The next day, New York City Forest Group, Arthur and his subordinates, according to the appointment time, visited the current owner of the New Jersey Nets, La Bruce Ratner.

Labroulce was very enthusiastic about Arthur's visit, the young English earl, and of course, he had already learned the purpose of Arthur's visit.

After the two sides exchanged polite greetings, Arthur did not try to beat around the bush, but directly put forward his intention to buy the New Jersey Nets.

However, for Arthur's acquisition intention, Labruce was not happy because there was a buyer, but frowned slightly and took a few sips of coffee, and said apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Bolin, about the Nets trade, at the end of last year, I reached a verbal agreement with Mr. Mikhail Prokhorov, a billionaire in the Bear Country, that he would be the team's first choice... ”

Hearing this answer, Arthur did not appear too surprised, but looked at the other party with a smile and continued: "I have already understood this, but according to the rules of the NBA, whether the team can be successfully acquired still needs to be voted on by the owners of other teams in the league.

And the background of this Mr. Mikhail Prokhorov seems to be too complicated, I think, it will be a very troublesome thing, won't it?"

"Hehe... Labruce looked at the incomparably young Arthur with a meaningful expression, shook his head and smiled: "Actually, it's not as difficult as you think, the NBA is a commercial sports league after all, to put it bluntly, it's just business." ”

"Twenty million!" Arthur squinted his eyes slightly, the corners of his mouth rose, and he stretched out two fingers and said to Labruce: "On the basis of 200 million, I will add another 20 million dollars, please believe me, I am sincere." ”

Labruce frowned slightly, lowered his head and stretched out his chin to touch it, and then looked at the smiling Arthur from time to time, and groaned.

And Arthur is not in a hurry to urge the other party, he has already investigated the greed of the Nets owner, and the reason why the Nets fell is because Ratner is too stingy.

"I'm sorry, but I can only say sorry to you, it's not just about the money, Rokolov promised me that the Nets would win the championship and I believe the Nets would get back to the Finals.

Everything we do is to give the team a better financial backing. In this way we can get the best players and we can share in the greater happiness. The most important thing is the development of the team, and I don't care if I have the biggest share. I hope the team will develop better in the future. I love the Nets. ”

Hearing Labrus's words, the corners of Arthur's mouth couldn't help but pull, almost squirting him to death with a mouthful of coffee, saying the same as the truth, however, Arthur was not angry or discouraged, but set his eyes on the faces of the subordinates who had been following him, and remembered what his subordinates had said in the car that came to meet Labruce.

“。。。 In 2004, the New Jersey Nets were transferred to Ratner, and after the acquisition of the Nets, he announced that he would move the Nets' home court back to Brooklyn, New York City. However, the relocation of the Nets to Brooklyn is only part of Ratner's "Atlantic Courtyard Project", which is expected to be completed around 2010, after which Ratner also plans to build a high-end apartment, office building, luxury hotel and other supporting facilities, which will be the largest construction project in the history of Brooklyn, New York, with a total cost of $4 billion.

However, due to the impact of the U.S. economic crisis, the shortage of funds, his "world's most expensive arena" project had to be postponed, and another point is that Bruce Ratner's Forest City Group spent $300 million to buy the Nets in 2004, but in the last five years, the team's pre-tax loss is as high as $380 million.

At the same time, despite the support of New York Mayor Bloomberg, the relocation plan has been repeatedly delayed due to strong opposition from local people and the huge amount of money involved, and opponents have even taken Forest City to court. To sum up, it can be seen that it is already very difficult for Ratner to complete the "Atlantic Courtyard Project" by himself, so he thought of the net selling team to find a partner to complete his "Atlantic Courtyard Plan", and the net selling team is not the main purpose, the main thing is to be able to complete the "Atlantic Garden Plan". I think Ratner should have thought so ...

"Hehe, Mr. Ratner, don't be in a hurry to refuse, to be honest, in addition to my interest in the Nets, I am also interested in the Atlantic Courtyard project that you lead, and if I can, I would like to join this program, of course, the Nets can be used as a basis for our cooperation, and to be honest, I am very serious about the development of real estate around the new arena. Arthur smiled, his eyes brightly looking at Ratna, who had become scorching at what he had said.

"Really? That's surprising good news... With a delightful smile on his face, Ratner swept away his previous sense of alienation and began to babble about his Atlantic Yard project.

An hour later, Arthur left the Urban Forest Group under the enthusiastic greeting of a smiling Ratner, and after getting into the car, he smiled at a subordinate named Ron next to him: "Ron, as you analyzed, sure enough, he attaches more importance to the Atlantic Courtyard Project." ”

"Hehe, he also has no way, the big plan that costs 4 billion, once it is finished, then his loss is undoubtedly huge, and he can't bear it at all, the price of the Nets for sale this time, to a large extent, is a friendship price, the focus is to find a partner who can invest in his real estate project.

But boss, we can't take it lightly, that Mikhail Prokhorov is really not bad for money, with a value of $9.5 billion, ranking 40th on the Forbes rich list, if the time comes, the acquisition becomes a bidding war, we... ”

Arthur frowned and nodded, although his subordinates did not finish speaking, but he naturally understood that if he really wanted more money than money, he really had no way to compare with this big tyrant of the bear country.

According to the information he saw, this Mikhail Prokhorov is not only very rich, but also the most avid sports fan, the owner of the European championship basketball team of the Bear Country, and the coach of the national team.

This time he entered the NBA because after seeing the success of his compatriot Abu at Chelsea, he tried to create a "Chelsea myth" in the NBA as well.

He owns a gold mining company in Siberia, and he also accounts for a large part of the country's aluminum producers. There is also a media empire, two banks, an insurance company and many real estate assets, among other things.

Still, like most Bear Nation billionaires, Prokhorov's fortune was shaped from the ashes of the former Bear Nation, with a bit of luck and the help of powerful zz connections.

And this is undoubtedly the biggest obstacle to his entry into the NBA, after all, the United States' hostility and rejection of the bear country is extraordinary. And this goods, private life is even more chaotic, and it has no good reputation in the bear country and Europe.

Especially in '07, when he and his friends went to a French ski resort and brought eight models to help them entertain, the French police detained Prokhorov for three days on suspicion of what and that.

Thinking of this, Arthur's eyes narrowed slightly, flashing with a sharp cold light, and the corners of his mouth sneered slightly: "Help me make an appointment with David Stern, and at the same time, release the news that I am going to buy the Nets, it's time to make good use of the media in New York." ”

"Good boss. ”

"By the way, did I get in touch with someone I contacted?" asked Arthur as he suddenly remembered something.

"Bob Myers is very surprised and very happy about your invitation, and has left for New York and will be back in the afternoon. ”

"Well, that's good. ”

The corners of Arthur's mouth rose and he smiled, although he didn't know why he made this seemingly inconsequential decision to invite a strange American to join the team to buy an NBA team, but he knew better than anyone that it was because of this man named Bob Myers who led the transformation of the Golden State Warriors.

Reform is necessary for an NBA team to be reborn, however, how it is reformed and who will preside over it is more important, and Arthur has decided to cut off Bob Myers and make him the general manager of the team he wants to buy.