Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 506: Chapter 348 The Deity Has Departed

On July 1, 2007, the Milwaukee Bucks proclaimed, “We are still negotiating a contract extension with Frye, and we promise to make every effort to bring him back.”

But that was basically a diplomatic formality; the Bucks didn’t want to disappoint fans prematurely.

After the championship celebration ended, Fei notified the team through his agent that he would “test the waters” of free agency and might return, possibly leaving via a sign-and-trade to leave the team with one last asset.

The Bucks’ upper management naturally understood that the people behind Fei who wanted him to leave Milwaukee had ultimately succeeded.

But what they never understood was that maybe Fei himself wanted to leave. On that matter, even Fei didn’t have a clear answer.

In the southern part of Manhattan District of New York City, extending from Broadway to the East River, there’s a street barely one-third of a mile long and only 11 meters wide.

This is the most famous street—Wall Street.

Fei would negotiate here with Clay Bennett, the current owner of the SuperSonics.

Long before the start of the negotiating session, Bennett arrived at the designated spot 20 minutes early.

Because the man behind this setup was Bennett’s much-respected “Oracle of Omaha.”

Because it pertained to team business, Bennett brought along the SuperSonics’ new general manager, Sam Presti, whom he had poached from San Antonio with a hefty sum.

“Boss,” Presti asked, “is it true? Frye really plans to come to Seattle?”

Clay Bennett, a square-faced man with short hair, standing over 1.9 meters tall and solid as a bull, found himself in middle age. He didn’t look like a billionaire; he looked like a redneck from the Southern countryside.

Bennett had a pair of sharp eyes, like an eagle’s, and he said, “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.”

Even though Presti had many years of professional basketball experience, he was still a rookie at being a general manager.

He certainly knew the kind of impact Fei had on professional basketball.

The Chosen One who had just reached another peak in Milwaukee, would he really give up the prosperous Chosen Country to come to the uncertain future of Seattle?

If he did come, what would that mean?

Presti didn’t have time to think deeply when he saw Bennett stand up with an obliging smile on his usually serious face: “Warren, long time no see.”

“Every time I see you, I’m struck by how burly a guy can be,” Warren Buffett joked.

Bennett glanced at the empty seat opposite him: “I heard there’s a guest today who’s even burlier than me?”

“Haha!” Buffett laughed, “I bet, he really doesn’t look as strong as you.”

Fei and his team appeared ten minutes before the appointed time.

There were only three people: Fei, his agent Arne Trem, and his assistant Lin Kaiwen.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Buffett stood up to go to the restroom, giving Fei and Bennett an opportunity to start their conversation.

This wasn’t difficult at all.

Fei first congratulated the SuperSonics on picking Kevin Durant in the draft, calling it a wise move, and Bennett also praised Fei’s performance with the Bucks.

Then, Presti steered the conversation to the next stage: “Frye, as far as I know, you have the option to test the free agency market this summer. Can I take it that you are prepared to leave Milwaukee and that today’s meeting is a de facto recruiting negotiation?”

“Not so fast, Sam,” Trem parried Presti’s question, “before we start discussing that, Frye wants to confirm something.”

“What’s that?” Presti asked.

Trem asked directly, “Does Mr. Bennett still think that the SuperSonics will stay in Seattle?”

“We remember when Mr. Bennett bought the team last year, he and Schultz Howard promised to continue making the SuperSonics a cultural totem of Seattle. We want to know if that promise still stands.”

Unfortunately, this was a realm beyond the reach of Presti, who was merely the general manager of the team.

For him, Bennett was the boss, and he was just the general manager. As long as Bennett paid him a salary and trusted his professional capabilities without interfering, even if Bennett wanted to move the team to Darfur, he would have no objections.

Presti couldn’t answer that question; he turned his head to look at Bennett.

Bennett stared at Fei like a predator: “Why do you want to know this?”

“You know…” Trem said confidently, “Frye won’t easily leave Milwaukee; that’s his kingdom, the place where he built his dynasty. The only thing that could take him away from Milwaukee is one factor—saving the SuperSonics from relocation. That’s the wish of three million hometown folks, and he must respond to these wishes. But he wants to know if it’s still possible.”

“Hmm…”

Bennett snorted disdainfully, albeit faintly, but Fei and Trem could hear it clearly.

“There are not three million people,” Bennett said flatly, “I can assure you, there are not that many people in Seattle with that wish, not even half.”@@novelbin@@

Fei spoke up, “How many do you think there are?”

“At most 900,000,” Bennett said with certainty, not disclosing the source of his data, “and that includes those who are only willing to pay lip service but actually do nothing!”

“900,000?” Fei chuckled, “That’s already more than the total population of Milwaukee. It’s worth it for me to do this.”

Bennett’s face changed, and Yu Fei continued, “Mr. Bennett, please answer me honestly, has the decision to relocate already been finalized?”

Even a businessman from Oklahoma City like Bennett had heard of Yu Fei’s great reputation, and he knew what kind of presence this man had in the professional basketball world.

