At the Meto Garden restaurant in New York, the sun shines on the balcony, through the huge sun umbrella, still shining on the face of an Asian man with sunglasses.

The Asian took off his sunglasses and quickly found the person he was looking for.

"Hello, Joe, you're finally here."

The Asian in sunglasses is Qiao Hai, and the black man who came up to shake hands was naturally Robert Johnson, Qiao Hai smiled and shook hands with Robert Johnson, and then, the other members of the Robert Johnson consortium also stood up to welcome Qiao Hai's arrival.

Nelly, a rapper, and Matus Barbe, a representative of the Balbe family.

Matus Barbe is the second shareholder of the Robert Johnson consortium, in which he holds 15 percent, rapper Nelly has a 5 percent, Qiao Hai has a 10 percent, and the majority shareholder Robert Johnson has a 70 percent.

On the balcony of the Meto Garden restaurant, all the members of the Robert Johnson consortium sat down, looked at the Statue of Liberty not far away, and chatted about the latest state of the bid.

"What's going on with Larry Bird?"

"Their financial resources have always been an issue compared to us, and now that Joe has come in to help us run an NBA team, we believe Larry Bird is no longer our opponent."

"Can't be careless, Larry Bird's relationship within the alliance is not comparable to you and me, even if it is Joe, it may not be as good as him."

Matus Barbay glanced at Joe, and he shook his head, he had a different opinion about Robert Johnson and Nelly's optimism.

In fact, when Qiao Hai joined the Robert Johnson consortium, Matus Barbe was opposed, he believed that no matter how good Qiao Hai's leading results were, in terms of connections, it would definitely not be as good as Larry Bird, who had been in the league for twenty or thirty years.

For the Robert Johnson consortium, it was necessary to bring in a new shareholder with NBA credentials, and at that time Matus Barbe was more inclined to invite Michael Jordan to join them, because Michael Jordan had Charlotte "blood".

Although Michael Jordan's birthplace is New York, he moved to Charlotte when he was five years old, and Charlotte is Jordan's true hometown.

But Michael Jordan chose to make a comeback and play again with the Wizards, and he had no interest in joining the Robert Johnson consortium at all.

As a result, Matus Barbe could only accept Qiao Hai's joining.

But obviously, at this time, Matus Barbe still didn't feel that Qiao Hai could help them much.

Qiao Hai smiled and took out a document directly from the briefcase he brought: "This is the specific information I learned about the Larry Bird Consortium through David Falck, indeed, as Nelly said, there is a problem with their funds, and some of the funds seem to come from overseas, and Larry Bird cannot guarantee that this part of the funds will be transferred to the United States on time." ”

"Also, I reached out to Stu Jackson, who is the vice president of the league and is in charge of the studio's referee committee, and although he had nothing to do with the expansion bid, he gave me some first-hand insider information."

Qiao Hai said as he glanced at Matus Barbe.

At this time, Matus Barbe's face was already quite ugly, and in the last second, he was still complaining that Qiao Hai's connections were not as good as Larry Bird's, and now, Qiao Hai began to show his connections.

David Falck is Qiao Hai's agent, he was Michael Jordan's agent, and in this league, David Falke is the most well-connected type of person.

And Stu Jackson is a friend of David Stern, the current vice president of the league, in charge of the referee committee, obviously, this is also a reflection of Qiao Hai's connections.

David Falck is Joeha's relationship outside the league, and Stu Jackson is Joe's relationship inside the league.

Combining the two, Qiao Hai can get more first-hand information.

"The final bidding voting time has not been announced, but the approximate time has been determined, and the league will hold a bidding vote at the same time as the draft meeting this year, and at the same time discuss what kind of treatment to give to the expanding team."

That said, the timing of the bidding vote will take place at the end of the season, which is a very important piece of information.

"In addition, the person in charge of this bidding vote is another vice president of the alliance, Adam Xiao Hua, and he has no inclination regarding our two consortiums for the time being."

Qiao Hai gave another piece of information, which explained: "Therefore, this expansion bid vote is going to really compete with our connections in this league, and we need to get the support of more teams." ”

Robert Johnson nodded, the information given by Joe Hai is very important, it is very important to win the support of more teams, there are less than four months before the expansion vote, Robert Johnson knows that they have to act.

……

……

The day after Qiao Hai arrived in New York, the alliance held its last meeting before the expansion bid vote, which was attended by both major consortia, and Qiao Hai also appeared in front of the public for the first time.

"Qiao Hai actually joined the Robert Johnson consortium?"

"This is not good, our financial resources and qualifications may all fall into the wind."

For the consortium led by Larry Bird, the addition of Qiao Hai has put them at a disadvantage in all aspects, and they are completely unable to compete with the Robert Johnson consortium.

But after all, the bid for the expansion of the army was decided by voting, so Larry Bird still has a chance.

"Before the ending comes out, don't be too pessimistic, we still have a chance, as far as I know, this time the expansion bidding vote, the alliance will not be decided."

Larry Bird was quick to give the inside story what he knew: "So, this time the expansion bid will be a real vote, and the 29 active NBA teams have voting rights, and we still have a good chance." ”

The inside story given by Larry Bird gave his team a lot of confidence, and if it really had to vote, the chances of the Larry Bird Consortium would be no worse than that of the Robert Johnson Consortium.

"If it's really a vote, we've locked in four votes."

"Three votes? One vote for the Indiana Pacers, one vote for the Boston Celtics, who else? ”

"The Vancouver Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Lakers, they are Qiao Hai's old clubs, and they have more or less grudges with Qiao Hai, so their vote will not be given to Robert Johnson, it should be given to us."

……

On the side of the Robert Johnson consortium, they are also discussing how many votes they can get.

"First of all, we can lock in the rocket." Robert Johnson glanced at Joe, who smiled and nodded, he could be sure that this vote was for himself.

Matus Barbe was also quick to say: "I can get two votes here, Michael Jordan's Wizards have one vote, and the Hornets, although they moved to New Orleans, I have a good relationship with George Sinn (the Hornets owner) and should be able to pull this vote." ”

"That's three votes."

Qiao Hai thought for a while: "I can get a few more votes, the votes of the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks should have a chance to get it, as well as the New Jersey Nets, by the way, although the Lakers have an old grudge against me, I have a good relationship with Mitch Kupchak, so I should be able to give it a try." ”

Qiao Hai and Popovich have a good relationship, they are also friends and enemies, and he also has a good relationship with Don Nelson and his son on the Mavericks' side, so Qiao Hai feels that he has a good chance to win these two votes.

Needless to say, the Nets naturally did a good job with the Nets, and if Qiao Hai found him, he would also help.

As for the Lakers, Qiao Hai can only say that he can try, and there should be a certain success rate.

Counting the indeterminate four votes, that's 7 votes.

The protagonist of the canvassing session is actually Qiao Hai, Qiao Hai thought for a while, and said again: "David Falke also has a few familiar teams, Bulls, Knicks, Cavaliers, these teams, we can also try it." ”

"By the way, there's also the Raptors, and Carol Dawson, the former general manager of the Rockets, has a good relationship with them......"

Qiao Hai racked his brains and found all kinds of relationships, but obviously, if these relationships were really used, Qiao Hai would owe a lot of favors.

But Qiao Hai had to take advantage of these connections, because the success of the expansion bid was the most important thing.