Nike President’s office.
The head of marketing slammed the contract in his hand and questioned his subordinates: "Can anyone tell me why, despite us being so close to Zeng, we still haven’t secured him? And why is our offer so much worse than our competitors’?"
This contract is the offer to Zeng Xingyang, clearly marked at 5 years for 50 million US Dollars, which is not competitive at all compared to Anta’s.
"Boss, Zeng’s agent team has indeed been in touch with us consistently, and they lean towards signing with us, but this was Zeng’s personal decision, and the rival’s offer is something we cannot afford," the executive said.
This Nike executive could not fathom how Anta dared to offer such a price, completely surpassing their valuation.
"Zeng will regret not signing with us. He will realize that without our collaboration, winning awards in the NBA will be very difficult," the Nike marketing president shouted furiously.
Nike will put all its effort to block non-branded partner athletes from achieving awards.
In the NBA, under the same competitive conditions, a Nike endorsement versus a non-Nike endorsement, there is no doubt that the Nike-endorsed athlete has the advantage.
However, at this time, the Nike president thought of last season’s MVP, Stephen Curry, which made him even more angered.
Stephen Curry’s performance on the court was so formidable that any obstruction from Nike became insignificant.
Nike couldn’t stop him.
No one could stop that kind of Stephen Curry from winning MVP.
This season, Stephen Curry is even crazier.
However, not everyone is Stephen Curry, and not all brands are Under Armour!
The Nike CEO thought stubbornly.
The morning after Zeng Xingyang signed the contract with Anta, his first year’s fees arrived.
The first year’s contract amount converted into RMB was about 170 million, and then almost 45% was directly paid as personal income tax, leaving the actual amount less than the original target.
Looking at the tax deduction slip, Zeng Xingyang didn’t feel much pain.
The greater the capacity, the greater the responsibility.
Being able to secure such a big endorsement contract was largely due to his Chinese identity.
Without this identity, he would probably get similar contracts to other American NBA players.
Paying taxes according to law is a duty; Zeng Xingyang never thought of evading or skipping taxes.
Even when Schwartz suggested he engage in a certain degree of tax avoidance, Zeng Xingyang outright rejected it.
If he, as a public figure, took the lead in not paying taxes, how could the country later deal with Yingjiang’s aircraft carriers?
Now, in addition to the salary and other endorsements, Zeng Xingyang holds about 100 million RMB and 12 million US Dollars in cash.
These are all after-tax figures.
Zeng Xingyang planned to divide them into four parts.
In the first part, Zeng Xingyang planned to use 10 million US Dollars to purchase Tesla stock on the stock market. Tesla’s current market value was about 30 billion US Dollars, and Zeng Xingyang considered himself quite a significant personal investor.
Zeng Xingyang recalled that at the end of this year, Musk will first successfully launch and recover a rocket, and by then, Tesla’s stock will soar.
Musk is also quite the genius, later becoming the iron-hat king of the Drumpf...
Before purchasing these stocks, Zeng Xingyang specifically asked Schwartz to find Musk’s phone through various connections.
He conveyed his optimism about the future of the electric car industry to Musk.
Compared to Musk, Zeng Xingyang’s assets are just a small fry, but Zeng Xingyang is considered a celebrity and influential, qualified to call Musk.
Musk had heard of Zeng Xingyang’s name; he was a bit surprised that this Chinese basketball star wanted to invest in Tesla, but he had dealt with all kinds of people, so he was courteous on the phone and invited Zeng Xingyang to visit his rocket launch base when he had the chance.
If Zeng Xingyang ever wanted to, he could bring him into space for a fun trip.
Zeng Xingyang politely declined; he had no interest in going to space.
In his previous life, Zeng Xingyang was also an engineering guy interested in many topics to chat about with Musk.
The two went from discussing reaching Mars to battery technology.
Their conversation lasted a long time, and they thoroughly enjoyed it, with Zeng Xingyang’s intention to invest in stocks soon confirmed.
He wasn’t buying from Musk but from the market; his amount of purchase wouldn’t cause major fluctuations.
In the second part, Zeng Xingyang planned to spend another 1 million US Dollars on buying around 2000 Bitcoins, pushing his Bitcoin holdings to around 4000.
The total number of Bitcoins is 21 million; after accumulating 4000, Zeng Xingyang no longer planned to buy more. He feared becoming too influential, fearing the coin might flop later and people might switch to Dogecoin, which would be annoying.
