown both re-signing, the Warriors, who could no longer benefit from Zack's "child labor" contract, would see their total team salary soar to an astonishing $95 million for the 2009-10 season.
In an era where the salary cap was only around $60 million, the luxury tax the Warriors would have to pay next season was bound to be astronomical.
But on this, team president Riley stated, "When you have a player like the Messiah, you have to go all out."
However, it's worth noting that the Warriors weren't the only team whose total salary would exceed $90 million in the 2009-10 season.
The Mavericks, Lakers, and Cavaliers would join them, forming the "F4" quartet, which would be the league's primary source of luxury tax revenue.
To bring a championship trophy back to Dallas, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's investment in the team over the years had been incredibly extravagant and astonishing.
Since the 2004-05 season, the Mavericks' total team salary had consistently stayed above $90 million.
And ever since Daniel Gilbert took over the Cavaliers, to keep "His Majesty the King" happy, the Cavaliers' total salary had been increasing year by year, reaching $91 million in the 2009-10 season.
Gilbert hoped to maintain a strong roster for the Cavaliers to ensure that "the Chosen One" wouldn't abandon Cleveland in the upcoming summer of 2010.
As for the Lakers?
To capitalize on their championship window, after being secretly price-gouged by the Kings last season, and re-signing several key players this summer, their total team salary for next season would reach an eye-watering $97 million, a sum that would undoubtedly make Jerry Buss squirm.
Old Buss absolutely hated the Kings in his heart.
Because if the Kings hadn't inexplicably offered Monta Ellis a high-salary, long-term contract, forcing the Lakers to match it, the Lakers could have saved a huge amount of money.
Although Old Buss knew better than anyone that to contend for a championship, the Lakers certainly had to invest.
But when it came to paying the luxury tax, Old Buss had always adhered to the "pay as little as possible" principle.
Bobby Marks, ESPN's famous luxury tax expert, commented, "The NBA is currently in an era where if you don't spend money, you don't even deserve to compete.
Besides the Warriors, Mavericks, Lakers, and Cavaliers, the Supersonics, who recently re-signed 'Big-Yao' and Kevin Garnett, will also have a total team salary of $89 million next season.
Among the current contending teams, only the Celtics, Magic, and Hawks are in slightly better shape, managing to keep their total team salary around $80 million.
But compared to teams whose total salaries are below the salary cap, the luxury tax these high-spending teams have to pay is still staggering."
The continuous increase in team championship costs was not a good thing for the NBA in the current era.
Especially at this point of financial crisis.
David Stern already felt a hint of worry about the upcoming round of labor negotiations.
Stern knew very well that many team owners within the league deeply resented this "internal competition."
They hoped that Stern, as the league commissioner, would take the toughest stance in the upcoming labor negotiations, reducing players' share of income, or even introducing a hard salary cap, to reduce the cost of contending for championships and daily operating expenses for each team.
Michael Jordan's former agent, David Falk, predicted, "The next round of labor negotiations will be very, very extreme. No one will give in in this negotiation."
As the face of the league, Zack was well aware that the current conflict between the owners and the players was bound to be difficult to reconcile.
But before these labor negotiations reached their climax, his focus would remain on helping the Warriors return to their peak.
---
Two weeks later, the Summer League officially began.
Stephen Curry delivered a stat line of 20 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 11 turnovers in his Summer League debut.
It was a game where Curry perfectly showcased his strengths but also fully exposed his weaknesses.
As the second overall pick, Curry's touch in the game was soft, and he was confident in both catch-and-shoot and off-the-dribble shooting.
However, his poor passing habits and his uncharacteristically clumsy dribbling would inexplicably lead to turnovers on the court.
In his debut, Curry had an astonishing four live-ball turnovers from opponents' steals alone.
This couldn't help but make people wonder if he truly had the potential to become an elite ball-handler.
Anthony Lester, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, described Curry's Summer League debut: "The Warriors, who amicably parted ways with Jason Richardson, chose 21-year-old Stephen Curry as his replacement.
I know we need to give this young player more time, but Stephen needs to hurry up and improve his shaky performance in passing and ball-handling.
Because the Warriors, who are eager to return to their peak next season, won't be as patient as other teams."
However, compared to Curry... if Curry at least showed his strengths, then the performance of the other rookie the Warriors drafted according to the GOAT's personal wishes, Danny Green, could only be described as absurd.
In his Summer League debut, Green played a total of 28 minutes.
But if you didn't look at the box score afterward, you wouldn't even know he was on the court.
Throughout the game, Green, who went 0-for-5 and scored no points, was like a headless chicken, having no idea what he was supposed to do.
