Basketball: starting from the nerve knife

Chapter 5 Signing the Contract

“Li, watch the news…”

Early the next morning, Li Wan was woken up by Arne Tyran’s phone and searched for news on his phone as he said.

“It’s okay if Phil Jackson is not optimistic, Li Wan: all I have to do is play well! ”

“Confidence! Huaxia newcomer talked about the controversy between Kupchak and Phil Jackson, saying that he would play a performance that satisfied the head coach! ”

“Whether it is self-confidence or arrogance, Huaxia newcomer Li Wan is not afraid to stand on the opposite side of Phil Jackson! ”

……

Li Wan’s heart suddenly left with only two words: numb!

He meant “be yourself”, and the media interpreted it as “self-confident” and “not afraid of Phil Jackson”…

To say that this Lakers newcomer is indeed a big flow. He is a first-round 19th pick, and he is stunned to compete with the exposure of those first-round top 6 newcomers.

“Have I been a water reversal lately? How did it happen to me that didn’t go my way, or did I spend all my luck lately by drawing the JR-Smith card? ”

Li Wan didn’t get too worried about the impact of these reports.

Whether he wants to “be himself” or “confident”, in the end, he has to rely on strength to prove himself.

Taryn picked him up at his hotel at 8 a.m. and flew from JFK to Los Angeles.

It seems like it’s just rained in Los Angeles, the air is humid, and the wind blows comfortably on your face when you get off the plane.

Los Angeles is located in the southwest of California, except for December, January and February, it rarely rains at other times of the year, resulting in a very dry climate here, and it is difficult for people living in Los Angeles to go out without applying moisturizer.

Rain is a bounty here.

“That should bode well, right? Li Wan asked.

Taryn nodded: “You can think so. ”

He called Kupchak and learned that he had time at the moment, so he drove Li Wan to sign the contract.

The home of the Lakers is the Staples Arena, but the usual training and the Lakers’ management office is not there, but in the Toyota Center Arena, which is also invested and built by Toyota.

Like the Toyota Center built in Houston in ’02, the venue is divided into three floors, one below and two floors above ground, with a variety of supporting facilities, restaurants, drink bars, fan shops, and everything.

However, not only the Los Angeles Lakers are served, but also the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks, as well as the Los Angeles Kings of Major League Hockey, all train at this arena.

What belongs to the Lakers is only two locker rooms in the basement and a few training grounds, even the general manager’s office, which is a separate office building.

But in Los Angeles, it’s not just the Los Angeles Lakers.

Well, the main thing is that the old Bass is not rich enough …

In addition to running the Lakers, the entire Bath family also runs the Los American Sparks, which also trains at this arena.

It’s just that a few days ago, the old Bass was officially listed and wanted to transfer.

Spark star Lisa Leslie is pregnant and announced that she will not play in the WNBA07~08 season, which means that the team will spend a year with the run.

The WNBA was originally a loss of money, and after missing the WNBA championship in a row in the past few years, the Sparks’ income and expenditure has not been optimistic, and now it will usher in a year of losses, and the elder Bass finally chose to give up.

He believes it was the right decision to move the Lakers from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960.

It was also this decision that made him realize that although he owned the Lakers and was still in Los Angeles, the market value was at least 2 billion, but this was equivalent to his “real estate”, in addition, he was very poor.

Therefore, he set his sights on Li Wan, a Chinese man.

How many times has the Chinese market doubled Alexander’s value, and is there an investment that is more profitable than this one?

As for Phil Jackson’s dissatisfaction, let him be dissatisfied. And Old Buzz knew in his heart that this old bastard might not really look down on Li Wan.

What he thinks depends on what he does next.

That’s why the elder Buzz hated Phil Jackson, who didn’t like the kind of employees he couldn’t control.

When Lee Wan arrived with Taryn, Kupchek had a contract ready, a standard rookie contract, fully guaranteed for the first three years and a team option for the fourth year.

A total of 5.84 million in four years.

Li Wan’s annual salary in the first year was 1.29 million. Generally, it is issued on a monthly basis for 1 year and 12 months.

It is also possible to make advance payments up to 60% of the total salary. This is to avoid those supergiants who demand a lump sum of 20 million salaries, which causes problems with the team’s operating funds.

After carefully reading the terms and conditions of the contract and making sure that there was no problem, Li Wan signed his name on it, and when he signed the contract and handed it to Kupchak, who looked at him with a smile, he asked: “Can I advance 3 months’ salary in advance?” ”

All kinds of expenses for tryouts before the draft were paid by Arne Tyron for him, about 30,000 yuan. and his 3% cut of 38,700 models, totaling $70,000.

He also rented a secure apartment near the Toyota Center and Staples Arena, with a 2-month rent of nearly 10,000 yuan.

In addition, rental housing here in Los Angeles is rental housing, and the household facilities and equipment in it need to be bought by themselves, and they have to buy a car.

His salary of 107,500 yuan a month alone was simply not enough for these expenses, not to mention that Li Wan had special training in the summer, which was another money-burning project.

Kupchak happily signed a check for 330,000 yuan and handed it to Li Wan.

“By the way, I need to confirm with you, are you going to play in the summer league?” ”

“Of course! ”

Li Wan did not hesitate.

Phil Jackson is uncertain and needs some performance to fight for his place in training camp.

The performance of the summer league itself may not be of much reference value, but it is good to have more impressions.

“OK, then remember to come to the team until July 10, of course, if you want to go to Las Vegas on your own, you can also contact Phil Handy. ”

Kupchak handed him Phil Handy’s business card. It says “Lakers chief assistant coach.” He was the head coach of the Lakers summer league.

Li Wan accepted the business card and left the office with Taryn.

As soon as he left the arena, he asked Taryn to contact him at the training ground, and today was June 26th, almost half a month before July 10th.

He needs to carry out a round of improvement in this half month.

Summer League is a place where players on the fringes of the league and those who lose the draft fight for two-way contracts, and he doesn’t expect anyone in that place to be willing to play with him, pass him the ball and so on.

He didn’t go to summer league to show off his defensive prowess.

Therefore, in the next 14 days, the two aspects of his special training were ball holding ability and shooting ability.

(End of chapter)