Chapter 494 Under Armour's Big Gamble

The Sonics, who had won 20 games in a row, also entered a stable period.

The sudden rise of Rukawa Kaede has greatly improved the Sonics' lineup.

He may not be as good as the five main players of the Sonics. Rukawa Kaede can't replace any of the five players.

Chandler and Sakuragi Hanamichi are not to be mentioned. They are the defensive gates of the Sonics and the core of the core.

Iguodala has roughly the same functionality as Rukawa Kaede. Rukawa Kaede's 3-pointer is slightly better than Iguodala, but Iguodala is stronger than Rukawa Kaede in defense, and his understanding of rotation defense is far better than his. He also has a more stable overall performance and no zone for the intense consumption of physical strength. That leads to Rukawa Kaede often being brave in the first quarter, declining in the second quarter, and starting to fall in the third quarter.

Not to mention Payton, his organizational ability and on-court mobility, as well as his role as the spiritual pillar of the team, are irreplaceable by Rukawa Kaede in any way.

Of course, there is also Lin Dong, who seems to have no need to analyze.

But this does not prevent Rukawa from becoming the most dazzling new star and surprise of the Supersonics this year. The position of the super sixth man can not only complete his defensive tasks in a short period of one or two quarters, but also can be used as a Supersonics change of formation no matter who is replaced by him in the main force. It may not be as stable as the basic lineup of the five main players, but each has its own strengths.

His personal data also suddenly exploded from 1.6 points per game before playing against the Lakers to an average of 10.8 points, 0.6 steals, 0.8 blocks and 1.2 assists per game, and his 3-point shooting rate is as high as 52.6%, ranking second in the league.

You know, this is still after Rukawa became famous in the game against the Lakers, and all teams began to consciously guard against his 3-pointers, not those open shots in garbage time.

In addition, the comprehensive maturity of Lin Dong and Sakuragi Hanamichi is also the foundation for the Supersonics to defeat whoever they meet now.

This has caused many former Sonics haters to start turning into fans. The Sonics are now in a great situation. Whether it is strength, results or current image, it even makes people feel that it is stronger than the previous two seasons...

During this period, before the 12th, there were no other major events in the team, but there were constant small things.

Akagi Haruko gave birth to a son, and Hanamichi named him Sakuragi Harucan. The word "Qing" refers to Haruko and also means sunny, and Chan is taken from the Japanese word for summer, "Cicada Shigure". Qingchan commemorates the summer when the two met and the beginning of their dream.

As a godfather, Lin Dong naturally had to prepare a generous gift, and the gifts from the team, from Coach Anxi, and from countless Japanese friends and fans have almost filled up the guest room of the Sakuragi family.

Of course, the coolest gifts are usually given by the most coquettish people.

A championship ring, the one that Jordan lost to Lin Dong, was originally given to Payton, but Payton actually took it out as a gift this time, and gave it in front of the media!

"My apprentice's son is my grandson, so of course I have to give him something meaningful!" Payton said in front of the camera: "Besides, that ring will just gather dust in my house, as for the championship ring, I can just wear my own!"

As he spoke, he stretched out his right hand, showing the three championship rings on his fingers, and explained with relish: "This is from the 2002 season, this is from the 2003 season, this is from the 2004 season..."

At this time, his little finger, ring finger and index finger were all pressed down, and he shook his thumb: "This year I will definitely I have to wear it on this finger, so our boss has to make a bigger ring. And when my thumb also wears a championship ring...”

He pressed his thumb down, leaving only a middle finger standing up and looking at the camera: "Then I can retire. Hi, Michael, are you watching TV?"

"He must be watching." He smiled and shook his bare middle finger: "Hey, I am destined to have one less than Michael. There is no way. I respect him so much!"

Michael Jordan, who was far away in Charlotte, was innocently caught in the crossfire. It is said that he was so angry that he smashed the cup.

Reporters and fans across the United States were collectively speechless. This bad guy has completely let himself go. His state has been declining every day in the past two seasons, but his acting skills are improving day by day. He has the potential to enter the entertainment industry after retirement. Even his apprentice's baby can be stolen by him...

At the same time, Sakuragi Hanamichi is not the only one who gave birth to a baby in the Supersonics.

Mitsui Shou, a shareholder of the team, also gave birth to a son. His wife is a Spanish, a model, a nutritionist for Mobis, and an orphan who grew up in a boarding house. Her name is Cecilia.

Just like most of the bloody plots of the domineering president falling in love with me, the poor girl worked in the team and had been in contact with the domineering president for a long time. After a bunch of ridiculous bloody plots, they fell in love due to misunderstandings, and finally got married after buying the ticket.

The two got married in Spain some time ago, but because Cecilia's belly was already very big at that time, they didn't arrange the wedding. This time, they took advantage of the baby's full moon and put the full moon wine and wedding together.

Mobis's performance in the Spanish league this season is still at the bottom. After all, the overall level of the Dragon Country and Japanese players is still too far behind. It will take more than one or two years to catch up, but fortunately, they can have wins and losses, and occasionally when they perform well, they can also cause trouble for some strong teams.

Although the overall poor performance did not get much support from local fans, the two bosses who did not make money from this were content with the loss. They invested what they should invest and raised the salaries of those who should raise the salaries. The main focus was on a training platform.

As Mobis got on the right track, Lin Dong had not been there for two or three months, but since this time it was a full moon party and a wedding party, he naturally had to go.

