Reborn Industrial Tycoon

James Bond looked at Li Weidong with a strange look, secretly wondering if his boss had any special fetish for high school students?

Last year, we spent 10 million US dollars to choose a brand spokesperson, but in the end we chose a high school student, and this year we have to choose a high school student again!

James Bond felt that he should persuade his boss, so he said: "Mr. Li, we already selected a high school student spokesperson last year! Are we going to choose a high school student as our spokesperson this year?

To be honest, I am very surprised that Kobe can adapt to the rhythm of NBA games in such a short period of time. This at least prevents our 10 million US dollars from being wasted, but we cannot bet on every high school player.

Just like Kobe!"

"James, I'm not betting. I've done some research. Believe me, the Tracy McGrady I'm talking about will definitely become a superstar." Li Weidong said.

"It's a superstar again. You said the same thing when you signed Kobe Bryant." Bond pouted dissatisfiedly.

"Kobe is on the road to becoming a superstar now, isn't he?" Li Weidong smiled and then said: "James, you can go and investigate the young man I mentioned first, he will not disappoint you!"

"Okay, I'm going to find out about this kid named Tracy." Bond continued: "So how much of a contract are you going to give him?"

"Same as Kobe, 10 million US dollars in six years! Plus exclusive signature sneakers." Li Weidong replied.

…

Like many black people, McGrady grew up in a single-parent family. He was raised by his mother and grandmother.

Tracy McGrady's family is not rich, but he has had enough food and clothing since he was a child. Both his grandmother and mother have formal jobs, although they are just waiters, and the salary is not too high.

In the United States, if a family has two people working, the basic living needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation are still guaranteed.

Tracy McGrady attended Auburndale High School for the first three years of high school. However, the coach of the high school team did not like Tracy McGrady, so in his senior year of high school, Tracy McGrady had the opportunity to play.

However, Tracy McGrady's character is indeed a bit lazy and negative. He is not very interested in class and being late is a common occurrence. This is also because he neglected his studies and was eventually dismissed from the school basketball team.

Fortunately, Tracy McGrady met a noble man named Alves Smith, who was a college coach and a street agent for Adidas. He recommended Tracy McGrady to enter the Adidas summer training camp. In the training camp, Tracy McGrady and the then

The No. 1 high school student in the United States competed in a one-on-one challenge. He did not fall behind and shocked everyone with his skills in an instant.

And the number one high school student in the United States is Lamar Odom.

American high schools have a four-year system. With the help of Alves Smith, Tracy McGrady transferred to Monteseone Christian School and completed high school here.

Under the leadership of Tracy McGrady, the school climbed all the way to the second-best ranking in the country, and Tracy McGrady was also elected North Carolina Player of the Year.

But even so, there are still not many universities willing to extend an olive branch to Tracy McGrady, especially those famous basketball schools, no one is willing to provide scholarships to Tracy McGrady.

This is probably due to Tracy McGrady's academic performance in high school, which was really too high! Those prestigious schools don't like bad students.

Also because no ideal university was willing to accept Tracy McGrady, he ultimately chose to skip college and directly participate in the NBA draft.

For high school students to participate in the NBA draft, the road is much more bumpy. After all, at that time, most teams did not recognize high school players.

If you are a college player, you still have the opportunity to show yourself on the NCAA court and attract the attention of scouts and teams, but high school players lack such a platform to show themselves.

So for Tracy McGrady, participating in each team's rookie training camp may be his only chance.

However, selling Tracy McGrady is different from Kobe. Kobe is a second-generation basketball player. Although his father has always been a role player in the NBA, he is an insider after all and has accumulated a lot of connections over the years.

Therefore, Kobe can train with the 76ers players, and he can also find an agent with good connections in the NBA to get him trial training opportunities with many teams. He can even let the Lakers and Hornets pre-draft

The deal was concluded in advance.

However, Tracy McGrady does not have this kind of background, so he can only rely on his own performance to win the opportunity to try out with NBA teams. His path to the draft is much more rugged than Kobe's.

In the evening, when Tracy McGrady finished training and dragged his exhausted body back home, he saw two men sitting on his sofa. One of the men was bald and dressed in hip-hop style, while the other was wearing a suit.

He wears leather shoes and looks like a figure from upper class society.

"Tracy, they are here to find you!" Grandma's voice sounded.

"Are you Tracy?" The bald man stood up and said, "My name is James Bond, and I am the CEO of Feiyue Sports. This is the Kent lawyer next to me."

"Leap? Are they those retro white shoes?" Tracy asked subconsciously.

