From the mont Su Xi lifted the MOP trophy, his life had shifted into the fast lane.
That night, people he knew and people he didn’t all sward him, offering congratulations and expressing interest in working together. n in sharp suits—powerful figures—invited him to dinner. NBA superstars welcod him to the league. Hollywood icon Denzel Washington walked up and told him, "You’re going to be a superstar."
It was only a 200-ter straight shot from the court to the locker room. But that path was paved with splendor—adoring crowds, the siren call of capital... This was a glimpse into the world of fa and fortune, and Su Xi had already taken his first step inside.
That night, Su Xi turned down all dia interviews and rejected the many parties the ’big shots’ wanted to throw in his honor. He returned early to his hotel room, just as he usually did. The only difference was that he was carrying this year’s NCAA MOP trophy.
At 10:30 PM, Bill Daffy arrived at Su Xi’s room, accompanied by Antonio.
He pitched a potential partnership to Su Xi, highlighting his strengths, including the superstars he represented and the NBA and dia resources he possessed.
He also detailed the kinds of sponsorships he could secure for Su Xi.
For instance... he didn’t shy away from telling Su Xi directly: "I’m close to finalizing a shoe sponsorship deal for Caron. He’s going to get a six-year, $21 million endorsent deal before he even enters the draft. Plus, the brand is giving him a signature shoe. You have to understand, very few players in the entire league have their own signature shoe."
It was indeed a remarkable achievent.
He was telling the truth.
However, when Su Xi heard that number, he started to realize that Bill Daffy’s abilities might be nothing special.
Recently, stories about LeBron Jas’s rise had been all over the dia. ntion his na, and people thought of his incredible mother, his perfect upbringing—the super-genius God himself had created for the ga of basketball.
But Antonio?
The NCAA’s top scorer?
And then what? Nothing else.
Su Xi felt that Bill Daffy’s promotion of Antonio paled in comparison to the campaign Huang Xiaoman had run with the Yahoo Website, which included that article in *Sports Illustrated*.
Most importantly, the entire basketball world was buzzing with the narrative that LeBron Jas was choosing between Adidas and Nike, with Adidas offering a contract worth over a hundred million USD.
Yet Bill Daffy wasn’t using this situation to create hype and drive up the price for Antonio. Instead, he seed perfectly content with a six-year, $21 million deal.
So, Su Xi didn’t agree right away. Instead, he said, "I’m still considering my options."
Bill Daffy had been politely rebuffed, but he wasn’t discouraged. He planned to ask another one of his clients, Yao Ming, to help him win Su Xi over.
As Antonio was leaving, he said to Su Xi, "Jack, after a couple of days of rest, I’m planning to hire Yidan Lavin as my trainer. You know, we need to get our bodies and skills into peak condition before we try out for NBA teams."
Su Xi thanked Antonio for the offer and said that if he decided to join, he would pay his own way.
Su Xi didn’t want to be financially indebted to a friend.
Although he had lived frugally over the years, he wasn’t short on cash. He still had $260,000 USD left from the compensation payout after his grandfather’s accidental death. This was one of the reasons he could resist the temptations of various agents.
Not long after Bill Daffy left, Jas arrived with his agent, Allen Goodwin, and Goodwin’s brother, Eric Goodwin.
Jas congratulated Su Xi on his incredible achievent, then cut straight to the chase and started promoting the Goodwin brothers.
Compared to Bill Daffy’s gentle, refined deanor, these two looked much more cunning. In fact, their reputation in agent circles wasn’t the best. They were known for their unorthodox thods, but those thods often managed to secure the maximum profit for their players.
They had once been partners with Bill Daffy, but they had since parted ways.
The most famous story about Bill Daffy was how he once cost a player $3 million due to an oversight, a loss he then covered out of his own pocket.
The incident earned him a great deal of praise.
But in the Goodwin brothers’ eyes, sothing like that should never have happened in the first place.
In the sponsors’ eyes, they were "villains." In hindsight, nearly all of the NBA’s most famous massive shoe contracts were their handiwork: LeBron Jas, Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, and Lillard’s huge deal with Adidas.
One key factor was that Allen Goodwin had previously worked for Reebok. Back then, he was on the corporate side, responsible for negotiating a shoe endorsent deal with Shaun Kemp’s team. Because of that, he knew exactly how to push a sponsor’s limits.
At this mont, however, aside from LeBron Jas, "the Chosen One," the Goodwin brothers only had three clients: Payton, Raheem, and Damon Stoudamire.
They were aggressively marketing themselves.
