NBA: Start with 2 billion, buy the Knicks

After a few leisurely days, the Western Conference Spurs and Thunder have a partnership.

The Eastern Bobcats, Nets, and the Pacers who have signed verbal cooperation contracts are all constantly in contact with the champion Knicks.

But what’s embarrassing is that it’s all about “requesting” and no “giving”.

No one wants to make a deal with the Knicks, they all want the Knicks to give people advice...

During the grass-planting period, a window for management operations, everyone wanted to ask the Knicks for their opinions, but without exception, no team would ask for draft picks.

There are also some cautious teams who want to use scraps to tear down the defending champion team's lineup, and some directly contact the players to make offers without notifying the Knicks. It seems that the quiet offseason is in chaos.

This is also a headache for Max and others, because it is difficult for every winning team to maintain a winning lineup, because everyone's value has greatly increased after being plated with championship gold. From a past point of view, 8 out of 10 players in the contract year

A person can run away, and the team will support him.

After all, it is a good thing to go out and get big contracts with meritorious deeds, so as to spread the branches and leaves.

Besides, the NBA is a business, and players are not real relatives. We all have to live. If players who have won championships have more money to choose from, they will definitely choose more money.

It's just that Sean Marks and the others really don't dare to choose the rookies by themselves. Recently, when the party at Jiang Chao's villa was in full swing, they just held a joint trial training in New York and called all the current rookies to come for a trial training.

They took a look at it and made a scouting report for Jiang Chao to check. At the same time, they also tried out a few that they thought they were promising.

Now the Knicks don't have to go out of New York for draft training. They actively send a large number of players here. For example, Kemba Walker and even Irving, the top pick, all want to come to the Knicks. Irving said that he thinks this boss is very suitable for him.

He just likes different bosses. Maybe this boss also thinks the earth is flat?

But the Knicks also know that it is impossible for them to get the No. 1 pick this year unless they have starters of Howard, Harden, and Curry.

The high-ranking pre-draft players will be kicked out immediately. There is no time for you to have a separate trial here.

The final choice and transaction must be made with the approval of the boss.

Other bosses can act as hands-off bosses, but only the Knicks boss is a real boss.

The lottery draw here has also ended.

Mustache's luck was neither bad nor good. He got the No. 26 pick in the first round and the No. 56 pick in the second round.

After the picks came out, there was no surprise that there was no swap or trade in advance. Who dared to give the Knicks draft picks? Maybe you can add someone, but now all the Knicks are championship contributors, and it is impossible to trade them by yourself.

It's up to the players to decide whether to leave or not.

Then the Cavaliers were really good, and they were lucky enough to get the No. 1 pick. That is, just one year after James left, they messed up and got the No. 1 pick.

The Timberwolves are still the league's key support target, ranking second.

The Jazz won the third overall pick, and the No. 4 pick also belonged to the Cavaliers...

Overall, there is no difference from the previous life.

"Boss, do you think there are any good ideas this year?"

"The management of the Nets, Spurs, Pacers, and Bobcats all want to talk to us and have sent people here several times."

After the lottery, Jiang Chao's mailbox received a bunch of scout reports on this year's rookies, as well as a voice message from Sean Marks.

This forced Jiang Chao, who was addicted to the pickle-legged American Bears, to go to the arena. Hearing that the Nets had undergone major changes in the past few days, he personally came to visit with Maotai.

Because the Nets turned out to be Jiang Chao who was contacted by Cai Chongzhen.

The Brooklyn Nets have officially changed their regime this season.

"Boss, you are finally here. Mr. Cai and Mr. Prokhorov have just returned to Brooklyn. Do you want me to notify them now?"

"Tell me what's going on now." Jiang Chao looked at the thick documents on his desk, feeling like he had returned to reality from the Garden of Eden.

However, most of them were congratulatory gifts from the league's top officials, as well as greeting cards from many stars and celebrities. Although Jiang Chao was present at the time, he could guess everyone's excitement when they saw the Knicks win the championship in front of the TV.

and explosion. To be honest, he also ignored that there were too many celebrities at the scene who were excited to hug Jiang Chao and so on... Let Liu Yan write a personal letter for him to reply.

