Legendary star

Chapter 178 Popovich's troubles
A few days later, when Nike almost summoned almost all the media in the United States to attend, and then held a grand signing ceremony for Meng Xu, the entire American press was frightened by Nike's move of having money and no place to spend it. Signing Meng Xu for 3 million US dollars in three years, either Nike is crazy, or the world is crazy. From this, we can also see Nike's expectations for Meng Xu.

"Nike spent 3000 million yuan to sign Meng Xu."

"Can Meng Xu take on the important task of Nike's revival?"

"Whether the miracle can be repeated, Pete Williams bluntly said that signing Meng Xu is as important a milestone in Nike's history as Jordan."

On the second day of the signing ceremony, the headlines of almost all newspapers were full of news about Nike and Meng Xu. This kind of sensational effect was even worse than Reebok's signing of Iverson last year.But just this kind of sensational effect is more useful than Nike spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising. It has to be said that before Meng Xu started selling jerseys and shoes, Nike has already earned back the capital from him.

Although the team is already on vacation, Meng Xu is not free now. This summer, Meng Xu's tasks and schedule are still very intensive. First of all, around the 20th of this month, Meng Xu will be invited to participate in this year's National McDonald's After the training camp, Meng Xu, who has not been home for two years, will return to China to deal with some of his own affairs.At the same time, I have to participate in the promotional tour of Asia organized by Nike to advertise my sneakers in advance. The itinerary includes BJ, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other major domestic cities, as well as Seoul in South Korea and Tokyo in Japan. Several major cities in Asia will last about a month before and after the trip.

Then the Spurs also made a weight gain plan for Meng Xu this summer, and strive to increase Meng Xu's weight to about 92 kg at the beginning of the new season.At the same time, there will be the Sydney Olympic Games this summer. According to the news from the CCAV team stationed in the United States, the Hua Guo Basketball Association is now considering recruiting Meng Xu to participate in this year's Olympics. Liu Yudong, God of War, injured his Achilles tendon this season. It is hard to say whether he can come back before the Olympics, so the Chinese Basketball Association has been hesitating now, and judging from the feedback from the media, there are already many. Fans want to see Meng Xu put on the national team jersey.

And basically at the same time, Terry Porter and Steve Kerr, the veterans of the two teams, also held a press conference to announce the news of retirement, Steve Kerr is now real I can't play anymore. This season has been on and off. Counting the playoffs, I only played a total of 30 games, and each game played less than 10 minutes. After Terry Porter won the championship ring, the former The All-Star also bluntly stated that he has lost his only motivation. After the two veterans announced their retirement at the same time, finding a corresponding replacement was also placed on Popovich's table.

And the Spurs have a bigger and more important thing this summer, which is the issue of contract renewals with Tim Duncan and Avery Johnson. From next year, the NBA will start to implement the luxury tax system, so this season Except for some rich teams, basically no one dares to spend money indiscriminately, so in order not to pay the luxury tax next year, the Spurs will have to prepare in advance for the offseason of this season.The salary cap for this season is 3550 million U.S. dollars, and it is expected to reach about 4000 million U.S. dollars next season. Therefore, the Spurs must ensure that their total salary will not exceed 4500 million U.S. dollars next season. Otherwise, the luxury tax alone will be enough for the Spurs to drink a pot That's right, and the Spurs' board of directors has made it clear that they will not pay a penny of luxury tax.

Regarding Duncan's issue, Popovich is also very troublesome now. Although he defended the championship and won the FMVP, Duncan hesitated on the issue of contract renewal. He got news from some acquaintances, and Duncan The Adidas company that signed the contract has been encouraging Duncan to go to big cities, preferably big cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, because only in these big cities can Duncan's commercial value be truly brought into play.The current war between Adidas and Nike has entered a fierce state, so as the biggest star of Adidas, Tim Duncan was naturally pushed to the front line of this war.

At the same time, while the Spurs made an offer for Duncan, the Suns, Magic, Bulls, and a large number of teams all offered Duncan the maximum contract they could provide immediately after the end of this season. Duncan's biggest controversy at present is about the length of the contract. Popovich offered Duncan a 7-year long-term contract of 8800 million yuan, but Duncan's agent hopes to only sign for 3 years, because according to the league's labor agreement last year , A player like Duncan can sign a 3-year maximum salary contract with a total amount of 7 million after 1.3 years, so there are some disputes between the two on the issue of the contract, and Duncan simply ran out to travel .

Originally in Popovich's plan, as long as Duncan signed this contract, the Spurs would have enough salary space to accommodate David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Meng Xu at the same time. Under the instigation of the company, they were unwilling to sign such a long contract.

Because he still has a one-year contract with the Spurs, Meng Xu doesn't have so many worries now. After resting for a few days, Meng Xu took the flight arranged by McDonald's and flew to New York, where he will participate in the National McDonald's High School Bootcamp.

This training camp, which will last for one month, has gathered almost all the talented high school players in the United States. For example, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter, who came with Meng Xu this time, were once the best in this training camp. , And many players who participated in this training camp eventually entered the NBA, and even became superstars who can shake the wind and shake the wind.

As seniors, all the players signed by McDonald's will attend this training camp. Only Meng Xu knows that among the rookies of the same year as Meng Xu, there are Steve Francis, Elton Brand, Lamar- Odom, will come to see this year's McDonald's training camp.And the sponsor McDonald's will also select some of the most capable players among these high school students this year, and have a friendly match with these active NBA players, so that they can get acquainted with the rhythm of professional games in advance.What makes Meng Xu a little embarrassed is that among so many players who have come to McDonald's training camp this year, Meng Xu is the only player who has not participated in McDonald's training camp and the All-Star Game.

(End of this chapter)