NBA: Magic Johnson opens the season, crowned MOP

After a simple thank you and greeting, Joey happily hung up the phone with the old man.

At this time, Bill Duffy was arranging for him to accept interviews from domestic media - this was a treatment reserved for"lottery picks". Only lottery picks would get the opportunity to be interviewed by various media in turn after the draft.

Joey walked into the temporary press conference site - as expected, almost all the people present were domestic media reporters, with only a few second- and third-rate newspapers and media from Mi Li's home country.

"Congratulations, A-Jiao. You are the highest-ranked Chinese player selected by the NBA since Yao Ming.……"

As soon as he came in, a familiar, friendly, energetic old man in a suit came up to greet him with a smile - Mr. Zhang Weiping.

Joey was also an acquaintance of this man. Since he became famous in the Milijia University League, Mr. Weiping often brought CCTV reporters to interview him. After a few visits, the two saved each other's contact information.

"It's a great honor.……"

Joey, who was already very good at dealing with this kind of situation, answered.

The reporters in the audience looked at Weiping Bryant, who was chatting with Joey very well, with envy.

After a brief exchange of greetings between Joey and Weiping, the press conference officially began.

"Hello Joey, I am a frontline reporter from our domestic Sohu media. First of all, congratulations on being picked by the Spurs with the third pick. How do you feel now?"

A female reporter with a striking figure and good looks was called up and raised the microphone to ask

"I am very excited now, yes, very excited……"

When Joey said this with a calm poker face, the atmosphere at the press conference could only be described as"dead silence".

Bill Duffy, standing nearby, could even feel a line of crows with black dots flying over his head.

"Next question!"

This time it was Senior Weiping who gave the example:

"We know that you are a person who rarely has emotional fluctuations in your life or on the court. As for your fans in China, millions of them have been watching you in front of the TV for a long time.……"

"Well……"

Facing these words, Joey couldn't keep his expressionless face any longer. He froze for a moment, forced an ugly smile, and spoke his heart out to the camera:

"Thank you very much for your support. As a Chinese, I feel honored and a little terrified to have the support of so many compatriots.……"

"When Coach Zhang told me for the first time that there was a group of fans who shared the same blood with me thousands of kilometers away supporting me, I was very excited... In fact, I want to say that it is really great to have you. You are my biggest motivation to play basketball!"

Bill Duffy breathed a sigh of relief. Joey's words successfully won the hearts of a wave of Chinese fans. Many domestic reporters present were somewhat moved and took cameras to record this scene.

He had done research before, fearing that Chinese fans would think that Joey was a"sandwich cookie" with yellow skin and white inside because he was a Chinese who followed his parents to immigrate to Mi Li's homeland since he was a child, and thus he would not be able to have the same appeal and heritage as Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian in the Chinese market...

Now it seems that Joey is usually a"silent guy", but in fact his emotional intelligence is quite high.

However, Bill Duffy did not expect that Joey's words were not out of some intention of"wanting to earn money from fans", but from his true thoughts from the heart - after all, he has only traveled here for two or three years, and he has a deep sense of identity and attachment to the motherland across the ocean!

"Did you ever think you would be selected by the Spurs? Because I learned that apart from the joint tryout, you had almost no contact with the Spurs' front office.……"

After Zhang Weiping found a satisfactory answer, he continued to ask

"I personally didn’t think of this,"

Joey said honestly:

"But the San Antonio Spurs are a team with a very simple playing style and strict discipline like the military. I am also a fan of Tim Duncan and I am very happy to join his team!"

Just kidding, he was just a fake fan in his previous life. If it weren't for the universe's No. 1 former teacher Ma, he wouldn't even know that Duncan was a member of the Spurs.……

"The Spurs play very rationally. They are a team-oriented team that pays great attention to the performance of each player on the field. I believe you will be well trained there!"

Coach Zhang seemed to have grasped the key points and took the time to talk about it.

Then there were a few irrelevant questions. With the help of Bill Duffy, many domestic media and Joey ended the press conference happily.

——————

On July 3, Bill Duffy brought Joey and hired a few people from a moving company to the city of San Antonio, Texas.

As soon as he got off the plane, Joey was surprised to see that there were some Spurs fans blocking the airport, holding banners that read"Welcome Mr. Key" and waiting for his arrival.

Joey was flattered and cooperated with them to take photos, sign autographs, and shake hands.

