Reborn Industrial Tycoon

Chapter 539 Poison

"Boss, I'm afraid the signing of Vince Carter is not very optimistic." James Bond sighed helplessly, and then said: "I have contacted Vince Carter's agent, and he has no idea about our price.

Not interested."

"Why? Do you think our price is too low, or are there other competitors?" Li Weidong asked. "

"Both sides. Carter's agent said our offer was too low, and he thought Carter could receive a better offer." James Bond continued:

"The attitude of Carter's agent made me have some doubts, so I inquired through my connections and found that there were indeed other brands in contact with Carter, including Nike and Adidas, but the one with the highest price currently is Puma!

Puma has always hoped to make a difference in the basketball shoe market. They also want to replicate Nike's success in signing Jordan, so they have been paying attention to NCAA star players.

It is said that Puma is very optimistic about Vince Carter and is willing to give Carter a big contract, and Carter's agent is also trying to help Carter get a top endorsement for the rookie."

"The top endorsement for a rookie? How big is the contract?" Li Weidong asked.

"It should be a contract like Iverson's, 10 years and $50 million." James Bond replied.

After Iverson was selected as the No. 1 pick, Reebok offered him a 10-year, $50 million endorsement contract, which was also the ceiling for a rookie player at the time.

It wasn't until LeBron James came along that this rookie ceiling was broken.

At that time, Nike offered James $90 million, while Reebok offered $115 million. Although Reebok offered more money, James still chose Nike.

Hearing the price of fifty million US dollars, Li Weidong smiled bitterly, shook his head, and then said, "We can't afford this price."

"Boss, what should we do? Should we give up Carter?" Bond asked.

"Don't worry, let me think about it." Li Weidong lowered his head and began to think.

…

Among sports brands in the 1990s, Nike and Adidas were the top two, while Converse, Reebok and Puma were almost in the top five.

Puma, which comes from Germany, is actually the brother of Adidas.

After the end of World War I, a pair of brothers in Germany, the elder brother named Rudolf Dassler and the younger brother Adolf Dassler, founded a shoe factory called Dassler Brothers Company.

In 1948, the brothers separated. The elder brother Rudolf Dassler named Puma after the English name of the puma; the younger brother Adolf Dassler combined Adi and das in his name to create Puma.

of Adidas.

Puma and Adidas both started out by making football shoes. It was not until 1969 that Adidas successfully entered the field of basketball shoes with a pair of Superstars, and defeated Converse to take the top spot among sports brands.

Puma also entered the basketball shoe market in 1972, but failed. Their basketball shoes were not popular.

After entering the 1980s, it was the rise of Nike, and Nike took most of the entire basketball shoe market.

However, Puma has not been idle during this period. They have conquered the European market and become the top sports brand in Europe by sponsoring football, tennis and racing.

Especially winning the sponsorship of Serie A brought Puma to the top, eclipsing Adidas in the European market.

In the 1990s, the first choice for fans to watch football was Serie A. At that time, Serie A was not only full of stars, but the football was also very good-looking. Serie A's influence was also much greater than that of the Premier League and La Liga.

After achieving great success in Europe, Puma decided to explore the basketball shoe market again. After all, basketball shoes are the most profitable.

So Puma took a fancy to Vince Carter, who had unlimited potential.

In fact, a sports brand of Puma's size can definitely sign several top stars, and there is no need to stick to rookies.

But the case of Nike signing Jordan was so classic. Puma also wanted to copy Nike's success and open up the US market to the brand by signing the "next Jordan". It can be said that Puma was led astray by Nike.

Carter is also called "Jordan's heir" by the media. He was born in North Carolina. He is 6 feet 6 inches tall, a shooting guard, has comprehensive skills, can jump and shoot, and other characteristics. He is simply a replica of Jordan in his college days.

Puma believed that Carter was the "next Jordan" they needed, so they offered a 10-year, $50 million rookie endorsement contract to sign Carter.

…

After all, Carter is not a high school player, but a college basketball star.

The high school basketball league in the United States is based on states, while the college NCAA is nationwide.

In the United States, the NCAA, a college basketball league, attracts as much attention as the NBA, especially March Madness, which is more popular than the NBA. If there is a showdown between wealthy teams, the excitement is comparable to the Super Bowl.

In the NCAA competition, players' abilities and potential will be scrutinized by the entire United States. Everyone can clearly see who is good and who is bad. It is almost impossible to detect leaks in college.

