When Ada hurried into the office one morning in March and told Min Congda that "something happened at the Huawei Center," Min Congda had only one thought in his mind:
"I have finally waited for this day!"
If a big project like Huawei Center doesn't go wrong, I'd really be sorry for its billions of cost and huge and advanced design scale.
From the beginning of foundation laying, design, and construction, Huawei Center has encountered many problems, which are certainly inevitable for such a large project.
In the past, because the arena was too large, there were considerable difficulties in construction, which made the early progress of the center very slow.
Problems with the redesign of some structures even started to appear early on, which caused quite a headache for the construction side.
However, Min Congda showed extraordinary patience and an extremely generous and open-minded attitude during the construction process.
Anyway, if you work on it slowly and slowly, you will definitely have enough money and the construction period will definitely not be rushed.
In order to fulfill the promise made to the district councilors, this project also recruited a large number of black workers in the Inglewood area to allow them to participate in the construction of peripheral projects.
These old gangsters emphasize "meticulousness" in doing things and take everything slowly. Such a big project may take at least two to three years, or even three to five years.
In the past few years, haven’t there been jobs? Don’t you have to worry about your livelihood?
Moreover, the wages offered by the Clippers are quite generous, one to two points higher than those at ordinary construction sites.
So everyone was happy to work on this project, and for a while this project really brought about a small economic boom in the community.
Of course, the corresponding pressure on the Clippers is quite high. As financial director, Rosser is simply dancing on the edge of a knife.
Since the groundbreaking of the Huawei Center, he has basically stopped paying attention to the team's basketball affairs, and has focused all his energy on engineering projects and the team's financial flow.
He basically used what he had learned throughout his life to coordinate the financial planning and cash flow issues of the entire team and the project by himself, which required both spending money and saving money.
Trying to find ways to bring in funds from different channels to find a financial balance - the billions of funds previously raised for the construction of the arena are not enough.
Min Congda only wants to cause destruction, and although he is a banker, his financial ability is far inferior to that of team executives like Rosser.
For a big project, funds are the blood that drives it forward, so Min Congda is the nominal leader and Rosser is the real person in charge.
Relying on the Clippers' good cash flow this year and the reputation effect brought by the championship bonus to attract many investors, Rosser is still dancing very well.
But the problem still occurred without warning. The construction company suddenly went on strike on March 7, and the engineers, technicians, and construction workers stopped working.
Rosser rushed to the scene as soon as he received the news and asked his subordinates not to report to Smart and his boss for the time being. He thought he could handle it.
As expected, the construction company made a very exorbitant request: extra money.
The construction company's reasons are very good, that is, the construction is too difficult and the construction period is too tight.
Rosser is of course very angry about this. The construction is very difficult. You have been given time to make changes and adjustments, and the construction period... This project has just begun, but you feel that the construction period is tight?
Besides, because of Min Congda's request, the Clippers basically don't press deadlines. You just have to work hard and do the job well.
Faced with this rude request, Rosser naturally argued with reason. They even signed a contract. If it didn't work, they would have to go to court.
But the construction company seems not afraid of meeting the Clippers in court. They believe that it will be difficult for the Clippers to find a suitable replacement construction company in a short time.
Moreover, this project has invested a lot of money, and the Clippers' capital chain is already operating at its limit. It will definitely be too much to start from scratch.
The contract between the two parties had originally stipulated on issues such as breach of contract and price changes. It was not completely unreasonable for the construction party to increase the amount of money.
If a lawsuit does arise, the Clippers may be in trouble.
Faced with such a situation, Rosser was of course irresponsible.
After hiding it for three days, Rosser finally informed his boss Shelly first, and then asked Ada to inform Min Congda.
Rosser himself continued to negotiate with the construction company. He would rather quarrel with the construction company than tell Min Congda about the matter in person.
He knows that this new arena is the hard work of Manager Smart, and it is a basketball monument that belongs to the Clippers that he must use his reputation and amazing mobility to build.
If he didn't handle this matter well, he would really feel guilty and be very afraid of facing Min Congda's sharp eyes.
It has been more than three years since Min Congda came to the Clippers. Three years is long enough that everyone has a huge sense of awe towards him.
This person never makes a mistake when making a decision. This person never hesitates when making a decision.
The most important thing is that he led the Clippers to the championship and achieved an incredible miracle.
Rosser, who spent many years with the Clippers, truly admires and respects Min Congda.
Because Rosser is in charge of finance, the entire team's money will be taken away from him.
Min Congda, as a man who dominates the world, has not taken away a penny from the team in more than three years!
Although he used the team's money to build a good canteen and went to the canteen to eat every day, what does it mean?
