On the 20th, Zhou Quan and Zeng Li's wedding.

Except for his in-laws, Zeng Li's side only invited Ah Zhen as a classmate to be her bridesmaid, and nothing else was invited.

Zhou Quan went abroad early and had no friends in China, except for a few good Changsha high school classmates, and only invited Chen Long, Xu Xiaoming and Wang Guxian from Hong Kong, who had said a long time ago that they wanted to attend his wedding.

However, Zhou Jianguo has worked in Changsha for more than ten years, and he has the most friends, plus his comrades-in-arms in Changsha, there are more than 20 tables.

In addition, some leaders of the urban area also came to join in the fun, and a total of more than 30 tables were invited.

However, there are a lot of people watching the excitement, after all, Zhou Quan is very famous in Changsha, but fortunately, he has been prepared for a long time, and he likes sugar and smoke.

On the third day, he and Zeng Li went to Jingzhou to return to the door, and then went to Wuhan to play for two days, and on the 27th, the two arrived in the capital.

Zhou Quan stayed in his big courtyard and continued to rest, and Zeng Li followed Zhou Jianguo, who had already come to the capital, to see the façade.

On the 30th, the NBA's draft day, Zhou Quan didn't pay attention to this, and on this day he came to the men's basketball team to report and officially join the team.

But it's still resting, focusing on recovering physical fitness, and every day is an activity, and by the way, I will guide the training of my teammates.

With his current strength and qualifications, no one is unconvinced, even people like Sun Jun and Gong Xiaobing, who have a very high status in the domestic basketball world, are a cut older than him, and they are just as obedient in front of him.

On the morning of the 13th, he received a transatlantic call from the glider.

"Iron Fist, I'm going to sign with the team."

"OK, Clyde, you're welcome to join us." Zhou Quan said with a smile.

Hearing that the glider was in a good mood, he asked again: "How big is the contract?" ”

"Six million dollars for two years." Said the glider.

"Okay, then I wish you a nice trip to Seattle, and we'll see you in the United States." Zhou Quan said with a smile.

He calculated that Rodman and Schramf both have an annual salary of 5 million, but they are both veteran contracts, which together occupy a space of 7 million US dollars, plus the salary space of more than 5 million US dollars occupied by himself next season, 3 million for gliders, 2.6 million for Hawkins, 1.5 million for Matt Geiger, and 1.3 million for McMillan, and the seven of them occupy a space of close to 21 million.

The salary cap for next season is $26.5 million, which means that the remaining five people together have a space of more than 5 million, an average annual salary of one million, and one or two good role players.

And the superSonics should also have a $2.2 million middle-class regulation in their hands that can go beyond the salary cap and sign people from the free market.

At 10 a.m. on July 14, the men's and women's basketball teams and a number of other sports teams boarded the plane.

On the plane, Zhou Quan became a sweetheart, and people kept asking him all kinds of questions about the United States, coming to take pictures with him and sign autographs.

At 11 a.m. EST on the 14th, the plane arrived in Los Angeles, stayed at the airport for two hours, and then transferred to Atlanta.

Arrived in Atlanta at five o'clock in the afternoon, took a bus to the Olympic Village, entered the Olympic Village at half past six, first raised the national flag, allocated rooms and arranged them, it was already eight o'clock in the evening, and then everyone went to the restaurant for dinner.

The next day, Zeng and the Zhou family arrived in Los Angeles and then transferred to Seattle, where they planned to stay at home for a few days before heading to Atlanta to watch the Olympics.

accompanied by Zeng Yu, who scored 623 points in the college entrance examination, Zhou Quan promised to arrange for her to study abroad, and also arranged for her to be at UCLA.

As long as the grades are good and Zhou Quan's connections at UCLA, UCLA is very welcome.

On the afternoon of the 15th, in Atlanta, O'Neill had dinner with Zhou Quan.

"Iron Fist, the glider announced yesterday that he would join the SuperSonics, did you find him?" O'Neill said.

"Jordan has recruited big dreams, I have a problem recruiting gliders?" Zhou Quan said with a smile.

"You're all huddled, it's too unusual." O'Neill was angry.

"The glider is not very good anymore, and if you go to the supersonic, you may have to play as a substitute." Zhou Quan said a word and then asked, "Shark, what about you, have you done it?" ”

O'Neal seemed to be in a bad mood and said: "It's done, go to the Lakers, and announce the signing in two days." ”

"Is the magic reluctant to give you a 100 million yuan contract?"

