The Whip of the God of Basketball

Leon's decision to sign Wang Zhizhi was not purely out of emotional factors. Although in the deepest part of his heart he still has a love for the players who grew up on the land on the other side of the ocean, this will not affect his player ability and Judging the needs of the team, he will not give him a job to play just because he is emotionally inclined to a certain team.

So what he gave Anji was not only a word about signing Wang Zhizhi, but also a thick scouting report on Wang Zhizhi and a plan on how to use this player. This is also the reason why Anji finally decided to give Wang Zhizhi a contract. . In this regard, Angie and Leon are very similar. They both have strong personalities, but they will not affect the final decision because of personal likes and dislikes and emotions. They always adhere to the "Business-is-business" principle, To run their own basketball philosophy.

However, the biggest problem for Leon is not to persuade Anji to sign Wang Zhizhi, but how to deal with the public opinion storm that Wang Zhizhi is about to face. The incident of Wang Zhizhi's non-return still left an impression in Leon's mind, because he remembered that at that time, the overwhelming news about Wang Zhizhi on TV disappeared without a trace in an instant. News reports, including live broadcasts of his team's games, have evaporated from Chinese media. For a while, the evaluation of Wang Zhizhi was also "traitor" and "unpatriotic".

Leon can't remember the ending of this incident, but he knows that this kind of thing must have great psychological harm to a player, and only Leon can understand this kind of harm. There is no way to understand it. After all, in the United States, players play for themselves. There is no such thing as a country or collective training you. Even a club is just a place where players work. During the offseason, players are responsible for their own training. It is up to them to decide whether to advance or fall. . They have no way to understand why a player must return to China to play, why he has to sign an agreement with the club and the Basketball Association.

Now, Leon has a more detailed understanding of the ins and outs of the whole incident, because Roland Beech of the Mavericks and Leon worked together in the scout team, and Leon learned the ins and outs of the matter through him, so Leon borrowed When Schwartz came to Boston to negotiate with the Celtics for Paul Pierce's new contract, he sent him a fax and asked him to hand it over to Wang Zhizhi.

However, Leon doesn't think that a fax can change Wang Zhizhi's mind and solve the problem. From this incident, he can see that Wang Zhizhi is a relatively indecisive person who is easily influenced by the voices in his ears, especially that guy named Chen Weiming. , Relying on his Chinese identity to win Wang Zhizhi's trust, but he is completely American in his bones. Regardless of whether his starting point is for Wang Zhizhi's good, he has no way to put himself in Wang Zhizhi's shoes. Xia Song could have done it, but because he has not been in front of Wang Zhizhi for a long time, his relationship with Wang has broken.

The draft is just around the corner, but Leon has no draft task this time, so he decided to invite Wang Zhizhi to New York on the day of the draft, where he will have a serious meeting with him to solve the current problems and prevent Wang Zhizhi from falling into the trap of betrayal. Regardless of emotional or practical considerations, this is not what Leon wants to see. After all, Wang Zhizhi is really a useful pawn in Leon's team building plan-if he can follow Leon's development words of opinion.

…………………

On June 26, 2002, in New York, the annual NBA draft will be held in Madison Square Garden. This is the third draft that Leon has experienced. He booked a hotel room near Madison Square Garden and arrived in New York on the 26th. He was greeted at the airport by his friend Woj-Wojnarowski.

"I was expecting you to have some brilliant ideas in the draft, so as to provide me with some useful materials, but now it seems that you don't care about the draft at all, and you only came to New York on the 26th." On the way to the hotel, Woj scolded Leon.

Leon, who has just become the head coach of the Celtics, has no intention of participating in the draft this year, but instead focuses on solving internal problems and recruiting for his coaching staff. Although the return of Dave Cowens, the poaching of the Nuggets' strength and conditioning coach, and the recruitment of the Celtics veteran as a shooting coach can also be called news, readers are not interested in reading this kind of boring with a pile of old papers. News, they just want to see which team picks up those freshmen who are about to step into the league, which talented player did not meet expectations in the draft, and look forward to pulling out the draft process in a future season.

