From sparring to superstar

Chapter 102.

"Why do you want so many season tickets? Sell? That's not allowed!"

"Who said it was sold, you add up to 6 people, and Liam or I occasionally take a female partner to watch the game, adding up to 7."

Schwartz wiped the cold sweat from his fright and said, "I'm an agent, and I can get tickets for the games I want to watch, no need."

Dean Teng said: "I'm very happy if you can remember me, no, I can't accept this kind of gift, I will be investigated."

Grandpa: "I have a Clippers season ticket, but I haven't been to their newly rented arena to watch the game."

Henry Bibby: "I have the money, buy it myself."

Vivian said: "Let them investigate me, I want it!"

Liam: "No one is investigating me, so I want to!"

"Just the two of you, then add one more, I want 4 sets of season tickets." Li Ao said dissatisfied.

Schwartz breathed a sigh of relief: "Just four sets of season tickets, right? Let me mention, it might work."

I don't know why, it is obviously super difficult to pry out 4 sets of season tickets from Sterling, but now Schwartz feels that the difficulty is greatly reduced.

"The second request..."

Schwartz exclaimed, "There's a second request?"

"I only made one request! There are only two requests in total."

"Yeah, tell me first, and I'll listen."

"The second request, if I have a need, my family and friends can take the team charter plane..."

As he said that, the corners of Li Ao's mouth turned up. He remembered something. He wondered if this time and space would happen this summer.

Wait, Li Ao asked: "Should the Clippers have chartered flights?"

"Yes, they have a chartered flight, so there should be no problem."

Schwartz heard that Sterling likes to 'make the best use of everything'. Other teams may not allow players' families to take chartered flights, but Sterling has a high probability of doing it, and it won't cost a penny more. one thing.

"and also……"

"Didn't you just ask for two!"

"I suddenly thought of the conditions related to you."

"Huh? Under what conditions?"

"120% max salary."

"This condition must be added!"

Schwartz agreed to this matter more happily than ever.

...

At around 5 o'clock in the evening, Li Ao and the hospital assistant aunt had just returned to the apartment when the manager called.

"Leo, Sterling agreed to your request."

"What, he just agreed? Why don't you think about it for a few days?"

It shouldn't be like this in Li Ao's imagination.

According to the provisions of the 1998 labor agreement, the salary of each first-round rookie is fixed, and the amount fluctuates according to the season's income. Each team can adjust plus or minus 20% on the basis of the fixed salary.

Lamar Odom, the No. 4 pick selected by the Clippers last year, only got the standard rookie contract and did not get the extra 20%.

Schwartz on the other end of the phone asked puzzledly, "Don't you want them not to agree?"

"If they said no, I'd have a valid reason to apply for a trade...but if they say yes, let's say yes, but don't sign yet until after summer league."

Schwartz on the other end of the phone didn't know how to describe his boss for a while, and he had to stand on the moral high ground to accuse the other party if he wanted to apply for a deal?It was indeed something his boss could do.

However, Schwartz still appreciates the character of admitting after doing it.

He said: "No problem, I didn't confirm the signing time with them. They have already informed me about the summer league time. The Clippers are participating in the Southern California Summer League this year. It will start on July 7th. Report on the 7th.

By the way, there is one more important thing. Xu contacted me. The media of your flower growers want to interview you. I agreed, and it will be on the 30th.

On the 1st, I made an appointment with two brands for a meeting. You have to make time for these two days. "

Li Ao complied, wrote down the time on the bedside calendar, took a break, and after the aunt who went out to buy vegetables came back, he went to the aunt's house to make dinner.

During dinner, Vivian asked, "Leo, did you not apply for a trade with the Clippers because you didn't think of a suitable reason?"

Li Ao shook his head: "No, I didn't think about where I could go, I didn't think there was a better place than here."

"Oh, hee hee."

"I spoke to Jeff this morning, not applying for a trade for now, let's see what happens.

I didn’t participate in the trial training of other teams, and I didn’t communicate with the management of other teams. I don’t know how other teams will arrange my role even if they trade me. Strong teams may not give me There are too many opportunities, weak teams may not have the ability to cultivate rookies, and really suitable teams may not choose to gamble with so many chips to choose me..."

"It's not important, eat and eat!"

Li Ao: ()
It's not what you asked!

I was just trying to analyze and was interrupted.

What a shame!
After a night of rest, on the second day, Li Ao was the driver, and the hospital assistant aunt said she would train with him.

Save a trainer's salary.

