Chapter 41: Buying Warriors

While Monchi was discussing player transfers and head coach issues with Guangzhou Evergrande, Arthur started another important layout in the United States across the ocean. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

After expanding his sports empire to the United Kingdom, South America, Western Europe, Africa and Asia, Arthur set his sights on North America, only this time Arthur's investment target is no longer football, but the American professional basketball league, that is, the NBA.

Investing in the NBA, the fastest and most direct is naturally to acquire one of the 30 teams in the NBA, and after weighing the pros and cons, Arthur selected the Golden State Warriors, the hottest team in the next few years.

In fact, as early as March 23 last year, the Golden State Warriors announced the sale of the club, and the Warriors hired a well-known investment company GSP to be responsible for the sale of the club, and GSP will also serve as the sole financial adviser in the sales process of the team.

Warriors owner Chris Cohan has not hinted at selling the team on any occasion, so there is speculation that Cohan will definitely consider it if the acquirer offers an incredibly high price.

For Arthur to want to buy the Golden State Warriors, there are two biggest opponents.

The first opponent is Oracle boss Ellison. Ellison said he was interested in acquiring the Golden State Warriors back in late January, and the Warriors said they would not comment on the matter until no agreement was reached.

Since becoming Oracle's CEO, Ellison has led several acquisitions of Oracle, the most recent of course being the $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

It's not without reason that Ellison has been embroiled in the acquisition rumors, as Oracle currently has naming rights to the Warriors' home arena, and it's only a half-hour drive from Oracle's headquarters.

According to Forbes' assessment of NBA teams last December, the Warriors were valued at $315 million, which is really nothing for Ellison, who has assets of $22.5 billion.

The second adversary is a Chinese consortium. A year ago, Huang Jianhua, an investor from China, became the owner of the Cavaliers, but he only owns a small 15 percent stake, which is not really the "owner". This year, however, there are still some Chinese consortia that plan to enter the NBA market and buy a team as a whole.

One of the reasons why Chinese consortia love the Warriors, one of the NBA teams with the largest number of Chinese fans, are home in Oakland, the famous "Bay Area" in the United States, which is backed by San Francisco and is the largest Chinese community in the entire Americas.

It has been reported that in the first two years of Yao Ming's participation in the NBA, whenever the Rockets came to play against the Warriors away, the stadium would be full, and 70% to 80% of the audience at the scene were Chinese, so the Chinese consortium has a vast market here, which is the most important reason why they are determined to buy the Warriors.

Six months after the Golden State Warriors put up for sale, the Warriors have now attracted 14 bidders, including an unidentified football league owner, an investment group from China, and the investment team of "Magic" Johnson. And last October, the Warriors selected five of the 14 investors to move on to the next bidding campaign, and they will be allowed to view the Warriors' internal financial records, including Arthur, of course.

Surprisingly, Oracle CEO Larry Elson, who was previously considered the Warriors' "number one buyer", was not included in the 13-party bidders, and he did not submit an offer to the Warriors.

Elson has previously said that the Warriors' reasonable selling price should be around $315 million, perhaps because he sensed that there were too many bidders, or that the Warriors deliberately inflated the bid.

However, NBA officials disagree with Elson's view. They believe the Warriors' final selling price is expected to be double the $275 million, or $550 million, that Michael Jordan paid for the Bobcats. However, this price is difficult to achieve in the context of today's economic crisis sweeping the world, which is not conducive to the smooth transfer of the Warriors, and also scares off many buyers who sincerely want to take over the Warriors.

According to expert estimates, the Warriors' current total market capitalization is about $315 million, of which the big boss Cohan owns 80% of the shares, and whoever eventually buys these shares will become the number one shareholder and real owner of the Warriors.

The last five buyers, in addition to Arthur, are Mark Mastersloff: the owner of a $1.6 billion company called 24-hourfitness; a boss from the NFL; a mysterious Chinese consortium; There's also the investment team of Joe Rugbu and Pete Guber: the winners of the previous eventual acquisition of the Warriors.