In the NBA, it is impossible to reach the general manager level and run a team worth hundreds of millions of dollars without doing some benefits.
Not to mention the general manager, a team executive can easily make millions or even tens of millions of dollars a year by using some tricks.
As far as Rosser knows, a team like the Kings, which has been in decline for many years, has several internal bugs.
But Smart has been as clean as water and as cheap as a mirror for more than three years, and he regards money as dirt. In order to speak out for the team, he paid millions in fines alone in more than three years.
To this day, he still lives in an apartment near Chinatown. He has no real estate, his car belongs to the team, and he has no family or children.
My biggest hobbies are fishing, eating pizza, and focusing all my energy on the team!
How could Rosser not be impressed by such a great personality?
He did not allow the project to stall like this. On the morning of the 11th, he made an appointment with the manager and boss of the construction company to meet together, hoping to have a good discussion on this issue.
It would be best to come up with a more satisfactory plan before Shelly Sterling and Smart take action.
However, if Rosser could do it, or if the construction party was willing to talk to him, the matter would not have come to this point, and he would not have to report the situation to his superiors.
There is no doubt that the negotiation is fruitless, and the other party is quite tough.
They seem to have noticed that the Clippers' internal management is loose and they have lax requirements on costs, so they are thinking of making another profit.
In the United States, when doing such large projects, it is often necessary to stay open for three years and wait for three years after opening.
After all, the United States has long passed the era of large-scale infrastructure construction, and such major public facilities projects are rare.
How could they give up without taking a few more bites of meat?
Rosser was somewhat alone. Although he did a lot of work as a paper framer, he was never the leader of the project.
Even if some kind of agreement is to be reached, Rosser does not have the final say. To put it bluntly, he has no negotiating capital.
When Rosser was about to explain the situation to Min Congda face to face, his cell phone rang, and it was Min Congda calling.
Rosser answered the phone. He was very nervous. Just when he opened his mouth to explain to Min Congda, Min Congda interrupted him and asked directly: "Rosser, where are you now? Are you with the people from AMF Company?" ?”
AMF Company is the general contractor for the construction of this arena. Of course, they also have many cooperative and outsourcing units, many large and small.
It's a big project, but it has to feed a lot of people and give a lot of people a bite to eat.
"Yes, that's right, I just talked to them..."
Before Rosser could finish speaking, Min Congda interrupted him again and said, "Rosser, is there any water in front of you now? Or drinks, coffee, or any other liquid."
Rosser was stunned, looked around, and said: "There is... there is a cup of coffee that I haven't finished yet. It's already cold... What's wrong, Mr. Smart?"
"Very well, Rosser, now take this cup of coffee and pour it on the head of the person in charge of AMF."
"What? What did you say?"
"I said, pick up this cup of cold coffee and pour it on the head of the person in charge of AMF. Actually, I want you to heat it up first, but I'm afraid they will run away. Hurry up, pick it up."
Rosser swallowed. To be honest, this was the first time in his life that he had heard such a request.
If someone else had said that, he would never do that and hang up the phone.
But the person who asked him to do this was Smart, and he had no other choice now.
He can only obey.
So, Rosser suddenly walked to the table, picked up the cup of cold but unfinished coffee, and poured it all on the head of AMF leader Thorhan.
He was a little bald, and the coffee flowed down his face and neck into his clothes. Fortunately, the coffee had cooled down, otherwise it would have burned him half to death.
Even so, Rosser felt happy in his heart when he saw Thorhan's angry and embarrassed look.
He knew that the two sides would undoubtedly be at odds with each other, and a contract termination lawsuit seemed inevitable.
But Rosser knew that Mr. Smart must have a way. He must have thought of some good idea and had a backup plan to break with AMF so boldly!
Rosser's idea was only half right, and his move did break up the cooperation between the Clippers and AMF.
Although AMF's reputation in the industry will be damaged as a result, they still do it for the sake of high compensation and more generous profits.
They thought the Clippers would give in, but they didn't expect that Smart, who had always been easy to talk to and didn't care about anything, would suddenly be so tough.
The next day, Min Congda held a press conference and announced the termination of cooperation with AMF Company and the search for another construction developer.
How could they understand what Min Congda was thinking? How could Min Congda miss such a good opportunity that could delay the construction period and increase construction costs?
Therefore, Rosser's other half of the idea was definitely wrong. Min Congda not only had no backup plan, but even asked Rosser to pour coffee on the opponent's head, which was all a temporary move he came up with to intensify the conflict.
Alternative? Reserve army? plan B? Plan B?
It doesn't exist. All this is just to fool people, to fool investors like Shelly Sterling.