Unfortunately, on the 25th, the middle-aged Sao Nan informed him that the Trojans could no longer provide him with training grounds, trainers, and coaches.

Someone from the school also came to explain the reason.

Fans are naturally black in the depths. There are a group of his black fans in USC. Most of these people are composed of his diehard fans at the beginning. They have participated in parades, fought, and cheered for him outside the arena and on the spot... ...but because of his 'selfish' departure from the Trojans, love turned into hate, and now he's a huge fan.

These people reported to the NCAA that the Trojans provided him with training grounds and trainers, and the Trojans had already received a warning from the NCAA.

Although Li Ao was surprised by this, he could understand.

No matter how pink and pure fans are, they will be black one day.

The simpler it is, the faster it may become dark.

However, there are many small training grounds rented outside the Memorial Stadium, and the old man provided him with a training ground for free for him to use first.

Li Ao went to find out the situation. After the summer vacation of the universities in Los Angeles in early June, the rental rate of these small training grounds was not high. He accepted the old man's kindness.

There are registered trainers in the Memorial Stadium. Li Ao originally planned to ask the trainers to help with training. The old man can use it occasionally. He is so old that he can’t torment him every day. Today, the courtyard assistant auntie wants to help him train on a whim, and he is naturally very happy.

However, although he was not expected to be reported by fans in the school, the coaching staff of the Trojans did not have time to continue to guide him in training during the offseason, and he was prepared for this.

In the past month, he has made little progress in three-pointers. He had reached the passing level of 5 at the end of May, and he has only reached 60 now. In the past 63 days, he has devoted most of his time to three-pointers.

The reason for this situation is that when he was under the guidance of Xavier Johnson in the past two months, he was mainly learning training methods, and the time for training itself was greatly shortened.

As the saying goes, sharpening a knife is not the same as chopping firewood.

He has developed to 60 three-pointers, which is enough to show his shooting talent to NBA teams. In the past sophomore season, he had no three-point ability.

Therefore, it is not necessary to be particularly strong during the trial training, it is enough to be able to see it.

It's hard for Xavier Johnson, the top shooting coach in college basketball.

When Xavier Johnson taught Li Ao the three-point training method, everyone was stupid.

He was worried that Li Ao would not be able to eat too much. The way he trains young players is step-by-step. The early training has already laid the groundwork, and the subsequent training is perfected step by step. After teaching and teaching, a complete training system is finished.

That is, Li Ao developed the '3-level catch-and-shoot training method' that reaches the end point when he catches and shoots.

This is the first time for Xavier Johnson to do this kind of cramming teaching, and he is worried that Li Ao's three-point development will become a mess.

But I didn't expect that after his cramming teaching, Li Ao actually learned a complete set of three-point training methods!

Moreover, Li Ao also "summarized + straightened out" every step of the training method, from basic to advanced to perfect.

Xavier Johnson was a heartbreaker at the time. If he knew this, why did he go to such lengths to help Li Ao practice CIC step by step?
It's not as good as cramming teaching like this...

Fortunately, this did not affect Xavier Johnson's teaching philosophy. He will actively devote the next time to the team's recruitment work, forgetting to teach Li Ao how to practice three-pointers, so as to avoid continuing to doubt life's detours.

For Li Ao, in fact, he still prefers the step-by-step feeling when learning CIC. At that time, he didn’t need to think too much. Although there are training methods now, he has to plan what to practice every day. .

Fortunately, there is an aunt who is a hospital assistant, and she is full of motivation. It is not important to spend a little time thinking about it.

...

At the end of the day's training, Li Ao added an extra meal to the hospital assistant's aunt in the evening.

While eating dinner and watching TV, he saw a piece of news—the Grizzlies revealed that they originally planned to send the No. 2 pick to the Lakers in exchange for several main players of the Lakers except the OK combination, and help the Lakers choose him. But the Lakers rejected the deal.

When the news came to light, Los Angeles basketball fans rioted.

According to the latest report from the front, thousands of basketball fans gathered outside the Staples Center, shouting "We want Leo, the logo man dismisses get out of class."

Vivian exclaimed: "Leo, you are so popular!"

"Yeah, these fans are really... all road idiots? The Lakers training ground is at the Toyota Center, and the Lakers just rented it to play games."

"..."

Vivian: (ˇˇ)
"I don't think many of them are my fans."

Vivian, who was speechless, was distracted and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Obviously, this is a group of instigated people. Normal fans will not be so fanatical at this point in time. These people are my fans today, go to the Staples Center, and become someone else's fans tomorrow. Blocking the Poly Arena, Eagle Sauce is full of mobs."

