In July, Seattle, affected by the ocean monsoon, ushered in the least rainfall period of the year. In fact, it rains frequently all year round and the air is extremely humid, so it is called the "Rain City". Although Seattle gives people the impression of drizzle
It rains continuously, but there are very few days when it rains heavily and you cannot go out. The rainy season is from November to March of the following year.
Before the rainy season comes, it is the mating season, and animals begin to leave their comfortable nests to find mates to reproduce.
"Glove" Payton also walked out of the house and lay on the balcony of his villa surrounded by green trees, just like an idle family man, quietly basking in the sun. Under the stimulation of the sun, the sweat made his skin shiny.
Just as Payton was enjoying the pleasant afternoon sunshine, there was suddenly a burst of noisy footsteps downstairs.
Payton, who was slightly sleepy, was disturbed, and he was inevitably a little angry. However, he knew that the person his wife would let into the house at this time must be someone familiar to him. So he straightened up, sat on the recliner, and bought something from the small freezer next to him.
He took out a bunch of juice, poured himself a glass, and waited for someone to come to find him on the rooftop.
After a short wait, Payton's agent Aaron Goodwin appeared on the rooftop.
In 1987, Aaron Goodwin entered the agent field and ran the Goodwin Agency with his brother Eric. Relying on his naturally eloquent mouth, he became the top agent in the NBA today. Of course,
He also became a "villain" in the eyes of sponsors.
You may not be familiar with these two agents, but the players under his management are quite important. In addition to the Payton mentioned now, there is also the league's rising star LeBron James at the time. Zams had not yet entered the league.
, Aaron Goodwin helped him obtain a contract of nearly 100 million US dollars with Nike, which is the highest sports contract received by any athlete so far. The cooperation between the two parties has always been pleasant, but in the summer of 2005, one month later
, James suddenly fired the Goodwin brothers. This decision was discussed by many people at the time, thinking that the "emperor" was burning bridges. But as things developed later, it turned out that it was James' mother Gloria James and Enri
Goodwin rolled into the same bed, and James broke off the relationship with the Goodwin brothers only after discovering the affair between the two.
In fact, I have always wondered why James cares so much about her mother's private life and sexual partners. However, this matter cannot be analyzed in depth. Readers who are fine can make up their own minds.
When Payton saw it was Goodwin, he saw that he was out of breath even after climbing three floors, so he poured him a glass of juice.
Goodwin was not polite, picked up the cup and drank it all, wiped his mouth and said to Payton, "Gary, a new team has made an offer to me."
Payton slowly tasted the sweet and sour orange juice, and he was very leisurely. It was completely different from the hot and dirty way he was on the court.
Payton tapped the bottom of the cup with his finger and said to Goodwin, "Which team is it? If the Nuggets and Kings are directly rejected, it will be over. If they don't have the ability to win the championship, I have no interest at all.
"
"No, he has the ability to win the championship. At least based on last season's performance, winning the championship has only happened in the past two years." Goodwin laughed when he heard Payton's words, with a dark face showing two rows of big white teeth, looking at the special
Be cautious.
"Oh, which one is it?" Payton's interest was also aroused, and he looked at Goodwin with a standard pig kidney face.
"Miami Heat. How about it? They were second in the Eastern Conference last season. If Shaq hadn't been injured, they would have at least reached the Eastern Conference finals."
When Payton heard this, he immediately became interested. Not to mention the strength of the Heat, they have O'Neal on the inside and Wade on the outside. The recent transaction has acquired two powerful players in Walker and White Chocolate, plus the inside line who has completed the contract extension.
Blue-collar Udonis Haslem. After some upgrades, the Heat can now be said to have a strong army and strong horses. On paper, they can completely challenge the Pistons and Spurs...
"The Heat is indeed a good choice, and the Sharks are also there. The two of us cooperated very well when we were with the Lakers. If it weren't for... forget it, I would get angry whenever I mention what happened back then."
