Basketball: The Chosen Victim

Chapter 227 The lockout is over, Wu Di's terms are released, and the talent ushers in a surge again!

"Invincible Elite Challenge" is so popular that Fox has made a lot of money from advertising fees alone.

Not to mention that Wu Di is still an international player, the major TV stations in China have also quickly sent people to buy the agency broadcast rights, which is another big profit.

After evaluation, Wu Di and Fox Sports chose CCTV as their partner. On the one hand, CCTV has the greatest influence, and on the other hand, it can facilitate the cooperation in Huaxia Station next year.

As a result, Fox Sports host Hornacek also moved from the United States to China. In addition to the nickname "Dead Light Gun", the old Hornacek added a new nickname "National Father-in-law", which has the momentum to overwhelm Stallone in this regard.

Of course, Wu Di is the biggest beneficiary of the show's success.

His Twitter followers skyrocketed again, breaking through the milestone of 3500 million in one fell swoop, leaving Lao Zhan far behind, even surpassing Neymar, second only to Ronaldo's more than 4200 million.

Instagram has also greatly benefited from this wave of traffic. The number of users has doubled within a month, directly breaking through 2000 million, and rushing towards 3000 million.

Zuckerberg's acquisition offer price has risen from 2.5 million US dollars to 4 million US dollars a day, but Wu Di still hasn't let go.

If converted according to 4 million US dollars, Wu Di can get 1.2 million US dollars in income from selling Instagram, which is a full 600 times increase compared to the previous investment of 20 million US dollars!
However, Wu Di has other arrangements, and investment income is secondary. After all, the share price of Under Armor has also risen a lot this time. He is not short of money for the time being. He wants to directly obtain the original shares of Zuckerberg's Facebook company through this acquisition.

On the one hand, Facebook will be listed on Nasdaq in May next year. If it can be exchanged for Facebook's original shares, Wu Di can harvest a wave of American leeks through the opportunity of listing.

On the other hand, Wu Di is from China after all, and now it is the honeymoon period between the two countries. Coupled with Ariana’s family background, his various investments are unimpeded, but with the development of his business empire, he will definitely encounter obstacles. At that time, with Zuckerberg rushing ahead, he will be able to survive a lot, and with the help of Zuckerberg’s strong network in the future, he may be able to make some contributions to China’s chip technology industry and obtain some permanent patent authorizations.

In addition to gaining a large number of fans and skyrocketing stock market value, Wu Di has also successfully ranked among the top program producers!
In fact, "Invincible Elite Challenge" can be so popular, in addition to stepping on the rhythm of the suspension of the league, Wu Di also created a precedent for a basketball reality show.

There is no need to discuss how popular reality shows are in the United States, but this has touched the cake of Nike and Adidas. They have spent a lot of money to unite TV stations to temporarily upgrade their training camps to reality shows similar to "Invincible Elite Challenge".

However, although they have superstars such as Kobe, James, Rose, Howard, etc., in fact, the main players who are substituted by the audience are grassroots young players with potential, not already famous stars.

However, at this time, the potential grassroots young players have long been monopolized by the "Invincible Elite Challenge". After realizing this, Nike and Adidas have taken money offensives against the most popular players in the Invincible Elite Challenge.

Like Anthony Davis, Nike directly gave him $20 to switch to Nike's skill training game!

There is one thing to say, this trick is really dirty, 20 US dollars is higher than the initial championship prize money, Nike is completely shameless and sabotage.

Fortunately, Wu Di had anticipated this situation a long time ago, and placed a pawn in advance, which is the spiritual mentor of the students, Little Jordan.

The students told Jordan about this situation, and after Jordan knew about this situation, he immediately exposed to the media that Nike and Adidas spent a lot of money to poach people!
The basketball reality show, which was originally relatively simple, was turned into a smell of money. Nike and Adidas were cast aside by countless fans of the show in an instant, and the stock price plummeted.
Soon, Adidas announced the suspension of the Adidas Cup, which is considered to be a dumb loss.

However, Nike still insists on going its own way, adopting more covert and heavy money-digging actions, so that there are still very few players, such as Bradley Beal, who cannot withstand the temptation of money and switch to Nike.

But soon, most of the players issued statements, expressing that they would continue to stay in the Invincible Elite Challenge.

Among them, Chasing Dream Green even said that Bill is a traitor, and he doesn't have to wait for Wu Di to clean up in the NBA. He has to teach him a lesson in the NCAA league.

Because of this wave of tough speeches, Green directly gained a wave of fans from passers-by.

"Good guy, B let you pretend!"

Wu Di is also speechless about this, but this is also the charm of the Invincible Elite Challenge. Every player has the opportunity to express their own personality, and there is almost no script.

