The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 55 The Truth is a Swift Blade

Brown, of course, couldn’t decide anything.

The Cavaliers wouldn’t trade Hansen at this time.

Although the season had just started less than a month ago, Hansen had already shown enough potential, even the quality of a premium 3D player.

The Cavaliers’ management wasn’t foolish; although a premium 3D player couldn’t compare with a superstar, he was scarce in the league.

Not to mention, this was the "championship puzzle piece" they had been looking for James.

Compared with trading, they would rather see James "tame" Hansen.

So the final result was a scenario where "only Brown got hurt."

Faced with the media’s skepticism, Brown could only rack his brains to explain his staffing standards.

If it weren’t for the fact that he was already bald, he might have lost a lot of hair during this period.

Hansen was in no hurry either; the season was still long, and his priority was to exchange his talents for breakthroughs as soon as possible.

The Cavaliers returned to Cleveland for a three-day break, and Brown also gave the players a day off to relax.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hansen and Thomas took a trip to Baltimore.

Baltimore is located in Maryland and is just separated from Ohio, where Cleveland is located, by a corner of West Virginia.

There was once an NBA team here; in 1948, the Baltimore Bullets won the BAA (a precursor to the NBA) championship but later went bankrupt due to financial problems and thus became the only NBA championship team in history to go bankrupt.

Later, the Wizards also made this their home court from 1963 to 1973 and retained the Bullets’ name.

It was just that later they moved to Washington, and Maryland never had an NBA team again.

Inside UA’s headquarters, Hansen saw more exhibits related to sports apparel, of which the majority were sports underwear.

UA made its name with sports underwear, and it was they who popularized moisture-wicking materials.

As for basketball shoes, they still seemed more like a blueprint.

Inside the headquarters’ office, staff had prepared a detailed PPT for him, explaining UA’s design concept for basketball shoes and subsequent production and marketing plans.

They had even conducted market research specifically for the East University shoe market.

The depth of this research did not seem like it was done in a short time.

It was apparent that UA had plans for the East Market early on and probably tried to find other people before but hadn’t succeeded.

But those didn’t matter; what was important was that UA indeed valued him as much as Thomas had said.

And surely, UA’s development strategy for his shoe endorsement would be different from Curry’s; with him, they would definitely prioritize the shoe-wearing habits of people from East University.

This made Hansen somewhat excited.

After viewing the PPT, Hansen and Thomas discussed some details of the contract, from contract bonuses to plans for a standalone brand and a tiered basketball shoe profit-sharing structure.

The amount of the contract was slightly different from what Hansen had previously known.

The base amount was $8 million over four years, but if he met some specific requirements, such as being selected for any league’s best lineup in his rookie season, the total amount could reach $10 million over four years, equivalent to Nike’s contract with Curry and tied for the highest among rookies this year.

Once everything was confirmed, Hansen officially signed the contract with UA and took photos for memories.

The last part of the visit was a press conference prepared by UA.

UA had invited quite a few well-known media journalists to the scene, including those from East University.

Plus, the press conference was held in a 100-square-meter room, which made the atmosphere particularly lively.

Such a lineup made Hansen and Thomas glance at each other; it seemed they had underestimated UA’s emphasis on this signing.

However, this was a good thing for Hansen because the wider the spread of information, the more "hate value" his actions would generate.

"Why did you choose the UA brand?"

The first question was also the one everyone was most concerned about.

Hansen didn’t talk about sincerity or future prospects.

"When I first entered the NBA, I said why I chose the number 77 jersey, and that’s also the reason why I’m choosing UA now."

As soon as he said this, the audience exploded.

Hansen had originally picked number 77, claiming to compete for all the basketball talent that God left outside of Jordan, which had been a sensation at the time.

Did this mean he intended to help UA compete for all the basketball shoe market share outside of Nike?

Musk would surely shake his head at this.

"We know UA is still in its infancy in basketball shoes. What makes you so confident about their future development?"

The next reporter followed up on Hansen’s comment with his question.

Hansen looked at the male journalist who asked the question and couldn’t help thinking to himself, "Handsome guy, good question."

"UA’s first target will be the East Market, and I believe this is no secret. Currently, domestic basketball shoes in East University are not competitive. With the right positioning, achieving instant success isn’t as hard as one might think."

As Hansen said this, the journalists below started whispering among themselves.

However, the reporter from East University visibly frowned.

At this stage, East University’s domestic shoes are more focused on casual sports styles, with few basketball shoes, and their quality leaves much to be desired.

This is the reality, but some truths are different when known versus when spoken aloud.

Soon enough, the reporter from East University also got a chance to ask a question.

"From what I understand, Nike’s contracts with third pick James Harden and fourth pick Tyreke Evans are for $250,000 a year. Does this premium contract put any pressure on you?"

The question was clearly meant to stir trouble.

The price of shoe contracts has always been linked to the market, not to the draft position. By that logic, Curry’s contract would be considered overvalued too.

The UA executive next to him picked up the microphone to defend Hansen, but Hansen stopped him.

"You can speak Chinese," Hansen reminded him first.

"I don’t feel any pressure," he said, and then he moved the microphone away.

That left the reporter from East University completely baffled—was that considered an answer?

The scene amused the nearby executive; no nonsense was indeed the best response to such questioning.

...

Just a few days after Hansen finished his tour at the UA headquarters, an article titled "The Sorrow of Basketball People" was unexpectedly published.

"What do our basketball players go to the NBA for? To help our national team achieve better results!

But now, some people not only refuse to participate in national team games, leading to the loss of the Asian championship.

But now, they are also deliberately using foreign brands of basketball shoes to malign domestic brands.

Our players may have improved in ability, but their values and patriotism have deteriorated.

They have forgotten what they’ve gained is the result of generations of basketball players’ hard work.

Yet such players are the basketball stars we idolize today!

This is the sorrow of our basketball people and the sorrow of our society."

The article didn’t name anyone specifically, but everyone knew who it was referring to, given the timing.

Due to the time difference, Hansen saw the article at night.

He immediately flipped over and slapped the bed forcefully.

Apparently feeling that was insufficient, he stood up, walked to the table, and slammed his hand down on it, hard.

This article, filled with passive-aggressive tones and moral coercion, really was infuriating enough to slam the table in applause.

Just like before he crossed over, these so-called insiders of the basketball circle were the ones writing this kind of article!

He couldn’t help but go to domestic websites to read the comments.

"What UA, trash brand. If it were Nike or Adi, it would be another matter, but signing with such a trash brand, where does the superiority come from?!"

"Hansen is just garbage. He went to the United States and forgot he is from East University. Why doesn’t he just change his nationality to the United States?"

"I don’t understand why the basketball association hasn’t banned him yet. Do we really need him?"

...

As Hansen read these aggressively hostile comments and saw his ’hater points’ skyrocketing, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Originally, he just wanted to ride the wave of domestic fans bad-mouthing him and earn some ’hater points’ by dissing domestic brands.

He wasn’t entirely sure what effect this would have or whether it would make up enough ’hater points.’

But he hadn’t expected to encounter this basketball insider.

This truly helped him out in a big way.