He stopped reading the envelopes with love stickers and posted a post on Weibo to thank them together.

While he was watching, Max and Mustache, who came in a hurry, were talking.

The New York basketball world has undergone major changes after the lottery.

After experiencing a season in which peak All-Stars like Anthony Stoudemire were unable to bring in revenue, the original owner no longer listened to David Stern’s nonsense asking him to hang on, and decisively chose to sell. They could no longer afford the value.

The 1 billion Barclays Center expense has been spent, and the team has been losing money. The original owner's words to David Stern were that I would make more money buying Coca-Cola stock than investing it in the team.

And this sell-off was very fast.

Because this year we saw the great success of the New York Knicks, the richest man in the Warring States, Prokhorov, and Alibaba Vice President Cai Chongzhen, who had communicated with Jiang Chao many times in Hangzhou and Wuzhen, were already ready to make a move.

So when the Nets wanted to sell their shares, the two hit it off and formed a Sino-Russian alliance without Jiang Chao even expecting it.

However, Jiang Chao can think of it, David Stern will never allow a second Chinese owner to buy the NBA. The Chinese like win-win cooperation, let alone in a city, reciprocity is very likely to happen.

So Cai Chongzhen started working hard last year. When he consulted Jiang Chao, Jiang Chao suggested that he create a puppet white boss and operate behind the scenes. Otherwise, it would be too easy for him to be in power and be targeted, which would also affect the Knicks.

side.

Unexpectedly, he was really successful this year, and a Sino-Russian alliance came together to purchase the shares of the Nets.

In early July 2011, the NBA officially announced that Russian tycoon Prokhorov's acquisition of 51% of the Nets' equity had been approved.

In this way, the Nets, the team with the worst ability to make money and the lowest attendance rate during the regular season, finally achieved a "change of dynasties."

Prokhorov thus became the first NBA owner from outside North America and the tallest (2.06 meters) NBA owner of an NBA team.

He acquired 51% of the Nets' stock and 45% of the property rights of the Nets' new arena.

A 29% stake was acquired by Alibaba Vice President Cai Chongzin!!! Cai Chongzin also became the second NBA team owner in New York!

It's a good thing that the bulk of the money was bought by the richest man in the fighting nation, otherwise Cai Chongzhen would definitely be at the forefront. After all, Jiang Chao's acquisition was a hot-headed move due to the economic crisis. If Cai Chongzhen accepted the full share of the shares, wouldn't he say that he had nothing to do with the Knicks?

Possibly, he is still watching from the sidelines of the finals.

The two of them spent 1.64 billion US dollars together. I don’t know exactly who paid how much, but that’s what the news said.

It is worth mentioning that the rapper Jay-Z also purchased shares this time. He also invested in the arena, presumably to facilitate future concerts?

Jiang Chao flipped through it, and there was an introduction to them later.

As the famous richest man in Russia, Prokhorov is worth as much as 9.5 billion U.S. dollars. His family industry has a wide range of businesses, including mining, finance, real estate, media, public facilities, science and technology, etc.

There are gold mining companies in Siberia, which also account for a large part of the country's aluminum producers.

Prokhorov also has a media empire, two banks, an insurance company and many real estates. It can be said that he is much richer than the industries Jiang Chao is involved in. To open a bank, other people will give him money. After all, sneakers are

Things seem thankless to rich people.

He is one of the most enthusiastic athletes in Russia, the owner of the European championship-winning basketball team in Moscow, and the coach of the Russian national team, so maybe the reason why Cai Chongzhen believes in him is because of his knowledge of basketball.

But actually...

The reality is that this guy knows less about basketball than Cai Chongzhen, but Jiang Chao can't say much to Boss Cai. This guy is still quite profitable. He bought it last year for less than 300 million, and Cai Chongzhen bought it again.

It will cost 2.3 billion US dollars by then. No matter how well he operates, the richest man is getting richer anyway...

As for the boss’s cool moves, Jiang Chao remembered a classic one:

In the offseason of 2013, Prokhorov's biggest and most wasteful move after acquiring the Nets occurred. He really wanted to do something for the team at the time, so he told Sean Marks, the president before he took office, that you can do whatever you want.

I don't care how much luxury tax I spend.