Of course, he also knew that Yu Fei had doubled the market value of the Milwaukee Bucks within five years.

Why have the Milwaukee Bucks been so financially robust in the past two years? On one hand, they wanted to prove to Yu Fei that they were willing to spend money, but on the other hand, they had made far more money from Yu Fei than they had spent.

There wasn’t a single team that didn’t want Yu Fei, unless they had problems with making money.

But there are no businessmen in the world who have problems with making money.

Bennett had an answer in his heart, but he knew Yu Fei would definitely not like it.

This seemingly incredibly powerful businessman now found it difficult to respond to Yu Fei’s question.

“No, we haven’t reached that stage yet.” Bennett controlled his thoughts, hiding his true intentions, “I never thought of depriving Seattle people of the SuperSonics, but maintaining this promise is difficult.”

Trem inquired, “What’s the difficulty?”

Bennett brought up that tiresome issue, “Key Arena is no longer suitable for the modern NBA’s business model. Considering the economics of modern NBA, we need a larger, more versatile, and more profitable comprehensive sports venue.”

Yu Fei had long been aware of these matters.

He didn’t need to hear them again from Bennett.

“I’m aware of these issues,” Yu Fei said, “but our lease agreement with Key Arena doesn’t expire until 2010, which means there is still time.”

Since his entry into the NBA, Yu Fei was known for his talkativeness and sharp tongue both inside and outside the circle. He had two extremely famous sayings: one was after the rookie year game-winning shot against the Lakers, “Victory is the only thing,” and the other was the implicit response to Nowitzki after leading the team to beat the Mavericks and reclaim the championship last season: whether there was still enough time?

Bennett understood the economics of the NBA, but that was not the reason he insisted on moving the SuperSonics. Also, he did not understand the economics of NBA stars, so he did not know why Frye Yu would risk losing everything to leave a team that had a great chance of helping him win a three-peat, to join the SuperSonics who were surrounded by enemies and in the midst of rebuilding.

Bennett didn’t understand this, nor did he need to.

Do you know what he did understand? As an NBA owner, he knew that if his team had the chance to sign the league’s number one player, he had to find a way to sign him.

But he believed, one day, Frye’s probing question would come back to haunt him.

“Yes, we still have time,” Bennett said with a stiff smile appearing on his ferocious face, “Perhaps we can make an effort together.”

Yu Fei gave a signal to Trem, and both parties began formal negotiations on the contract issue.

It was called negotiation, but in fact, the content discussed had nothing to do with Yu Fei himself.

Trem stated Yu Fei’s demands.

The SuperSonics needed to sign George Karl as the head coach.

The SuperSonics needed to sign Kwame Brown with a contract above the mid-level exception and pursue Raja Bell with another mid-level exception contract.

The SuperSonics needed to reserve a max contract’s salary cap space for Vince Carter, with the recruitment to be handled by Yu Fei.

Yu Fei would join through a sign-and-trade deal.

During this period, Warren Buffett returned, wanting to know if both sides had reached an agreement.

Yu Fei smiled and said, “Next time, I might ask you to come to Seattle to watch a game.”

“I believe the spectator experience there must be better than Milwaukee,” Buffett smiled.

Bennett chimed in, “Not necessarily.”

And with that, everyone laughed.

A negotiation that concerned the future and fate of the Milwaukee Bucks and the SuperSonics came to a close, with Yu Fei’s camp and the SuperSonics reaching a verbal agreement.

That night, Lin Kaiwen gave Yu Fei an idea: “Since we’re leaving, we can make a big fuss about it, like a national live broadcast like LeBron did, how about that?”

“I would rather leave without a word,” Yu Fei said.

“Why?”

“I just don’t want to.”

Yu Fei didn’t give a reason. If he were to give one, it might sound insincere—it was that he didn’t want to further hurt the fans of the Bucks.

If he openly broadcasted his decision to transfer to the SuperSonics, it would leave a permanent scar, as the video would be preserved on the internet forever.

He had already ended his career with the Bucks in the most ideal way possible, so why give them a final blow before leaving?

So it was decided, with no follow-up.

Before the free market opened, the fans of the Bucks were looking forward to the team’s official announcement of a renewal with Yu Fei.

However, what the fans got was an official announcement from the league: “The Milwaukee Bucks sent Frye Yu to the Seattle SuperSonics via a sign-and-trade, in exchange for Earl Watson, Damien Wilkins, and a first-round pick in 2009 as well as the rights to swap first-round selections in 2010 and 2012.”

Like a death foretold, Bucks fans had been sensing it for a year, but until it happened, they couldn’t believe Yu Fei would leave. Now, as the plane headed for Seattle took off, climbing into the clouds, faint roars could be heard, but they weren’t from the aircraft’s engines. They were the roars of Milwaukee, and as the commotion quieted down, the people of Milwaukee realized that the god-like young man had truly gone—perhaps never to return.

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