Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 237 Visiting Yao Ming, the black-faced Master Xin (4K)

PS: Looking at the feedback from readers, it seems that most of them don't agree with going to "Happy Camp", so don't go.However, there are no decent variety shows in China at this time.

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"It's not urgent. I'll reply later."

"After all, I still have a lot of things to deal with in Yanjing."

After Chen Ran arrived in Yanjing, the first thing he did was go to the Sports Bureau, where he was received by the leaders and then presented with banners, certificates, etc.

Finally, the leaders told him earnestly that the next goal is to achieve excellent results in the Olympic Games. Of course, it would be great if he could win a few more Grand Slams.

In addition, the leaders also said that those South Koreans are petty and petty, and there is no need to be familiar with them.

They can only support Chen Ran, a great god.

After all, he got to this point without spending a penny from the country, and even brought huge sponsorships to the national tennis team.

After Chen Ran left the Sports Bureau, he interacted with the students in several key junior high schools and high schools in Yanjing as planned, and gave these boys and girls some tennis rackets and tennis balls.

For any sport to increase its influence, it must first attract the attention of those student groups.

Most of these middle schools in Yanjing have very good facilities and have specially built tennis courts.

Chen Ran has quietly observed that among girls, tennis is basically as popular as volleyball, but among boys, it is still not as popular as football and basketball. After all, it is difficult to get started.

In this era of Yanjing, football is still the leader, and basketball has always had a good mass base. It is commendable that tennis can break out of the siege and occupy a certain proportion.

After the first day of the trip, Chen Ran went off to attend the launching ceremony of a youth tennis competition organized by the China Tennis Association early the next morning.

Many famous figures in Chinese tennis history also attended the event, including Pan Bing, who won two Asian Games men's tennis singles gold medals.

But even so, as the new champion of the French Open, Chen Ran still attracted everyone's attention. His popularity was soaring and he was surrounded by young players with stars in their eyes.

In fact, Chen Ran's age is not much older than those young players participating.

Fortunately, in this era before smartphones were invented, there would not be a group of people taking photos of themselves with their mobile phones.

Because of Chen Ran, the opening match of this youth tennis competition was packed with more than 3000 seats.

In the afternoon of that day, Chen Ran went to the headquarters of IMG Brokerage Company in Yanjing.

As an iconic figure under the company, his huge poster has been hung high in the lobby.

Chen Ran returned to the company this time mainly to make statistics on his current business contracts and future business layout.

After winning the French Open, Chen Ran got the opportunity to re-sign a contract with Nike for the second time within a year. The first time was the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

In fact, even Nike did not expect that Chen Ran could win a Grand Slam so quickly.

After negotiations with the brokerage company, Nike offered itself two contracts.

One is US$800 million, and the other is US$600 million plus a 2% share of the sales of Chen Ran’s series of signature tennis shoes and running shoes.

Two contracts, let Chen Ran choose.

After all, in this era, money is still valuable, and although the Chinese market is very large, its consumption power is still far behind that of the United States.

At this time, NBA superstar Kobe Bryant could only get a one-year $900 million contract from Nike.

As for Yao Ming, Reebok offered him a seven-year, $7 million contract in order to poach him. This was obviously to poach him regardless of the cost.

After Chen Ran won the French Open, Nike had to raise its offer when re-signing in order to match Reebok's contract with Yao Ming.

"Choose the second contract." After careful consideration, Chen Ran chose the second contract.

Since tennis shoes and running shoes have a certain overlap, Nike is also preparing to take a two-pronged approach to jointly develop these two businesses.

Chen Ran’s team also believes that if the sales of tennis shoes alone will be limited, they must also pay attention to the business of running shoes.

Then, the team calculated Chen Ran's current contract and listed various high-end and high-end endorsements.

Nike, Wilson Racket, Rolex, Audi, China Mobile, Coca-Cola, Motorola, KFC, Dove, Metersbonwe, etc., spanning almost every industry.

Nowadays, Chen Ran's endorsement contract is more than 1 million US dollars, with an average of about 2500 million US dollars per year. It is already close to Nishikori Kei's peak period, and that was still around 2014.

The previous semi-finals of the Australian Open and three Masters championships have put Chen Ran's commercial value at the first level.

