The Wizards' next three games were played at home, beating the Pacers, then beating the shaky Raptors and losing to the Sacramento Kings, who are at the top of the West.

The day after the loss to the Kings, the Wizards announced that Richard Hamilton would return to the team after All-Star Weekend.

At this point, the Wizards are 27-20 and in fourth place in the East, but surrounded by wolves, and if Hamilton does not make a smooth comeback, or is not in good shape after returning, he is also at risk of falling out of the playoffs.

Despite the NBA's All-Star break, a team like the Wizards, who really likes to do off-court activities to gain fan support, won't give up on letting their players continue to work during the holidays.

Yu Fei was given the task of going to the school near the Verizon Center with Kwame Brown to do an activity with him.

Their mission is simple, play ball with the kids, and spend hours signing autographs, then pretend to be grateful for what is happening in front of them and sincerely appeal to them to continue supporting the Wizards.

Yu Fei, who was surrounded by a group of little children like heroes, was a little skeptical about life.

They have all sorts of questions to ask before the dreaded signature begins.

"Fry, do you have a bad relationship with Michael?"

"Fry, can I get Michael's autograph?"

"Fry, will you stay here all the time?"

The only question that Yu Fei can answer is the first one.

"Michael is my mentor, how can my relationship with him be bad?"

Then, a little girl ran up: "Fry, Kwame said he was dying. ”

At that time, Yu Fei, who had already been disturbed by the child's noise, looked at the girl with a completely detached look from the world: "When he is dead, you will come and tell me." ”

Yu Fei hated the various activities that the team arranged for him.

But if he knew what was going on at the Verizon Center, he would definitely be grateful that he only had to deal with the kids now.

Verizon Center

The Wizards want to finalize a deal before the trade deadline arrives.

The team's deputy general manager, Rod Higgins, has been talking to each other for a few days about this and is now very close to an agreement.

"The second-round pick is not a problem, we can give, but I hope that's the final offer."

Higgins said to the person on the other end of the line.

After receiving a definitive answer, Higgins hung up the phone and got up to report to Jordan, who was waiting for the results: "Seattle has agreed to a trade for Bobby Simmons. ”

Jordan asked, "At what cost?" ”

"Hubert Davis." Higgins said, "And Chris Whitney and two future second-round picks. ”

Jordan nodded slightly: "Very good, we can fully afford this price." ”

Higgins was visibly hesitant.

"Do you have something to say?" Jordan asked.

"This matter," said Higgins, "is to inform Frye?" Chris Whitney is a good friend of his. ”

Jordan smiled coldly, "No, he's having a lot of fun with the kids right now." ”

Higgins served Jordan wholeheartedly, but he also knew the weight of Yu Fei in the team now.

One fact is that Jordan is difficult to restrain to fly.

This has never been seen before in Jordan's career.

But it's true.

Yu Fei has shown his desire to challenge Jordan countless times on the training ground, on the competition field, and on various public occasions.

Higgins wasn't sure if the deal was necessary, as it looked more like a demonstration of Jordan vs. Fly.

One of Yu Fei's two best friends on the team was traded, and Yu Fei didn't know about it?

Higgins doesn't know how Yu Fei will react, and it's safe to assume that his relationship with Jordan has gone away.

This rift is irreparable.

And outside the general manager's office, Jordan's agent, David Falck, is preparing for another negotiation with Wizards owner Abbie Pollin and vice president Susan O'Marie.

Steve Wych, a reporter for the Post, referred to Falke as a "bird of prey" in his article.

Falck likes this nickname, which can reflect his aggressiveness, and the more ferocious the nickname it seems, the more ruthless they show to their management at the negotiating table, isn't this the best agent for employers?

It's just that lately Falke has felt more and more like he's outside of Jordan's team.

Jordan seems to rely more on Falck's old subordinate, Curtis Polk, who is also an agent, than Falker.

Some of the personal matters that Jordan would ask Falke to handle in the past are now handled by Polk.

Falke is nominally Jordan's agent, but in reality, all he can be responsible for is Jordan's player contract.

It can be said that Falke's current situation is similar to Jordan after his second comeback.

Jordan lost his dominance in the 90s, and Falck's days as the NBA's most powerful agent came to a standstill with the retirement and weakening of Jordan, Ewing, Mourning, and others, as well as the development of the likes of Juwan Howard and Rod Strickland.

Jordan, who made a comeback for the second time, is no longer the first person in the world who can influence the league pattern, so the name of Falke's agent rarely appears in the news.

Falck's outrage was inevitable, but he didn't want to leave Jordan's team, so this negotiation was his best chance to get closer to Jordan.

