Chapter 402 Secret meeting with Durst, a lot of material!
April 18, Beijing time, Toyota Center Arena.
The Rockets' last regular season game of the season has arrived as promised!
Shen Fei arrived at the arena early and waited for the game to start.
Today he not only came to watch the game, but also had a special person to meet.
But that person hasn't arrived yet. Shen Fei is sitting on the sofa in the box, quietly looking down at the stadium.
At this time, the players are doing warm-up training.
Curry ran to the tunnel again to practice his super long three-pointer.
Now Rockets fans love and hate Curry's pre-game shooting practice.
What I love is that his long three-point shot is very entertaining and very innovative.
In the past, players rarely practiced long-range three-pointers, let alone retreating to shoot outside!
But Curry can do it.
Although he looks thin, he can use standard shooting posture to hit three-pointers from a long distance!
Every time fans see it, they can't help but marvel at Curry's unique talent.
"I never thought that a three-point shot could be so entertaining!"
A gray-haired old fan said this.
But at the same time, everyone is worried that Curry is too accurate when warming up before the game.
For example, the last game against the Nuggets.
Curry hit 5 logo-shots in a row during the pre-game warm-up, and every shot hit the net!
But just when the fans thought he was going to kill everyone, Curry shot an "impressive" record of 1-for-10 shots in the game.
Similar situations have happened more than once.
So now as long as Curry feels hot before the game, the fans will secretly say that they are finished...
Fortunately, during today's warm-up, Curry's long-range three-point shooting percentage was around 50%.
Pretty accurate, but not ridiculously accurate.
Of course, Shen Fei's perspective of watching football is definitely different from that of fans.
He only cares about strength and doesn't care about metaphysics at all.
In Shen Fei's view, after more than a month, Curry's strength has taken a big step forward compared to the All-Star Game!
Although his strength is still not comparable to Tracy McGrady, who is now at his peak, his influence on the court is almost the same as that of Yao Ming.
The quality of the hand may affect Curry's performance in individual games, but in the playoffs, it will basically have little impact.
Shen Fei knows that Curry is a competition-oriented player, and in key games, his performance will only be better than usual.
Perhaps due to his size limitations, it is difficult for him to kill the game with independent offense at certain moments, but so what?
The Rockets have key men like Tracy McGrady and Roy!
Then, Shen Fei turned his attention to other Rockets players.
One second, McGrady was joking with his teammates, and the next second, with a slight jump, he could perform a flat-rim dunk.
Yao Ming practiced turning over and shooting fade away from the baseline over and over again.
With a height of 2.26 meters and this kind of shooting style, Shen Fei felt a headache for those who defended Yao.
Roy was at a 45-degree angle on the right, competing with Lowry for a three-pointer.
Two All-Star-level guards have chosen to stay on the Rockets bench. They have the same goal - to help the Rockets win the championship this year, and then go to a team where they can show more of themselves!
...
Shen Fei looked at each of the players and suddenly felt like he was in another world.
Before he knew it, eight months had passed since he took over the Rockets!
In the past six months, the team has undergone earth-shaking changes in his hands.
Until now, Shen Fei still feels unreal.
"Dong dong dong..."
There was a knock on the box door.
[coming.]
Shen Fei thought to himself, and then smiled slightly: "Please come in."
The next moment, a white man walked in.
He first took off the hood of his hoodie, then took off his sunglasses and mask, and then said with a smile:
"You're welcome and well, Manager Shen."
The visitor turned out to be one of Nike’s executives—Dest!
"The way you dress makes it seem like our meeting is an underground activity."
Shen Fei looked at the man in front of him and joked.
Durst shook his head helplessly.
"By the way, I heard... you are mine?"
Shen Fei joked again.
Durst smiled bitterly.
Even the people at Under Armor knew about his identity as a mole.
Shen Fei looked at the man in front of him playfully, and his thoughts returned to the morning two weeks ago.
............
That day, Under Armor's marketing director, Frank Lampard, suddenly burst into his office and said excitedly:
"Boss, who is Durst? When did you instigate him to rebel?"
[???]
Shen Fei was confused in his heart, but on the surface he looked calm.
"You are so awesome! You actually let Nike's executives be our moles!"
"Let me just say that the first draft of pg1 was definitely produced by the top design team in the industry. Even if you are a genius, you cannot do it alone."
“It turns out it’s a design from Nike, hahahaha~”
Lampard was too excited and lost his temper.
"You are wrong. That first draft was made by me alone."
Shen Fei said lightly.
Lampard's eyes widened instantly, his face full of disbelief.
...
.......
Lampard has been waiting for Shen Fei to tell him how to do all this.
But the latter just looked at him calmly and had no intention of explaining.
"Well...that's not important."
"Boss, I'm here just to tell you that Durst should have been exposed. Should we help him?"
Lampard asked.
"Help, of course I have to help."
Shen Fei said lightly.
............
My thoughts return to the present.
Durst was teased by Shen Fei twice in a row, and he felt somewhat upset.
His situation during this time can only be described as miserable.
Because of the kd3 incident, Durst was suspected of being a spy for Under Armor.
Nike's big boss, Phil Knight, even set up a special investigation team to investigate him.
Of course, Durst didn't do anything to be sorry for Nike, so no problem could be found.
But this incident deeply hurt Durst and made him feel an unprecedented insult.
Over the past ten years, Durst considers himself to be conscientious and devoted everything to Nike.
He did all the dirty work, such as threatening Stern and manipulating referees, without any complaints.
But after so much effort, he ended up being the subject of suspicion...
Durst couldn't understand it!
He even went directly to Phil Knight's home and asked him why he doubted him.
But Phil Knight's answer left Dest speechless...
