The Chinese Spring Festival of 1993 has long passed. Logically speaking, everyone should be joyful and laughing.

But there are always some people who insist on breaking this bad atmosphere.

After receiving a call from New York, Bruce's mood suddenly changed. The new atmosphere of the new year can also make people excited. No, Bruce has already rushed to the league headquarters with new year's goods for the NBA league and the management of each team.

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Why are you so angry? It’s very simple. It starts with Canada.

It's no secret that Canada wants to own an NBA team. As early as the early 1980s, local entrepreneur Nelson Scarbania tried to expand the NBA's territory northward, but ultimately failed.

And now another local sports giant in Vancouver, Canada, Arthur Griffiths, has revealed that he is trying to own an NBA team there.

We are planning to bring together wealthy businessmen from Toronto to form a team to enter the NBA.

After learning about the contention between the league's newly formed expansion committee and Toronto over eligibility to enter the league, Griffith believed Vancouver was qualified enough and could convince the league to pursue a two-city expansion.

This was the birth of the Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors in their previous lives.

Stu Jackson was the first general manager of this wealthy Canadian owner, but Bruce got the job first.

Stern considered that he wanted to expand in Canada this time, so he called the owners of each team and demanded that he come to the league in person to hold a meeting to discuss.

Bruce was notified by Stu Jackson to come to the league for a meeting, but he came to New York this time to prevent Canada from establishing a team.

After getting off the plane, Stu Jackson was waiting aside. After picking up Bruce, on the way back to the Long Island villa, Stu had already given Bruce a general introduction.

Things were going south, and Arthur Griffith had convinced Stern and NBA Finance Minister Russ Granik.

It seems that Stern is eager to expand the territory of the NBA. To be honest, setting up an NBA team in Canada will not only increase the influence of the NBA, but also make good money. You must know that in the previous life in 1995, two teams joined the league.

The cost is US$125 million, which makes the NBA finance minister laugh so hard.

After returning to the villa, Bruce gave Stu an order to investigate all the information on Canadian teams joining the NBA, and then prepared to go back to the bedroom to catch up on jet lag.

Early the next morning, Bruce was woken up by the ringing of the phone. He picked up the alarm clock and saw that it was only 9 o'clock in the morning. It's terrible. Bruce, who was so angry that he got up, was cursing in the free bedroom. Who the hell woke me up so early?

, why don’t you let me suffer from jet lag?

As soon as he answered the phone, Bruce immediately became energetic. How dare you not answer the "dictator's" call?

Stern informed Bruce that he would have a meeting at league headquarters two days later.

Bruce immediately agreed. After hanging up the phone, Bruce was no longer sleepy. He was going to call his "godfather" to greet him and chat with Paul Allen about the Chinese Spring Festival. Americans don't have Spring Festival.

Make Paul Allen feel very fresh.

Of course, Paul Allen also cares about Bruce very much and is planning to fly to New York to see his "godson" tomorrow.

Bruce was not idle in the afternoon. He dialed the private number and said directly, "You will be consistent with me in the discussion."

After Paul Allen arrived in New York, he chatted with Bruce all night. By the way, he also received a New Year gift specially prepared by Bruce for Paul Allen - a jade-carved rooster crowing.

1993 was the year of the rooster, so Bruce custom-carved wooden pendants with the zodiac sign of the rooster for everyone in the group, including the staff of the league and the owners and management of each team.

All the bosses also came to participate in the discussion meeting at the alliance headquarters. Everyone already knew the topic of this meeting, and some agreed with it and some opposed it.

Bruce accompanied Paul Allen into the specially prepared conference room at the alliance headquarters, followed by several bodyguards holding boxes.

All the NBA bosses have arrived. Before Uncle Steve came, Bruce flatteringly gave the custom-made wooden pendants with chicken attributes to each team boss one by one, and asked the bosses to take the rest back to them.

They are subordinates.

These wealthy bosses also liked the little gifts from Bruce.

So Bruce is very good at being a man. This wooden pendant is not worth much anyway. Giving it to these rich people and other employees of the league gives everyone a very fresh feeling when giving this pendant, as if it is a sudden collision of Western culture.

Everyone wants to know about Eastern culture; secondly, this thing is not valuable, and besides, everyone has it, so it can’t be considered a bribe.

Many of the team's richest people asked Bruce about the customs and customs of China, and everyone laughed and boasted.

Uncle Si finally arrived late, and when he saw the whole conference room was noisy, his face suddenly filled with anger.

Just when he was about to have an attack, Bruce eagerly handed over the wooden sign pendant he gave.

Now Stern nodded with satisfaction, realizing that little ones know how to behave, and basically everyone has it.

Uncle Si didn't say anything in the end, and just directed everyone to sit quietly and prepare to start the meeting.

The meeting began.

…

Stern briefly explained the excitement of the game and the development of the NBA from 1992 to 1993.

Everyone nodded with satisfaction.

To be honest, Stern is the best president in NBA history, bar none, at least everyone thinks so.