"That is indeed our product." Bond nodded.

Retro white shoes have become the signature of Feiyue brand stores. When many people mention Feiyue brand, the first thing they think of is retro white shoes.

As for Kobe's endorsement, since Kobe is not a superstar yet, his endorsement effect is still very limited. Unless you are a die-hard Kobe fan, it will be difficult to associate Kobe with Feiyue Sports.

Maddie asked: "Mr. Bond, what do you want from me?"

"I wanted to invite you to be the spokesperson of Feiyue Sports. I found out that you don't have an agent yet, so I went directly to visit you," Bond said.

"Me? Spokesperson?" McGrady was startled and said instinctively; "But I'm still a high school student."

"What does this have to do with it! The brand spokesperson we signed last year was also a high school student. He is Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. You should know him!" Bond said.

"That millionaire?" McGrady blurted out.

"Boy" is not a complimentary term, but Bond didn't take it seriously. He smiled and asked: "Then are you interested in becoming the second boy?"

"Me?" Tracy McGrady was shocked. The nickname "Million Dollar Boy" was originally used to tease Kobe, but ridicule is a joke. The endorsement contract worth tens of millions of dollars is real!

For a family like Tracy McGrady, tens of millions of dollars is an unimaginably astronomical sum.

Maddie didn't expect that such a good thing would happen to her.

After a brief moment of ecstasy, Tracy McGrady remembered that Kobe also had a pair of signed sneakers, so he weakly asked: "Mr. Bond, can I have signed sneakers?"

"Of course!" James Bond nodded without hesitation.

"Really?" Maddie's face showed excitement.

For players, the allure of signed sneakers is too great. This condition alone makes it difficult for Tracy McGrady to refuse.

…

In a conference room at the headquarters of Adidas North America, a video is being played. In the video, two young people are playing one-on-one. One of them is Odom and the other is Tracy McGrady.

Next to him, Alves Smith was wildly recommending Tracy McGrady to Adidas executives.

Alves Smith is the noble man that Tracy McGrady met. He helped Tracy McGrady enter the Adidas training camp last year, and then helped Tracy McGrady transfer to another school.

This year, when Tracy McGrady decided to skip college and directly participate in the NBA draft, Alvis Smith also tried to help Tracy McGrady and contact the team for a trial training.

It's just that Alves Smith doesn't have any high-end resources in the basketball circle. Some of the people he knows that he could talk to in high school or ordinary college are beyond his reach in the NBA.

So Alves Smith decided to use his status as an Adidas agent to recommend McGrady to Adidas. If Adidas is willing to help and recommend McGrady to the team, McGrady should be able to get a lot of trial training opportunities.

"Tracy is really a great young man. He is the most talented player I have ever seen. If he can enter the NBA, he will definitely become a star in the future!"

Alves Smith pointed to the picture of Tracy McGrady shooting on the TV and continued: "This is a video of him participating in the Adidas training camp last year. You have all seen it. His strength at that time was not inferior to Odo, the number one high school student in the United States."

Mu.

After a year, Tracy has grown a lot. Last season, he averaged 27.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 2.8 steals per game. USA Today also named him the best high school player of the year!"

After some compliments, Adidas executive Blair nodded and said, "Listen to what you said, this young man is indeed worthy of our olive branch."

Alvis Smith continued: "Tracy has decided to skip the college stage and participate in the NBA draft as a high school player. What he needs now is a trial training opportunity with the team. If Adidas is willing to provide the team with

If you recommend him, I think he will be grateful."

After thinking for a moment, Blair said, "I will contact the scouts to check out this young man."

There is no shortage of talented players in American high schools. Many of the so-called top high school students in the United States may not even be able to enter the NBA in the end.

Before the emergence of LeBron James, high school students had never been favored by NBA teams. Even though star players such as Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and Garnett had appeared among high school student players, NBA teams were still unwilling to trust high school students.

What NBA teams focus on is college players. Those players who can prove their worth in college tend to get more attention and can get high draft picks.

So even though Alves Smith strongly recommended it to Adidas, executive Blair was just willing to send scouts to pay attention.

Amid Alves Smith's earnest expression, Blair picked up his cell phone and dialed the scout's phone number.

"Do you know a young man named Tracy McGrady? He's from North Carolina, from..." Blair paused and looked at Alves Smith.

Smith quickly said: "It's Monteseone Christian School."

"Yes, it's Monteseone Christian School." Blair repeated into the phone.

"Tracy McGrady? This name seems familiar. Let me think about it... Come to think of it, you are talking about the second 'Million Dollar Boy', right?" the scout's voice sounded.

