Reborn Industrial Tycoon

Chapter 662 Signing with The Flash

At the Adidas North American headquarters, Sony Vaccaro sat in front of the phone with an anxious expression.

Finally, the phone rang, and Sony Vaccaro immediately picked up the receiver.

"How's Jay doing?" Vaccaro asked.

"The situation is not optimistic. To be precise, it is very serious." The other party paused and then said: "The ligament of the left knee was ruptured, and the three nerves in the left leg were seriously injured."

"What did the doctor say? How long does it take for him to recover before he can play?" Vaccaro then asked.

"Going to play? His attending physician told me that this injury may be life-threatening, and in the worst case scenario it may lead to amputation!"

The other party let out a long sigh and then said: "His current situation, even if he recovers, will definitely have serious sequelae. Thank God that he can walk like a normal person. It is almost impossible to play on the court!"

Upon hearing the news, Vaccaro's face turned pale.

Last summer, Vaccaro was deceived by Li Weidong and spent $100 million to sign second-place pick Jay Williams.

However, in the past year, Jay Williams' performance has been unsatisfactory. In terms of data, he is completely unworthy of his status as the second pick. This signing is obviously a loss.

But now that everyone has signed, there is no regrets. Adidas can only give Jay Williams more patience and hope that he can grow into a superstar in the future.

It's a pity that Jay Williams committed suicide. He hit a telephone pole while riding his motorcycle and was sent to the hospital. Now his career is ruined!

Adidas’ $100 million investment was wasted.

Of course, Adidas will not really lose so much money. This kind of endorsement contract is generally not fully guaranteed. If the spokesperson is in an accident, it only needs to pay the guaranteed amount.

Moreover, when signing such a large-value contract, you often also need to purchase an additional insurance policy, so Jay Williams' subsequent endorsement fees will probably be borne by the insurance company. Adidas's real monetary loss is not large.

But Adidas needs to find a new spokesperson with weight.

Vaccaro's eyes couldn't help but fall on a magazine on the table, which was "Sports Illustrated", the most famous sports magazine in the United States.

On the cover of the magazine, there is a young man holding a basketball in his hands and staring at the camera sideways.

The cover character is none other than young LeBron James.

"This young man has announced his participation in this year's draft! It seems that he is the number one pick this year." Vaccaro's eyes revealed a ray of heat.

"You have to call the German headquarters, you have to sign LeBron James!"

…

Nike executives also learned that Jay Williams was injured and hospitalized.

"Jay Williams' career has been scrapped!" Dyson showed a surprised expression, and then said: "Then Adidas has suffered a big loss! This is a spokesperson they spent 100 million to sign!"

The assistant also said from the side: "Adidas has indeed had some bad luck in the past two years. They lost their talent not long ago, and now they have lost a potential brand spokesperson!"

"Potential? Jay Williams' performance last season can't be said to have much potential." Dyson said with a long sigh and a melancholy expression: "In total, we are about the same as Adidas. We haven't signed one yet."

A young man with such potential.”

The assistant knew that the person Dyson was talking about was Kwame Brown.

Kwame Brown, a man who was once favored by Jordan, has completely become a parallel import No. 1 pick. In his second season, Kwame Brown averaged only 7.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. It is difficult for people to place their trust in such statistics.

High hopes. Nike's team has completely given up on this spokesperson.

Just listen to Dyson continue to say: "Last year, Feiyue was the first sports brand to give Jay Williams a huge contract of 100 million yuan. I remember that at that time, they were the most clamorous, but then they turned around and

Signed Stoudemire from the Suns.

Jay Williams' performance last season could only be considered average, at least not worthy of a billion-dollar endorsement contract. However, Stoudemire won the Rookie of the Year and his popularity is very high. From this aspect

Look, Fei Yue made the right bet again.

Now it seems that Jay Williams is a smoke bomb released by Leap. Perhaps Jay Williams' career is scrapped, which is also a good thing for Adidas. They can adjust their strategy as soon as possible and choose new ones.

