When pride still matters

Chapter 196 When Eagle County is chic
Although there are many big-name players in the offseason, once Kidd's suspense is revealed, the rest of them will be almost confused.

As expected, Jermaine O'Neal renewed his contract with the Pacers, and then Miller also renewed his contract. Immediately afterwards, most of the stars in their playing years chose to renew their contracts with the home team.

Gary Payton announced that he has joined the Los Angeles Lakers. For the sake of the championship, this veteran with a louder mouth than anyone else will not care about anything now.

Payton's selection is like a signal, a strong reminder to other veterans who want a championship.

The place where old people gather is where the hope for the championship lies.

As a result, Karl Malone also decided to leave the Jazz, where he had played for nearly 20 years, and seek new possibilities when his career was coming to an end.

The Lakers' desire for Malone is urgent.

Because Shaquille O'Neal has not had a good opportunity to cooperate with top power forwards since he entered the NBA.This could be his comeuppance.As early as the Magic period, O'Neal had the opportunity to join forces with Chris Webber, but he preferred Pence, so the Magic made one of the most far-reaching trades in NBA history.

This deal completely changed the careers of Webber and Pence, and also gave O'Neal no chance to join forces with the top four position since then.

So far, the best four position he has worked with is Horace Grant, the third leader of the Bulls' first dynasty.

Although the 40-year-old Malone is not as good as he was at his peak, he is both offensive and defensive, and has no distractions. All he wants is to win the championship. This kind of person will not be affected by other things and is very suitable to stay with OK.

The Lakers' fierce pursuit of Malone made one of the veterans dissatisfied.

Robert Horry believed that the Lakers should renew his contract as soon as the season ended. However, the Lakers wanted to leave room for expansion and could not renew Horry's contract.

In fact, this cannot be entirely blamed on the Lakers.Although it is said that once you are a purple and gold player, you will always be a Laker, but the premise is that you have to be good enough, otherwise you will not be qualified to be a lifelong Laker.Horry is known as a big-hearted player who likes to paddle in the regular season and plays hard in the playoffs. His performance in the playoffs last season can be said to be a piece of shit.

He averaged 31 minutes per game and shot 32% from the field. Moreover, Horry, who has maintained a three-point shooting percentage of over 38% for a long time, only shot 5% from three-point range in this year's playoffs. That's right, 5%.In the series when he was eliminated by the Spurs, he failed to score a single three-pointer and shot only 26% from the field. The Lakers were kind enough not to push him out to take the blame.

But Horry has his own opinion. How many key shots has he made for the Lakers before, and he just hasn't played well for a year and is he eager to settle the matter?Okay, I don’t want to stay here, I have my own place to stay. He is leaving, and he will not just find a team to spend his old age. He will go to those teams that have a chance to win the championship. Only in this way can he have a chance. Proving that "Big Shot Rob" isn't dead yet, he's just been sleeping too hard this year.

Horry chose the Bucks.

Since Horry has no salary requirements and is willing to accept even a minimum salary, there is only one question for him to join the Bucks, and that is "Does Frye want to play with him?"
Yu Fei was negotiating with Reebok about re-signing, and he was still willing to accept Horry's investment.

First of all, Horry's style of play matches him very well. If the condition is good, he will be Laettner's replacement. Secondly, there will never be too few power forwards who can shoot three-pointers. Horry's arrival can ease the Bucks' daily pressure. In the second 5 OUT lineup, Laettner must be played as the center, and then any small forward can be used as a guest at the fourth position.

“I would love to play with Rob.”

Horry's move to the Bucks only caused a small stir in Los Angeles.

Lakers fans are excited about the prospect of Payton and Malone joining the team.

But soon, this excitement will be upended by a nightmarish scandal.

On June 6, Kobe arrived at the Cordillera Resort and Spa near Edwards, Colorado, to rest a day before he would undergo knee surgery.

July 7: A 1-year-old hotel front desk employee reported to the Eagle County Sheriff's Department that Kobe Bryant forced himself on her.

July 7: The woman and Kobe were taken to the hospital separately for examination.

July 7: The Eagle County Sheriff's Department officially issued an arrest warrant for Kobe. Kobe chose to surrender and pay bail to be released.

On July 7, news of Kobe’s arrest was announced.

The powerful media dug up the reason for Kobe's arrest before the police announced the specific content. For a time, Kobe became the traffic king, and various media put him in the headlines.In less than a day, Kobe, who had previously been pure and flawless as an angel, became a criminal that everyone could punish.

Yu Fei saw this episode with Iverson last year.

At that time, Iverson faced four felony charges, but they were all dropped in the end. However, when Iverson did that kind of thing, although everyone despised his behavior, they also felt that it was something Iverson could do. .

And Kobe is another concept.

As one of the global ambassadors of the NBA, he has behaved differently from traditional black stars since he entered the league. He does not have the anger and violence of most black people who "fuck the world", even if he is at odds with the coach. The break with O'Neal is also a different philosophy on the court.

But forcing others?

The Lakers, who had secured the championship for the new season in advance and had promised to win 75 games in the new season, suddenly received a blow.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss refused to believe it: "Kobe? No way, he can't do that."

Yes, just like he once thought that Magic Johnson would not contract HIV due to promiscuity.