The Brooklyn Nets spent a lot of money and made a shocking trade with the Boston Celtics, bringing in Garnett, Pierce, Deron, Joe Johnson and other super giants, thus forming the most expensive team in NBA history.

starting lineup, 82.4 million.

True - Five All-Star starting lineup.

But there are still many problems with this lineup. Unfortunately, the hero is late and this team has not achieved good results.

This deal also consumed all the future of the Nets, and the big brother of the Fighting Nation was not as thick-skinned as Dolan. When he couldn't bear the scolding, he quickly sold the team and made a guaranteed profit of 2 billion.

But this has nothing to do with Jiang Chao, and now Cai Chongzhen is the second shareholder, and he is proficient in legal and financial affairs and will not let the El Ross brothers mess around.

There is also an introduction to Cai Chongzhen at the bottom, which makes it much simpler.

Cai Chongzin: PhD from Yale University and Yale Law School, global vice president of Alibaba Group, and one of the founders. With a wealth of US$9.44 billion, he ranks 279th on the Forbes list of the world's richest people.

From Jiang Chao's point of view, Ma Yun and the others are really making money. They can make enough money with just Taobao and Alipay... unlike the big Russian brothers who have so many industries.

"Okay, I have a general understanding. This is a good thing for us. With the New York duo, the derby will be good to watch in the future."

Seeing that Jiang Chao was so relaxed, Mustache reminded: "They already have Anthony and Stoudemire. With such strong capital coming in, will they be the strongest enemy around us?"

"What's the point? If everyone becomes stronger, the game will be more enjoyable."

In fact, what these two presidents don't know is that Cai Chongzhen has long been Jiang Chao's younger brother in basketball operations. He has asked many questions. It will be beneficial to them and China to cultivate the Nets. You must know that Cai Chongzhen

Chongzin admires Chinese culture very much, and the Barclays Center will definitely have a lot of cultural output, and the Sino-Russian alliance will not be bad either.

"Okay, let's call him over now? He has been anxious to see you."

"Well, just shout, I'll be in the arena today."

After the two left, Jiang Chao turned the boss's chair. He could guess what Cai Chongzhen wanted to do with his eyes closed. Can Boss Cai not feel itchy after seeing the Knicks win the championship? He must have come here to learn from it, although he

He is much older than me, but he is his younger brother when it comes to basketball operations. Feitian Moutai has already been placed in his cabinet, so how can I not ask him for help?

Then he will naturally help. Chinese people will not bully Chinese people. Another businessman owner will definitely destroy the Nets. Derby teams always have red eyes when they meet.

But now the Nets are a team in the Russia-China Alliance, and many of Cai’s later actions are quite admirable. Jiang Chao doesn’t want to see him being bullied to the point of being bullied by players. In addition, Alibaba and Chaoshen Group have been

When it comes to win-win cooperation, it's better to help or to help. He will pay attention to a degree that does not endanger the tiger.

While Cai Chongzhen was on the road, Jiang Chao was not idle, looking at the information that Max had given him.

A large part of it is the information of rookies, because they know that Jiang Chao has not inspected any college players for a year, and has never been to college, so they have prepared a thick stack of information. Bojan of Croatia has a good shooting and a strong body.

Something like that...

Jiang Chao glanced at a few of the interested ones and took them away. He knew much more about these dozens of promising rookies than the management. And although this year has always been considered a weak year for the draft, little did he know that this year was just the beginning.

It’s a year full of talented people, and they’re much better than last year anyway.

In other words, Jiang Chao won the championship through manipulation last season, otherwise he will definitely have to do something this season.

Then there is also part of the information prepared for trading, because there will be trades during the draft, and there is a boom in trading after the draft and before the regular season.

That's what this season's free agency looks like.

There are obviously far fewer big fish in the free market this year than last year, and most of them have basically settled down.

Among the All-Stars is Dayao Yao of his own team.

There are also the Spurs' Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Ray Allen... these are the only four All-Star players in the free market, and basically no one will be interested.

GDP will definitely keep the Spurs with the maximum salary, needless to say.

It seems to everyone that the Big Three of the Green Army will continue to work for another 1-2 years.

