Trading is impossible to trade, and even if Qiao Hai wants to trade, he can't find a suitable target and can't muster enough chips.

Therefore, all Qiao Hai has to do is wait, wait for the Rockets to continue to lose, wait for Hoop Sports to break the news, and wait for Tang Shuai's dismissal.

During the waiting break, Qiao Hai directly took a week's leave, flew to New York with the negotiation team that Kevending found for him, and began his negotiations with the Robert Johnson consortium.

……

There are still more than four months before the deadline for the expansion bid, and Qiao Hai wants to join it, so he obviously needs to speed up the pace of negotiations.

And for the Robert Johnson consortium, they also urgently need Qiao Hai to join.

At this moment, in the bidding for the expansion of qualifications, the consortium led by Larry Bird is significantly ahead, Robert Johnson's consortium wants to turn defeat into victory, and Qiao Hai's joining is crucial, therefore, it is not difficult for the two sides to negotiate, and in general, whether it is Robert Johnson or Qiao Hai, there is roughly a psychological price, just wait for the two sides to bargain, and reach a final agreement.

Before Qiao Hai joined, the distribution of shares in the Robert Johnson consortium was roughly that Robert Johnson took the lion's share, and the famous rapper Nelly and Charlotte's wealthy local businessman Balbe family held a small share.

The shares that can be divided into the profits left to Qiao Hai are actually less than 10%.

The funds that Qiao Hai can come up with can reach up to 20 million US dollars, including all the liquidity that Qiao Hai can take out now, plus Qiao Hai borrowed more than 8 million US dollars from seawater investment.

In the first negotiation between the two parties, Qiao Hai directly took out a total of 20 million US dollars, plus the value he can personally create for the team, asking to occupy 10% of the shares of the new team.

Robert Johnson naturally rejected Qiao Hai's initial offer, and after bargaining, he was willing to give 8% of the shares.

But Qiao Hai was not satisfied with the 8% stake, so the two parties continued to bargain.

The final result of the bargain was that the Robert Johnson consortium agreed to Joe Hai to contribute $25 million, plus the value that Joe Hai could personally create, to occupy 10% of the new team!

Qiao Hai's extra $5 million will be taken out of Hoop Sports' quarterly profits.

"The $25 million will arrive in February 2003, and before that, we need to sign a cooperation agreement...... "Qiao Hai's negotiator added the final details.

Qiao Hai shook hands with Robert Johnson, Nelly, and Matus Barbe, the representative of the Barbe family, and said, "Happy cooperation!" Hopefully we'll be able to win the final bid! ”

In this way, it took about three days for Qiao Hai to handle the negotiations with the Robert Johnson consortium and successfully join it.

Then, all he had to do was wait for the bidding to end.

……

……

Tang Shuai is still waiting for Qiao Hai's trade, but in the next part of the schedule, Tang Shuai must get through.

On December 15, the Rockets lost to the Clippers at home, and the Western Conference ranking was further overtaken, and this time, even the Clippers rushed ahead of the Rockets.

In this game, Yao Ming came off the bench and played 25 minutes, scoring 16 points and 9 rebounds on 5-of-9 shooting.

If Tang Shuai comes to his senses and starts to increase the use of Yao Ming, perhaps, this wave of 5 consecutive defeats can really be survived by Tang Shuai.

But Qiao Hai picked up his pace.

The news of Qiao Hai joining the Robert Johnson consortium will be announced in early February next year when the capital injection is officially injected, and before that, Qiao Hai must first sit in the position of head coach of the Rockets and sit firmly.

Otherwise, Qiao Hai cannot guarantee that once Qiao Hai is confirmed to become the small owner of the new team, Rocket owner Alexander is likely to fire Qiao Hai directly.

And if Qiao Hai sits firmly in the position of head coach of the Rockets, perhaps Alexander will let Qiao Hai stay in office for the sake of the Rockets' results until the Bobcats officially enter the NBA in the second half of 2004.

……

After the Rockets' home loss to the Clippers, Hoop Sports suddenly broke the news.

The opening picture is a picture of Rudy Tomjanovic appearing at the Anderson Cancer Center, which has been posted by many media outlets and has been unable to attract more people's attention.

But the point is, there's another picture underneath this one — it's a Methodist medical checklist.

The medical checklist reads: "There is a visible shadow in the bladder. ”

Then, Hoop Sports invited a cancer specialist from a local hospital in Los Angeles, and the expert named Richard Cohan said conclusively: "From this physical examination list, Rudy Tomjanovic has bladder cancer!" ”

So, within an hour, major media outlets across the United States reprinted exclusive news from Hoop Sports.

……

Public opinion has fermented, but that night, the Rockets went to the road to start the Heat, this game is an extremely crucial game for the Rockets, if they lose, their losing streak will reach 6 games.

Qiao Hai, who was in Houston, directly convened all the members of the management and held a high-level meeting to discuss whether to fire Tang Shuai, and the team owner Alexander also attended the meeting.

Before the meeting began, all the top executives sat in the conference room to watch the Rockets' away game against the Heat......

……

……

NBC broadcast the game live across the United States, with McBrin and Marv Albert commentating on the game.

Before the game, McBrin announced the starting lineups for both sides for this game: "The Miami Heat will start this game with point guard Travis Best, shooting guard Eddie Jones, small forward rookie Caron Butler, power forward Malic Allen, and center Brian Grant. ”

"The Houston Rockets will start this game with point guard Steve Francis, scoring guard James Posey, small forward Ron Artest, power forward Kenny Thomas and center Yao Ming!"

"Yao Ming is starting!"

Da Yao started, this is not unexpected, Tang Shuai should have seen all this clearly, if Yao Ming could start, the Rockets would not have lost five in a row, and they would have lost their bottoms almost if they lost.

Yao Ming plus Steve Francis, the offensive core of one inside and one outside, plus the two top defensive wings of Ron Artest and James Posey, as well as Carlos Boozer, a big forward who can shoot single-handedly, if Tang Shuai uses people reasonably, this Rocket's reasonable ranking should be in the top six in the West, and it will not be lower.

The game started quickly, and Yao Ming's start quickly made a difference, and in the opening jump ball, he defeated Bryan Grant by an absolute margin to win the jump ball.

The Rockets snatched the opening ball and started attacking.

Tang Shuai stood directly on the sidelines, he knew very well that after the news of his bladder cancer broke, this game was his life-and-death battle, if he wins, he can continue to coach the Rockets, and if he loses, he will be out of class.