After being among the last 5 buyers, Arthur's status as Blackburn Rover's boss became a big advantage for him.

Although football is not the most popular sport in the United States, many people still know Blackburn, the most successful football club in the past decade, and Arthur, as the owner of Blackburn, is undoubtedly incomparable to the other four buyers.

And although Arthur is not a native of the United States, he understands the United States and the American people know him well.

With the exception of Blackburn Rovers, most of Arthur's assets were actually in the United States, such as stakes in Internet companies such as Under Armour, Walker Films, Google, and Facebook - especially the latter, which brought Arthur a huge fortune and allowed him to build a large network in Silicon Valley and the American business world.

It is precisely because of Arthur's connections in Silicon Valley that the Golden State Warriors in the "Bay Area" have a natural affinity for Arthur, and Warriors fans accept Arthur even better than the other three American compatriots.

Arthur's other big advantage naturally comes from his "prophet" - knowing how hot the future Golden State Warriors are, he will naturally be more stingy with money than the other four opponents.

In fact, the acquisition has reached this link, which is the process of throwing money, for the acquisition of the Golden State Warriors, Arthur sold a lot of Facebook shares as early as last year, and was fully prepared.

Finally, at the end of last year, Arthur managed to scare off four other buyers at the highest price, and Chenggong and the Golden State Warriors entered the final judgment stage. After half a month of tug-of-war, the two sides reached an agreement and submitted the plan to the NBA Board of Governors for review - the purchase and sale of any team in the NBA must go through the NBA Council, and the NBA executives and other NBA team owners can only complete the transaction.

On February 1, the NBA Board of Governors approved the Golden State Warriors' acquisition plan, and Arthur set a new NBA record for $470 million.

That afternoon, Arthur couldn't wait to officially take over control of the team from his former owner, Chris Cohan.

Speaking at a press conference at the signing ceremony, Arthur, wearing a blue suit and white trousers, said: "The unmatched passion of the Bay Area fans has played a big role in this dream come true, and we will work hard to get the club to championship level and make the team a source of pride for the fans." ”

The previous record for the acquisition of an NBA team was set in 2006, when Robert Saver acquired the Phoenix Suns for $401 million.

Cohan has been the owner of the Warriors for 15 years, and the Warriors have not performed well in those 15 years.

Bay Area fans have also expressed optimism about Cohan's departure, which they believe will give the team a major surgery. Keep in mind that in the past 16 seasons, the Warriors have only made the playoffs once. Still, the popularity of the Warriors on the ground is unimaginable.

After becoming the new owner of the Warriors, Arthur immediately began to make personnel changes in the team's top management - as for player trades, Arthur as the owner will not personally intervene, even if he knows which rookie can make a name for himself, he will not take it personally, because he has been at the helm of Blackburn for more than a decade and is not so low-level.

The difference between general and handsome, Arthur already knew it.

Now Arthur is choosing his own general.

Arthur's first decision on the board was to fire current veteran coach Don Nelson and has agreed to pay him the remaining $6 million from his contract.

As for the new coach, Arthur doesn't pay attention at all, because the future head coach of the Warriors in his mind is still doing the job of a commentator.

At Arthur's direction, Warriors general manager Larry Riley made Keith Smart, who had been an assistant coach, the team's head coach. The biggest difference between Smart and Nelson is his focus on defense, with the rejuvenated Warriors now led by Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry and David Lee in stride.

Arthur's second decision was to hire an assistant general manager, Bob Myers, for current Warriors general manager Larry Riley.

Born in March 1975 in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA, Miles by his full name Robert Michael Myers used to be a sports agent for the Wasserman Media Group, studying under the famous agent Arne Tyron.

Myers played for the UCLA Bruins from 1993 to 1997 and was a member of the 1995 NCAA championship team. Until 2002, he was also a radio commentator for UCLA for 2 seasons.

