At 10:30 in the morning on July 8, Li Ming was woken up by the classic ringtone of the Nokia 6600 at hand.
"This old antique phone just doesn't work. It doesn't have a Do Not Disturb mode. The most annoying thing is that I can't even use TikTok even if I want to."
After looking at the caller number, it turned out to be a call from Raptors general manager Grunwald.
Li Ming was completely sleepless now. He cleared his throat and answered the phone calmly and politely:
"Good morning Dear Mr. Grunwald, I'm glad to receive your call."
"Good morning Li Ming. I won't tell you any more polite words for now. Come to my office when you have time. It's time to sign the contract."
"Of course I have time, Mr. Grunwald. I have been waiting for this day for some time."
"Haha, just go into my office when you arrive. I have already said hello to the assistant, and she will bring you over when you arrive."
Li Ming hung up the phone, took the time to wash up, put on what he thought was the most handsome suit, drove the limited edition Ferrari Enzo he bought as a hero of the city of Toronto, and headed to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Company with a kick of the accelerator.
This car cost Li Ming one million. Although he was very distressed, thinking that he was going to be a big player in the NBA and his income was not the same as that in the CBA, he persuaded himself that it was not worth the money.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is the largest sports and entertainment company in Maple Leaf Country. The chairman of the company's board of directors is Larry Tanenbaum, who is also a Jewish tycoon. He controls the entire Toronto sports and entertainment industry, including three of the four major sports leagues in North America:
Basketball - Raptors, Hockey - Maple Leafs, Baseball - Blue Jays.
In addition to the team, there is also Insight Sports, a professional leading sports media, which is the well-deserved leader in the Maple Leaf Country sports circle.
In the NBA, many people think that Toronto is a small ball market. In fact, it is not the case. Toronto is the third largest city in North America and the 11th largest city in the world, ahead of Chicago.
Toronto is a standard immigrant city, with more than 400,000 Chinese people alone, accounting for almost 1/5 of Toronto's total population.
The Raptors were only established too late (established in 1995) and their fan base is relatively weak.
But the city here has a very rich heritage. If there are stars who can drive the enthusiasm of local fans, then the potential of basketball in this city is immeasurable.
After parking the car, he followed his assistant to Grenvall's office. The two had briefly interacted with each other at the draft. Li Ming knew that this was a very shrewd middle-aged white man.
"Dear Mr. General Manager, I hope I didn't come too late and make you wait too long."
As soon as Li Ming came in, he stretched out his right hand with a smile and walked quickly towards Grenvall.
"You came just in time. I just finished handling the previous work and you came here."
Grenvall obviously still valued Li Ming very much. When he saw Li Ming coming, he immediately stood up from his seat and stretched out his right hand forward. The two held their hands tightly.
"The future of the team depends on you."
Grenvall let go of his hand, pulled out the seat opposite the table and motioned for Li Ming to sit down. After Li Ming sat down, he returned to his seat.
"The management has already met and decided that with you as the cornerstone of the team's future, we will build a championship team in the next ten years. Do you have this confidence?"
"10 years? I think you underestimate me. I guarantee that within my rookie contract, I will get a championship trophy for the Raptors. This is also my commitment to the city of Toronto."
Li Ming said with a confident smile and crossed his hands.
"Okay, I like the confidence of you young people! This is the contract. Take a look at it. It is also the NBA's rookie standard contract. It is 13.63 million US dollars for four years, 2.91 million in the first year, 3.13 million in the second year, and 3.13 million in the third year. 3.35 million in the first year and 4.24 million in the fourth year.”
Grenvall only thought that this was the youthful frivolity of young people. Also, how could one be called a young man if he was not frivolous? !
But Li Ming's frivolity is well-founded and has a system. Coupled with his current top-notch static and dynamic talents, once he has learned the skills almost, there is no need to be afraid of five Jordans playing together.
After a quick read of the contract, Li Ming signed and fingerprinted the contract.
"In the future, if you have any suggestions for the development of the team, you can come to me at any time. This is the treatment only given to the cornerstone of the team. Don't tell others."
Grenvall said jokingly as he put away the contract.
"Thank you to the team for trusting me. I will definitely live up to the team's expectations of me!"
If the team trusts you in return, you will definitely not let the team down.
"Okay, I have nothing to do here." Grenvall stood up again:
"There has been a big deal recently. You should always pay attention to the news. I won't tell you more about the specifics, but it is definitely something that is good for you. You will definitely be satisfied."
If he guessed correctly, it should be the deal with Yao Yao that the dog system said. Li Ming saw through it but did not reveal it, and responded with a smile:
"Then I'll wait for your good news. See you next time. I'll go back first."
"Okay, slow down on the road. Assistant, please see Li Ming off."
