Every rival GM is an AI that remembers.

Send up to three teammates to a free agent's house and do not leave until he signs a deal he already promised elsewhere. Four hours, one choice each.

His agent is at the door · Their GM is on the driveway · Somebody posted the chair · He has gone quiet

He signed because he could not bring himself to say no to people standing in his living room, and he knows that about himself.

You are the club that did it. He will bring it up. Do not pretend it did not happen.

Once in a career. There is no second one.

Every team has a resident paranoiac. Earn his trust and he starts making demands: purified water → his holistic cousin → signal-blocking equipment → bench the Illuminati plant → refuse to play in three named cities.

The last rung forfeits real games.

Shelve a healthy player with one of eight cover stories. End the injury early and the medical review board writes to you.

I trust this will be the last time we need to have this conversation.

$3M fine · one second-round pick, confiscated

He can make the lottery go your way. He will not ask for anything today.

But someday, I may need a favor. And when that day comes... I'll expect you to remember this conversation.

When he collects: dead money, your next first-round pick, or your best player injured for 20 days. Refuse and he may leak the story instead.

Job security falls faster than it rises. Shortfalls are weighted 2.5×; progress is weighted 1.5× and then multiplied by 0.4.

At 30 you get hot-seat warnings. At 10 you get a final warning and every player loses 10 morale. At 0 the team reverts to AI control.

Then you get an interview with the commissioner about your next job. It is hostile, and it has stage directions.