"The second millionaire? What is that?" Blair asked.

"Mr. Blair, you must not have paid attention to today's sports news. Feiyue Sports has signed this young man named Tracy as their spokesperson, and the endorsement amount is exactly 10 million US dollars! However, the specific content of the contract is still unknown."

The scout paused and then said: "Do you remember last year, Feiyue Sports spent 10 million US dollars to sign Kobe Bryant from the Lakers. At that time, everyone gave Kobe a nickname,

Called 'Qian Qian Boy'.

Unexpectedly, Feiyue Sports spent another 10 million this year to sign a new spokesperson, and this time their operations were exactly the same as last year. They signed another high school defender! Many scouts are discussing this matter now.

Woolen cloth!"

Speaking of Kobe, Blair's heart suddenly tightened. Last year, Adidas originally wanted to sign Kobe, but Feiyue Sports beat them to it.

At that time, Blair comforted himself that Kobe was just a high school player, and it was still unknown whether he could adapt to the rhythm of NBA games. Even if Kobe was not signed, it was not a loss.

However, after the All-Star Dunk Contest ended, Blair realized that he was wrong and Adidas had lost an excellent spokesperson.

Now Alves Smith just recommended Tracy McGrady to him, but he was signed away by Feiyue Sports.

Blair suddenly had a premonition that Adidas had been banned again this time!

…

The nickname "Million Boy" was attached to Tracy McGrady, which also greatly increased Tracy McGrady's popularity.

The last "million dollar kid" was Kobe. His first year in the NBA was relatively successful. Now the second "million dollar kid" Tracy McGrady has many similarities with Kobe. They are both high school players.

Both are guards and have strong personal scoring abilities, which has also made some scouts interested in Tracy McGrady.

After all, McGrady's talent is there. After some investigation, the scouts found that this young man is indeed a talented player. As long as he can adapt to the rhythm of NBA games, like Kobe, there will be no problem in successfully entering the rotation.

With Kobe's experience, even though Tracy McGrady was a high school guard, his draft prospects were always optimistic, and he was soon regarded as a lottery pick.

The day of the NBA draft will soon come.

Since 1996 was a big year for the draft, many outstanding players chose to participate in the 1996 NBA draft, so the level of rookies in 1997 was relatively low.

But the man named Tim Duncan participated in the 1997 NBA draft.

Last season, most of the league was in trouble for Duncan, and the most shameless one was the Spurs.

At that time, the Spurs' record was second in the Western Conference, and there were no major adjustments to the Spurs' personnel in the new season. However, several of the Spurs' main players were forced to take an injury truce, and ultimately relied on a league-worst record.

After winning the No. 1 pick, they got Duncan as they wished.

The second pick was Keith Van Horn. Young fans are definitely not familiar with this player. During the draft, he was hailed as the second Larry Bird. At that time, many people ranked him alongside Duncan.

For a moment of bright light.

Without Duncan, Van Horn would have been the No. 1 pick that year, and Van Horn's statistics when he first joined the NBA did not disgrace his title as Larry Bird's successor.

In the first season, he averaged 19.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. In the second season, he averaged 21.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. This is definitely an All-Star level.

It is a pity that injuries ruined this player. As a white striker, his athletic ability was relatively average. After the injury, he became even worse than before. His speed and jumping could not keep up. He could easily lose his position defensively and face strength confrontations.

Not as good as black people, who did not become star players in the end.

However, Van Horn is also a rare lucky man in the NBA. He had already quit the NBA that year, but because the Dallas Mavericks needed salary parity in Kidd's deal, they re-signed him as an additional trade to the Basketball Team.

Nets. Then the Nets waived him, leaving him with two years of veteran's minimum salary in vain.

The third overall pick in 1997 was Chauncey Billups. Based on the performance of Loups University at that time, it was reasonable to select Billups with the third overall pick.

The next four to eight picks are all passers-by.

With the ninth pick, the Toronto Raptors finally selected Tracy McGrady.

At the same time, in front of the TV, James Bond took a deep breath and hurriedly dialed Li Weidong's phone number.

"Mr. Li, Teresin was selected by the Raptors with the ninth overall pick!" Bond said.

"I know." Li Weidong said calmly.

"Boss, are Tracy's signature sneakers going to be put on the schedule?" Bond then asked.

"Don't worry, let's design Kobe's second signature sneaker first." Li Weidong paused and then said, "Tracy is at most participating in the Rookie Challenge, but Kobe is going to participate in the All-Star Game!"