Suddenly, NBA professionals, like their predecessors, understood how shameful it is for bad news to spread thousands of miles.When Kermit Washington punched Tomjanovich's brains out, it was the first time the NBA received mainstream news attention.In today's globalized NBA, if something happens to Kobe, it means something happens to the entire industry. The whole world will pay close attention to this matter. How much time does the league need to spend to restore its image?Will this matter affect the next TV broadcast contract?
The dire consequences have clouded the league office.

David Stern's face was extremely gloomy. After Kobe's accident, he did not call to express condolences, but asked the staff to remove Kobe's image posters in the office building, including Kobe's photo on the NBA official website.The image gap vacated by Kobe was filled by Fly and Tracy McGrady.

"But Frye was criticized a few days ago when he refused to be called up by the national team due to injury."

The staff member's question aroused Stern's thunderous fury: "Compared to a fucking rapist, what does this kind of thing mean? Are you a pig brain?!!!"

The Eagle County incident dealt a heavy blow to Yu Fei's agent Arne Traim.He knew that Kobe needed him, but Yu Fei also needed him.

Therefore, Treme chose to let his confidant Rob Pelinka take care of Kobe, and he would rush over as soon as he was done here.

Bryant's off-court troubles led Trame to be aggressive in negotiations with Reebok executives.

This negotiation is not only about giving Yu Fei a lucrative contract, but more importantly, about gaining status within the company.

With Yu Fei winning the championship, Iverson is no longer Reebok's number one star.

Moreover, Reebok had previously offered James 1000 million in the bidding war, and if James agreed to sign, they would give James an additional $[-] million in signing bonuses.

When Dafei originally signed the contract, how long did it take for me to get 1200 million US dollars in endorsement fees, but now I only have enough to give James a signing bonus?
Reebok's negotiator was miserable. Of course, he couldn't let Traim look at the problem from a development perspective, so he could only make continuous concessions on numbers.

In the end, the two parties finalized the figure at US$6 million over six years, which is the largest endorsement contract in the basketball world. Yu Fei also has 1.3% of the sales dividend of the "Tianxuan" series of boots. At the same time, Yu Fei will also serve as the creative director. Have direct decision-making power on the development and design of new generation sneakers.

When Yu Fei completed the signing of the new contract with Reebok with a smile, Trem rushed to the airport with a sad face.

It is now July 7, half a month has passed since Kobe was arrested.In judicial proceedings, the district attorney filed sexual assault charges against Kobe.Kobe also held his beloved wife's arm and burst into tears in front of the camera, saying that he did not force her, but cheating did occur.

When Traim joined this storm, Kobe had already suffered what he deserved and received all the scolding he deserved. He is now a street rat like Iverson last year, and then his agent comes?

Kobe asked him naturally: "What are you doing here?"

"I," Trem said, "Fry is done signing."

"Then you go back to Frye, you are no longer needed here." Kobe said coldly, "Rob can handle my affairs."

Only now did Treme realize that not only had he lost Kobe's trust, but he had also been backstabbed by his henchmen, and that Rob Pelinka had definitely reached some kind of agreement with Kobe.
It was during this summer that Trame lost Kobe Bryant.

Rob Pelinka officially becomes Kobe Bryant's agent.

This is something.

Yu Fei didn't care how big a blow losing Kobe was to Traim.

He only cares about one thing.

Is the third generation of "Selected" boots comparable to Nike in terms of sports technology?If not, it should be redesigned. At the same time, color matching and copywriting also need to be carefully studied.

Reebok is very concerned about this matter and ensures that the technological content of its products will not be inferior to that of Nike. As for the appearance, it does still need to be improved.

Just as Feihe Company finalized the promotion plan for the new generation of sneakers and the location of this year's Asian tour, one of his old friends finally abandoned his boss and rushed from Washington to Los Angeles to join him.

This man is Michael Jordan's trainer Tim Grover.

"Coming?" Yu Fei smiled.

Grover responded softly: "Here he comes."

"What did Michael say?"

Jordan's rant echoed in Grover's mind, and he knew he had lost the other's friendship at that moment.

"He wished me well."

Yu Fei said unexpectedly: "It's already considered well-mannered for him to get hit by a car without wishing you the best, but he actually wishes you all the best? When did he become so human?"

Grover doesn't want to talk about Jordan with Yu Fei. His goal is to turn Yu Fei into the next ruler of the professional basketball world. Only in this way can his reputation reach the top of the industry again.For this goal, he would not hesitate to sever ties with Jordan.

"When do we start training?"

"Oh, um, I'm actually training every day, just waiting for you to come, but the real systematic training will have to wait until I finish the interview with the 'Chosen Girl'."

"???"

Grover felt like he was on a pirate ship.

To the new boss, he couldn't help but admonish: "Fry, you are still young, you must follow Kobe's example."

Yu Fei's expression remained unchanged and he smiled: "I know you mean well, but if I hear you use rapists as my role models again, I will be angry."

Really, Kobe, this little fool who rode a donkey to find a horse but gave up the snake, was so stupid. Master Yu didn't dare to admit that he was a three-day old Kobe for what he did.

PS: Once again, when you see this obviously subjective psychological activity in the last paragraph, it is Da Fei’s inner voice.Da Fei’s voice does not equal my opinion. You know, I’m just a code word.

(End of this chapter)