Although this round of turmoil has come to an end on the surface, but Nike's chairman Phil Knight is really so angry that his stomach hurts.

He can't invite a group of non-professional players even if he spends a lot of money. When did he, the head of the number one brand in the sports world, suffer from such anger?
And looking at the stock price that Under Armor has taken off, although there is still a big gap from Nike, Knight also feels a deep sense of crisis.

Nike does not have a single factory, and it relies entirely on marketing. Now that Under Armour's traffic is so large, Nike's moat has become precarious.

So, he called Xiao Hua to discuss countermeasures.

However, Xiao Hua searched through the player handbook, but couldn't find anything that could make Wu Di right.

The reason why the reality show of the later generations of ball daddy with a big racket was stopped by the Lakers was because of the use of the Lakers' training facilities, but this time Wu Di hardly used any NBA resources except for his identity as an NBA player on his back. Xiao Hua is really helpless:
"Mr. Knight, in David's words, we have to give Wu Di an extra award because he has led the NBA! Why do you make yourself unhappy? You should put more energy into your own skill training camp..."

After Knight sent Xiao Hua away, he became even angrier. After thinking about it, he didn't sleep all night. It wasn't that he came up with a solution, but it was dawn!
"Mark, tell me to go on, we're going to set up a competition team and bring in all our high-level marketing experts to study the competition methods against Wu Di and Under Armour!"

……

Soon, August flew by, and September passed by in a flash, only the league was still suspended indefinitely. The event that Wu Di organized for ticketing was really prescient.

Originally at this point in time, the new NBA season training camp had already started, but now the players are doing nothing, making Corvo want to play in the CBA.

Wu Di, of course, arranged a heads-up package for him on the spot.

In addition to recording programs every day, there is a one-on-one fight with Corvo. Although there is not much time for the one-on-one fight, it can earn 200 million US dollars in one day.

Soon, October 10th came, and the six teams began the final competition. In order to add more highlights to the show, Wu Di chose the weakest A-level player, namely Chasing Dream Green.

Sure enough, this guy did not live up to Wu Di's expectations. In the first round, Lillard, who was selected by Thomas Jr., led the team to be eliminated 87-65.

But in the end, the Thomas Jr. team really relied on Lillard all the way through, and even eliminated Oladipo, who was selected by Irving, and Anthony Davis, who was selected by Love.

After several days of intensive competition, the result of the competition is finally decided.

Team Thomas Jr. won the championship and received a reward of $30.

The Love team won the runner-up and received a reward of 20 US dollars.

The Irving team won the third place and received a reward of 10 US dollars.

Wu Di's team was fourth, Parker's team was fifth, and Butler's team was the worst, ranking at the bottom.

At the same time, as the champion mentor, Thomas Jr. also won a 5-year endorsement contract of 1000 million US dollars from Under Armor.

This contract made Thomas Jr. overjoyed. Originally, his salary was only $65 a year, but this alone more than tripled his annual income.

In the end, the program also held an exhibition match. The Challenger team composed of A-level players challenged the active NBA player team. Wu Di staged a number of super-difficult actual dunks in it.

The "Invincible Elite Challenge" program has come to an end, but the NBA lockout has intensified, and there is no sign of relaxation.

The focus of the debate between the league and the players is player salaries.

Compared with NFL (rugby) and NHL (ice hockey), the NBA's salary cap is a soft limit, which makes the ratio of players' salary expenditure to the total revenue of the league reach 57%, far exceeding the 50% of the hard limit of NFL and NHL.

This has led to the income of NBA players ranking first among the four major sports leagues in North America for a long time, and the average salary is more than twice that of No.2NFL.

So when the NFL came to invite Lao Zhan to play a game during the lockout, Lao Zhan naturally refused to go even if he was beaten to death.

Going back to the negotiation between labor and management, according to the league, 30 of the current 22 teams are losing money. They hope to limit the proportion of player salary expenditure to less than 50%, or even reduce it to 40%, so that the team's operating conditions can be eased.

The players and the players union were naturally very dissatisfied with this and refused to sign the agreement, so the negotiations fell into a tug of war.

At this time, the chairman of the players union is not Paul, but the old fish Fisher.

Fischer is very tough, and directly incarnated as the fish boss, fighting with the league, no, messing around, and even considering raising funds to hire a team of lawyers to protect the rights and interests of the players through legal means.

Anyway, it's just a sentence, capitalists can lose money, but we players can't lose money.

Big-name players from all walks of life are also invited to participate in various conference platforms to inform the fans of the negotiations, and Wu Di is no exception.

However, there were suddenly some critical voices in China, saying that Wu Di didn't play well, was spoiled by the Americans, etc., which once led to a public relations crisis.