"They said they were afraid that Hardaway and the fans would be unhappy, and they couldn't give me a big contract of 100 million yuan, a bunch of stupid birds!" O'Neill said angrily.

Zhou Quan was stunned and laughed.

"Yes, sharks, you're right, they're a bunch of stupid birds."

O'Neill's eyes were about to eat people, so Zhou Quan restrained his laughter and scolded the magic management, and O'Neal's face was better.

"The Big Dream deal hasn't been done for a long time, and I think he still has to stay in Houston." O'Neill said.

"Chances are, as long as the Mosaic management is not a fool, it won't agree." Zhou Quan said with a smile.

O'Neal said: "In this draft, the Lakers traded the high school kid named Kobe Bryant with the main center Divac, Iron Fist, do you think that kid has a future? ”

"Kobe?"

Zhou Quan thought about it, was a little impressed, and said, "I don't know, I haven't seen him play." However, it shouldn't be stronger than Jordan. ”

……

The Olympics went ahead as scheduled, and the opening ceremony was held on the 19th.

However, this morning, the Lakers announced the signing ceremony with O'Neal, who received a seven-year, $120 million super contract with the Lakers.

Zhou Quan congratulated O'Neill and threw himself into the Olympics.

The men's basketball team was in a group with Angola, Croatia, Argentina, the United States, and Lithuania, and finally defeated Angola and Argentina, Croatia, and Lithuania in the group stage, with four wins and one loss, and successfully reached the quarterfinals with the second place in the group.

Zhou Quan performed well in the group stage, averaging 31 points, 4.2 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 6.4 steals, 2.4 blocks, 1.2 turnovers and 2 fouls per game, and was the best player in the entire Olympic men's basketball team.

In the end, the Chinese national team went all the way to the finals, but still lost to the Dream Three team, the interior line was too weak, and it was really impossible to do the super center of O'Neill and Olajuwon, and won the silver medal in the Atlanta Olympics.

After the Olympics, Zhou Quan separated from the delegation and returned to Seattle with his family.

On August 8th, Seattle hosted a grand wedding.

It's not how big the wedding is, it's that the people who come really make the wedding look starry.

In addition to the mayor of Seattle and several congressmen, there were no less than 30 Hollywood stars, and there were also 30 or 40 retired NBA stars.

Tyson and several world boxing champions, as well as the presidents of the four major boxing organizations, and several famous American boxing promoters, were present one by one.

More than 100 people from Seattle and executives from various companies came, many of whom were world-class tycoons, and this was the most eye-catching.

After the wedding, his parents and sister Zhou Ye returned to China, and Zhou Jun and Zeng Yu went to Los Angeles.

Zeng Li's coffee shop in the capital is being renovated, Zhou Jianguo wants to go back to watch, and after a while it opens, Zeng Li's will return to China.

After investigation, the positioning of domestic coffee shops is low-grade, which is different from the high-end market of fine coffee shops, which is taking into account the current domestic consumer market.

The reason why the main positioning in the United States is that the mid-to-high-end market is gone.

And at present, there are no competitors in the low-end market in China, so you can seize this market first.

This is the style of Starbucks learning, Starbucks headquarters is also in Seattle, established in 71 years, and has not yet come to China to develop.

The company in the United States has only two shareholders, Zhou Quan and Zeng Li, each accounting for half, and one more shareholder in China, Zhou Jianguo and Zhou Quan each accounting for 30%, and Zeng Li, 40%.

Then Zhou Quan and Zeng Li came to Las Vegas and entered boxing training.

From the finals to now, that is, two months ago, there has been an Olympic Games in the middle, and there is about to play another title defense match, which is a huge test of Zhou Quan's physical fitness.

Fortunately, Zhou Quan has a magic weapon, and he has been practicing diligently, day by day, and has an excellent effect on the recovery of his spirit and body.

On the 14th, Jerry Claus negotiated a trade with Dawson for the last time.

He gave the biggest chips, Kevin Willis + Ron Harper + Luke Longley + Tony Kukocchi + '97 first-round unprotected pick + '99 first-round unprotected pick.

Mosaic only pays Olajuwon.

He calculated very well that trading these four players to Mosaic would free up nearly $14 million of space for the Bulls.