Upon seeing Su Xi, Allen Goodwin fixed him with an intense gaze. "Jack, choose . I can get you the absolute best deal. Trust , I’ve never let any of my players down."
"What do you think my comrcial value is right now?" Su Xi asked him.
"Extrely high, Jack! I know you have a brilliant operator behind the scenes who made you famous across the country even before the championship ga. Now that you’ve gotten a quadruple-double and the MOP award, your reputation is right on the heels of LeBron’s."
"Plus, you have a huge advantage over LeBron. You have the vast market of China behind you, which is the area with the greatest growth potential and clearest upward trend for global sports brands. They’ve already gotten a taste of the incredible money to be made with Yao Ming. And you’re a Point Guard, which makes your comrcial value even higher. Right now, all we need to do is convince the sponsors that you’ll be an elite player, maybe even an All-Star, once you get to the NBA."
"Make them believe it’s a sure thing."
"If we do that, I can get you an eight-million-dollar-a-year contract."
Su Xi’s brow furrowed slightly at the number Goodwin quoted.
It wasn’t that he was shocked by the money, but rather that he noticed the huge difference between Goodwin and Bill Daffy. Daffy was far more conservative and cautious.
The Goodwin brothers, on the other hand, were extrely aggressive.
’To break new ground, you need aggressive people.’
"Am I only worth eight million USD?" Su Xi countered.
His tone was even, his expression confident, and his body language was full of composure.
Allen Goodwin froze, clearly caught off guard.
But his brother, Eric Goodwin, was even more aggressive. He said, "Jack, if you agree to let us negotiate your comrcial contracts, then allow us to use you and LeBron to drive up each other’s value."
"We all know you have a mastermind backing you, but trust , when it cos to handling the details and dealing with those crafty sponsors, no one is more cunning than the two of us!" Eric’s eyes glinted with ambition.
"I will definitely get you both unprecedented, massive contracts."
"But before that, I need you two to show up at a training camp together to do so preliminary groundwork," Eric said.
Su Xi thought for a mont, then exchanged a look with LeBron Jas. Jas nodded, and Su Xi nodded as well. "You know I have my own team behind , so I can’t sign a long-term agreent with you. However, I can entrust my shoe contract negotiation to you. We can establish a long-term, project-based partnership model."
"What’s your commission?" Su Xi asked.
"Ten percent of the total value," Eric Goodwin said. "Until the contract is finalized, we’ll handle so of your publicity and cover your and LeBron’s training expenses."
"That’s too high," Su Xi said.
"That’s already below the market rate," Goodwin said quickly.
"I don’t need your publicity; I have my own promotional team. I also don’t need you to cover my training fees. I’ll pay for my own training, and I don’t need you to spend a di on my room and board."
Su Xi continued, "I’ll give you a one-million-dollar, pre-tax commission. If the annual salary is over ten million USD, I’ll give you an additional bonus of five hundred thousand USD. But there’s a condition: the contract you negotiate has to satisfy . If it doesn’t et my expectations, our agreent is automatically void."
"How about it? All you have to do is talk, and you could make a million dollars."
"You have nothing to lose. Even if you can’t close the deal for , you can still use my na to drive up the price for LeBron. Isn’t that right?"
Su Xi stared directly into their eyes, as if trying to see right through them.
The Goodwin brothers clearly hadn’t expected Su Xi to be such a tough negotiator.
But just as Su Xi said, they had nothing to lose even if they failed to close a deal.
"Deal. But we’ll have to maintain this long-term, project-based partnership model going forward," Allen Goodwin agreed, even while his brother was still thinking it over.
He understood the core of the model.
If Su Xi didn’t have enough comrcial value, he was just leverage to drive up Jas’s price.
If Su Xi really did manage to impress the sponsors, then he’d be piggybacking on Jas’s influence to get a premium contract.
Either way, the Goodwin brothers couldn’t lose.
So, after agreeing, he made a point of asking Jas, "What do you think of this partnership model?"
LeBron Jas nodded. "It works. Neither of you is taking advantage of the other, and even if it doesn’t work out, neither side loses anything."
Then, Jas said to Su Xi, "Jack, from today on, we’re in the sa boat. I told you before, we’re a natural fit."
He was all smiles.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
Su Xi walked over and asked, "Who is it?"
"Larry Bird!"
At the ntion of the na, Su Xi opened the door, revealing a stunned Jas and the Goodwin brothers inside.
’Jack even has a connection to Larry Bird?’
’The mastermind backing him is no joke.’
...
User Comments
0 comments from readers