A Grand Slam championship made Chen Ran's commercial value directly surpass that of Yao Ming, making him a leading figure in the entire Chinese cultural and sports circle.

In addition, Nike also gave Chen Ran company stock worth one million US dollars.

In fact, Chen Ran really wanted to sell these stocks, after all, the increase was limited.

In this era of economic boom, Nike's stock has only increased more than 20 times in almost 10 years, which is really a bit shabby.

But after all, Chen Ran is now the iconic spokesperson of Nike. If the stock is sold in large quantities, it will definitely be known. It's embarrassing, so I have to hold it in my hands first.

"Alcohol and tobacco are inappropriate and inconsistent with your image, so we can only exclude them." Agent Xue Peng explained to Chen Ran, "Nowadays, there are many companies willing to invite you to endorse, and the company will definitely certify the selection. .”

But he didn't know that Chen Ran had secretly purchased a bunch of Moutai stocks.

"Well...it's better to be lacking than to be in vain."

For Chen Ran, there are already a lot of endorsements, and they are basically mid-to-high-end. A few more or less will not have any impact.

He carefully read the terms of the contract, especially the liquidated damages, which were basically written according to the normal price. After all, IMG's legal team is not a vegetarian, and they will not mess with the sand in their eyes, and will not set any contract traps for the merchants.

As long as you abide by the law and abide by Chinese laws, if it is just some scandals or ordinary negative news, there is basically no risk of breach of contract compensation.

After all, although the traffic stars of later generations have many endorsements, once their houses collapse, they have to pay a lot of liquidated damages.

"We must not evade taxes. We must be a good, law-abiding Chinese citizen." Chen Ran emphasized seriously.

"sure!"

Xue Peng nodded, and then wanted to mention one thing: "Also, Yao Ming is currently training in Yanjing, should you reciprocate his kindness? After all, he came to cheer you on in the finals of the Indian Wells Masters. .”

"Okay, you can make arrangements!"

Chen Ran nodded, and it was reasonable for him to pay him a visit.

Although Nike may have objections, after all, Yao Ming has switched jobs to play Reebok, and they would prefer Chen Ran and Liu Xiang to interact, but they cannot restrain Chen Ran's behavior.

So, early the next morning, Chen Ran was guided by several staff members to the training venue of the Chinese Men's Basketball National Team.

In fact, most of the training locations for China's national sports teams are located in the training base of the China Sports Bureau, but the area here is too large and someone needs to guide the way.It is now early June, and September will be the Asian Men's Basketball Championship, which will determine the only seat for the Athens Olympics.

The defeat at the Busan Asian Games last year, coupled with the fact that the men's basketball team has never missed the Olympics since China participated in the Olympics, this ticket was a death order from above and must be obtained.

To this end, the players of the China Men's Basketball Team began a three-month training camp, and even big names such as Yao Ming are no exception.

Chen Ran likes basketball very much, but he is still glad that he chose tennis.

Training camp?Or is it every two or three months?No dogs are going!
What's more, with his current ranking, even if he lies at home and sleeps until August next year, he will definitely enter the Olympics.

When Chen Ran arrived at the training hall of the national basketball team, Yao Ming had just finished training and was sitting on a chair with his shirtless body breathing heavily.

The weather in Yanjing in June has become very hot, and after an intense training session, I was even drenched in sweat.

Yao Ming smiled widely when he saw Chen Ran. Well... in Chen Ran's opinion, it was exactly the same as the famous emoticon in later generations.

Immediately, Yao Ming thought that it was not appropriate to be bare-chested, so he put on a coat.

The two high-fived, shook hands, and took photos.

"Brother Yao, I already felt a lot of pressure when I took a photo with the American cannon Isner, but it pales into insignificance compared to you." Chen Ran joked with a smile.

Yao Ming was even more funny. He pointed at one of the veterans wearing protective glasses and said with a smile: "Our men's basketball team is not very tall. Brother Fan Bing is not as tall as you."

Chen Ran also noticed this famous player from the Bayi team.

Fan Bing's height is only 1 meters, while Chen Ran's height is 78 meters, which is indeed not as good as him.

"So if you come to play basketball, you also have a chance to join the national team." Yao Ming added humorously.