In this regard, Ariana cooperated with a Chinese public relations company and arranged for Wu Di to hold an online fan meeting on a certain forum to introduce the current situation of the suspension of players in the league and answer questions such as whether there is a plan to return to the CBA.

Although the public relations crisis subsided temporarily, the public relations company said meaningfully that this incident did not happen for no reason, and there should be capital behind it.

After discussing with Ariana, in order to reduce risks, Wu Di chose to continue hiring the public relations company, and at the end of October, he took a special plane arranged by Under Armor to return to China for a road show to promote the invincible brand, meet fans in cities across the country, and increase domestic influence.

In November, Wu Di returned to the United States to participate in the ultimate acquisition negotiations between Instagram and Facebook.

The current number of Instagram users has exceeded the milestone of 4000 million. It has exceeded 4000 million users just one year after its establishment, which is a full two years shorter than Facebook's performance at that time.

"5 million US dollars in cash and 5 million US dollars in original Facebook shares are our final offer. This offer has far exceeded the fair value of the market. Please consider it carefully!"

After Zuckerberg finished speaking, he led the Facebook team out of the meeting room and put extreme pressure on Wu Di and others.

"Di, it's time for us to make a final decision..."

Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram, said in a trembling tone that if he sells the company now, he can get 2 million US dollars in cash, plus 2 million US dollars in Facebook's original stock, and instantly achieve financial freedom!
A year ago, he was just an employee in the marketing department of the social travel website Nextstop, but now, he is going to become a super rich man worth over [-] million dollars!
Yes, Kevin is not a coder. He studied management at university. After joining the job, he used his evening time to teach himself programming, and developed Instagram to become famous in one fell swoop, creating one of the greatest success stories in contemporary Silicon Valley.

"Don't worry, we still have time!"

Wu Di said calmly, his target price is $5 million in cash, but he needs to exchange for $15 billion in Facebook's original stock, which means doubling Instagram's valuation to $20 billion.

"But at $10 billion, we really can't find another buyer..."

Kevin said that at first they thought of letting other big companies such as Microsoft come to carry the sedan chair, but Facebook is about to go public and needs the story of a surge in user numbers most. The current price is twice that of Microsoft, and there is no way to carry it.

Wu Di raised his hand, and Ariana took out a beautiful business plan, which was a plan to commercialize Instagram.

At present, Instagram is only relying on previous financing operations. Although it has a large number of users, it has not received any income.

However, through such a transformation, Instagram can contact advertisers, convert traffic into business, and increase the valuation again!
"Di, it's risky to do this..."

Kevin is a little hesitant. Before commercialization, Instagram’s business blueprint can be drawn, but after commercialization, it can only be set based on market feedback, and there is a risk of a decline in valuation.

Wu Di patted his shoulder lightly and said with a smile:

"We've come this far, why not take a gamble?"

"You have to know that if we can maintain the growth trend of the number of users, the valuation given by Facebook will not drop, but once the commercialization is successful, the prices charged by other companies such as Microsoft will rise..."

Kevin's eyes widened. He was moved by Wu Di. It's impossible not to be moved. From the initial valuation of 2.5 million US dollars, it became 10 billion US dollars under Wu Di's two months of operation. Now he only has one word of obedience to Wu Di.

Seeing Kevin nodded, Wu Di continued to laugh and said:

"However, commercial transformation requires spending money to recruit more people, and it will also consume brand resources. You don't know how to worry about spending money. I will inject another 300 million dollars into the company to ensure the company's operations. In terms of brand resources, we need to set up some equity incentives for Ariana. Of course, when the valuation increases, such as granting 11% when the final purchase price increases to 1 billion dollars..."

The matter is settled, and the equity incentives are also negotiated. In the end, for every $1 million increase in the purchase price, Ariana will be granted an additional 1% of the equity, with a cap of 10%.

Wu Di is full of confidence in this. The commercialization of Instagram in the future is very successful, and Ariana is not only his agent, but also the agent of Hollywood stars such as Meghan and Amanda. The resources of brand owners are so rich that they are soaring. Coupled with the experience of incubating four golden flowers to become Internet celebrities, it will take a few months to create several benchmark cases of commercialization, so as to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

As for the injection of 300 million US dollars, that would be a drop in the bucket for him.

他这个休赛期又签约了AT&T的4年3200万美刀代言合同、耳机品牌BOSE5年3000万美刀加1%股份的代言合同，还有江诗丹顿4年4000万美刀的合同。

Excluding brokerage fees, he earned another $2040 million in annual endorsement fees alone.

Coupled with the money spent with Kobe and the tens of millions of dollars in rewards for winning the finals with the Mavericks, his wealth has reached more than 9800 million dollars in cash and 5500 million dollars in Under Armor stocks.

