Champion, please stay!

Chapter 82, Question 80: Watch out, or I'll jump up and hit your knee!

After the signing press conference, Yi Shui rushed to the Qingdao Men's Basketball Training Center, Laoshan Gymnasium.

Fortunately, communication with the domestic agent had been completed, and the Blue Association was even more anxious than him, so the registration and check-in procedures went very smoothly.

After taking a group photo with the leaders and team leader of the Blue Association, Yi Shui's work for the day came to an end.

He checked into a hotel arranged by the national team. It was a single room in a typical business hotel, which looked alright, simply furnished but clean and tidy.

He was incredibly tired, but instead of going to sleep right away, he drank a can of coffee, took his laptop out of his suitcase, plugged in the internet cable, and started playing games, planning to stay up until 10 p.m. before going to sleep.

If I fall asleep now, tomorrow will be the same as today: I'll wake up in the early hours of the morning and start feeling sleepy again before noon.

After playing games for a while, Yi Shui opened a website to browse the news... Sure enough, the enemy's attack came.

'A 100 Million Yuan Contract: Nike's Worst Decision in History', 'Is the Yi River Worth 100 Million Yuan?', 'Nike Wants to Make Up for Past Mistakes, But There's Only One Yao Ming'...

Shortly after the official announcement, domestic sports websites and even entertainment websites were flooded with news of this kind.

After Yi Shui completed his operation, he logged onto a website in the United States, where the situation was similar, and the comments were even more direct.

This was within his expectations. Before signing the contract, Bartelstein and Shen Zhiyu had told him that the signing was just the beginning of a new confrontation.

In recent days, there have been rumors that he will get a 5-year, 4000 million or 7-year, 7000 million sneaker endorsement deal, but it is actually fake news released by his rivals... so it can't be completely considered fake news.

At the end of April, shortly after announcing the signing of an agent, Bartelstein received a five-year, $40 million offer.

After the draft lottery results were announced, the price reached 5 years for $5000 million, exceeding the average price of last year's second overall pick, Kevin Durant.

By the time of the draft, Nike had raised the price to 7 years for $8400 million, and the other two major brands followed suit.

But Bartelstein still didn't agree. After the Knicks won the first overall pick, he set his sights on a 7-year, $9100 million contract and wouldn't accept any offer below that amount.

This is clearly not what the opposing team wants to see.

The amount of an endorsement fee reflects a person's "status" and the amount of promotional resources invested.

It will also affect other brands' expectations of the player's value.

And the media's promotional efforts, because most of the brand's publicity investment ends up in the media's pockets.

Nike's offers have consistently been lower than those for their top-tier brands, and that's why.

After all, so much has already been invested in that person, and sunk costs are influencing decisions.

The rival team released false information to influence the brand's judgment—that other brands only provided that much.

The brand may not be unaware that this is fake news, but they choose to believe it to be true, which can be seen as a tacit understanding between the brand and its top spokesperson.

The other two major brands also opted to stay at the 7-year, 8400 million price point. They have the money to pay, but given their existing endorsement lineups, it's difficult to offer more.

Bartelstein chose to continue patiently pulling the strings.

In a stalemate, there will always be a "spoiler". Under Armour, which had been silent after initially offering a 5-year, 4000 million contract, suddenly offered a 7-year, 9800 million contract.

This has driven up the average annual endorsement fee to 1400 million!
Bartelstein almost agreed on the spot, but reason prevailed over impulse, and he passed the price to the three major brands.

After receiving the news, Adidas and Reebok, as before, held meetings, discussed, and went through lengthy procedures.

Nike's reaction was completely different, like a stress response.

Nike grew from a small workshop with a market value of less than 3000 million to the number one sports brand giant today, all thanks to Michael Jordan.

They didn't want to see another competitor emerge and seize market share, so they wanted to nip it in the bud... and that's how the first rookie's 100 million yuan endorsement contract came about.

Yi Shui browsed the website for a while and saw that the public opinion was becoming increasingly turbulent. He didn't rush, closed the website, and played Legend of Mir to relive the joy of his childhood.

