Champion, please stay!

Chapter 70, Chapter 68. Others are receiving awards, he's buying goods! (5th update, please subscribe!)

After the Chinese sports channel broadcast footage of Yi Shui's interview on its news program, major media outlets in the United States quickly rebroadcast one of the key pieces of information.

Yi Shui has decided to participate in the NBA draft!

With the third season of 'Mad World Championships' just ended and Yi Shui at the peak of his popularity after winning the championship, the news instantly ignited the basketball world. Yi Shui's statement, "I want to bring my talent to the NBA," became the number one trending search term on major search engines.

An unnamed player wearing number 24 was displeased by this situation: "I said that first!"

But back then, the internet was just starting out, and nobody associated that statement with him.

Back in Yishui, the interview spread unexpectedly quickly, but it saved him the trouble of holding a press conference because he was very busy afterward...

...

After spending a day in Indianapolis, on the 7th, Yi Shui returned to the Cornell University College of Education with the Husky team to participate in the championship celebration on campus.

On the 8th, the entire Husky team participated in a Sports Illustrated cover shoot and interview.

This is very important for Yi Shui and the other players on the Husky team, as it can help them expand their influence.

If a different team wins the championship, they are unlikely to be on the cover; they will only get an interview. The opportunity for basketball players to appear on the cover is almost entirely dominated by a few NBA superstars.

LeBron James graced this cover while still in high school, which certainly deserves the praise from fans.

The Husky team was able to participate this time partly because of their reputation as the 'Kings of Comebacks'... After winning the championship, they took that title back from the Tigers.

Of course, the Yi River is the core reason why the Husky team was able to be on the cover.

On this exciting day of appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated, Yishui has received another major boost!
The Associated Press has announced the NCAA basketball season awards.

Yi Shui defeated Kevin Love to be named Player of the Year; Thabeet also beat Roy Hibbert to be named Defensive Player of the Year thanks to his performance in Third Madness; and the Associated Press's Coach of the Year, Calhoun, narrowly lost the vote to Tigers head coach John Calipari.

As is customary, the following day, April 9th, the NCAA officially announced the John Wooden Award, the most prestigious award voted on by professional basketball players from high schools and colleges in all 50 states.

The best coach award is given to the same person every year, the championship coach, Calhoun.

Best Player... Yi Shui received 419 votes, defeating Love (206 votes), Hansbrough (133 votes), and OJ Mayo (79 votes) by a significant margin, and was named the first-place winner of the Wooden Award.

The best player award for this award is quite special. It's not a single award, but rather a ranking. The top four players each receive a replica of the 'John Wooden Award' trophy. This trophy consists of five small figures standing back-to-back in a circle, representing five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. The real trophy in the John Wooden Memorial is over half a meter tall and weighs over ten kilograms, so this is a tiny replica.

In addition, there are commemorative jackets and varying amounts of prize money for those who make the final shortlist.

There's another reward for winning first place—the winning team will receive a 1:1 replica of the trophy.

With this award, Yi Shui becomes the latest player, after Jay Williams, Andrew Bogut, and Kevin Durant, to win all three major awards in a single season!

Then, Yi Shui shuttled between various award podiums...

Thabeet won the Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year award and traveled with Yi Shui; Calhoun won the Wooden Award for Coach of the Year, and although the award ceremony was held a day apart, he still went to New York with the two players. The players won a major award, so he, as the head coach, should be there.

After the awards ceremony hosted by the Associated Press and the NCAA, Calhoun and Thabeet stayed in New York for two more days with Yi Shui.

Thabeet was originally very happy to win the Defensive Player of the Year award;

Calhoun was all smiles when he won the Wooden Award for Coach of the Year. Before the season started, he never expected to win his third Coach of the Year award so quickly. As for the Associated Press Coach of the Year award, he was a little disappointed to lose to Calipari, but he is a very open-minded person and respects other people's achievements. He believes that Calipari deserved it. With only Rose, he was able to achieve that level of success, which is even better than the one from Davidson Town.

However, after seeing that Yi Shui had to buy a suitcase to fit all the trophies she had received over the past few days after attending all the award ceremonies, the two of them suddenly felt that the trophy in their hands wasn't so appealing anymore... It was still quite appealing, but it was sour!

Oscar Robertson Award, Best Player, All-NBA First Team, Naismith Award, Wooden Award... They're here to receive awards, but this guy's here to buy goods!

...

On April 15th, Storrs City Hall, in conjunction with the NCAA, hosted a championship parade and championship ring presentation ceremony.

On the streets of the state capital, Yi Shui had never seen so many people before. It seemed that the entire state had crowded into Storrs. He later learned that more than 100 million people had participated in the championship parade, which was about a third of the entire state.

Yi Shui won the championship ring, which also marked the official end of his 2007-2008 season and his college basketball career.

In the evening, Yi Shui, Yad, and Robinson gathered at Mrs. Jim's family restaurant for dinner.