"Makes sense..."

On the second day, Li Ao attended a press conference and was interviewed by domestic media.

In Yingjiang's family, he participated in the draft this time, and his enthusiasm remained high.

In China, he is also very popular!
Moreover, it is only now that the breaking point has come, he has been elected to the top three and has become a talent show.

It coincided with the popular broadcast of Xiao Li Feidao filmed by Baldy, and "Xiao Li Tan Hua" became his nickname in China.

But in this interview, Li Ao was tormented enough.

How should I put it, the domestic media are extraordinarily... radical at this time?
The questions asked are 'Are you confident to win the championship? ', "Can you lead the Clippers to an invincible team like you led the Trojans to a complete victory?", "You will lead the team to challenge the Lakers' dominance"...etc.

Li Ao finally realized how difficult it was for Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian to enter the NBA.

How to answer these questions?

He can only talk about him from left to right, give full play to his talkative qualities, and make the reporters speechless, and he wins.

In just half an hour of the press conference, he felt more tired than playing in the finals with the Spartans.

Then came the next day, July 7st, the new month.

The NBA officially announced the salary cap for the new season, which is more than 3436 million US dollars.

This has nothing to do with Li Ao for the time being, he can only get a fixed contract now.

At around 8 o'clock in the morning, Schwartz came to the apartment and picked him up to discuss endorsement matters with the three brands.

There were originally two, but when Pepsi heard that KFC was going to sign Li Ao, they also followed.

PepsiCo earns US$2 million in 400 years and KFC earns US$2 million in 600 years. They are rich and powerful. These two brands have never given NBA rookies such high endorsement fees.

Li Ao knows what these two companies are looking for, the big flower market behind him.

Before coming here, Schwartz told Li Ao that this is the highest contract that can be obtained so far, and the other party has given a short period of time and high remuneration, which is already very sincere.

The negotiation went smoothly, and the lawyer brought by Schwartz checked the contract and signed it on the spot.

But the negotiation with Adidas in the afternoon was not smooth. The other party offered a five-year contract worth 5 million US dollars. If Schwartz hadn't winked, Li Ao would have thrown KFC's contract at the other party's face on the spot.

Li Ao is not in a hurry to endorse the sneakers. If he signs hastily at this time, he may regret it more than Pippen.

Schwartz, who just got a $10 signing fee from Pepsi and a $15 signing fee from KFC, is not in a hurry.

He is not short of money now!
He wants to buy a new car!
The $25 is his extra income.

When an agent signs an endorsement contract for a player, it is usually two-sided. This is not a shameful thing. To put it bluntly, the main role of the agent is an "intermediary".

On Li Ao's side, he still has to give IMG 20% of the endorsement fee normally.

This is a regular commission ratio, which is much better than that of artists. He heard that Jessica's commission is more than half of the commercial.

The main reason is that the two endorsement contracts of Pepsi and KFC are not big contracts in IMG.

According to Schwartz, if he can get an endorsement contract with an average annual value of more than [-] million yuan, he can renegotiate the ratio with IMG.

Li Ao asked Schwartz why he didn't do it alone, and got a blank stare.

He immediately reacted - a novice broker, where does the legal team come from?Where are the media resources?Where does the information channel come from?

But he was just asking, the rake he gave was so much, it couldn’t be higher. This was Schwartz’s way of exchanging the money he earned for IMG.

...

In the next two days, Li Ao and the hospital assistant's aunt sweated on the training ground for two days.

On July 7th, it was time to return to the team. Li Ao and Schwartz came to the Clippers' training hall together.

Li Ao looked at the slightly desolate and run-down factory area around him, and then at the house with the sign of the Clippers training hall in front of him, and was silent for a long time.

"Jeff, is this the legendary training gym? Are you sure it's not an abandoned warehouse?"

Schwartz is very calm. He has been here twice and said: "At least it is a training hall now."

Li Ao was helpless. He looked around. This was once a clothing manufacturing factory in Los Angeles. Later, with the de-manufacturing of Eagle Sauce, the factories here went bankrupt one by one. Most of the clothing factories that are still operating now It is some handmade clothing brands that sell at high prices. Most of the houses are like haunted houses, and a homeless man can be seen coming in and out from time to time.

No wonder Schwartz told him that he must drive to come here, and the speed must not be slow.

Schwartz drove the car into the parking lot, and Li Ao bit the bullet and followed him into the venue.

Once inside, Li Ao felt pretty good!