Soon, at 8 p.m., their response finally arrived.

No straight flushes, no pair battles, no three-of-a-kind dominating... just go straight for the royal flush!

The official website of the Chinese Olympic team featured a photo of Yi Shui with officials and team leaders from the Basketball Association, with the headline: "The first player to report to the final training camp for the men's basketball team is Yi Shui, the newly crowned number one draft pick in the NBA."

An hour and a half later, the US stock market opened, and Nike's stock price surged...

...

Yi Shui shut down her computer; it was almost 10 o'clock. She took a shower and went to bed.

He was certainly pleased to have defeated the enemy in one move and turned the tide of the battle instantly, but he wasn't exactly excited.

Such underhanded tactics from the opposing side are nothing short of clown behavior.

However, this is just the beginning, and there will definitely be more such incidents in the future.

Yi Shui's approach was to do whatever work was assigned to him, and not to cause trouble if there was none.

He doesn't understand those things right now, so he leaves professional matters to the professionals.

He will definitely try to learn more about business in the future to improve his control over his business, but he really doesn't have the time right now.

He doesn't want his skills to remain the same as they are now when he retires.

After taking a shower and lying down, Yi Shui opened her phone, looked at her account information, and couldn't help but smile.

He gave over 90% of the 10% to 20% down payment he received from signing those "small" endorsements to his parents. At that time, he had less than $500,000 left in all his US bank accounts.

But less than half a day after leaving his parents, once the contract was signed and the agreed-upon 10% advance payment for the total endorsement fee arrived, his cash assets doubled compared to before he gave the money to his parents!
By mid-month, each brand will have received 40% or 45% of their first-year endorsement fees...

Of the 10% endorsement fee, he received 966 million yuan, and then Bartelstein took 84 yuan, but he didn't care at all.

Securing the first rookie endorsement contract in basketball history worth over $100 million was inseparable from Bartelstein's greed and patience. He joked with two friends that he didn't choose Rich Paul because he was worried the guy would try to get him to be LeBron James's sidekick… there was indeed that concern.

But the main concerns are business-related.

If they had signed Rich Paul, Yi Shui estimates he would have gotten a maximum of $8400 million over 7 years.

Even if there were the opportunity to get more, it would stop here.

Nothing happened overnight. The next day, July 10th, Yi Shui woke up feeling great, her jet lag finally back.

After finishing breakfast, he immediately set off for Laoshan Gymnasium.

He hasn't had a complete training session since June 21st, which has already caused him a significant delay, and he doesn't want to waste any more time.

Fortunately, although the reporting time has not yet arrived, the men's basketball team's training camp preparations are already complete.

After getting up, Yi Shui called the team leader. When he arrived at the gymnasium, the trainers, nutritionists, and physiotherapists were already in place, and the training ground was ready.

He thought of an idiom—"One generation plants the trees, another enjoys the shade."

The hard work and dedication of the national team's predecessors have enabled them, the successors, to enjoy the same treatment they have today.

His goal is to join the national team, so he should also create better basic conditions for future national team members. As for the future national team, it's a real worry... If it's still like that when the time comes, as a senior member of the national team, he can just speak up passionately.

Now, his goal is to do his best!
During a training break, Yi Shui met with the coaches who came to the gymnasium, but after a brief greeting, he continued training; there was no need for further pleasantries.

Seeing this, he truly understood how many people were hoping to gain prestige through this Olympics.

The coaching staff for a men's basketball team alone includes one head coach and five assistant coaches as stipulated by the Olympic Committee.

The men's basketball team even created their own special assistant coaches, life assistant coaches, and psychological assistant coaches... The entire coaching staff totaled 13 people!
There were both men and women, and some of them were obviously unrelated to the basketball industry at first glance, like some kind of superhuman who had appeared out of nowhere.

Fortunately, there's no need to worry about these people dragging him down; they're probably even more eager to achieve good results than he is.

As evening approached, Yi Shui felt his energy was almost depleted. He notified the nutritionist to prepare dinner, intending to rest for a while before continuing his weightlifting.