Boss's office

Jordan and Falck walked in, with Pauline sitting there, ready to negotiate with O'Marie, who disgusted Jordan, and Wes Unseld, who had no weight to speak of.

The two sides were speechless for a while.

Because Jordan is now negotiating as a partner, the politeness is waived, and the warmth and affection that he pretends to show others on weekdays have disappeared.

"Let's get started." Jordan spoke coldly.

"Michael, if I'm not mistaken, we're going to talk today about your return next season." Omarie believes she is not the only schizophrenic person in this room.

There's not a single old man on the Wizards team who doesn't hate Jordan, and there's not a single one who doesn't want him to get out, but right now, they want Jordan to give them a promise that he'll be back next season, and it would be better if they could just sign him to a contract.

Why? Because that's what Pauline wants.

Even the 38-year-old Jordan, even if he scores 20 points with less than 40% shooting per game, still has immeasurable commercial value.

Jordan plays one more year, and Pauline will be able to make more money through the team.

"Wait, wait, there's no rush on this." Falke started his performance, "I would like to ask Mr. Pauline, have you publicly promised to sell Michael more of the team when he retires?" And, still hand over the team to Michael? ”

The air froze.

O'Marie loses her voice, a question that only Pauline is qualified to answer.

Pauline gave Jordan a deep look.

The best player of all time sat quietly, his conceited expression unchanged.

Pauline smiled, a flattering smile, but with his yellow teeth, it looked mad: "Of course, this is my promise to Michael." ”

"Is this promise public?" "Who can vouch for this promise?" Falck asked. How can we be sure that you will deliver on your promises? ”

Pauline was already a little annoyed, and he and Falck didn't just dislike each other, since Jordan joined the Wizards in the early 2000s, Falke has acted as Jordan's mouthpiece and said bad things about him everywhere outside.

Even though Pauline never responded to Falck, that doesn't mean he didn't care.

Actually, he just didn't want to annoy Jordan.

However, Falck is clearly not a good person today.

"David, you can not believe me, but you have to believe Ted Leonsis (1), I made a promise to Michael in front of him."

As soon as Pauline's voice fell, Falck looked at Jordan to see if this was the case.

Jordan nodded slightly, which was considered a default.

"I'll assume that this guarantee exists and works." Falck's words infuriated Pauline.

Pauline lost a smile on his face: "What do you mean?" ”

"It's not interesting, I just wanted to talk about something a little more specific." Falck could feel the change in Jordan's ambitions. Jordan of the future will be a Pauline-style businessman, and he doesn't need an agent who will only think about things in terms of a player-like pattern, so he has to prove today that he can not only act as a military advisor to the player Jordan, but also give advice to the owner Jordan. "Since you had an appointment with Michael, I decided that when Michael left the court, you would actually sell some of it to him. What I want to ask is, is this equity sold at the original price that Michael sold to you, or at the new price at which Michael increased its market value? ”

Without waiting for Pauline to react, Falke continued: "Michael's comeback has increased the market value of the team, and you have made a lot of money back to your bad team after 10 years, but what did Michael get?" He takes a basic salary, has no financial compensation, and in the end has to spend more money to buy back his shares? Is there such a truth in the world? ”

Falck's demand that the shares sold back to Jordan in the future be sold at the original price and that a portion of the profits from this season and next season be compensated to Jordan was enough to make Pauline and him quarrel.

The negotiations were inconclusive.

It was a secret negotiation, and no one knew exactly what was going on, but its implications were far-reaching.

Since it's a secret, there are naturally no idlers waiting to know the inside story at the moment, and the only thing the Wizards are in the news today is sending Chris Whitney, a veteran who will play for the team for seven years, to Seattle.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"The Washington Wizards sent Hubert Davis, Chris Whitney, and second-round picks from 2003 and 2005 to Seattle in exchange for Bobby Simmons and Earl Watson." - NBA official

Whitney said he had long understood that it was all business, but that he would never forgive the person who made the decision. —The Washington Times

"We don't need an old point guard, we don't need a relationship (Hubert Davis (2)), we don't need a second-round pick from the Wizards, it's an invalid deal that doesn't add any value other than ruining the chemistry between the two sides." —The Seattle Times

"(Yu Fei said) he joined this team at the most difficult time, and now they are sending him away when they are closest to success, you tell me that this is all business? If it's business, it's bad business too, and I need an explanation! —NBC Wired Interview

(1) Ted Leonsis is a minority shareholder in the Wizards, a close friend and business associate of Jordan, and there is even a statement that "Michael decided to take over the Wizards solely because of Ted Leonsis".

(2) Hubert Davis is the nephew of North Carolina legend Walter Davis.

(End of chapter)