"Where am I, who am I?" became Green's true portrayal on the court.
This was a game that almost completely shattered the Warriors' front office's trust in the GOAT.
While it's common knowledge in this league that you often need to be patient with rookie players, Green's utterly ridiculous performance made the Warriors' front office feel that the GOAT's eye for talent was indeed not on par with his playing skills.
"We could find any high schooler to represent us in Summer League, and they wouldn't play worse than Dan."
The Warriors' internal assessment of Green's Summer League debut was: "He doesn't look like a player who played four years in college, but rather an amateur basketball enthusiast."
Green's disastrous performance continued.
In the four Summer League games he played for the Warriors, Green only made one three-pointer and averaged just 4 points and 3 rebounds.
Even Zack felt a bit embarrassed by Green's poor performance.
"Tell Dan to stop playing Summer League," Zack told assistant coach Hollins, who was leading the Warriors in Summer League, over the phone. "Tell him to get back to Oakland immediately!"
Although Zack had anticipated that Green would need time to develop into the ultimate role player he remembered, Zack couldn't tolerate Green not even understanding how to play in the Summer League.
Zack decided to call Green to the God's Chosen Training Camp and personally mentor him.
And, Curry was also summoned by Zack.
The reason given was that Green's poor performance was also related to Curry, as the team's primary ball-handler.
---
In late July, Curry and Green, who had ended their Summer League stints early, stepped into the God's Chosen Training Camp with anxious hearts.
Then, watching the GOAT immediately challenge Green to a one-on-one, Curry couldn't help but feel a pang of worry for Green.
Curry, who had participated in the God's Chosen Training Camp three years prior, knew how terrible the GOAT's personality could be.
He also knew what Green was about to face in the upcoming one-on-one match.
The result was exactly as Curry expected.
Zack, with a bloody 21-0 slaughter, almost completely destroyed Green's confidence in playing basketball.
And even worse than being massacred was that throughout the entire one-on-one, Zack would verbally brutalize Green's spirit with his trash talk after every offensive and defensive possession.
He unleashed all his competitive fire on Green, then tossed the now dazed Green aside like garbage into an unnoticed corner.
Then, knowing he too couldn't escape, Curry's mood could only be described as "sorrow greater than a dead heart" (a idiom indicating utter despair) the moment he noticed Zack's gaze turn to him.
"Stephen, it's been a while since we've played one-on-one. Come play a round with me."
"Oh..."
About fifteen minutes later, Curry, bruised all over from Zack's bumps, sat down next to Green, gritting his teeth and with tears in his eyes.
"You alright, Dan?" Curry asked Green.
Hearing this, Green, with vacant eyes, nodded mechanically.
"You need to be mentally prepared, this is just the beginning," Curry said in the voice of an experienced veteran. "From now on, we'll have to go through this kind of test every day."
Compared to the three-star high schooler from three years ago, Zack found that Curry had not only made significant progress in his basketball skills but also that his mental fortitude was far stronger than before.
Zack knew very well that basketball doesn't lie.
So he invited Green and Curry to play one-on-one not just to enjoy crushing them, but to observe the details of their approach to the game up close, and to test if they were mentally ready to play in the NBA.
Even if such a test was incredibly cruel, if they couldn't even withstand such a challenge, then how could Zack trust them to achieve great things with him on the court in the future?
The NBA is a world of the strong, where the weak are devoured.
To earn the trust of your teammates, you first have to be strong enough.
Zack didn't expect Green to transform into the ultimate role player he remembered overnight.
But Zack would use his own methods to tell Green that to survive in the NBA, he needed an incredibly strong heart.
---
Under the GOAT's torment, Green's suffering began.
And this summer, under immense pressure from public opinion, the Basketball Association did not defy public sentiment by forcibly recalling Zack and Yao Ming to play in the Asian Championship.
After the Beijing Olympics, Zack had already been revered as a deity by countless sports enthusiasts in China.
Now, with the savior of basketball just emerging from a season-ending injury, the CBA naturally didn't dare to forcibly summon him back to play in the Asian Championship.
And Yao Ming?
Since Yao Ming's shoulder injury wouldn't recover until late August, and given that his accumulated fatigue required surgery to fully resolve his foot injury concerns, the CBA could only let Yao Ming off the hook as well.
However, even without Zack and Yao Ming, the team easily crushed various Asian powerhouses in the Tianjin Asian Championship.
Last year, Zack leading the team to victory at the Beijing Olympics had quietly changed the team's morale and spirit.
In addition, "European Caesar" Jonas, who chose to renew his contract with the Basketball Association after the Olympics, also had coaching abilities far superior to those of Guo Shiqiang at this time.