In Arthur's predecessor, Myers became assistant general manager of the Warriors in April 2011. At first, it was thought that he would spend a lot of time under general manager Larry Riley, but after just 12 months, Myers was promoted to general manager. Myers has a discerning eye, and 12 years later, several smart drafts and additions have put the team on the rise.

In the 2012-13 season, the Warriors withstood the first round of the playoffs, only to lose to the mighty Spurs after six games in the second round. This season is also the Warriors' furthest in 36 years.

After the 2014-15 regular season, Myers was named the best manager in the NBA. He made significant contributions to the Warriors' 67-15 record that season, making several key decisions, including putting Steve Kerr as head coach, re-signing Klay Thompson, and rejecting Thompson's proposal to trade Kevin Love.

And now, Arthur is just following "history" and letting Myers come to the Warriors "again" ahead of schedule.

Arthur's third personnel decision was finally on the player side, only this time he did not use his "prophetic" vision, but because of the market and a certain complex.

Traded Yi Jianlian to the Warriors.

If you want to be the second of Nuo, just talking about not practicing is a fake trick after all; And when I really got to the training ground, I found that it was really not that you could change if you wanted to. With an average of 12+7 per game, Yi Jianlian switched from the Nets to the Wizards last summer and is eager to make a difference with his new team. It's just a season later that it turns out that it's not that simple.

In fact, at the beginning of joining the Wizards, Yi Jianlian was full of illusions about this team. After all, compared with the Tomb of the Living Dead Nets, the Wizards have won too much in terms of team atmosphere and vitality, and such a team did once make Yi Jianlian fantasize. It's just that the reality is cruel after all, he can't compare with Blatch, and even was squeezed out of the place by rookies Bockel and Seraphim at one point. Compared with his time with the Bucks, his stats have shrunk by half, and his playing time has also shrunk by a full half!

The data shows that up to now, Yi Jianlian has played a total of 40 times this season, of which 6 have been the starters, which are standard rotation players, and the significant reduction in playing time has made Yi Jianlian a little disappointed; But on the bright side, such treatment is conducive to his right mentality.

From Sanders' standpoint, he once regarded Yi Jianlian as an important player. But Yi Jianlian's injury has always been a problem. In an interview, Sang Shuai also revealed his heart: "At the beginning of the season, I used Yi Jianlian as the team's 'best sixth man'. He said. But injuries were key to his exclusion from the rotation at one point, and Yi has been injured twice this season, and when you return from injury, the rest of the team is playing better, so it is difficult for him to guarantee a place in the rotation. ”

What does the future hold for Yi Jianlian? Will he still be able to find a place in the NBA? Judging from the average data per game, it is obviously difficult to get a lucrative contract with an average of 5.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. As far as Arthur knows, the Wizards did not make a qualifying offer to Yi Jianlian after the end of this season.

Since then, although Yi Jianlian has joined the Mavericks with a base salary and stayed with the Lakers for a short time, his NBA dream has actually ended.

On the one hand, Arthur wants to save Yi Jianlian, the only seedling of the Chinese men's basketball team - after all, within ten years after Yi Jianlian, no one in the Chinese men's basketball team can enter the NBA, on the other hand, it is naturally because of Yi Jianlian's Chinese market.

Milwaukee and Washington are not metropolises after all, and the team's top management is even more greedy for the Chinese market but does not know how to benefit, but Arthur is different, he has been at the helm of Blackburn for more than ten years, he knows how to get benefits from the Chinese market, and even the Under Armour company he controls is expected to quickly become a sports brand competing with Nike and Adidas in China with Yi Jianlian, so Yi Jianlian is determined to win.

Fortunately, the current Yi Jianlian is not taken seriously by the Wizards, and it is currently just before the deadline of the transfer period, and the Warriors only used Radmanovic in exchange for Yi Jianlian.

After trading Yi Jianlian, Arthur completely stopped meddling in the internal management of the Warriors, and he believed that the Warriors who could succeed in the previous life, as long as they followed the trajectory of the previous life, would still usher in a bright future.