If things go smoothly, this part of Bitcoin holdings could yield higher returns than all his investments.
In the third part, Zeng Xingyang planned to establish a domestic investment company to spend 80 million participating in ByteDance’s Series D funding.
ByteDance was in a high-speed development phase, currently valued at 1 billion US Dollars.
They weren’t short of money; their first reaction to hearing Zeng Xingyang wanting to invest was rejection, thinking Zeng Xingyang was just messing around.
But after Zeng Xingyang got Boss Zhang’s phone number and discussed the future of short videos, it changed Boss Zhang’s mind.
Zeng Xingyang was not just an excellent basketball player; he had mature insights and ideas.
Eventually, Zeng Xingyang secured a ticket to the game.
Zeng Xingyang was very aware that whether it was communicating with Musk or Boss Zhang, his unique Chinese NBA player identity played a significant role.
As long as China’s market was valued, there was potential for collaboration. Now Zeng Xingyang already had some capital for exchanging interests.
Apart from ByteDance, Zeng Xingyang actually had several other investment options, like Didi, or food delivery platforms.
But Zeng Xingyang had seen the harsh life of people at the bottom. He knew food delivery workers and Didi drivers earn by hard work.
He found it hard to persuade himself to become the capitalist behind them with strategies to exploit them now that he had money.
The dragon-slaying youth shouldn’t become the evil dragon.
In the fourth part, Zeng Xingyang planned to allocate another 20 million RMB to set up a domestic charitable foundation, mainly supporting families living with severe difficulty due to illness or special reasons for failed entrepreneurship.
This 20 million was just the initial investment; when Zeng Xingyang’s liquidity increased later, he would inject more.
Zeng Xingyang’s philanthropy wasn’t for fame or tax avoidance; he was more inclined to follow his heart to do what he wanted.
As much as possible, he was willing to help others.
Helping others always brings plenty of spiritual gains.
After signing the contract, Zeng Xingyang was very busy, even slightly slackening his training while arranging various video and phone interviews.
Schwartz recruited many headhunters, together they recommended many elites from Wall Street and in China.
Zeng Xingyang’s role was conducting the final interviews, deciding on these high-level workers domestically and abroad to work for him.
Once he had the people, everything progresses smoothly.
Luckily, Schwartz’s abilities were adequate, whatever kind of person Zeng Xingyang needed or path he wanted, even if Schwartz didn’t have it, he’d make a few calls to get it for Zeng Xingyang.
Schwartz also had rich experience in business operation management, so Zeng Xingyang’s various instructions and directions were executed well.
Of course, he wasn’t working alone; he also had corporate teams.
During this period, the team was almost entirely revolving around Zeng Xingyang.
"Zeng, you need to pay me an extra salary," Schwartz complained to Zeng Xingyang after working overtime for two consecutive days.
Zeng Xingyang was treating him like a 007 workhorse. Since signing the contract with Anta, Schwartz hadn’t had much sleep for two nights. Zeng Xingyang occasionally came up with ideas for Schwartz to execute.
During the day, he was busy with American businesses; if it was late-night here, he was directing Chinese affairs seamlessly...
"Jeff, don’t argue over a salary; to achieve big things, we need to collaborate strongly, we will grow together, progress together," Zeng Xingyang said smilingly.
"I don’t want to progress; I just want to be a good agent," Schwartz said with a bitter smile.
Zeng Xingyang’s various investment operations far exceeded Schwartz’s professional knowledge, and Schwartz felt exhausted.
"Being an agent also means being the best sports agent, I believe in you; you can do it," Zeng Xingyang praised.
Schwartz made a lot of money from commissions on shoe deals; naturally, Zeng Xingyang wouldn’t miss the chance to utilize him.
He also knew Schwartz would firmly seize him as a cash cow.
Indeed, what people fear most is not work but getting no money from work done.
If there’s money to be made, being a hard worker doesn’t matter.
If you give an ordinary office worker an annual salary of 1 million US Dollars + company shares, who would mind being worked hard?
Making people work hard isn’t scary; the scariest part is making them work hard without rewarding them.
Schwartz’s compensation from Zeng Xingyang far exceeded 1 million US Dollars, and though he complained of hardships, Schwartz continued to work diligently.
Schwartz realized working with Zeng Xingyang could elevate his career to a whole new level.
Schwartz planned to invest a small amount in Tesla stock following Zeng Xingyang.
No, that’s a bit much.
Schwartz was still a bit skeptical about NBA players’ judgment, even if it was Zeng Xingyang.