The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!

"Uh..."

"What did my dad tell you?"

"Nothing much, just invited me to Diddy's party to see what it's like."

"Uh... what else? You had dinner for two hours and just talked about Diddy's party?"

"There was..." Su Wan's tone paused for a moment, "He told me to be nicer to you."

Ivanka was silent for a second, and when she spoke again, her tone was a bit apprehensive, "So what did you say?"

"Me?" Su Wan hadn't responded at the time, but now, hearing Ivanka's question, he said, "I said... sure!"

The phone hung up, and only then did Su Wan signal for his driver.

As soon as he got in the car, Tyrone called, "Su Wan, Diddy's sent another invitation."

Su Wan replied, "Then accept it!"

Who let him be the hottest superstar in all of the United States right now?

Leading the New York Knicks to a championship...

Even Su Wan felt pretty awesome about himself.

But it wasn't until the "Championship Parade" day that Su Wan realized his awesomeness was beyond his imagination.

What's called "New York Standards"?

When the tour bus drove out from Madison Square Garden, four bombers flew overhead, inaugurating this "Championship Parade."

The roaring sound and the straight smoke trails they left behind instantly ignited the entire New York City.

Cheers rang out in the streets and alleys of New York.

Good.

Just the opening ceremony alone reached the scale of the Super Bowl.

But this was just the beginning.

During the "tour bus" parade, many entertainment big shots came to support, performing in the squares as the bus passed, including the future top "LeBron fan" Rihanna.

These performances had the New Yorker fans excited from the start, and when they saw Su Wan...

They were so thrilled that the crowd almost caused a stampede.

Su Wan stood there like a God, making their spirits surge.

By the time the tour bus returned to Madison Square Garden, the stars who came to the party were already waiting inside:

Kim Kardashian, Scarlett, Jay-Z, Beyonce...

Su Wan felt it didn't seem like the New York Knicks' championship celebration, but more like a party put together by a big shot in the entertainment industry.

However, with Dolan's capability, organizing such a party wasn't really a difficult task.

Diddy was there too.

He came over very warmly to greet Su Wan, "Buddy, you've got to come to the party in a few days, I guarantee you'll have a great time!"

Su Wan indicated that his agent must have already spoken to him.

Diddy's smile became even warmer, "I know, I just wanted to make sure with you again. I'm really looking forward to seeing you at my party."

Then one after another, female celebrities with clear intentions walked towards Su Wan.

But Su Wan didn't pay attention to them, staying briefly before leaving. On the way back, he found that New York's celebration had not ended; various fireworks continued to light up the sky.

He also saw some "creative" fireworks that flew into the sky and transformed into his jersey number or into his name.

Honestly, such an atmosphere easily made one feel like the master of the city.

But back at home, Su Wan had serious business to handle. This summer was his last year of the contract with Nike, and it was time to have the final negotiations with Nike.

The representatives from Nike were quite straightforward.

The main reason also had to do with Su Wan winning the championship this year.

It meant that he had all 6.5 million people in New York in his grasp; as long as he released a pair of sneakers, the vast majority of these 6.5 million people would definitely buy them.

Not to mention the 1.2 billion people behind him.

Just this point alone was essentially different from his time in Indiana.

What's worse, having 6.5 million followers, Su Wan might cause Nike to lose those 6.5 million people.

After all, New Yorkers wouldn't likely favor a sneaker brand that was in opposition to Su Wan.

So...

If Su Wan hadn't won the championship this year, Nike might have played hard to get, but now they had no capital to do so.

They agreed to the acquisition of Su Wan's personal sneaker brand for next year, "We're offering 3% of Nike's shares to acquire your 49% share of the personal brand."

Su Wan didn't haggle.

Because he knew this was the biggest concession Nike could offer.

After all, they also needed to consider Jordan's feelings.

At least Su Wan still held 51% of his personal brand's shares, which was higher than Jordan's holding in AJ.

But Jordan got a higher cut, a whopping 66%!

Of course, the two brands were born differently.

AJ was a sub-brand that Nike proactively created for Jordan.

Su Wan's personal brand would be one he created himself...

While the end result was the same, the different processes resulted in the two men having different shares they could hold.

And it's not just 3% of Nike's shares.

By 2024, that would be a market value of around 5 billion.

From this perspective, one can understand why Su Wan was so quick to close the deal.

Another point, upon reaching the agreement and starting his own brand, he could use Nike's people and Nike's factories to cultivate his core team, gaining more time for an eventual split.

And...

After all, once they split ways, it all came down to equity exchange.

Since the equity would still have to be returned, whether he could get more wasn't that important.

The news spread fast.

When the outside world learned that Su Wan would set up his own personal sneaker brand after his contract expired next year, at first they were surprised, but then considering Su Wan's position in the league now, they thought it was a step he was bound to take sooner or later.