Yi Jianlian was named the MVP of this Asian Championship with an excellent performance of 22 points and 11 rebounds per game.
Compared to last year's Olympics, Yi Jianlian's growth was clearly visible.
Although in Minnesota, Yi Jianlian hadn't completely given up his naive idea of playing as an inside dominant force in the NBA, during last year's Olympics, Yi Jianlian, who was "tormented" by Zack every day, consequently developed a stronger heart than he did at the same point in history.
In the final against Iran, facing Hamed Haddadi's provocative defense, which was just as Zack remembered, Yi Jianlian repeatedly drove hard to the basket with the ball, determinedly drawing fouls and inflicting significant damage on Iran's interior.
"Yi's way of playing surprised me," Haddadi said after the game. "He's a respectable opponent, and I believe he will have a bright future in the NBA."
It's worth mentioning that Sun Yue, another NBA player on the team, also had several standout performances in this Asian Championship.
Although the Lakers had no intention of re-signing Sun Yue this summer, based on his excellent performance in the previous Olympics, Sun Yue still received a minimum contract offer from the Heat.
Zack didn't know if Pat Riley, who was always good at developing role players, could slightly change Sun Yue's personality, which even he and Kobe had found to be helpless against.
But considering the Heat's daily training volume was already extremely absurd, in Zack's opinion, even if Sun Yue couldn't get playing time with the Heat, it was still better than him returning to play in the CBA so young.
---
To get more training time, Zack, through Jeff Schwartz's mediation, canceled a series of commercial activities this summer.
Zack's status in the basketball world had gradually given him the capital to be a bit willful.
However, Schwartz would inevitably become the target of various sponsors' frustrations.
"They don't dare to get angry at you, so they can only take it out on me," Schwartz told Zack. "They even threatened me that they won't work with my other players in the future."
Hearing this, Zack, who knew Schwartz was complaining to him to finalize his contract renewal as soon as possible, smiled, "Jeff, I've enjoyed working with you for the past four years, so I've decided to sign another four-year contract with you."
Seeing this, Schwartz exclaimed with delight, "It will be my great honor to continue to serve you."
Unlike other agents in the league, Zack had fully experienced the personal charm of this future GOAT of NBA agents during his collaboration with Schwartz.
Take, for example, his willingness to take the fall for him in front of the various sponsors. If it were any other agent, they would have immediately tried to dissuade him from that idea.
But Schwartz wouldn't.
Because in Schwartz's view, compared to immediate profits, Zack genuinely needed more time to prepare adequately for the upcoming new season.
Schwartz knew very well that while the NBA was indeed a business league, if players wanted to consistently maintain their commercial value, they had to ensure they could continuously deliver satisfactory results on the court.
And compared to previous years, with the free agency market set to be unprecedentedly lively next summer, most NBA teams intending to clear salary cap space to attract superstar players were now preparing for next year.
This made this summer one of the relatively quieter summers in the NBA in recent years.
However, amidst this rare quietness, the GOAT, who was set to officially return next season, brought a different kind of anticipation to the entire basketball world for the upcoming 2009-10 season.
After a year away from the court, could the GOAT still maintain his dominance as before? Were the Warriors, who had subtly undergone a blood transfusion, still the formidable team they once were?
All summer, everyone speculated about how Zack would perform in his first season back from injury, and what kind of record the Warriors would achieve under his leadership.
Sports Illustrated dedicated their August cover this year to the GOAT sweating it out on the training court: "The King of NBA Mountain is Ready to Return!"
The basketball world anticipated Zack's return more than ever.
Even Stern, who had a contentious first round of labor negotiations with the Players' Union, believed that Zack's impending return from injury was the only good news he'd heard recently.
Of course, if Zack's season-ending injury last year made every NBA team feel invigorated and believe they had a chance to win a championship, then at this moment, for those contending teams, the returning GOAT was undoubtedly the last sight they wanted to see.
And, as Zack's performance in recent training sessions improved more and more, Grover, knowing that Zack had never, for a single moment, yearned for the new season to arrive as much as now, once again personally felt the kind of energy Zack had accumulated during this long period of recovery.
"I have no doubt that season would become his outlet for pent-up frustration."
Grover later recalled, "He was fed up with the restraints that injuries had placed on him. That summer, he focused all his attention on improving his skills. He craved to play basketball, and he craved to return to the center of the basketball world, because in his eyes, that was his rightful place."
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The return of the GOAT is certainly creating a buzz! It seems like Zack is more determined than ever. What do you think about his intense training methods for the rookies, Curry and Green?