Pippen, on the other hand, has a contract of only $2.25 million next season, which is less than any of the four players who have been traded.

Jordan is on a veteran contract, and Big Dream is $9.66 million next season, but like Jordan, he is on a veteran contract, which saves a lot of space, so it does not affect the Bulls to continue to bring in players.

He carefully calculated, after the big dream came in, there was still room for five million dollars, and the quality of bringing in four players would not be high, and the stars could not be brought in, but one or two good role players could be obtained, and two fringe people were enough.

It's a pity that he is very calculating, but Dawson is not a vegetarian either, and in fact he doesn't want to trade at all, just to cope with the big dream, he bites Pippen to death, and in the end the deal can't be reached.

Klaus doesn't think that Big Dream is inferior to Pippen, but considering that without Pippen, he can only be attacked by the point guard who controls the ball, which will face an iron fist defense, so he can't trade Pippen.

When the news of the trade failure was revealed, the entire league breathed a sigh of relief, especially Eastern Conference teams, such as the Knicks and Heat.

When Da Meng was notified, he was very annoyed.

Dawson knew that Big Dream was going to go, so he didn't actually force Big Dream to stay, it was really a bargaining chip for the Bulls.

He doesn't plan to seek a trade in the future, Big Dream is gone, just for the championship, so what he wants to do is not to trade Big Dream, but to strengthen it, so that Big Dream can see the hope of the championship, presumably Big Dream can stay.

The annual salary of the glider last season was 9.81 million, and now that he is gone, this space is out, and he can completely recruit a superstar to come in.

He has his eye on the postman Karl Malone, and now although there is no news in the media that the postman wants to trade, according to his information, the postman has proposed the idea of leaving the team with Jerry Sloan.

"Iron Fist, Mosaic and Bulls trade for Big Dreams failed, do you want to say something?" There was a telephone interview with a reporter.

Zhou Quan was interviewed by phone and said: "The deal was not successful, and the bull robbery failed, which should be very good news.

The Bulls are trying to build a roster of three peak superstars, which is more terrible than the Mosaic Big Three lineup, and more unfair to other teams, and I don't think there should be this kind of phenomenon of superstars huddling at their peak, which is not conducive to the development of the league. ”

"Iron Fist, do the SuperSonics have plans to trade All-Star caliber centers right now?" The journalist asked.

'It's hard to play, we're the defending team and who wants to see us supersonic make it three in a row? No. Zhou Quan said.

Not long after he said that, Mutombo announced on his doorstep in Denver that he would enter the free market.

The Nuggets didn't give him the big contract he wanted, and he decided to leave.

His announcement immediately attracted many of the team's general managers, and Whithit was one of them.

The SuperSonics are now one inside line, preferably the main center, and let Matt Geiger continue to play as a substitute.

It's just that Mutombo's contract is too big, with an annual salary of tens of millions and a contract of more than five years, which immediately made Whithit dispel the idea of introducing it.

It's not that there is no money, it's that there is no space at all, Mutombo entered the free market on his own, and he doesn't meet the veteran clause, and there is no salary space for supersonic itself, let alone tens of millions of annual salaries, and six or seven million annual salaries can't be signed.

He considered trading Matt Geiger, but Gaigger's contract was only $1.5 million, which was far from enough space, and if he wanted to force his sign, he would have to clear a large number of contracts first.

Including at least a five-million-dollar main player, and two or three important rotation players, but then the roster would become shallow, and in his opinion, it would not be cost-effective.

The strongest opponent of the supersonic in the west is Mosaic, which has the most powerful combination of Big Dream and Barkley, so the supersonic inner line cannot be weakened, and the introduction of Mutombo can only weaken the outside line.

But the real strongest opponent of the supersonic is still the Bull, and the Bull is strong on the outside, so the outside line of the supersonic cannot be weakened.

The outside and interior lines cannot be weakened, so they can only rely on the deep depth of the roster to face the Bulls and the SuperSonics, and cannot weaken it in order to bring in Mutombo.

There is another one, Mutombo can only play a defensive role in positional warfare, and he can't play fast attack, and he can't defend against the opponent's fast attack, and the supersonic style is fast-paced attack and defense, and Mutombo is actually not very suitable for the supersonic tactical style.

In the end, he chose to give up on Mutombo.

(End of chapter)