Spokesperson!”

At this point, Dyson's expression suddenly became serious: "Oops, Adidas will definitely steal LeBron James from us! We must act quickly and not let Adidas get ahead of us."

"Sir, is that high school student really that important?" the assistant couldn't help but ask.

Dyson replied; "Jordan retired again, and he probably won't come back this time, so we need a second Jordan to stabilize the market. Maybe this LeBron James is the second Jordan."

Of course, we can't just bet on James. I have been contacting Kobe's agent recently, and the other party has relented and is willing to persuade Kobe to switch to Nike.

It's just that Kobe got a lifetime contract in Feiyue, so Kobe's agent asked us to also provide Kobe with a lifetime contract. I need to convince the board of directors. But I think it shouldn't be difficult to convince the board of directors.

Malone and Payton have decided to join the Lakers, and it seems that the Lakers have already booked the championship for next season. As long as there are more championships, Kobe's value will also rise."

…

At around nine o'clock in the evening, Li Weidong was on the phone with James Bond who was far away in the United States.

"So, all sports brands across the United States are rushing to grab LeBron James?" Li Weidong asked curiously.

"Yes, there has never been a high school student who can get so much attention. This is really unbelievable. I can only say that this young man is definitely the pride of heaven. I have watched so many drafts, and there has never been a player

To have such high popularity." James Bond replied.

In the summer of 2003, the most watched player in the United States was LeBron James.

At that time, the covers of all major sports magazines were dominated by James. Even Chinese basketball magazines used James as the cover character.

This year is recognized as a big year for the draft, with many outstanding young athletes participating, but the moment James announced his participation in the draft, the top pick was already settled.

In terms of popularity, James is not inferior to those college stars, or even worse.

For example, American television stations have never carried a national live broadcast of a high school basketball league, but because of the presence of James, ESPN made an exception and woke up the national broadcast of the game against James.

When James was a senior in high school, he had to find scalpers to buy tickets for his games. You must know that even in the NBA playoffs, it is not so difficult to buy tickets.

Such a player will naturally be snapped up by sports brands.

Since the NCAA, the American college league, has regulations that require players to engage in commercial endorsements, it was not until James announced that he would skip college and directly participate in the NBA draft that these sports brands contacted James and offered him a big contract.

There is no doubt that James, the future number one player in the league, will become the most commercially valuable player in the NBA.

But as a sports brand, signing James is not cost-effective.

The era of the Heat's Big Three was probably the era when James was most popular. At that time, Kobe's generation of stars had gradually aged, and Curry's generation of stars had not yet grown up. This was the period when James was killing everyone.

At that time, the annual sales of James' sneakers was about more than 300 million U.S. dollars. According to the published financial report, Nike's net profit was about 12% to 14%, and 300 million U.S. dollars meant a net profit of 40 million U.S. dollars.

The endorsement fee given by Nike to James is 20 million every year, which is equivalent to half of the money Nike earns given to James.

From the perspective of the enterprise, if the spokesperson takes half of the profit, it will definitely be a loss. After all, the enterprise has to pay operating costs and bear operating risks.

Therefore, signing James is actually not cost-effective. The biggest benefit is just to increase the overall popularity of the brand.

In terms of commercial value, James is far inferior to Jordan. After all, Jordan has his own exclusive brand, which James cannot match.

During the Heat era, James could sell 300 million U.S. dollars of sneakers a year, while at the same time, Nike's Jordan series could sell 300 million U.S. dollars a year. There was a tenfold gap between the two.

Nowadays, major sports brands in the United States are competing for James, and James's value is constantly rising. There is no need for Li Weidong to join in the fun and spend more money.

So Li Weidong said: "LeBron James is the proud son of heaven after all. If we show no interest, it would be abnormal. Well, let's send someone to contact him and discuss the price with him.

, I guess we can’t afford the price offered by LeBron.”

"I understand, LeBron is just a cover, do we have other goals, right?" James Bond asked immediately.

