The rest is just noise

Chapter 271 The poacher is here

In the past few days, Louis, in addition to preparing his speech at the championship celebration, has also been openly recruiting professional agents.

Outsiders would think he was just filling vacancies in his personal team, but insiders could detect important information from his actions.

Louis' contract is public, and everyone in the industry knows that he can opt out of the contract this summer.

But he may not jump out because the Celtics are under great pressure to renew their contract this summer.

Bird is in a contract year, and although he has made it clear that he will stay in Boston, if the Celtics want to keep him, they must offer a salary among the top three in the league.

After completing the second MVP+FMVP season of his career, Bird can be considered the number one player in the league.

Keeping him is not only New England's wish, but also a goal that the Celtics must accomplish.

Followed by the contract renewals of Laimbeer, Sampson, Maxwell, Henderson and others.

Laimbeer played four seasons with a child labor contract, and now he has won two championships. He also has All-Star qualifications, so he must be given a sub-maximum salary.

After Sampson competed with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the finals, he averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 4.4 blocks per game, suppressing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

This series gave Sampson a reputation as the league's top center.

Whether he is the number one center or a definite top five player in the league, he deserves a salary at the same level as Bird.

Maxwell's contract was signed in the early 1980s. It was a big contract at the time, and now he desires a bigger one.

As Thomas's substitute, Henderson also showed his worth.

So many people need to renew their contracts, and most of them are big contracts. If Louis breaks out of his contract and other clubs raise the price, the Celtics may not be able to afford it.

Many clubs believe that Louis will not opt ​​out of his contract.

Because the Celtics are a very suitable team for a rookie coach to build his resume.

He has already achieved an unprecedented record in his first season, plus won the title of championship and coach of the year. If he is smarter, he should wait until the end of this contract before asking the market for price.

However, Louis' decision to publicly hire an agent clearly indicated that he wanted to join the free market to test his worth.

His reputation outside is not good, but no team will look for a coach based on his reputation.

Pat Riley considers him to be the Celtics' anchor;

Jack Ramsey called him the ‘Rough Diamond’ among young coaches;

Those coaches who opposed him were severely ravaged by him and the Celtics over and over again.

Even if his coaching ability is not counted, his scouting ability is among the best.

On June 15, four days before the start of the draft, a lobbyist from New York took the initiative to come to our door.

The visitor's name was Billy McClellan, who negotiated with Louis on behalf of the New York Knicks.

It is an old tradition for the Knicks to poach Boston's corners. They almost poached Auerbach with the largest management contract in history.

Louis' connections in New York are pretty good. Knicks executive Sonny Weblin is his friend, and general manager Dave DeBusschere also has a few acquaintances with him.

It's just that he and the local media are inherently at odds.

There is still a big gap between him and the team's core player, Bernard King.

Knowing that there is such a big problem, they still want to poach people. It can only be said that the Knicks have no doubt about Louis' ability.

Before Louis' agent was chosen, someone offered him an olive branch.

Louis entertained McClellan seriously and accepted the other party's contract.

This is a five-year contract, and the amount is so high that Louis did not expect it.

2.2 million in 5 years

If Louis signs this contract, he will probably become the most valuable coach in the league.

"You should know that I haven't announced that I will jump out of the existing contract. Although I can do so, I haven't done that yet." Louis put down the contract and said with a smile, "In other words, you are recruiting illegally. If I

Report it to the league, guess how many draft picks you will be fined?"

The Knicks are in the midst of internal and external troubles, and Werblin does not want to continue running the team. Therefore, the team's owner, the top executives of Gulf and Western Industries, Inc., the owner of Madison Garden, are selecting a

Real experts trying to revive professional basketball in New York.

Wiblin seemed to be expecting Louis to be out of his contract, so he recommended him to the top brass.

That's why McClellan came to visit.

After hearing what Louis said, McClellan smiled and said: "You and Mr. Weblin are good friends, so I don't think you would do that."

"You're right, but I really don't plan on talking about my future with someone I don't know well."

Louis said seriously.

McClellan did not expect that the largest coaching contract in NBA history would not impress the 24-year-old who should have been over-inflated.

"That is, if it was an acquaintance, you might be willing to talk to him about the future?" McClellan did very well in reading comprehension.

Louis said: "You can say that."

He simply said "I don't know you, please come and talk to me" on his face.