The high school basketball league does not have national influence, so it is possible to pick up the slack.

When the Internet develops in the future, it will become more difficult to pick up mistakes in high school basketball leagues.

The popularity of the Internet allows talented high school students such as LeBron James and Dwight Howard to showcase their talents to the United States and make teams willing to pay for them with the No. 1 pick.

North Carolina is a powerful team in the NCAA. As one of the North Carolina Twins, Carter has attracted the attention of the team and the media early.

A player with Carter's outstanding ability is now in the spotlight.

Li Weidong also realized this. With Carter's current reputation, it would be impossible to sign him with 10 million.

"For a good rough stone, someone will definitely rush to increase the price." Li Weidong sighed.

Choosing a spokesperson in the NBA is like choosing jade raw materials.

Those stars who have already made a name for themselves have already cut the raw stone, and you can clearly see what it looks like inside; while the rookies who are about to enter the NBA have uncut raw materials, and you have to cut them to know the quality.

.

Compared with big brands like Nike and Adidas in terms of funds, Feiyue Sports is definitely not comparable, not to mention that there is Puma who is eyeing the market. They are willing to spend a lot of money in order to enter the basketball shoe market.

But Li Weidong was unwilling to give up Carter. After all, Carter's sneakers have always been easier to sell.

Li Weidong recalled it carefully. He remembered that Puma's entry into the basketball shoe market was a failed attempt.

The design concept of Puma basketball shoes is still stuck in the 1970s. The shoes are ugly and uncomfortable to wear.

Under the attack of Nike Air Cushion and Adidas Tianzu, it is difficult for the design concepts of the 1970s to gain recognition from Americans.

So Carter only wore Puma basketball shoes for a few dozen games before giving up Puma basketball shoes. The reason was that Puma basketball shoes were not only bulky but also very uncomfortable to wear.

In 2000, when Carter participated in the slam dunk contest, he still had a Puma contract, but he wore a pair of AND1 sneakers on the stage, which shows how much he dislikes Puma sneakers.

Also in 2000, Carter simply terminated his contract with Puma, for which he had to pay $15 million in liquidated damages.

However, the 15 million was paid by Nike. After Carter terminated his contract with Puma, he also switched to Nike to endorse Nike's shox technology.

Thinking of this, Li Weidong suddenly had a plan in mind.

"Since I can't compete with those big brands in terms of funds, it's better to muddy the waters first. Maybe there will be opportunities in the future."

So Li Weidong said: "Continue to quote Carter, and you can increase the price appropriately."

"Boss, even if we increase the price, we can't add more to Puma's price," James Bond reminded.

"So we need to add a special clause. If Carter terminates the contract during the contract period, he does not need to pay liquidated damages." Li Weidong answered.

"No liquidated damages? Then we will suffer a big loss! Then he can leave if he wants, and we will get nothing, and we will have to suffer losses. This is not okay!" James Bond shook his head.

Li Weidong said with a smile; "This special clause is a poison, but it is not prepared for us, but for Puma. Anyway, we can't sign Carter, so why not open a poison contract to disgust us?"

Competitors.”

"Poison contract?" James Bond was slightly startled.

"It means adding some unfavorable factors to the contract. No matter who swallows this contract, he will have to bear the unfavorable factors inside, just like taking poison. This is a poison contract." Li Weidong explained.

"I understand. The contract conditions we issued to Carter deliberately did not require liquidated damages. Then Carter's agent will also use this as a threat to ask other brands to add similar clauses. The one who will suffer in the end will be

Sign Carter's brand." Bond finally understood.

Li Weidong nodded: "That's right. I always believe in the greed of human nature. It's like looking for a job. If a boss offers you an annual salary of one hundred thousand dollars, then this one hundred thousand dollars will become your psychological bottom line.

, even if your value is only fifty thousand dollars.

If Carter chooses us because of the no penalty clause, we won’t lose because our price is low anyway. But if Carter chooses other brands, such as Puma, Adidas or Nike, they will have to swallow this poison!”

…

The situation was just as Li Weidong expected. When Feiyue Sports offered Carter a no-liquidation penalty contract, Carter's agent immediately asked Puma to grant the same conditions.

In fact, Carter's agent was not a good person. In the future, he was arrested by the police for hiding drugs, which also affected Carter's popularity.