When the project couldn't proceed, the flow of funds was blocked, and all parties started to get angry, Min Congda knew that the fire planned by Abang Palace was about to burn!
He has been planning for so long and has been waiting for today! AMF, a company that is greedy and has a bad moral bottom line, sent a beautiful assist.
When Min Congda chose them, he was attracted by the company's casual management and not-so-good reputation.
The main reason why we unanimously agreed to let them take charge is that their construction plan is indeed very beautiful.
Unexpectedly, it was just an argument on paper, with constant problems in the middle, and finally a landmine exploded, which made Min Congda satisfied.
In the next few days, Min Congda waited for this matter to ferment, and he didn't want to care about it anyway.
Let Xie Li and the others go in a hurry then. The worst that Min Congda can do is pat his butt and say it's none of my business. I didn't get a penny more from you?
He began to settle down and watch the Clippers' games in March and April. If you didn't watch, you wouldn't know that the Clippers were very aggressive in March.
After defeating the Cavaliers and Thunder one after another, the Clippers showed their muscles to the entire league.
Many teams in the league that have always despised the defending champion have felt the pressure.
On March 13, the Clippers defeated the Grizzlies at home 107:100 with a 7-point advantage.
It is also a game where the point difference cannot show the difference between the two teams.
Griffin continued his previous spell in Los Angeles: his personal data was very good, but the team always lost.
Since missing out on the No. 1 pick in 2009, Griffin has only won one game against the Clippers in Los Angeles, and the others were all defeats.
Tonight he scored 27 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists, a very comprehensive performance.
But there is absolutely no ability to stop the Clippers from winning.
In the post-game summary, the Grizzlies, from the coaching staff to the players, felt there was nothing much to say.
Can't beat it, really can't beat it.
It would be fine if the Grizzlies were still the underdogs they were before, but they are clearly already an important force in the West.
The ranking has been hovering in the middle, only one or two games away from the top half.
The Grizzlies have begun to consider whether to fall to sixth place and avoid encountering the Clippers in the semifinals.
Then, the Clippers took a three-day break and faced the New York Knicks on the 17th.
The Knicks, like the Clippers, were outstanding at the beginning of the season, but were plagued by various problems in the middle of the season and were unsatisfactory.
The biggest problem for the Knicks is that their core Stoudemire Jr. is injured for the season and cannot play.
The combination of Anthony + Stoudemire Jr. has never shown its power.
The Clippers did not have such a problem. They defeated the Knicks at 97:80 at home with a huge advantage of 17 points.
Suppressing the Knicks' score to 80 points is enough to show that the Clippers are indeed very good at defense now.
Subsequently, the Clippers defeated the Kings, 76ers, Nets, Mavericks and other teams in succession, once again starting a winning streak.
Because there was a problem with the project, Min Congda felt much calmer watching the game. He was no longer angry when the Clippers won, and even became happy along with everyone else.
The beautiful name is, having fun with the people!
The Clippers' winning streak lasted from March to April, including four consecutive visits. They went to the Texas Triangle and escaped unscathed.
The Mavericks, Rockets, and Spurs were at the mercy of the three teams. Although they won two games quite thrillingly, they did not really give their opponents a chance.
The Clippers' control of the game has gradually entered a very high level.
Min Congda thinks that he understands everything and is under his control.
As time entered April, Min Congda suddenly discovered that the Huawei Center project seemed to be moving again.
This is a big deal, could someone take over? No, why didn’t I get the news?
He immediately called Rosser and asked Rosser to come to his office to explain the situation.
When Rosser saw Min Congda, he praised: "Mr. Smart, I knew you had a backup plan. Now everything is normal, even better than before..."
"Hey wait, wait, what makes everything normal? Or even better? What happened?"
"Uh...don't you know? Oh, by the way, those days when you were in Texas, Shelly said not to disturb your mood of watching the game, and the boss said you must know about it."
"What happened? What happened?"
"Well...that is, a construction team from China took over this project. It was introduced by our title sponsor Huawei. They said they came here because of your reputation, Mr. Smart, as well as to open up the US market and start a new project." China’s reputation for speed…”
Min Congda suddenly felt a bang in his head, what's going on? Why is this project coming back to life after I watched the game for two weeks?
No lawsuit? Is there no dispute over the contract? Why shouldn't the person who takes over the deal talk about the situation? besides…
China speed?
Min Congda knows how terrifying this thing is in the 21st century.
After all, he is Chinese, but why are they connected?
Min Congda collapsed on the chair like a deflated rubber ball.
"Destiny...is it really not in me..."
(End of chapter)