At this point, McClellan knew that nothing would come of it.

His biggest trump card is this contract that should not be rejected.

But Louis easily refused.

The number on the contract doesn't seem to be what matters to him. He wants more things, and those are beyond his control.

Therefore, Louis wanted to meet someone with greater weight.

He must be able to make a reliable commitment before the negotiation can continue. If not, he is willing to put himself on the free market as an auction item.

After McClellan left, Louis suddenly remembered that he might have done something that would allow him to visit Versailles frequently in the future.

New York originally paid me US$2.2 million, but I refused because the lobbyist level was too low. It was a pity to think about it.

Sounds good? He thinks it's good, too.

But the story didn't end there. Before Louis could tell Li Xuanbing that he rejected a contract worth $2.2 million, the Knicks called again.

This time, the caller was Sonny Weblin, the "acquaintance" Louis wanted.

"Since I'm here in person, Coach Lu, as a landlord, you should treat guests to dinner, right?"

"Sonny, you know, you are the first American to let me treat you to dinner. I thought you Americans liked the AA system."

Since Weblin is coming, Louis will definitely give him enough face.

If it weren't for Weblin, he wouldn't have had the chance to invest in Oracle.

In investing, even if you know what to invest in to make money, if no one shows you the door, you can only watch the money fly away.

Weblin brought Louis in, and through a little investment, he turned money into money, and his net worth increased little by little.

This is the reason why he categorically rejected New York's largest coaching contract in history.

Of course money is a good thing, but for some people who have been separated from basic economic needs, money is only one of the good things, and there are other things that are more tempting than money.

On June 16, there are still three days left until the draft is held.

Louis opened a restaurant in Boston.

Weblin asked him to treat him, but did not say where he wanted to treat him.

Boston is such a small place, and it’s hard to eat delicious food, so Louis simply found a Chinese restaurant that he frequented.

When Weblin learned that Louis had set up the negotiation venue in a Chinese restaurant, he ridiculed him a lot.

"Let me put it this way, what you are doing is like inserting a protagonist worth $100,000 into a movie with a budget of 10 million."

What's the point? China's future will be filled with weird things like TV series with a budget of 50 million and protagonists with a salary of 160 million.

With their professional capabilities and no audience popularity, they can only continue to produce low-quality movies/TV series. Why?

Louis waited for a few minutes, and Weblin arrived as promised.

But he didn't come alone, he had a companion.

His companion has a burly figure and was definitely an athlete when he was young. He has not gained weight after retirement and looks very capable.

He has white hair, and he looks like the spiritual villain in an Italian gangster movie who provokes the protagonist in the first ten minutes and then gets fucked to death.

"Dave, are you here too?"

Dave DeBusschere, the Knicks legend and current general manager, came together with team chairman Werblin, which symbolized the great importance the Knicks entire basketball department attached to recruiting Louis.

During this period, they should be worried about trying out rookies, worrying about offseason operations, and worrying about how to adjust the conflict between Sleep Floyd and Bernard King.

Now they all went out together to come to Boston to lobby Louis.

DeBusschere said calmly: "Sonny invited me here. He thinks this can better show our sincerity."

"Indeed, I have seen your sincerity." Louis said, "Please take a seat."

They sat down. The two of them obviously hadn't had much Chinese food, and they didn't want to appear too young, so they ordered General Tso's Chicken like old hands.

In fact, people who like Chinese food will rarely order General Tso's Chicken, a dish that Chinese people don't know at all.

Louis didn't tell the truth, so he smiled and ordered a portion of fried noodles and a large portion of dumplings.

This is definitely a strange thing. Not to mention that Weblin is worth eight figures, Louis and DeBusschere are both worth millions, but they are gathering together in a Chinese restaurant to have a cheap lunch and talk about

Million dollar contract.

"Louis, tell me your request." Weblin said with a smile, "Don't worry, as long as it is related to basketball, we will never have any doubts."

"There's no rush for this."

Louis opened a bottle of Coke.

"Would you like a drink?"

"No, if you drink too much of this thing, you won't be able to have children."

Louis didn't bother to say that he was an expectant father.

He filled a glass for himself and looked at the two most powerful people in the Knicks basketball operations department: "I would like to ask you two, why did I jump from the Celtics, where the future is limitless, to join the Knicks?"