"In this incident, the information I got was basically provided by you."
"You first told me swornly that all the designs of kd3 were handled by the Nike team, and there was absolutely no possibility of copying Under Armor.
"I trust you completely. Since Under Armor plagiarized us, I will let you investigate Under Armor secretly."
"The result of the investigation you gave me later was that there were no problems with Under Armor's design process for PG1, and the ideas were all produced by Shen Fei."
"So... who copied who? If kd3 was designed by ourselves, why is it almost identical to pg1? How did Shen Fei come up with the idea?"
Phil Knight's deadly series of questions can be said to be heart-breaking every word!
But it is true.
All the information he got was provided by Durst.
But this information is contradictory.
Then the problem can only appear in two places -
Either Durst's investigation results are wrong, or... Durst himself is the mole!
But Durst's excellent work ability is recognized within Nike.
It is simply wishful thinking to expect him to make multiple mistakes in a row.
Then the question points to a possibility - Durst is the mole!
It was he who revealed the design ideas of KD3 to Shen Fei, and then shouted "Catch the thief" during the investigation.
Unfortunately, Nike’s design team is all innocent and unable to take the blame.
Durst had no choice but to continue lying, so he provided a bunch of contradictory information!
...
Facing Phil Knight's heart-wrenching words, Durst opened his mouth half-open, but could not say anything to refute.
As a man in his forties, he felt an urge to cry at that moment.
Fortunately, Durst is usually very organized and likes to file and record his work.
Therefore, no matter how Nike's investigation team investigated, whether overtly or covertly, thickly or thinly, they could not find any evidence of his crime.
Phil Knight had no choice but to give up temporarily and did not impose any specific punishment on Dest.
But the absence of specific punitive measures does not mean there is no punishment.
After investigating the incident, Durst soon found that he was marginalized within the group.
Nike didn’t even notify him of routine high-level meetings!
This incident caused such a big fuss that even Shen Fei, the boss of Under Armour, knew about it.
Based on the feedback from these people, Shen Fei quickly realized that Durst was a chess piece that could be tried to "pry".
Today, Stern is still under the thumb of Nike.
Although he and Shen Fei reached some consensus at the last All-Star Game.
But Shen Fei cannot guarantee whether the NBA president will be threatened by Nike again and betray him again...
As the saying goes, nip problems in the bud.
After Shen Fei learned about Durst, he immediately realized that this might be an opportunity...
An opportunity for Stern to get out of control and for the Rockets to no longer worry about being targeted!
Ever since, Shen Fei got Durst's contact information through an informant and invited him to meet today.
............
"You came to me just to humiliate me, right?"
Durst said angrily.
"No, quite the opposite."
"I mean, since everyone thinks you are from Under Armor, why do you go to such lengths to prove your innocence?"
"In other words, after you prove it, can you return to your original situation?"
Shen Fei said lightly.
"Boss Shen, if you want to say anything, just say it."
"You are a smart man. I have shown my sincerity by coming to your appointment today."
Durst said.
"What is your current situation at Nike?"
Shen Fei started to get to the point.
"Fringe character who has lost trust?"
"My daily work is pretty much the same as before, but they won't let me have access to core secrets anymore."
Durst said helplessly.
"In other words, you can still work normally at Nike, but you are just marginalized."
"Second question, you were the person in charge of Nike in the NBA, right?"
Shen Fei asked again.
"Yes, I make the final decision on all matters related to the NBA, big and small."
"Including the refereeing problems that the Rockets encountered before, they were all planned by me."
Durst said frankly.
"Last question, what do you want from me?"
Shen Fei asked seriously.
Everyone in the world is busy, all for profit.
Durst must be here for profit.
"I..."
"I want to be innocent! I have never betrayed Nike from the beginning to the end! They forced me to get to where I am today!"
Durst suddenly became excited.
Being wrongly accused is indeed the most uncomfortable thing.
But Shen Fei was not affected by Durst's emotions at all, and still looked at the latter expressionlessly, waiting for his next words.
"besides..."
"I hope Under Armor can provide me with a long-term contract with the same salary as what I get at Nike."
Durst stopped hiding it and revealed his purpose.
Shen Fei smiled slightly.
All innocence and reputation are false.
The reason why Dest was willing to come to him was because Nike refused to give him a long-term contract.
"I can satisfy you with this."
"Then let me tell you my conditions."
Shen Fei said lightly.
"You haven't asked me what my annual salary is...Okay, just tell me, as long as it's what I can do!"
Durst was so excited that he even used honorifics.
"Since it was you who planned the refereeing incident before, you must have been the one who convinced Stern, right?"
"I wonder, is there any way to get Stern to straighten his back?"
"I like basketball very much, and I hope the NBA will be more pure."
Shen Fei said with a smile.
Durst understood instantly.
"Stern does have leverage in Nike's hands, so he keeps helping the Rockets' opponents."
"After all, the Rockets are Under Armor's back garden. Nike will definitely not see you dominating the league."
"Especially, Nike's top star, James, has just joined the Heat under tremendous pressure this season. He needs this year's championship so much."
"All I know is...those handles are stored in the drawer of Phil Knight, the boss of Nike."
Durst said seriously.
"In the drawer? Are those black materials or paper ones?"
Shen Fei asked in surprise.
As a time traveler, he is more accustomed to digital information than anyone else in this time and space.
It’s hard to imagine that as the world’s leading sports brand, Nike is still storing information in paper form!
But then he thought about it, Stern's era was indeed mostly paper-based materials.
"Even if paper materials were used at that time, wouldn't they be scanned and backed up on the computer now?"
Shen Fei asked.
Durst thought for a moment and nodded affirmatively: "As far as I know, there is no backup, I can guarantee it!"