"Dwyane Wade, we can give him a long-term contract." Li Weidong said.

"I thought you would choose Carmelo Anthony!" James Bond said.

"Anthony is quite famous, right? Signing him will cost a lot of money, and the price-performance ratio is not high. Compared with Anthony, I am more optimistic about Wade's growth." Li Weidong replied.

Among the rookies in 2003, apart from James, the most famous one is Anthony. If James does not participate in the draft, the title of No. 1 pick will definitely fall to Anthony.

In the end, Anthony was chosen third overall for two reasons. First, the Pistons, who held the No. 2 pick, already had Prince, and Anthony and Prince's positions overlapped.

The second reason is that the talented Serbian player Milicic performed very well in the trial training and impressed almost every team. However, the Pistons lacked an insider, so they chose Milicic.

At that time, Milicic was regarded as an enhanced version of Nowitzki, and Milicic was a few months younger than James, so he was naturally considered to have unlimited potential.

But the Pistons' head coach didn't like to use new players, and the Pistons traded for Rasheed Wallace during the season, which ultimately led to Milicic sitting on the bench most of the time.

The two Wallaces of the Pistons are both All-Star insiders. Naturally, there is no chance for Milicic to play. The second place player is considered useless by the Pistons.

But the Pistons counterattacked and won the championship in 2004. With this championship guaranteed, basically no one in the future criticized the Pistons for missing out on Anthony.

In the James project, although Wade in his college days also had some fame, he was far less famous than Anthony.

The original draft pick given to Wade by ESPN was only the 13th overall pick. The Grizzlies, who had the 13th overall pick at the time, also stated that they would select Wade.

As a result, during the rookie tryout, Heat general manager Pat Riley went to inspect Kaman and accidentally saw Wade.

At that time, the Heat were short of a big man, so they looked at Kaman. In the end, Pat Riley had a keen eye for heroes, and against all odds, selected Wade with the fifth overall pick.

Thanks to the fact that the Heat did not choose Kaman at that time, Pat Riley introduced O'Neal and brought a championship to the Heat.

Later, it was also because Wade was in the Heat that he finally succeeded in convincing James and Bosh to form the Heat's Big Three.

Among the players in the 2003 class, James is the well-deserved leader, and the second player is naturally Wade. During Wade's best two years, his popularity even surpassed that of James.

However, Wade's endorsement fee is much lower than that of James. Wade's first sneaker contract was with Converse, which was only $400,000 a year. During this contract, Wade also won his first championship.

, Converse can be said to have made a fortune in blood.

In 2009, Wade signed a contract with Nike's Jordan Brand, and the endorsement fee was only US$5 million. For Wade who was at his peak, it was a bargain.

Then, as is well known to Chinese fans, Li Ning signed a 10-year, $60 million contract with Wade, which was later converted into a lifetime contract.

Looking for Wade to represent you, with high popularity and low fees, is obviously a very cost-effective deal.

After finalizing the signing of Wade, James Bond continued: "One more thing, I recently received gossip that Nike has frequent contact with Kobe's agent. It is said that the agent has begun to persuade Kobe to switch to Nike."

"Is Nike also willing to give Kobe a lifetime contract?" Li Weidong asked.

"If Nike really wants to poach Kobe, the terms they offer will definitely be no better than ours, and there should be a lifetime contract too!" James Bond said.

Li Weidong looked at the calendar at hand, and then continued: "Don't worry, wait a minute, maybe after Nike signs LeBron, funds will be tight, and they will eventually give up on Kobe!"

"Nike will be short of funds? They can make billions a year!" James Bond looked at his watch inexplicably and continued in his mind: "At night in China, the boss is sleepy and not clear-headed!

"

…

Summer is warm.

At a hotel in Eagle County, Colorado.

The waitress at the front desk picked up the phone and dialed the police number.

"I want to call the police. I was sexually assaulted. It was Kobe, the NBA star Kobe Bryant!"

The Bryant Eagle County incident broke out.

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