After Goodwin waited for Payton to stabilize his mood, he said to him, "The Heat are indeed very strong and can satisfy your pursuit of a championship, but the conditions they gave are very low, only a veteran's base salary of 1 million.
"
"Money is not the key. The championship is my only choice now. Have you forgotten what happened with the Spurs?" It turned out that the Spurs had contacted Payton a few days ago, hoping to sign him with a veteran contract, but Payton
Payton felt that the price was too low and did not reply immediately. He planned to give the Spurs a try and ask them to raise the price. As a result, Popovich turned around and signed Van Exel. Now Payton was extremely embarrassed. The Spurs' back
The place was full, and there was no place for Payton to stay. He just sent it to the door for free, and no one wanted it.
Payton wanted to slap himself in the mouth for this.
While Payton and Goodwin were discussing, Goodwin's phone suddenly rang.
"Hello. Who is this?"
"Hello, Mr. Goodwin, I'm Magic's Paul Edison."
Goodwin was surprised when he heard this. After gesturing to Payton, he walked to the corner on the edge of the rooftop.
"Hello Paul, what do you want from me?" Goodwin knew that although the guy on the other end of the phone was young, he was already a big shot in the league. Although Stern mentioned it many times in press conferences and daily work
He, and he could easily pass many of the alliance's requirements, was a person who could not be messed with. So he behaved very politely.
"I want to sign Gary Payton. I know you should have invitations from the Suns, Heat and other teams now, but I will definitely be more generous than them."
"As you said, I do have many invitations in my hand now. I wonder what the conditions for magic are like?" Upon hearing that Edison was seeking for himself, Goodwin immediately abandoned his previous caution and revealed himself again.
The snobbish side of businessmen.
"I happen to be flying to Seattle for vacation. We can talk about the specifics tomorrow. I know Gary may already have a goal of joining the Magic, but I hope you can find a way to convince him to join the Magic. When the matter is settled, we can give you the highest ratio.
Commission, and what I can offer is definitely more than the veteran’s basic salary.”
The NBA is different from other games. After the agent lockout in the 1990s, David Stern increased the supervision of agents, so now these well-dressed guys are actually not living a good life. They
Without the signing fees and benefit fees of football managers, they can only draw a commission from the player's contract honestly, and the standard of the commission is also very harsh, with a maximum of only 4%. But under normal circumstances, it is about 3%, like Pei
It was even less likely that Dun would be willing to sign a contract with a minimum salary, so when Edison said this, Goodwin was also moved in his heart.
Speaking of commissions, we have to mention our great Basketball Association. When Yao Ming came to the NBA, the biggest obstacle was actually not his strength, but his contract. The Basketball Association required 50% of Yao Ming's salary as national compensation.
, and then Yao Ming's American agent took the opportunity to make a trick. He included all this part in the agent's commission, intending to force Stern to give up the 4% commission to go online.
As a result, when the agreement was reported to David Stern, he rejected it directly. When the old man saw the 50%, he thought that this was crazy. They were planning to repeat the scene when agents dominated the league. So he gave the deadlock, "I would rather not
If you let Yao Ming land, you will definitely not let him sign this kind of contract." At this time, he couldn't care about the so-called global promotion. After all, North America is the base camp of the NBA. If there is a fire in the backyard, it will be useless no matter how busy it is outside.
.
So the Basketball Association carried forward the consistent characteristics of the government, bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Seeing that Stern was ready to fight to the death, he immediately gave in. In the end, Yao paid several million in training fees and let it pass...
After hanging up the phone, Goodwin returned to Payton. Payton asked him casually, but Goodwin thought for a moment and answered truthfully, "Just now the head coach of the Magic, Paul Edison, told me that he hopes you can join.
magic."
"Magic..." Payton muttered, then looked up at Goodwin.
Although Edison promised to give Goodwin more commissions, Goodwin was not particularly partial to magic out of professional ethics. "He said he would fly to Seattle today and we could have an interview in the evening." Of course, Goodwin's
This attitude may also be a hard-to-get approach.