Yao Ming only averaged 14 minutes per game in the Knicks playoffs. No team can have such a luxury. They don't have Howard in the starting lineup. Therefore, due to injuries, there are currently no teams that offer Yao Ming a price.

There are still many star players:

David West of the Hornets, Shane Battier of the Grizzlies, Nene Hilario of the Nuggets, Caren Butler, Glen Davis, Carl Landry, Smith, Sasha

· Vjacic, Jason Richardson, Zach Randolph...

Marks also flagged the restricted free agents worthy of attention in the draft as:

Marc Gasol, Greg Oden, Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Jeff Green, Marcus Thornton, Aaron Brooks and DeAndre Jordan…

This is the player most likely to be produced by each team in the draft. Being restricted means that his home team has the right to match the contract of other teams and forcibly retain the player. This is called the right of priority to renew.

Therefore, this kind of player can be signed first and then traded. Of course, there is a high probability that he will be bought at a high price in the end.

In fact, there are still many players who can be used as championship puzzle pieces. For example, Ray Allen, the hero shooter who later helped the Heat win the championship, and Battier are both good role players.

There is also Bobcats' Diaw, who is also one of the Spurs' future championship puzzle pieces. He is very impressive.

Finally, there are Alian, Okur, Turk Drew, and David Lee in the Knicks... These are all written at the end, which is obviously an annoyance to the management.

However, Jiang Chao felt very happy after seeing Ah Lian, and he still kept Ah Lian in the NBA. In his previous life, Ah Lian plummeted in the NBA after this contract ended and entered the free market.

It's delicious.

Of course, there are Dragic, O'Neal who has not yet announced his retirement, and a bunch of leftover players entering the free market, about two-thirds of which will be completely lost in the NBA.

There is a recent statistics from ESPN. The average playing age of NBA players is only 4 years, which means that more than half of the free agents whose contracts expire every year will not get their contracts renewed.

Therefore, the management teams of these people are now showing off their magical powers. Various self-introductions and touching handwritten letters have been sent to the Knicks and other teams, hoping to continue to stay in the NBA and shine.

However, Jiang Chao didn't read much, even though what the management put at the top was a handwritten letter from Battier and Ray Allen's agent and himself, expressing his desire to play for the Knicks...

"This Ray Allen...is really not afraid of being scolded." Jiang Chao slapped his head and asked, "Will you join if you can't beat him?" It also said the veteran's minimum salary. Is this a private falling out with the Celtics?

He didn't bother to understand the gossip.

Maybe he thought about it last year, but this year he is too lazy to think about it more.

Nowadays, the team is in its prime with strong players. It will not be like the Lakers last year who were extremely eager for Taobao to have a good rookie, nor will they pursue the stars who are due to expire this year. This is a bit self-inflicted.

No matter how outstanding you are and how much you want to invest, our current batch of talents are truly the right people.

What really needs to be studied in the free market is playoff-level teams.

Just like they studied the Lakers last year, they will also study this young army like crazy this year.

Analyze the Knicks in detail, and then recruit players in a targeted manner!

Find the shortcomings and kill the defending champion!

"Boss Jiang!! Congratulations on winning the championship!!!"

Just when Jiang Chao was about to drink a cup of coffee to relieve his fatigue, a loud voice in Mandarin sounded at the door, and then an energetic Cai Chongzhen appeared in Jiang Chao's office carrying a gift box of cordyceps and ginseng.

"Boss Cai, please take a seat. Come as soon as you come. Why did you bring something again?" Jiang Chao squinted his eyes and looked at Cai Chongzin, who was wearing a suit.

Sure enough, people are in high spirits when happy events happen. Boss Cai, who successfully acquired the Nets, is obviously happy. He has achieved his new goal in life. He also has the temperament of Jiang Chao 2 years ago. His face says he wants to change the team on his own.

.

"We are all neighbors from now on. We will tell each other what we need and what we need!"

Boss Cai skillfully placed the gift next to the Maotai where he had placed it in the morning, bowed humbly and took his seat, looking at Jiang Chao expectantly.

"Hahaha, okay, let's share what we have."

Jiang Chao laughed and sat down, followed by Mustache, who poured coffee for the two of them.

Chinese culture is vast and profound. This first sentence expresses the purpose of the visit.

