Champions Creed

Chapter 19: Now, it's the college players' turn

Jerry Stackhouse has emerged from the shadow of the McDonald's All-Star Game.

Looking at the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine featuring himself, McKinnie and Wallace, he felt his future was bright.

The temporary failure in high school is nothing, because after entering college, the whole world will forget Roger!
No matter which university Roger joins next, the lineup will not be more explosive than North Carolina. And North Carolina is destined to dominate the entire college basketball world in the next few years.

Roger's college career is destined to be fruitless!

After two or three years of college, who will remember a high school student who won the McDonald's All-Star Game?
As the morning sun shone into the room, Stackhouse got up in a good mood.

When I walked out of the room, there was a hot sardine pizza on the dining table.

The Stackhouses are all pescatarians, eating no meat other than fish and shellfish.

Westerners always like to show excessive enthusiasm on such things. Vegetarians alone are divided into lacto-ovo vegetarianism, lacto-vegetarianism, flexible vegetarianism, pescatarianism, etc.

Stackhouse would rather not eat meat than not eat abalone, which shows that he has not forgotten his original intention.

Stackhouse picked up a piece of pizza and read the newspaper at the same time. He thought the headline of today's newspaper would be: Stackhouse is the best college player in North Carolina since Michael Jordan.

As a result, the headline of the North Carolina Times was a photo of Roger attending a press conference!
The sardines in Stackhouse's mouth suddenly lost their flavor. Logically, North Carolina and Roger had no connection, so why was he able to overwhelm himself and become the headline in the newspapers of this state?

Stackhouse then looked up at the headline of the newspaper and the pizza in his mouth fell to the ground.

Skip college and take your talent directly to the NBA?

Didn’t I just put together a Big Three lineup waiting for you? Are you going to the NBA?
After Roger plays in the NBA for two or three years, who will remember a college student who played in North Carolina?
The joy in Stackhouse's heart was wiped out, he couldn't believe Roger made such a decision.

Does this guy know what he is doing!?
He didn't really think he was ready, did he?

Stackhouse's reaction is not surprising. Skipping college and going directly to the NBA is something that young players today simply don't dare to do.

Not to mention skipping college, it is very rare for someone to participate in the draft after only playing one year in college.

But soon, the man who was the first to lose a 5-on-4 game in high school basketball smiled triumphantly again.

Draft? If you fail, you won’t even have a place to cry!
He turned to the second page of the newspaper: "Many experts believe that Roger is very likely to be selected by a lottery team."

Stackhouse: ???

No buddy, did you get this lottery pick easily?

Roger's market was indeed good. I thought his 58 points in a single game in the state finals was impressive enough, but he even performed a 4-on-5 miracle in such a prestigious event as the McDonald's All-Star Game.

This makes many NBA teams excited.

Indeed, players like Roger who have not experienced NCAA training may have a very low bottom line.

But the upper limit of this kind of genius high school student may be extremely high.

They are all scratch tickets. If you choose other people, you are guaranteed to win five dollars at least and fifty dollars at most.

There is no guaranteed win for choosing Roger, but the maximum possible win is $500,000.

There will always be someone who gambles.

Moreover, given the market conditions this year, it is not certain whether the highest chance of winning among college players is 50.

But for Roger at this moment, what he cares most about is not his ranking.

It's the broker's choice.

In the 90s, the role of agents in the NBA was even greater than in the 21st century. This is because after entering the 21st century, with the improvement of the rules, the amount of each contract, the length of time, and even the annual salary increase were all fixed by the rules, leaving little room for maneuver.

But in the 90s, there was no such concept as maximum salary or middle class. How many years and how much money you signed with the team were all up to negotiation, and even rookie contracts did not have a fixed salary.

If you don't have an agent who can squeeze the marrow out of NBA teams like David Falk, your end might be like Hakeem Olajuwon - as the greatest center in the 90s, Dream only made the top five in the salary list for two seasons in his entire career.

In contrast, Ewing, who never won a championship, topped the salary list for seven seasons in his career.

You may say that New Yorkers are stupid and have a lot of money, but without a resourceful agent, the capital will not be so stupid as to take the initiative to give money to the players.

Olajuwon almost broke up with the Rockets in 1992 because of salary issues, but his agent only managed to get him a moderate contract.

If Olajuwon's agent was also Falk, Space City would definitely give their super center a more decent contract.

The fact that David Falk is so hated by capital just proves that he did something right.

But Falk is now the most sought-after agent in the United States, and he is not short of clients.

Most importantly, Falk is not optimistic about the anti-traditional things like high school rookies.

So he didn't take the initiative to contact Roger.

Among the many agents who contacted Roger, there was only one person who really satisfied Roger - Eric Fleischer.

Fleischer was born into a basketball family. His father, Larry Fleischer, was the first president of the American Basketball Association and directly promoted the merger of the ABA and the NBA. After leaving office, Larry opened an agency, and John Havlicek, Willis Reed, Jerry West and other ancient masters were his clients. In 91, two years after his death, Larry was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Fleischer and his brother Mark followed in their father's footsteps and joined their father's company in 83. Relying on the connections their father had accumulated, they became successful in the brokerage circle.

Although not as high-level agent as Falk, people below the pyramid cannot all be categorized as trash.

An agent like Eric, who has connections, resources and experience, is undoubtedly what Roger needs.

However, what Roger likes most about Eric is that in the original history, it was he who brought Garnett, a high school student, into the NBA.

It was he who convinced NBA teams with lottery picks that high school players were worth a try.

You can say that it was he and Garnett who paved the way for Kobe, McGrady, Kwame Brown, GOAT and others.

After talking to Eric on the phone several times, he made a special visit to us on a Saturday afternoon.

He sincerely assured Roger that even though he already had 18 players under him, he would still respond as soon as Roger needed him.

He also specified in the contract that he would personally handle all matters concerning Roger instead of leaving them to his assistants.

"As long as you have something to do, even if my wife comes to me, I will tell her that Eric is dead for the time being and I will look for him later."

Roger and Lu An both smiled. Whether it is easy to talk to someone is a very important part of communication.

Eric also passed on this point.

That evening, in Jonesville, Eric and Roger signed the agency authorization contract.

Next, Eric has the right to negotiate commercial endorsements and NBA contracts on Roger's behalf.

Of course, Eric will charge Roger 4% of his contract income as commission. This is the price for all major banks and markets, so it is reasonable.

The next day, the news that Roger had signed a contract with an agent appeared in the newspapers. This meant that Roger was fully prepared to enter the professional basketball world!
So that night, John Anderson, host of ESPN's flagship show SportsCenter, announced the news:
"Roger has already cleaned up the top high school players in the United States. Now, he will face the top college players in the tryouts. If you hear that an NCAA star player lost to a high school student, don't be surprised. I believe that similar things will happen frequently in the next period of time."

The road to the NBA has officially begun!
(End of this chapter)