In fact, the interior is just an ordinary office space, but with the appearance, it looks very luxurious.

Seeing Li Ao coming, the reception staff dialed the inside line, and soon, he met the legendary Baylor King Elgin Baylor and Clippers coach Alvin Gentry.

Baylor shook hands with Li Ao casually, while Alvin Gentry hugged Li Ao warmly, then took Li Ao to familiarize himself with the internal facilities, and introduced them warmly.

After walking around, Li Ao felt that the office area and training ground were much larger than the Lakers' office area and training ground in the Toyota Center.

However, there is one thing that Li Ao feels very awkward.

After all, he couldn't hold back, and asked Baylor who was silent for a long time: "General manager, have you heard a word?"

"What?"

"A man who loves to laugh is always lucky."

"?"

"I think you should be very unlucky. I haven't seen you smile after meeting for so long."

Gentry: (_)
This rookie, speak so directly?

He didn't see it at all during the chat just now, he thought the legend was false, this rookie is obviously so sunny and cheerful.

Schwartz was expressionless. He had expected it a long time ago, but he didn't expect it to be so sudden.

Elgin Baylor looked even more gloomy, did not answer, and walked away.

Li Ao spoke his mind and finally felt at ease. He asked Gentry, "Why haven't any of my teammates seen after coming here for so long? Isn't today a gathering?"

Did the topic change so quickly?
You just pissed off the general manager!
Not worried at all?
Forget it, Gentry thought why he was worrying so much, and it wasn't that he offended the general manager.

"They seem to be in the locker room. I just want to take you to the locker room and warehouse to have a look. Let's go there together."

Li Ao nodded and followed Gentry to the locker room.

Gentry knocked on the door and pushed it open...

"crash"

A basin of water rushed towards Gentry and Li Ao's faces, and the water was still very large, soaking both of them completely.

What followed was a burst of loud laughter.

Gentry wiped his eyes and saw their No. [-] pick holding a birdbath!

"Coach, I'm sorry, I didn't expect you to open the door and come in together." Michael Olowokandi apologized, but the smile on his face couldn't stop.

Just as Gentry wanted to reprimand the other party, Li Ao spoke first: "What are you doing?"

"Hahaha, how about it, rookie, this is a gift for you... ah..."

Before Olowokandi could finish speaking, Li Aofei kicked him in the stomach.

Then Li Ao pressed his whole body, and Olowokandi fell back heavily on the floor.

This scene stunned everyone in the locker room, as well as Gentry and Schwartz at the door.

Olowokandi groaned in pain and called out, "Marevako, you damn rookie... ah..."

Before Olowokandi finished speaking, Li Ao pressed his knees on the opponent's chest, not giving the opponent a chance to struggle to get up, and then punched the opponent in the face.

"*****..."

Olowokandi sprayed a sentence of slang, but before he finished spraying, Li Ao also raised a punch with his left hand and hit Olowokandi on the other side of the face.

"I'm sorry I was wrong... ah..."

Li Ao punched again with his right hand, this time it didn't stop, and after the right hand punched, he punched again with his left hand.

And the strength is getting stronger and stronger, and the playing is getting smoother and smoother!

Olowokandi tried to struggle, but every time he moved, he was punched back to the floor.

In this scene, the Clippers players and head coach who had already moved their feet to fight all stopped.

So brutal!

Who dares to go up to find unhappy?

Gentry was taken aback.

This rookie started fighting when he first arrived?
wrong!

This is not a fight, this is a massacre!

The Clippers players in the locker room were guilty. They also laughed when they saw Gentry and Li Ao being splashed with water.

Now, they dare not even breathe out, for fear of being implicated.

Ever since, there were only Olowokandi's screams and begging for mercy in the locker room, as well as the sound of his head and fist touching.

The screams and begging for mercy became smaller and smaller, and finally, Li Ao shook his hands, twisted his neck, stood up, and muttered: "Huh... something's wrong, I'm looking for a beating if I have nothing to do. I was in a bad mood these days. Well, it's finally happy now."

Olowokandi on the ground seemed to have passed out!

Li Ao looked around at the people who might become teammates, and asked, "Why don't you help a teammate who fell down here? Is there no teammate?"

Li Ao was very satisfied when he heard his prospective teammates yell out the familiar words starting with 'F' in unison.

He said to Gentry: "Coach, I accidentally fell into a ditch just now, and the back of my hand was worn out. Where is the medical room?"

Gentry: "..."

What kind of player did we choose to come back?
(End of this chapter)