This kind of person naturally does not have a high moral bottom line and will put interests as the highest priority. The greed of human nature is vividly displayed in him.

Of course, the agent's greed also helped Carter obtain the maximum rights and interests.

The endorsement fee of 50 million in 10 years has exceeded the budget of other sports brands. After all, Carter is still a rookie. Except for Puma, no one is willing to spend so much money to buy a piece of wool that has not been cut.

In the end, Puma successfully signed Carter, but because of Li Weidong's interference, the endorsement contract became a no-liquidation penalty version.

After learning the news, Li Weidong did not feel any regret.

Because he knows that the NBA will soon fall into a shutdown, and the next two years will be a shortened season. Coupled with Jordan's second retirement, this double blow has caused the NBA's attention to drop significantly. He will spend a lot of money to sign contracts in the next two years.

Stars are definitely not worth it.

…

In the blink of an eye, the 1998 draft was here.

The media's evaluation of this rookie class is not very high, not even as high as in 1997.

After all, in 1997 there was a player like Duncan, whom most of the league was in trouble for, but in 1998 there was no player of Duncan's caliber participating in the draft.

But in fact, the level of rookies in 1998 was still very good, producing at least three Hall of Fame players and several All-Stars.

This year's No. 1 pick, Olowokandi, is recognized as the parallel-imported No. 1 pick. Fortunately, Bennett and Kwame Brown have the backing, otherwise Olowokandi would definitely be known as the "most popular" No. 1 pick.

Although it was a gamble for the Clippers to choose Olowokandi, there was not much controversy from the outside world at the time.

Olowokandi is a Nigerian whose father is a diplomat. He only started playing basketball when he was 17 years old and did not receive formal basketball training until he entered university.

However, by his junior year, he averaged 22.2 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.88 blocks per game, which is obviously full of talent.

With such data, he was definitely the top center in the NCAA. In an era when the center was the core of the team's tactics, it was understandable to win the top pick with such data.

Moreover, African centers also have successful experience in the NBA. For example, Olajuwon is from Nigeria. He is the same height as Olowokandi, seven feet. It was Olowokandi who was naturally labeled as "Olajuwon".

"Successor" title.

If you bet on a successor to Olajuwon with the No. 1 pick, you will definitely make money if you win. Even if you fail to support Olajuwon and become the second Mutombo, you will not lose money.

Therefore, the Clippers' choice was not criticized at the time. It was not until several Hall of Fame players showed their worth that the Clippers' operations were criticized by fans.

Carter was eventually selected by the Golden State Warriors with the fifth overall pick, and was then traded to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Antawn Jamison, the other member of the "North Carolina Twins."

In fact, what the Raptors really like is Carter, while what the Warriors like is Jamison. Ordinarily, the two teams can directly select the players they like, that is, the Raptors select Carter with the fourth overall pick, and the Warriors choose fifth.

Draft Jamison. There is no need to draft first and then trade.

But the Raptors' general manager showed off a move. They first selected Jamison, forcing the Warriors to select Carter. Then they traded Jamison for Carter. Since they were trading the fourth pick for the fifth pick,

So the Warriors need to pay some extra money.

In addition, the salaries of the fourth and fifth picks are different. The salary of the fifth pick is less. The Raptors can also save a fortune by paying Carter the salary of the fifth pick.

.

In the end, this operation helped the Raptors save more than one million US dollars, but Carter was dropped from the fourth overall pick to the fifth overall pick.

Needless to say, Carter's strength is also an All-Star player.

In addition to the two, this draft also includes Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, Rashard Lewis, Mike Babe, Brad Miller, Al Harrington, Larry Hugh

Si, "White Chocolate" Williams.

In addition, the likes of Bonchy Wells, Ricky Davis, Tyronn Lue, "Street Ball King" Alston, and "Old Cat" Mobley also came from this class.

Just looking at the names of these players, although they are not as brilliant as the 1996 golden generation, they are definitely a great draft year.

After the draft ended, those players who were not selected began to find their own way, either participating in team trials or participating in summer leagues, hoping to impress a certain team with their performance and get a contract.

However, the rookies in 1998 did not receive this treatment, because the NBA announced that starting from July 1, the league would enter a shutdown.

The entire NBA pressed the pause button!

Puma, which originally planned to re-enter the basketball shoe market with Carter, suddenly collapsed in tears in the toilet.

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