Back in China, he no longer had to worry about time constraints during training or the safety of walking alone at night, unlike when he was in New York.

With his two-meter-tall stature, it's a miracle if people don't feel threatened when they see him from afar on the streets of Qingdao.

After he felt he was no longer sweating, he went back to the locker room to dry off and changed into clean training clothes. He received a text message from the nutritionist and was about to go to the restaurant for lunch when he encountered three people as he left the locker room.

Head coach Jonas, chief assistant coach Guo Shiqiang, and a giant—Yao Ming!
Yi Shui flashed forward, looked up at the little giant, and estimated that after his 'second growth spurt' was complete, he would still have to tilt his head back to talk to Yao Ming at close range... which would be very tiring for his neck.

Yao Ming took the initiative to extend his hand and greet him, saying, "Hi, BIG, I'm Yao Ming, you must know me, right?"

Yi Shui's expression instantly became conflicted. He replied, "Brother Yao, you should just call me Xiao Yi or Xiao Shui. That's what my older brothers and sisters call me. BIG... being an American is one thing, but when I hear you call me that, I feel like I'm a gangster in Hong Kong, and people call me Big BIG."

Yao Ming laughed and said, "Okay, I got it, BIG."

Yi Shui angrily retorted, "Do you believe I'll jump up and hit your knee?"

When Yao Ming and Guo Shiqiang first heard this, they were stunned for a moment, but then they burst into laughter.

After listening to Guo Shiqiang's translation, Jonas couldn't stop laughing.

Yao Ming's goodwill towards Yi Shui increased significantly. He had originally held some 'prejudice', just like Zhang Weiping before his first interview with Yi Shui.

The comments about Yi Shui's personality in the American news are indeed... As an athlete at the center of public opinion, Yao Ming naturally knows that those news reports cannot be completely believed, but he only thinks that the news is exaggerated.

After all, he was also involved in American sports, and he knew that as a Chinese person, being too nice would only lead to being bullied there, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

But those prejudices were shattered at their first meeting.

He's handsome and sunny, has a lively personality, and is very interesting to talk to...

After exchanging greetings and getting to know each other, Yi Shui asked, "Brother Yao, aren't you supposed to report for duty the day after tomorrow? Why are you here so early?"

Yao Ming replied, "I originally planned to come from Shanghai tomorrow, but after seeing the news last night that you reported to the training camp, I rushed over today."

I've wanted to meet you for a long time. After I heard in February that you had secured one of the top three spots in the Crazy Challenge, I was determined to go and watch you compete live.

Unfortunately, before Madness 3 even started, I got injured and spent two months in the hospital and at home, followed by two months of rehabilitation.

When the doctor allowed me to move around freely, you were already the number one draft pick... It's such a pity I didn't get to see you win the championship!

Thinking of Yao Ming's injury, Yi Shui replied with regret, "Your situation was even more regrettable. You had a 22-game winning streak, but you and McGrady were both injured. In the end, you were only two games behind the Lakers. If you had been in first place, you wouldn't have had it so easy against the Nuggets..."

After chatting for a while, Yao Ming invited, "It's getting late, come on, let me treat you to dinner!"

Yi Shui wanted to go, but declined, saying, "I've already ordered a nutritious meal, and I have training later. I'll treat you next time."

"Haven't you already practiced all day? Why are you still practicing?"

"Just a little bit more..."

Half an hour later, Yao Ming, Guo Shiqiang, and Jonas, who hadn't left, saw Yi Shui lifting weights inside the gym.

Guo Shiqiang praised it outwardly, but inwardly he was thinking, "Is this just a show for us?"

Yao Ming had similar thoughts, but because he had a good first impression of Yi Shui, he was more worried that the young man would ruin his body.

He thought he would talk to Yi Shui about this when no one else was around, but there was no need.

But the next morning, when Yao Ming returned to Laoshan Gymnasium to begin his rehabilitation training, he saw Yi Shui practicing full-court sprint layups on the training court.

That energetic look was completely different from how half-dead he looked when we got back to the hotel last night!
(End of this chapter)