"So, why would the NBA want us to buy a team before it would sell us the broadcast rights?" Sid's voice echoed in the conference room at IMG's headquarters in New York, of course, he wasn't in New York himself, but on a video conference call.

"Well, I think David Stern has taken a fancy to the Boss and your good public reputation right now. IMG's Mark Shapiro thought for a moment, then spoke.

"What do you mean?" said Old Man Charles, who was also a little puzzled.

Then Mark Shapiro explained that for the current NBA, the North American market has actually been developed for most of the time, and the situation of using recorded broadcasts for the finals more than ten years ago is long gone, but in the market outside North America, the influence of the NBA is still far behind.

Since the Sydney Olympics two years ago, the North American men's basketball team, especially the NBA stars, has increasingly refused to "play for the country" in international competitions. ，

In front of the current Lakers dynasty of Kobe Bryant and the Big Sharks, many NBA stars would rather play in the regular season than waste their salaries to join the national team, and the owners of various teams are also happy to see this.

Americans don't have that kind of gold medal appeal in their bones, so neither the star nor the team owner is interested in sacrificing the ego for the "national interest".

So according to Mark Shapiro, David Stern is likely to use Sid to join the NBA to set an example for these "rebellious" team owners.

On the other hand, whether as a director, writer, or singer, Sid has a wide range of fans around the world, and also has a good reputation and popularity in North America, so if you can pull him into the NBA league, it will also have a better impact on the NBA's overseas ratings.

"Could it be that if we don't buy NBA teams, David Stern won't agree to us buying broadcast rights?" Sid asked first.

"Hmm——," Mark Shapiro frowned in embarrassment and looked at Old Man Charles on the side, Old Man Charles couldn't help but say, "I'm afraid so, Sid." ”

"Although the NBA's broadcast rights are not the hottest sports resources, they certainly don't worry about buyers, and competitors like ESPN will certainly not let go of the NBA's broadcasts. ”

Sid knew that Old Man Charles was telling the truth, and after thinking for a moment, he looked at Mark Shapiro: "If we buy an NBA team, what about the management team? ”

Hearing Sid say this, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and Mark Shapiro quickly said, "If you want to manage the team, we here at IMG can find a way, although it is not possible to find a team that will hit the championship, it is no problem to find an experienced and capable management team." ”

"Alright, that's it. Sid nodded and said, since it is inevitable, it is better to take advantage of the situation to do the best, "Let's buy the Golden State Warriors." Sid spoke.

"Warriors?" said Mark Shapiro, a little surprised.

Because under the suppression of the Lakers, several other basketball teams in California performed poorly, and the Golden State Warriors had no sense of existence.

"Yes, warriors. Sid smiled and nodded.

Although it is still more than ten years away from the "historical" Warriors dynasty, Sid doesn't mind taking the lead in building a "Warriors dynasty" of his own, not to mention that if he wants to buy a team, Sid is still willing to be close to California, so it's convenient to watch the game, isn't it?

"Since David Stern 'forced' us to buy a team, then we can't let him go so simply, we can buy the Golden State Warriors at a premium, but the first pick in next year's draft must be given to us, this is a quid pro quo, not negotiable. Sid then added.

"Okay, I got the boss. Mark Shapiro nodded, the current NBA draft system is that the weak teams that have not entered the playoffs are in the front, and the strong teams are in the back, which is the system after David Stern's reform, in order to ensure that the strong team and the weak team can continue to develop in cycle.

It's still possible to use this to negotiate with David Stern and other team owners.

And for Sid, although he didn't catch this year's draft, next year's uncrowned emperor is also the most valuable elective deal in the NBA in the past ten years.

And several conditions set by Sid were quickly conveyed to David Stern and some NBA team owners through Mark Shapiro and others.

Although there were some twists and turns and negotiations during the period, in the end, Sid bought the Golden State Warriors in the San Francisco Bay Area at a premium of 200 million US dollars, and at the same time, the Fire Lion Group also signed the broadcast rights of the NBA North America, Europe and Pacific Rim markets from 03 to 08 and five years at a price of 1.05 billion a year.

In addition, the qualification for the first place in next year's draft was also privately "conceded" to the Golden State Warriors.

After the news of this deal came out, it quickly made the front page headlines of the sports section, and the frequent actions of Sid and the Fire Lion Group not only made the media and business circles frightened, but also couldn't help but speculate "What is his next step?"

When the outside world was disturbing Howe did not stop, in a corner of Universal Studios Los Angeles, Sid and the crew of "The Departed" couldn't help but sigh in unison after watching the last subtitles of the sample film in a closed theater.

"OMG-" "It's finally done!" "I can't believe ——!"

The film's producer, Arnone Milkan, stood up from his seat and congratulated Sid with a smile: "Congratulations Sid, the film is even better than we thought!"

"Yes, it's incredible!" Henry, who had just watched the first sample film, couldn't suppress the power of the wilderness in his heart. Sean and other Fire Lion Pictures executives also stood up and congratulated Sid.

And Shirley also smiled and came over to hug Sid, and Sid smiled and greeted everyone.

Yes, after more than two months of post-production work, "The Departed" is finally officially completed! A big-budget gangster film like this would normally take months to polish even if it were post-production.

And Sid has greatly accelerated the post-production process of the film because of the method of editing at the same time as shooting, and the completeness of the script and the advancement of the editing, as well as Sid's "credit" in the music score, which made Hans Lonely God go ahead of time, and Sid's degree of knowledge of the finished film.

In the end, it only took more than two months to complete all the post-production work of "Departed" and the packaging was completed!