"Spare me, I don't want to train for such a long time." Chen Ran shrugged and said with a wry smile.

The so-called speaker has no intention, and the listener has no intention.

When Yao Ming heard this, his face changed slightly, and he bent down and asked softly: "Do you have any national team competition duties this year? I remember the Davis Cup, it seems to come once a year?"

"I haven't had to participate in the past few years...this competition has little influence in China, and our team is not strong enough, you know."

"So good?" Yao Ming showed envy.

"But I want to participate in the Asian Games. This is the condition. You don't have to participate in the Asian Games."

The next Asian Games will be three years away, and it is the NBA season. Yao Ming also feels that there is little possibility for him to participate.

"How long will your tennis team train for next year's Olympics?" Yao Ming was a little curious.

"I don't know about others, but a week is enough for me." Chen Ran said with certainty, "In individual sports, what do you think is the use of training? It's not like your team sports, where you need to cultivate a tacit understanding."

Yao Ming curled his lips and did not say something directly.

He is an insider in the industry and knows the moisture and routines inside.

To be honest, no matter how long the Chinese men's basketball training camp lasts, when these guys arrive on the court, they still stop once and then look around. Their tacit understanding is far inferior to that of those European players who have only trained for a week or two. Team.

Of course, today's Chinese men's basketball team is still very competitive in Asia.

As for whether the training camp is useful?It may be okay for a month, but after more than a month, people are basically numb. After all, they are not machines.

The same goes for the football team. They have been training for half a year, but after playing, they still have no tacit understanding.

But everyone is just hanging around in this circle, and they can’t see through it but don’t point it out.

Because only after intensive training can we apply for more funds.

Then they go out to play warm-up matches in the name of the national team to generate income for the companies opened by the leaders' relatives.

Therefore, there is a lot of money in major sports, especially popular sports such as football and basketball.

Although tennis is also popular nowadays, due to its special characteristics, such as players participating in tours around the world alone, companies run by relatives of the leaders cannot find opportunities to make money.

"Have you had any games recently?" Yao Ming asked again.

"No, I quit all grass-court tournaments and flew directly to Wimbledon in July."

"That's great." Yao Ming held it in for a long time before spitting out two words.

He misses his days in the NBA. Although the schedule is a bit busy and the pressure is high, overall he is still quite comfortable. When he thinks of this long and torturous training camp and compares it with Chen Ran, he feels uncomfortable in every way.

Immediately afterwards, under Yao Ming's introduction, Chen Ran shook hands with the players of the men's basketball national team one by one.

Although Chen Ran has never watched a basketball game in this life, he was an avid football and basketball fan in his previous life. Looking at the familiar names in the national team, he felt filled with emotion.

However, Yi Jianlian in 2003 had not yet been selected for the national team, and the other one was still stranded in the United States.

"This is Zhu Fangyu." Yao Ming introduced.

"Dragon Fist?" Chen Ran muttered in his heart and said with a smile on his face, "Hello, I have long admired your name."

A famous name?What's your name?

Zhu Fangyu looked confused when he heard this. I am obviously still a newcomer.

Chen Ran reacted quickly: "Last year at the World Championships, you scored 14 points against the US team, and faced All-Star Paul Pierce and successfully scored 2+1!"

Young Zhu Fangyu smiled sheepishly when Chen Ran said this.

In fact, not many fans know this in this era, but under the influence of the developed self-media in later generations, Chen Ran was popularized once.

Because the two top figures in Chinese sports met, although the person involved was calm, all the sports reporters present were excited.

"Hello, Chen Ran!"

A basketball reporter seized the opportunity and immediately asked, "Besides Yao Ming, among the players of the China Men's Basketball Team, do you have any favorite players?"

"Yes, it should be..." Chen Ran paused and said slowly, "Wang Zhizhi! When I was a teenager, I always liked watching Wang Zhizhi's games. He has comprehensive skills, flexible feet, and is left-handed."

As soon as these words came out, some tennis reporters did not react, but the expressions on the faces of those basketball reporters were wonderful.

At the same time, Mr. Xin from the Basketball Association, who came not far away to inspect, immediately turned dark after hearing Chen Ran's words.

……

(End of this chapter)