………………
Edison, Goodwin and Payton were sitting in the large living room of Payton's villa. After some polite exchanges, Edison entered the topic.
"Gary, I hope you can join the Magic Team. We need your experience." Edison's tone was very sincere.
"But what I need is a championship." Payton is not a person who likes to beat around the bush.
Edison smiled confidently after hearing this, "I know, and I want you also for the championship."
"Paul, there have been seven or eight teams that have called me in the past week. Every one of them has said your words. You should change to something new." Payton's words were very sharp, pointing directly at the opponent's weaknesses.
Every sentence was extremely lethal, like a bullet hitting someone in the head, and it was of a large caliber.
Edison and Goodwin glanced at each other inadvertently, thinking: "Fortunately, Aaron told me your plan in advance, otherwise it would be a bit troublesome."
"Okay, let me tell you something new. Gary, how many teams do you think are capable of winning the championship now?"
Edison looked at Payton, but before Payton could return to Edison, he gave a reply, "Five teams, two in the West and three in the East. The strongest among them are the Spurs and Pistons, but these two teams don't have you.
If you want to take a position, others may not want you."
Edison's words were harsh but realistic. Although Payton didn't like hearing them, he could only nod.
"The only one in the West that can compete with the Spurs is the Mavericks, but the Mavericks' lineup is also very complete, and there is no place for you. In other words, there are only two teams you can choose to join now, and one is us.
The other team is the Miami Heat."
Payton continued to nod.
"Neither of our two teams is sure that they will win the championship or beat the Spurs, but we can analyze which team is stronger and is more likely to reach the finals."
"What is the Heat's biggest reliance in competing for the championship? Shaquille O'Neal. But in the past two seasons, Shaquille O'Neal's competitive level has dropped dramatically. His injuries have begun to increase, and he no longer has the dominance he once had. I think
You know this very well. And the most important thing is that although the Heat are aware of O'Neal's problems, they have not found a solution so far. They do not have an excellent inside substitute who can not help O'Neal share the pressure. This is what we did last season.
Sweeping heat."
"But your strength has also suffered. Grant Hill has been reimbursed for the season, and you have lost one of your strongest points in singles." Payton did not follow Edison's train of thought, but looked for flaws in his words.
"So we are working on solving this problem. You may not know that we are pursuing Garnett. If he comes, do you think our singles will still be a problem? Even if Garnett can't come, our team now has a player who is no less than
Yu Hill’s singles master.”
Payton was surprised when he heard Edison's words and looked at Edison doubtfully.
"A rookie this year - Brandon Roy." Edison further explained.
Payton sneered at Edison's explanation and thought, "Garnett can come at your request. How good can a rookie I've never heard of be?"...
"And we can give you more guarantees in terms of salary. The Heat can only give you a veteran's basic salary, but we can give you part of the middle-class salary, about 3 million."
"I said, all I want is a championship."
Edison said that he was so drunk that he almost vomited, but Payton was unmoved and insisted on seeing the follow-up development before making a decision. Although the last meeting could not be said to have ended on bad terms, they went back to their respective homes.
Everyone is looking for their own mother.
After hitting a wall with Payton, Edison was not idle and rushed to New York without stopping.
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Let’s talk about the updates during the Chinese New Year.
First of all, there will be one chapter today, and there will definitely be one chapter tomorrow. There is no guarantee that it will be updated until next Sunday. During the Chinese New Year, I visit relatives everywhere and attend friends’ gatherings. I really can’t guarantee that I can code one chapter every day.
Chapter characters. Therefore, there may be interruptions in updating, but don't worry, I will definitely try my best to code the characters as long as I have time, and try to update them every day in the past few days.
By the 18th, which is the Monday after I return from vacation, my schedule is relatively fixed, and I should resume updating two chapters a day.
Finally, I emphasized that in fact, if there is a break in updates, this book will not be eunuch. After the editor and I discussed it again, we said that it can be put on the shelves at the end of the month. I don’t need to eunuch at this time, right?
Finally, I wish you all a happy New Year and all the best in the Year of the Snake.
