Bishop of the Devil

As Lakers fans expected, things are far from over.

Nowadays, West Lafayette players have spread all over the league, and many of them are the leaders of various teams.

With Ben and others stepping up, these West Lafayette players will certainly not remain indifferent.

There are many teams in the league that have a very close relationship with Richard. Under such circumstances, they naturally have to stand up and express their attitude.

For a time, the Lakers directly became the focus of verbal criticism from half the league, and almost everyone was denouncing the Lakers.

The Bass family is already in dire straits. Now they not only have to face external pressure, but also internal pressure within the team.

Kobe and four other core players submitted trade requests, which is not the biggest headache for them.

What troubles Bass the most is that the team's minority shareholders are also starting to make moves.

The Buss family only holds 66% of the Lakers' equity, which is about two-thirds of the equity, and the remaining one-third belongs to some small shareholders.

Now that the Lakers are in danger due to Jim Buss, these small shareholders naturally do not agree and have asked Buss to handle the matter properly.

These small shareholders have actually been eyeing the equity in the Bass family's hands. If possible, they will never miss a good opportunity to carve up the Bass family's equity.

Under normal circumstances, when Buss Sr. passed away in 2013, he divided 66% of his equity equally among his six children. It was precisely because of this move that the Lakers have been at the center of the storm.

If these six children are completely united, then there is no need to worry about the small shareholders, but the key to the problem is that the Bass family is not that united...

Now that Old Bass is still alive, if the small shareholders make a fuss, they probably won't be able to cause any trouble in the end.

…

People in the basketball circles around the world are probably waiting for Richard's statement now. They know very well that Richard cannot just let the Lakers go.

After various West Lafayette players in the league and Richard's allied teams spoke out, the media finally got the news they wanted to hear.

The Clippers will hold a press conference at 4 o'clock this afternoon.

Almost all the media in Los Angeles are qualified to enter. Not only that, if foreign reporters can come, they can also enter with press cards.

At 3:50 in the afternoon, the venue was already filled with a huge crowd, and nearly 300 reporters were eagerly anticipating Richard's arrival.

And now Richard is on the phone with Xiao Hua.

"Li, I don't think it's necessary to have such a big battle. In fact, it's not that Los Angeles cannot tolerate the development of both teams."

"Only through peaceful coexistence can we develop..." Xiao Hua wanted to appease Richard and said some words that he didn't quite believe.

Richard laughed and said, "Adam, don't worry about this."

"I am measured and will not make things difficult for the alliance. I may even give you a surprise."

"But it is completely impossible for the Lakers to escape from this incident."

"Jim Bass must pay the price." Richard said coldly.

…

Just after hanging up the phone with Xiao Hua, Richard received an unfamiliar number on his cell phone.

"Hey, Lee, I'm Jerry Buss. Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"

This phone call was apparently made by Old Bass.

Originally, Old Bass was going to adapt to the situation, waiting for Richard to make a move first, and then they would meet again to make a move...

But now he can't sit still. Before Richard even starts to make moves, he has already made the Lakers uneasy inside and outside. If Richard makes another move, the Lakers may suffer an unbearable blow.

Richard frowned. Old Bass called at this time, which really made Richard a little unhappy. Why did he go there so early?

Richard said nothing, waiting for Old Bass to continue speaking.

"Lee, what happened this time is indeed Jim Bass's fault."

"We are also willing to pay compensation for this. I wonder how we can compensate you to dispel your anger?" Old Bass asked slowly.

Richard frowned. Hearing Old Bass's tone, why did he feel that he was messing around and trying to touch the Bass family?

"Old Bass, it seems that your Bass family has been comfortable in Los Angeles for too long and has lost the ability to deal with such emergencies."

"Okay, since you asked me what compensation I want, I won't be rude to you."

"The first compensation is that Jim Bass apologized to me in newspapers, press conferences and TV media respectively, which means three consecutive apologies in one day!" Richard said with a sneer.

Old Bass looked stunned and apologized three times on three occasions? And within one day? !

This is definitely Richard humiliating the Bass family!

But even so, Old Bass felt that he could only accept this condition with his nose pinched...

After all, Richard didn't ask him, the master of the Bass family, to apologize, so that's good.

…

"What about other compensation?" Old Bass asked in a deep voice.

Richard cleared his throat and continued: "Only apologizing will definitely not work."

"Jim Bass must pay a heavy price for this."

"Mr. Buss, if I guess correctly, your Lakers equity will be divided into six parts in the future?" Richard said with a smile.

Old Buss felt that something was wrong. Could it be that Richard was interested in taking equity in the Lakers?

But this is completely impossible unless Richard sells the Clippers equity he just finally obtained.

"Tell me, Lee, what do you want to do?"

"It's very simple. If you divide the equity into six, you just want to divide it equally among the six children."

"The compensation I want now is to kick Jim Bass out and sell the equity that originally belonged to Jim Bass within a month. As for whether you will give Jim Bass the money for selling the equity, that's not the case. Things I can take care of."

"By the way, don't think about selling and buying Jim Bass's shares. If you really do that, I think you won't be happy to see what may happen in the future."

"If you agree, I can guarantee you a championship for the Lakers in the next two years. How about it? Does it sound tempting enough?" Richard said with a smile.

After hearing what Richard said, Old Bass flatly refused.

"Li, there is no way we can agree to your request. The Bass family's equity will never be sold. This is our family industry." Old Bass said decisively.

Old Buss doesn't doubt what Richard said about guaranteeing them a championship. The Lakers' lineup is quite good at the moment. If Richard lends a helping hand, the Lakers' chances of winning are still quite high.

But even so, he couldn't agree to Richard selling 11% of the team's shares.

In the opinion of old Bass, this is definitely a self-destructive thing...

After selling 11% of the equity, the Bass family will still have 55% of the equity. Compared with the equity of small shareholders, there is not much advantage. If something goes wrong in the future, the Bass family may Losing control of the Lakers is definitely a situation Buss never wants to see.

He also knew very well that Richard's purpose in making this request was nothing more than to cause chaos for the Lakers.

Don't tell me, Richard really had this idea in mind.

When he first came to Los Angeles, Richard actually didn't have any thoughts about the Lakers because there was really no need.

I have an agreement with Stern. If we take things step by step and take our time, one day we will make the Clippers as powerful as the Lakers. It will not be difficult to even surpass the Lakers.

Richard is still so young at the moment, in his early forties, and he still has countless time to run the Clippers.

Therefore, he is not in a hurry at all, and there is no need to have any conflict with the Lakers. The peaceful coexistence of the two is a situation that Richard is completely able to accept.

But now because of Jim Bass's provocation, Richard has obviously given up his original plan of peaceful coexistence.

The influence of the Buss family on the Lakers is too great. Many Los Angeles fans are die-hard fans of Buss. Now Richard is trying to find ways to weaken the influence of the Buss family.

The sale of 11% of the shares does not seem to have much impact on the Buss family in the short term, but when Buss passes away in 2013, this may become the most important reason why the Buss family loses control of the Lakers. .

For this reason, Richard is willing to give the Lakers a little taste of sweetness now and guarantee him a championship in the past two years.

Of course, this championship is actually mainly because Richard wanted to compensate Kobe, Ben and others. After all, they have never won a championship since joining forces...

What surprised Richard was that Bass didn't even think about it and directly rejected Richard.

Seeing that there was nothing left to say, Richard hung up the phone.

Presumably after the next press conference is over, Bass will give Richard another call after sizing up the situation.