"I couldn't talk to you when I won the championship that day, but today I can finally express my blessings to you and the Knicks in person. The Knicks were really strong that day. I love your team!" Tsai Chongzin will never forget it.

The grand scene at Madison Garden Arena after winning that game was a grand scene where NBA officials in New York celebrated together.

"Thank you, thank you. I was so excited that day, otherwise I would have had a drink with you. Boss Cai has also bought the team now. I wish you success too!"

“Wherever I go, I’ll just buy it and play. And it’s all thanks to you, Boss Jiang, that I can be the second boss!!”

"Oh? What should I say?"

Cai Chongzhen took a sip of coffee and talked for a while. It turned out that Jiang Chao really had some merits. One was not signing Anthony and Stoudemire last year, and he also used Jerome James to take away Yi Jianlian, which deceived the Nets.

Indirectly, the Nets were criticized for selling the team.

The other is that Jiang Chao agreed to the Nets moving to Brooklyn. His generous attitude and indirect request for Stern at the time also allowed David Stern to let Cai Chongzin also invest in the acquisition without any hindrance.

Otherwise, with David Stern's circle, it would only be a matter of minutes to find a rich man to buy the Nets' equity.

It seems that they came to buy the team, but it is better to say that the NBA chose them.

Therefore, Jiang Chao helped Cai Chongzhen a lot!

"Haha, these are all trivial matters. Aren't you also helping me in terms of business?"

"Don't worry about the cooperation. I've been following up over there. Now the work of connecting Super Chat to Alipay is almost done. With our strong alliance, QQ Pay is about to go bankrupt."

Boss Cai quickly claimed the credit. Alibaba, Taobao and Chaoshen Group have already cooperated deeply. In addition to Chaoshen Group’s products being sold on Taobao without tax and reduced logistics chain express fees, they have also recently worked together to develop the payment function of ChaoLiao.

.

He also directly invested in Chaoshen Music, helped buy music copyrights together, and tried to win over the expired copyrights of Tang Lun. That was what boss Ma Yun wanted.

Because in the field of music software, Ma Yun was rejected by the two giants Baidu and Tongxun. Now that a software suddenly appeared from Chaoshen Group, he immediately invested in it. I believe that Boss Jiang will be finished.

The two chatted about interesting domestic stories and Alibaba's financial investments, and eventually Boss Cai naturally diverted them to the main purpose of his visit today.

"Boss Jiang, I came here today mainly because I sincerely want to learn from you. I am a newbie in terms of future draft plans and free market transactions. I sincerely hope you can help us, and I will also give you the greatest support and

Good thing, any of my Alibaba employees you like can work for your Chaoshen Group!"

This is quite frankly, I just envy Jiang Chao's genius in business operations and want him to help the Nets.

Last season, the Nets were eliminated by the Heat in the first round 1-4. After that, there was news that Anthony and Stoudemire were at odds over the ball rights. Now they are also in a mess.

And now that the draft is approaching, Cai Chongzhen thinks of Jiang Chao’s Eye of God in the past two years and is eager to ask God!

"Haha, that's not necessary. Is this what Prokhorov meant?"

"He is a passionate fan of yours. It's natural that I came to your office because of his intention. We will unconditionally believe what you say."

"Ah? Why do you believe in me so much? I picked randomly in the draft and picked whoever I liked." Jiang Chao didn't expect the Nets to be so decisive. This is a big change.

In his previous life, Prokhorov believed in the president of the Nets. In this life, he has no brains to believe in him?

"Boss Jiang, don't be humble. I don't believe that victory is as easy as dandelions on the hillside. But I believe that there are always some good things in the world that are worthy of our all-out efforts. Even if we are broken into pieces, we really want to make changes.

I know you also want the New York Derby to be better in the future."

"Okay, this is all trivial. Just call me on the day of the draft. I probably won't be there. By the way, the Taobao benefits for our Chaoshen Group employees..."

"No problem, any account registered with a Chaoshen Group employee number will be a lifetime member of Taobao!"

Max and Mustache, who were sitting in the back, were both impressed!!

So comfortable!!!

Is this the Chinese Boss Alliance!!!

Please give me rewards, please subscribe, and please do all kinds of things in the last month!!

(End of chapter)