All the team members had to go, as well as Mitsui's friends. As a result, the "third child" was exposed during this visit - Mito Yohei's American wife was also pregnant. After drinking with everyone at the wedding the night before, she felt uncomfortable in her stomach when she returned home. She went to the hospital for a check-up at night and found out that she was pregnant. The two were scared, fearing that drinking would have some impact on the child.

So they hurriedly took care of the pregnancy and recuperated.

Mito Yohei's massage parlor has become popular in Seattle. He opened a third branch, and the branches opened later were basically invested by Mito Yohei with his own savings. Lin Dong and Mitsui invested in the shares just to help him. With their net worth, they naturally looked down on that little money. But for Mito Yohei, the three massage parlors have already made him a millionaire, and letting his wife choose to stay in Spain to take care of the baby is just a little bit of water.

Fortunately, there was no problem in the end, but everyone was shocked.

Coupled with the team's 20 consecutive wins, it can be said that there were many happy events.

On the 12th, two special guests came to Lin Dong's house.

The first one was Plank, the president of Under Armour.

As early as the middle of last month, Plank had met with Lin Dong and talked about re-endorsing Under Armour.

After being defeated by Nike, Under Armour has shrunk its market and factories in the past two years, and closed a large number of flagship stores and specialty stores. The scale that had originally expanded to the entire US market has also shrunk back to Maryland, returning to the old path and revisiting the youth market in high schools and universities.

After two years of steady progress, Under Armour has finally survived the collapse period after the collapse, and has regained its foothold in Maryland. The scale has also expanded from more than 12 million annual sales at the time of the collapse to the current scale of 30 million.

After all, he almost reached the peak, and it is impossible to say that Plank does not desire the scenery at the top of the mountain, but the disastrous defeat two years ago is still fresh in his memory, and he dare not easily cross the line.

Plank made his fortune by relying on Lin Dong's endorsement. He is very familiar with the routine of using star endorsements to expand the brand's influence. Therefore, he has been following the NBA for the past two years and trying to find a reliable new endorsement. Therefore, he has always been very familiar with the trends of the NBA. He often keeps in touch with Lin Dong by phone and visits him when he is free during the holidays.

With his vision, he can naturally see the discord between Lin Dong and Nike from various clues.

But if Lin Dong gives up Nike's endorsement fee of hundreds of millions a year and comes to endorse his small workshop with annual sales of only 30 million, Plank himself knows that it is almost impossible.

However, seeing that the contract between Nike and Lin Dong is about to expire, Plank is still a little itchy. He raised this matter with Lin Dong on the phone with a try-it-out or even joking attitude. Unexpectedly, Lin Dong actually agreed directly... Of course, there are conditions.

First, he does not want the endorsement fee, but he wants 49% of Under Armour's equity.

Plank had absolutely no objection to this. Under Armour had been delisted after the battle two years ago. Now there was no so-called stock price at all. He was the owner of 100% of the company's shares.

And judging from the current size of the company, the market value was only about 100 million at most, which was equivalent to signing Lin Dong, the hottest superstar in the world, with a price of about 50 million US dollars, and it was almost a buyout form... and he was still the biggest controller of the company with 51% of the shares. This was simply something he dared not even dream of!

Second, he wanted to design the appearance of the sneakers himself, and the company's R&D department could only cooperate with him and could not raise objections, because he didn't have so much time to explain slowly.

Frankly speaking, Plank questioned this. No matter how well Lin Dong played basketball, it did not mean that he had professional aesthetics and design skills. This guy probably couldn't even draw, right?

But...

Even if Plank doesn't believe in Lin Dong's design ability, he has to believe in Lin Dong's reputation. He believes that even if Lin Dong designs a pair of shoes that look like shit, as long as he endorses it and the gimmick is designed by him, it will still become a hit!

Agree! Must agree! Not to mention the design rights, even if Lin Dong wants his ancestors, he can bring the urn from the cemetery!

Third, expand the scale.

Lin Dong wants a production line that can withstand an annual sales volume of at least 300-500 million, and plans to expand to a scale of 1 billion within a year.

You know, it took Under Armour several years to grow from a small workshop with a sales volume of 10 million to an annual sales volume of 300-500 million, and it was still when the market was smooth sailing at the time. But now it is directly going to this scale? Even if you are Lin Dong, you can't be so exaggerated.

But Lin Dong said so, and his tone was unquestionable, and there was no room for negotiation.

What do you mean by steady and cautious? I won't play that game with you; what do you mean by current sales volume is only 30 million, if you expand the production line at this rate, if the sales volume can't keep up, he will lose everything in a minute...

There is no such thing as a chance, it's all about a heartbeat.

No money? It doesn't matter if you don't have money. We can help you find investment. All you have to do is be bold and bet your company.

Of course, if you don't dare, just ignore what I said.

Plank only hesitated for 5 seconds at the dinner table.

This is undoubtedly a gamble. Once the bet is lost, what you lose is no longer just money, but the entire Under Armour brand that Plank regards as his child, and there is absolutely no chance of turning over.

If this is the condition Nike gave him, Plank would definitely refuse without thinking.

But since this is the condition proposed by Lin Dong... Plank believes in Lin Dong's character, and no matter what purpose he has for doing this, compared with the things and wealth that Lin Dong is about to give up to do this, the company he is betting on can be said to be insignificant.

Whether it is life or death, it is all a fight!

And today, I came here for these two things.

One is to see Lin Dong's so-called design, and the other is to see the investors Lin Dong found for him.