After coming out of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Company, Li Ming sat in the car and did not start immediately.
As far as he knows, this year's head coach of the Raptors was hired from a local university, has no NBA coaching experience, and left after only one year.
In Li Ming's original world, the Raptors' record this year was not very good, and they didn't even make the playoffs.
Coaching is a big problem, but I don’t know how to remind Grenvall tactfully.
Of course, what Li Ming didn't know was that Grenvall was also fired next year because of the Raptors' poor performance in the 2003-04 season.
But this is all the development of Li Ming's original world. Now that Li Ming exists in this world, everything is still unknown.
"Forget it, there must be a road before the car reaches the mountain. Besides, if the coach is not good, wouldn't it be better to give me a chance to perform as a puppet coach? This is the treatment that James only received in the later period."
Li Ming talked to himself and persuaded himself, don't say it, his mentality is quite good.
After returning home, Li Ming, combined with what the dog system said before, that this world is 99% similar to his original world, dug out his previous memories and felt that he must set up a business company and a brokerage company, otherwise Why not go back to the past in vain?
After thinking about it, Li Ming found that he was really alone in this world. Everyone knew him, but he knew no one.
Based on his trust in the dog system, Li Ming felt that he still had to rely on nepotism, so he called his two cheap buddies to come to his home.
Sure enough, every circle has its own friends. Li Ming's two best friends also live in the Paoma Trail community, but they live a little further away and the house is not as big as Li Ming's house.
After about 10 minutes, the room bell rang, and the two of them came over one after another, which was quite a coincidence.
He asked the nanny to make three cups of tea and bring it over. Li Minggang blew into the tea. Before he could speak, Yang Jilong started to say:
"Since when have you started to like tea? Isn't your favorite drink Coke?"
I don’t know how the dog system assigned him a personality. As a basketball player, can he drink Coke?
"I was young and naive before, but now I'm in the NBA. I can't drink Coke anymore. Drinking too much of that stuff is bad for your health."
Li Ming curled his lips and found an excuse to excuse himself.
Speaking of which, these two close friends should be very good to Li Ming. When Li Ming went to New York to participate in the NBA draft, they were the two who went with him.
I was anxious to go back to Toronto to look at a house. Although the two of them wanted to spend two more days in New York, they still accompanied me back. This shows that Li Ming still has some weight in their hearts.
Thinking of this, Li Ming no longer hesitated:
"As you know, I have gone to the NBA now and will definitely not go to college again. I now want to open two companies, one commercial company, mainly to develop some investment and trade industries."
"The other one is a brokerage company, mainly agents for NBA players. Now I want to work with you two. I don't know what you are thinking about."
Yang Jilong and Zhao Jiou looked at each other, and Zhao Jiou thought for a while and said:
"You don't want us to be in charge of these two companies respectively, do you? But we are only high school graduates and haven't gone to college yet. Besides, our family will definitely force us to go to college."
"I definitely know this. I've thought about it a long time ago. Aren't you going to college to take over your family's business in the future?"
How could Li Ming not think of what they said:
"We can start like this. We will set up the company first, you go to college first, and we will recruit a few professional managers to manage the company. When the company grows in size and you have to personally intervene, you can Take a leave of absence. If you become a big boss in the industry, which university will not issue you a diploma?"
Li Ming had already thought of a solution. If he couldn't solve such a simple thing, then even their families wouldn't be able to get through this.
"If that's the case, I have no objection." Yang Jilong said first.
"I don't have any objection either." Zhao Jiou thought about it for a moment and then said cheerfully.
"Okay, then I've decided happily! In terms of equity, this company will be led by me in the early stage. I have a few good ideas. If they are realized, I should be able to make a lot of money."
"So all the early investment will be made by me. This is my plan. Yang Jilong, you will be in charge of the commercial company. I will give you 10% of the dry shares and the monthly salary is fixed at one thousand US dollars. Don't worry, 10% of the future investment will be given to you." The dividends will definitely surprise you.”
Li Ming calmed down, then looked at Zhao Jiou and continued:
"Zhao Jiou, you will be in charge. The brokerage company will also give you 10% of the shares and a fixed monthly salary of US$1,000. Don't worry, there will definitely not be any parallel imports of NBA players under our banner in the future."
"Okay, I believe in you. You have been better than us since we were little. It seems that we will make a lot of money with you in the future, hahaha." Yang Jilong patted his chest repeatedly to express his position.
"Then I'm going to learn the knowledge of an agent now. Now that I've done it, we must make it bigger and stronger!" Zhao Jiou was not to be outdone.
Li Ming was also very happy after the negotiation on establishing the company was concluded. After having lunch with his two best friends, he began to prepare the materials needed to establish the company.