The drafts of the Celtics in the past two seasons have been talked about. As Leon's friend, Woj mentioned the Celtics' beautiful operations many times when writing a column for Espn, and praised Leon too much. Like flowers. This also played a role in fueling Leon's fame in the professional basketball circle. As a result, this year Leon did not play the draft and began to concentrate on team building, which made Woj not know how to write Celtics news.

"We signed Wang Zhizhi." Leon responded to Woj, and Woj returned Leon's helpless smile, saying: "Wang, that Chinese, if you took him in 2001, it would still be newsworthy, now? The basic salary is still used." Space? That's all I care about."

In Woj's eyes, Wang Zhizhi has faded from the halo of being from Asia, but he is just a fringe player in the NBA. A player like this is signed and then cut, which cannot be called news at all. Of course, it cannot be considered by Woj.

Leon rolled his eyes back at Woj, and then said: "Do you know how to be a great reporter? The breadth of news is not enough, you also need enough depth. Now everyone's eyes are on the draft conference, Who is the most eye-catching in the draft? Yao! I am 80% sure that the Houston Rockets will choose Yao first. Because of this, fans will pay more attention to Chinese basketball. The same is true for Chinese fans. The market will be opened. And Wang is Yao's teammate and opponent in China. This incident of Wang's failure to return will cause great waves in China. Americans will not understand why a player is unwilling to play for the national team. It caused such a negative impact. It's about the differences in the sports system and the culture of the two countries, and I bet if you dissect this topic in depth, the reporter of the year will be in your pocket."

What Woj admires most about Leon is that he can always make judgments to other people with a very confident tone. If this kind of statement is replaced by other people, it will most likely be regarded as bragging, but Leon just has one thing. There is a power to believe that he is not lying. In fact, in several cooperations, Woj has never suffered a disadvantage. Last year, because of his predictive report on Jordan's comeback and in-depth analysis, he was successfully elected as the best sports reporter in 2001. The source of the news was Leon.

This time, Woj was persuaded again, and he decided to use his own media power to report this incident. Prior to this, the first-hand reports on this incident were still concentrated in the Dallas media, including the sensational "treasonous" news.

The two had already arrived at the hotel while they were talking. Leon told Woj that he had made an appointment with Wang Zhizhi to meet his agent and assistant at 7:00 p.m. in the hotel room. Non-return events and matters related to signing contracts.

"Why didn't Darryl come with you? What about this follower?" Woj suddenly thought of Morey, who had been Leon's follower since Wallace resigned to go to the Grizzlies.

"He's going to Minnesota, and we're going to have another big signing."

…………………

At 6:30 in the afternoon, Leon received a call in the hotel. It was from Schwartz. He had brought Wang Zhizhi and Chen Weiming to the hotel where Leon was staying. Schwartz, Leon, has also dealt with him. He is an old and cunning agent. Compared with those old-school famous agents who are good at handling relationships with superstars, Schwartz is known for being proficient in rules and negotiations. - Leon felt it during Pierce's contract renewal negotiations, but fortunately, no one had any doubts about Pierce getting the maximum salary, so everything went smoothly.

But Leon is not worried about Schwartz, because he is a person who is proficient in rules and negotiations, so he will not be too entangled in the issue of Wang Zhizhi whether he should return to China. Out of the capitalist spirit that no matter how small a mosquito is, it becomes Wang's agent. If the Celtics are willing to provide a reliable contract, Schwartz will also agree to allow Wang Zhizhi to play in Zimbabwe.

The real obstacle may come from Wang Zhizhi himself and his assistant, Chen Weiming. Leon had already investigated this person through his friend in Texas, a Chinese born in New York, met Wang Zhizhi through entertainment interviews, won Wang Zhizhi's trust because of his yellow face and not fluent Chinese, and finally encouraged Wang Zhizhi to stay in the United States to fight. summer league. For Wang Zhizhi, he has resigned from his original job and became Wang's full-time assistant. Wang Zhizhi will be the only focus of his work, and Wang Zhizhi's interests are his interests.

If Wang Zhizhi returns to China, Chen Weiming will definitely not go back with Wang Zhizhi. He grew up in the United States and is a true American. When Wang Zhizhi returns from China, will Chen Weiming still have a place beside Wang Zhizhi?

Leon had already considered all of this, and he was already fully sure of how to deal with Chen Weiming and win Wang Zhizhi to his side to listen to him.