Chapter five hundred and eighty third Stern's invitation
A month has passed in the blink of an eye, and it will soon be Christmas for Westerners.
Christmas in the United States is equivalent to the Spring Festival in China. There are only two days until Christmas. Every household begins to put up lights and make preparations. People decorate their houses with colorful Christmas lights. Liu Lang’s neighbors also have Christmas lights in their yards.
A two- to three-meter Christmas tree was erected and hung with Christmas candles. Of course Liu Lang's family would not celebrate Christmas, but the festive atmosphere still infected everyone, and they went to the streets to buy goods.
Liu Lang's family has long been familiar with the neighbors. Even though Liu Donglai and his wife's English is still very poor, they can understand it roughly using sign language. Those neighbors also know Liu Lang and know that he is a little genius, so when nothing happens
He also visited Liu Lang's home.
Liu Lang has been very "hard" in the past month. In addition to going to the library every day to check various materials, he also searched all the teachers in the School of Engineering and asked them for advice. The teachers were very satisfied with Liu Lang's thirst for knowledge and did not have any questions.
He kept secrets and told Liu Lang everything he knew. His brain was operating at full capacity every day. Likewise, Liu Lang benefited a lot and made huge progress.
Christmas in the United States is very lively. Liu Lang’s family has prepared holiday goods, but Liu Lang can’t spend the holiday with his family. Knight came over and asked Liu Lang to attend the NBA Christmas in New York with him.
The battle was between the Bulls and the New York Knicks.
The Christmas game is a time-honored tradition that adds a little fun to the holiday season, not just for basketball, but also for rugby and ice hockey.
Before President Stern took over the NBA, basketball had become the third sport in the United States. It was incomparable with football and far inferior to ice hockey. The main reason was that these players were too messy, with drugs, fights, and chaotic private lives.
The negative impact has brought disrepute to the league. Stern has done nothing in the past two years since he took over. He has just vigorously punished these players. Those who take drugs will get out, they will be suspended for fighting, and they will be fined for misconduct in their private lives. Especially for those black players, the regulations
They must dress neatly when entering the gym, and no mess is allowed.
At the beginning, many players were very dissatisfied and united to think of a boycott, but Stern was merciless and punished those who violated the rules, which made them complain endlessly. You must know that Stern is a Jew with a super high salary.
With his IQ and management skills, how can those athletes with well-developed limbs and simple minds compete with him?
After more than a year of rectification, the league has made great improvements and the players have become much more honest.
After solving his own problems, the next step is to build his own brand. Stern's idea is the superstar policy, vigorously promote players with superb skills and personal charm, and shape him into a super idol, thereby attracting fans.
The most famous stars in the league in the past few years are of course "Magic" Johnson and "Big Bird" Bird. The two are known as the black and white duo, leading the way in the east and west, and their teams, the Lakers and Kyle
The Special Team also takes turns taking the championship position, and almost no other team has anything to do with it.
The league originally wanted to strongly promote the two of them, but although these two are very strong, they have been in the league for a few years. They are considered old players. Fans have long been familiar with them, and their potential has almost been exhausted.
It happened to be during this period that the golden generation of 1984 emerged. Young people like Jordan, Olajuwon, Barkley and Ewing emerged suddenly, which immediately attracted Stern's attention.
Especially Jordan, the way he plays is unique, he is simply flying in the sky, his movements are graceful and elegant, and his fighting spirit is unmatched by other players, he is 100% dedicated to victory.
So Stern felt the need to make Jordan an iconic star in the league.
Of course, it's not just Jordan, but also Barkley, Drexler, Olajuwon and others, who have all become Stern's targets.
It was at this time that Nike came out of the blue and signed Jordan with a contract worth US$2.8 million over seven years.
The price of 2.8 million for seven years is not low, with an average of 400,000 per year... Well, this price is really not worth mentioning twenty years later, but it was a high price in 1985. Jordan's
The annual salary is only 600,000 U.S. dollars, which is already the highest among rookies. The average rookie salary is about 20,000 to 300,000 U.S. dollars. Players selected in the last round of the draft are only worth 60,000 to 70,000 U.S. dollars.
It can be seen that the average endorsement fee of 400,000 yuan per year is very high, and he also signed a seven-year long-term contract at once, which means a lot of risks.
Although Jordan is very talented, who knows what will happen to him in the future? What if he gets injured? What if he "doesn't learn well"? You must know that there are many black people in the league who don't want to make progress after they have money.
But they don’t have the smart minds of white people.
When Knight approached Jordan to sign a contract, he only wanted to sign with him for five years. Jordan and his team wanted to sign with him for seven years at a time, because they were afraid that he would be injured and would have no guarantee. For this reason, Knight was very hesitant, and finally decided to sign with Liu Lang
Only after being "controlled" remotely did he make up his mind to sign a seven-year long-term contract with Jordan.
Stern knew about the contract signed between Nike and Jordan. In his heart, he was not satisfied with the contract. It was not because of the money, but because he felt that Nike was too small, so small that he had never heard of it before signing the contract with Jordan.
This company, in his eyes, players with potential like Jordan should be on par with players like Puma and Adidas.
It is only right to sign a contract with such a big company, because this can give Jordan enough exposure. In fact, Adidas also wanted to sign a contract with Jordan, but they only gave Jordan a seven-year contract of 2.1 million, and the price was less than Nike.
700,000, and finally Jordan chose Nike, a company with almost no reputation.
These are personal behaviors and the alliance has no right to interfere.
What happened next was completely beyond Stern's expectation. Nike, a little-known company, launched the "Reincarnation" sneakers in a short period of time. This pair of shoes was groundbreaking and created a very surreal show-off style
A completely different sports shoe situation emerged, which instantly made people remember Nike.
Then the "air1" featuring Jordan was launched, which is the Air Jordan 1 sneaker. With the "different" advertisement, it once again set off a craze. Just these two sports shoes made Nike become the hottest sports equipment in the United States.
Manufacturer, it also made Jordan, a talented player, a household name, and his fame has surpassed that of old stars.
Stern was about to start "making stars" and was still thinking of various ways, but Nike only made two sports shoes and made Jordan famous. This was simply the "savior" of the league!
Stern specially met with Knight. Knight wanted to promote Jordan as the number one star in the league, and Stern also wanted to use the star's appeal to make fans pay more attention to basketball. As a result, the two people had the same views.
Since they had a common goal, the two of them immediately became good friends.