"Now let me talk about the wealthy Canadian businessman Arthur Griffith's plan to expand the league and establish a team in Canada. Do you have any opinions?"

Seeing that everyone was silent, Stern thought that everyone basically agreed, and was going to ask everyone to vote soon to finalize the matter.

Nonsense, of course there are opinions, but this is only the opinion of some people. I didn’t see that no one spoke up first. No one wants to be the one who stands out and is worried about Stern.

But there are always young people who rush to the forefront, and our "Prince" is such a person.

"I object, I don't agree with the establishment of an NBA team in Canada!"

Bruce stood up and whispered.

The wealthy people around also watched the excitement without saying anything, but Paul Allen was sitting next to Bruce. He pulled Bruce worriedly. It was unwise to take such a risk at this time.

Stern was stunned for a moment, and his face turned gloomy. Wow, you are such a little kid and you dare to challenge my authority not long after you came to the alliance. It seems that you should be punished.

Stern said with an ugly face: "Bruce, why do you object? Tell me your reasons."

After Bruce gave Paul Allen a reassuring look, he said proudly: "President Stern, I am actually not opposed to the alliance's expansion, but it can only be in American cities. Expansion in cities in other countries is not good for the alliance."

It was still not good, and Stern laughed. He only saw the future of the NBA slowly going global.

In his opinion, Bruce has a child's mind, and whatever he wants comes out.

"Why is it disadvantageous?"

"Okay, then I'll talk about the disadvantages to the alliance."

Bruce is aware of the future development of the league. The dead bald president from his previous life wanted to establish an NBA team in Mexico. Although he has not seen the results, he knows how many people are against it.

"No. 1. I don't know if you have calculated the tax rates in the United States and Canada. I have a piece of information here that describes the tax rates that players need to pay when they want to play in Canada and the food, clothing, housing and transportation that each team needs to pay when they go to Canada to play away games.

Everyone, take a good look."

Bruce took out the printed information from his briefcase and handed it to each boss one by one.

"Second, I don't know if anyone has asked the players if they are willing to play in Canada. I have a questionnaire survey of the current players of the New York Han Chinese team. Currently, there are 12 people in the team, and none of them is willing to play in Canada. On the contrary,

, have you asked? Taking my team as a ratio, 98% of the players in the league are not willing to play in Canada."

"President Stern, yes you are considering expanding the NBA's influence in North America, but I'm afraid you haven't thought about the pressure the players union will bring to you."

"I'm not talking nonsense. As long as the league announces the establishment of a team in Canada, I believe that labor negotiations will come soon. By then, it will not only be the league that loses, but also the interests of all of us."

Stern looked at the information sent by Bruce and listened to what Bruce said.

The more he heard the following words, Stern began to break out in a cold sweat. At first, he only saw the great benefits in North America and did not pay attention to these details.

Bruce is right, no matter how big the interests are, they can't compare to the fierceness of labor negotiations. If these players are really pushed into a hurry, they will definitely go on strike. By then, the NBA will be famous in the four major leagues, and he, as the president, will definitely

He could not imagine that he would become a sinner in history.

The other rich people below looked at Stern in a strange way. You, Stern, have benefited from establishing NBA teams in other countries and regions, but as for us, if you do it for a long time, it will harm us.

Bruce looked at Stern's expression and decided to add fuel to the fire to nip the seeds of expansion into other countries and regions in the bud.

"President Stern, I know you are eager to expand the NBA's global influence, but I am very opposed to the establishment of teams in other countries and regions. If you really wanted to expand your influence, I would not have joined the league when I first joined the league.

A team has been established in New York, and you know that I am Chinese. Wouldn’t it be better if I directly established it in China? Everyone will be very welcome to come to China to play away games."

As he spoke, Bruce said to the bosses with a warm welcome to everyone.

This sentence welcomes everyone to come to China to play away games. It stirs up a thousand waves with one stone. Please, it takes at least 13-14 hours to fly from China to the United States. How can we play this? If we don’t exhaust everyone to death by going back and forth every day, then

What should we do if the players on the team go on strike? You, Stern, were invited by us to make money, not to cause trouble for us.

No, we must definitely stop Stern’s plan to expand the military in Canada.

At this time, all the rich men of each team objected and made noises against Stern. Stern did not expect it to happen like this, and he complained deeply about Bruce.

There is no other way. Now the owners are so excited that they are about to riot. It seems that this matter of establishing a team in Canada is not feasible.

In the end, Stern could only say helplessly: "Okay, let's discuss this later."

After that, he left the conference room silently.

Watching Stern tremblingly walk out of the conference room door, the originally noisy noise gradually disappeared. Everyone knew that Stern was being pushed into a panic.

Bruce said to everyone in the conference room: "Let me go and take a look."

Then he walked out of the conference room and ran to President Stern's office.

Knocked on the door, no response.

Bruce thought in confusion, it would be a bit of a fuss to force Uncle Si to do this.
To be continued...