After this team activity, Yad and Robinson didn't go out and have fun. It's been 10 days since they won the championship, and they're too tired to keep going. They need to rest and recharge.

After they had almost finished eating, the three of them flipped through a stack of 'job application materials' that Yi Shui had brought. After Yi Shui 'decided to take his talent to the NBA,' sports agents flocked to him, wanting to sign him.

However, he hasn't met with any of them yet, following Clark's advice to temporarily leave the contact with those agents to Jerry Cook.

He may not have a natural talent for coaching, but Jerry Cook is exceptional at handling these tasks; he's well-informed, quick-witted, and has strong interpersonal skills.

Yi Shui also spoke with Okafor on the phone. The senior said that when he was a junior in college, he also handed over these tasks to Jerry Cook to help him handle until he officially signed with an agent.

With two people endorsing him, Yi Shui was naturally at ease. After all, whether or not to sign an agent was ultimately his decision, and the chief assistant coach was helping out entirely voluntarily. If he weren't short of money right now, he would have wanted to give him a gift.

I gave the MOP trophy to the head coach, and used the Wooden Award prize money to buy Clark a bracelet. I really have nothing else to give as a gift.

But it's not too late to give it to them when you have the money.

That's right. When Yi Shui talked to Okafor on the phone, he felt that the other party was very cold. He clearly remembered that Yad had said that Okafor was quite talkative.

He could never have guessed that the reason Okafor was so talkative with Yad was because Yad had said he would only consider pursuing a professional basketball career after graduating from college...

The agent information in the hands of the trio of Yellow, White, and Black has already been screened by Jerry Cook.

Those with a bad track record are not welcome; those with falsified resumes that do not match Jerry Cook's understanding, or those who exaggerate their professional abilities are not welcome; those with poor professional abilities are not welcome...

And so, there's still a stack left, which shows just how high the draft stock is in Yishui right now.

After looking at several documents, Robinson picked one out and said, "Brook, take a look at this. Bill Duffy, I've heard of him, he's very famous. Jerry also marked it. This is the agent of your country's Little Giant. He's a very good person. Before, Duffy forgot to submit written notices to his players to exercise their player options, so he paid the players' salaries out of his own pocket."

Yi Shui shook his head: "He's not good enough. Maybe he's a good person, but the fact that he made such a mistake means he has some problems with his professional skills. Besides, I heard he's very soft-hearted and always gets manipulated by the team's management. He's not suitable for me."

Yad pulled out a document: "This one, Jeff Schwartz. Jerry marked him as a good fit for you, saying he has strong endorsement negotiation skills."

Yi Shui: "I know him too. He is very good at negotiating contracts with teams, but he is too domineering. He is very good at negotiating transfer contracts, so he always makes decisions for the players on his own. Because he can always get big contracts, players often can't resist the temptation to sign them and go to a team that may not be suitable."

He's not a good fit for me either. I prefer to make my own decisions, and as for endorsements... my agent, unless they're deaf or deaf, could easily sign me an endorsement contract.

Robinson: "Oh...hey, Brooke, what about this one? The youngest big-name agent, Rich Paul..."

Before Robinson could finish speaking, Yi Shui directly denied it: "Forget about him. His agency is actually LeBron James's. If I sign him, I'm afraid he might blackmail the team and trade me to the Cavaliers to be James's underling."

"..."

"..."

The two of them helped pick out several more agents, but Yi Shui rejected them all. Yad leaned back in his chair, rolled his eyes, and said, "Brook, what kind of agent do you want?"

Yi Shui replied, "Anything suitable will do."

"What exactly is suitable? We've looked at every type for you, haven't we?"

"It's perfect... Hey, I've got it!"

Yad and Robinson perked up and immediately moved closer to Yi Shui.

They really wanted to help their friend, but they also wanted to end the dinner as soon as possible; it was too much of a hassle.

But after looking at the information in Yi Shui's hands, the two were dumbfounded.

Yad: "Bartelstein? Brooke, are you kidding me! I've heard of this agent, he has a terrible reputation."

Robinson: "Yeah, you see, Jerry also marked that he has a bad reputation and that all NBA teams hate him."

Yi Shui: "I think he's pretty good. And although Jerry doesn't think highly of him, he didn't remove him from the shortlist. This might mean that even though Jerry doesn't like him, he really recognizes his professional abilities... Look here."

The two looked at the spot Yi Shui was pointing to, which contained information about the contracts that Bartelstein had helped his players secure in recent years.

其中两个球员的名字最显眼——2005年，帮杰罗姆-詹姆斯在尼克斯队拿到5年3000万合同；2007年，帮拉沙德-刘易斯从魔术队拿到6年1.1亿合同。

Jerome James' contract is already a notorious bad contract; although Rashard Lewis is a very good player and has played very well since joining the Magic, his contract was described by the media as definitely going to become a bad contract on the first day it was announced.

(End of this chapter)