However, there are also a lot of places to spend money. The decoration of the Cleveland mansion cost more than 600 million dollars, and the establishment of the Wu Di Venture Capital Fund cost 1000 million dollars. The biggest expense is the exchange of talent points.

吴迪用7000万美刀现金与5000万美刀股票，兑换了12点天赋点，将远投从91提升到了95的传奇级，将控球从92提升到了95的传奇级，将传球从84提升至85的巨星级，将上篮、近投、中投、抢断从86统一提升至87。

After spending 1.2 million US dollars, his various talents skyrocketed again!

With more money, there are more ways to spend it. He can use the $1.2 million to buy a private jet and a mansion in Beverly Hills, but investing in his own talent is what makes him most comfortable.

The reason why Instagram can increase the number of users so quickly has a lot to do with his amazing performance in the NBA.

And the next season is very critical. If he can't fulfill the promise in the finals and lose the FMVP to others, it will be a big embarrassment!

On November 11, after 25 consecutive hours of negotiations, the league and the players union reached a consensus and signed a new labor agreement. According to the news from Mark Stein, this agreement mainly includes three contents.

First, the players agreed to reduce the proportion of salary expenditure to 51.2% in the new season.

Second, the player's maximum salary ratio remains unchanged, which is still 30% of the team's salary cap.

Finally, a rookie contract clause derived from Wu Di was established. When signing a second contract, if rookie players meet certain extreme conditions, they can directly sign a maximum salary contract, which is 25% higher than the original 5%!

Extreme conditions include being an MVP or Finals MVP in the first three years of a rookie contract, or being named to the starting lineup twice in the All-Star Game, or being named to the All-NBA Team twice.

Once the agreement was announced, Wu Di's cards were really full!
The Wu Di clause has become another labor agreement clause named after the players after the Bird clause and the Arenas clause. Wu Di once again has a name in history!
However, it is not Wu Di who can enjoy this clause first, but Durant.

Since the No. 07 pick in 1 joined the NBA, Durant has been selected to the first team of the best team for two years, so the trigger condition of Wu Di's clause has been met, and Durant's annual salary will be increased by 300 million dollars per year.

However, when asked about his feelings about triggering the Wu Di clause, Durant scratched his head and provided joyful material for netizens.

After reaching this agreement, the NBA has also ended the lockout, and can hold preseason games and various transactions, signings and other matters on December 12.

And the problem that caused the Cavaliers a headache also came, and the price of Jordan's contract renewal skyrocketed!
Yao Ming was injured and Kaman was injured. In this era of scarce centers, Jordan, a big man who can fly like Howard, is indeed a rare commodity.

Even Sterling, a well-known miser in the league and Jordan's old club, offered a four-year offer of $4000 million!
The Warriors are even more eager to sign in, and directly provided a four-year offer of 4200 million US dollars!
The Pacers with the most space directly provided the ultimate offer of 4400 million US dollars for four years!
But Scott didn't have a headache for too long, because Gilbert quickly hired a new general manager, David Griffin.

At the same time, Gilbert approached Wu Di, preparing him to launch a friendly offensive and persuade Jordan to stay. Wu Di said that he would try his best to fight for it, but in fact, he was waiting for someone's operation.

Soon, as Wu Di expected, the Heat also offered a four-year offer of $4400 million!
Gilbert almost vomited blood, Riley's operation was really annoying.

Looking at the Heat's salary list, Riley really has this space. With the Big Three, the Heat's salary situation does not exceed the luxury tax line, and there is even room for $500 million.

However, with the addition of Jordan, it will definitely surpass, but the Heat have a lot of bargaining chips. If they can really grab Jordan, they can just trade.

With Riley's character, drawing this kind of money is definitely a pleasure. It can not only strengthen the Heat, but also cause the Cavaliers to suffer losses. I just don't know what Lao Zhan, who took the initiative to cut his salary, will think after hearing the news. The $1100 million per year is almost catching up with his $1450 million.

At this time, Wu Di made another move and successfully persuaded Jordan to accept the price of 4000 million US dollars for four years. While handing over the deal to Gilbert, he did not hurt the younger brother's interests too much.

On the other hand, Wu Di followed Riley's approach and suggested that Griffin should fight for Sean Battier, whom the Heat hoped to get. He raised the price from the Heat's three-year $900 million to three-year $1200 million, which is a full $300 million higher than the previous life!

In fact, it is said that Ray Allen was the man who saved Lao Zhan in the 13 Finals, but in terms of total contributions, Battier may have played more roles.

In the tiebreaker against the Spurs, Battier made 8 of 6 three-pointers and defended Duncan twice, so it would be nice if Riley didn't follow this time!

How did Riley react?
Wu Di really wanted to teleport to the President's Office of the Heat to have a look!
　Here is a 6000-word chapter, thank you readers for your understanding!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)