After delaying for more than half an hour, Joey and his group finally walked out of the airport.

Duffy first took him to find an apartment less than ten kilometers away from the arena. After negotiating the price, he paid the rent for two years in one lump sum.

Then Duffy proposed to buy a car for Joey, but was rejected by the latter. Joey, who advocated Chinese virtues and was frugal, decided to ship the first car in his life, a second-hand Dodge SUV, that his father gave him after he got his driver's license, from Chicago.

The Holy City is actually a large military-controlled city in the Mi Li family, similar to the three industrial provinces in China (I won't give you the correct name). Surrounding the city is nothing else but a circle of high-walled control areas.

This is one of the largest military base deployment cities in the Mi Li family!

The most famous attraction in the city is actually the San Antonio River that runs across most of the holy city. The architecture of the entire city tends to be in the style of the World War II period - to put it bluntly, it is a damn"gray fortress". The main battlefields of many wars for Militao and the neighboring country that has always wanted to become a part of Militao (those who understand will understand) are in this city!

Joey never thought that the first stop of his NBA career would be covered with a thick layer of"Syrian war damage wind" before it even began!

When they arrived at the familiar ATT Arena, Bill Duffy made a call in advance, and when they arrived, there were already staff waiting at the door.

Follow the staff into the arena and come to Popovich's office.

Surprisingly, Spurs General Manager RC Buford is also here

""Talk... Mr. Wow!"

Buford confused Joey as soon as he opened his mouth.

"What?"

"Hahaha, don't be nervous. He just found your Mandarin in my office and said that you were selected third. In Mandarin, it is called [Tanhua]】……"

The old man with a white beard shook his goblet and approached with a playful smile.

The smell of raisin wine rushed to Joey's face, making him stumble.

This should be Popovich!

After a simple greeting, the talkative Bill Duffy quickly represented Joey and Popovich and Buford to start a heated discussion on the rookie contract.

Since Joey was a first-round pick, the contract was fixed in form - fully guaranteed for four years.

The main point of contention was the amount of the contract. As we all know, the Spurs are a relatively poor NBA team. Not to mention the league's salary luxury tax, even the annual signings and reinforcements require the star players to take a pay cut to reduce team expenses...

So, appreciation is appreciation, and trading is trading. Even if Popovich likes Joey, a natural Spurs player, he has to"bargain" in terms of contract salary.

The main point is that General Manager Buford hopes that Joey can sign a 2+2 contract with a total salary of 13.54 million on the grounds that Joey is actually not worthy of the third pick in the draft year!

Obviously, even if Joey agreed, Bill Duffy, who is known as a"stingy guy" in the circle, would not agree. He immediately refused to sign this lottery rookie-level contract for two reasons: [You chose the player, and you didn't even inform us during the joint tryout in advance, and Joey's name was not on the Spurs' invitation list for the individual tryout]!

Joey is not very sensitive to money, mainly because he has never been involved in such a"big deal" with a string of numbers behind the amount, whether in his past life or this life...

To put it bluntly, it's a loser mentality.

He could only pretend to be calm and watch Bill Duffy"charge forward" for him at the negotiation table."、"Debate with scholars"……

However, he did know that in his previous life, when Bradley Beal was selected by the Wizards with the third pick, he also signed a four-year contract of 18.65 million US dollars.

Not to mention nearly 20 million, at least a contract of 15 million US dollars is inevitable, right?

So, with Bill Duffy's argument, the two sides finally reached a four-year guaranteed contract (full guarantee in the first two years), with a total salary of 15.74 million US dollars.

(3.45 million in the first year, 3.67 million in the second year, 4.12 million in the third year, and 4.5 million in the fourth year).

Even so, many restrictive clauses were temporarily added.

It can only be said that it is worthy of the Spurs!

In fact, Joey is probably not very satisfied with this contract.

Because the contract of the first-round pick has no benefits except guaranteeing the player's guaranteed salary for the first four years of rookie.

Relatively speaking, if the second-round picks and undrafted players who signed for three or two years become famous during the four years of rookie, then they at least have the early bird rights and Arenas clause to ensure that the players can immediately get a maximum salary contract that accounts for more than 25% of the team's salary cap next season!

But Joey is not in a hurry. The Spurs are at least a team that is very good at cultivating rookies. Compared with the Pistons under Larry Brown and the Knicks under D'Antoni... it's simply heaven!