Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Zhuang Yu and Zhou Zhiming met in a hotel.

Zhou Zhiming returned to China the day before yesterday, while Zhuang Yu just came to Shanghai from Jiangning this morning. After spending a few days at home with his family, he has to start getting busy again.

But this time he didn't come alone, An Xin and Xi Juan came with him.

Anta still provided Zhuang Yu with a private jet. Moreover, this was within the country, not a cross-border flight. It would only take an hour or two to go back and forth, or at most two or three hours, so it was fine to bring An Xin and the child along.

Xi Juan came along to help An Xin take care of the children.

This time An Xin came to Shanghai to visit the Sharks Club. Now that her child has been born for a few months, she, as the executive director of the club, will gradually resume work.

She needed someone to help her take care of the child. She could hire a nanny, but Xi Juan was worried. Li Huilan and Zhuang Yu were also worried, so Xi Juan came.

"Where is An Xin?" Zhou Zhiming hugged Zhuang Yu and then asked.

"I should have come to see you together, but the child is making a fuss, so..." Zhuang Yu smiled and asked Zhou Zhiming to sit down.

This time Zhou Zhiming came back to visit his relatives. His family is still in the country and did not go to the United States.

The second is to deal with some of Zhuang Yu’s commercial endorsement matters.

In fact, Zhou Zhiming also set up a branch of HT Sports Company in China, with a team responsible for related matters. However, since he was coming back to visit his relatives, he naturally took charge of the affairs related to Zhuang Yu himself.

After sitting down, Zhou Zhiming said, "Let's take care of the business first. I have to go home for a while after finishing things here."

Having said that, he got to the point.

Many American brands want Zhuang Yu to be their spokesperson, and even some European companies have approached Zhou Zhiming, wanting to invite Zhuang Yu to be their spokesperson.

Naturally, there will be no shortage of Chinese.

With Zhuang Yu's current popularity, influence and commercial value in China, it is truly astonishing.

Anta, Huawei mobile phones, TCL TVs and other companies that had signed contracts with Zhuang Yu before have already made a lot of money, making other companies very jealous and wanting to seize this opportunity.

Zhou Zhiming took out a folder and said, "This is the list we have screened."

Zhuang Yu picked it up and started reading.

It contains the brand's background information, current development situation, and the contract quotation they gave...

After browsing for a while, Zhuang Yu put down the folder.

"How is it?" Zhou Zhiming asked.

"They are all good." Zhuang Yu said, "But I think we can still screen them a little more. We should try our best to find long-term partners. Also, my time is limited. I can't sign too many contracts, otherwise I will be too busy just attending events and shooting commercials."

Zhou Zhiming nodded, discussed with Zhuang Yu again, and conducted another round of screening. The next step was for his team to communicate and negotiate further with those brands.

After discussing these matters, Zhou Zhiming pondered for a moment and asked, "I heard that you plan to pay off the purchase price of the Sharks Club?"

Zhuang Yu nodded.

When he acquired the Sharks Club, he did not have that much money and chose to pay in installments. However, his income has grown rapidly in the past two years and he has made more and more money.

Especially this year.

After winning the championship, his commercial value reached a peak, so his off-court income increased significantly. The contract with Anta alone is an astronomical figure.

So he planned to pay off the money for the acquisition of the Sharks Club first.

Brothers should settle accounts clearly and make things separate. Ming Ge was generous and allowed him to pay in installments, so he couldn't be ungrateful.

Zhou Zhiming frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?" Zhuang Yu couldn't help but ask after noticing Zhou Zhiming's reaction, "Uncle Zhou, do you disapprove of me doing this?"

Given the relationship between the two of you, there is naturally no need to worry about anything, just ask directly.

Zhou Zhiming nodded, and without beating around the bush, he said directly: "I suggest you execute it according to the contract."

He explained: "You have made a lot of money in the past two years, especially this year. In the past month, you have signed a lot of big contracts. There are still a lot of endorsement contracts in the future, which will bring you more income, which is enough to pay off the acquisition money of the Sharks Club."

"Besides, you will earn more money in the future."

"But I don't recommend that you settle the purchase price of the Sharks right now. I understand your idea, but business is business, and there is no problem if you perform according to the contract."

Zhuang Yu didn't say anything.

Zhou Zhiming continued, "Of course, I'm not asking you to save your extra money. You should use it to invest. You are a billionaire now, but there are many NBA players who have received big contracts like you. But do you know? Some of them are on the verge of bankruptcy after retirement."

"I know." Zhuang Yu nodded. "I know. For example, Antoine Walker and Shawn Kemp made a lot of money during their careers, but after they retired, they fell into financial crisis because of all kinds of expenses."

There are many NBA players who got big contracts when they were players and earned a lot of money, but they also spent a lot when they earned more.

They are also used to spending lavishly and without restraint. After retirement, their income decreases, but their expenses remain huge, and some of them end up being heavily in debt.

For example, Sean Kemp, as the 1989th overall pick in the first round of the 17 draft, played in the NBA for 14 years and earned a total of $6 million in his career. However, because he had to pay child support to six different families every month, he also fell into a financial crisis.

There is also Antoine Walker, who was the sixth pick in the first round of the 1996 draft and has a total career income of 1.05 million US dollars.

As a 2.06-meter power forward, he was once one of the best power forwards in the NBA and won a championship with the Heat.

But after helping the Miami Heat win the championship, he filed for bankruptcy while playing for the Timberwolves, mostly because of his gambling habit.

You have to know that these two people got contracts worth tens of millions of dollars in the 1990s or the beginning of the millennium. The tens of millions of dollars at that time were not the same as they are now.

As a result, they almost went bankrupt, or even went bankrupt directly.

This shows how much NBA players can spend.

"That's right." Zhou Zhiming nodded. "In addition to these two, there are many similar examples, such as Sprewell, Vin Baker, Derrick Coleman, Larry Johnson, Darius Miles... They all made a lot of money when they were players, but ended up on the verge of bankruptcy."

"why?"

"One is that they spend money excessively, or have too many children, have a chaotic private life, or are addicted to bad habits such as gambling. In short, they have no self-control, no planning, and just squander money blindly."

"The second reason is that they don't know how to run a business. When they were players, they had high salaries and a sufficient source of income, so they didn't have to worry. But once they retired, without a stable source of income, they would just live off their savings, and there would always be a time when they would run out of money."

After a pause, he smiled and said, "I'm not worried that you'll develop any bad habits. You're not the kind of person who likes to squander. But you have so much money now, and you'll have more in the future. It's a waste to just let it sit in the bank and collect dust."

"You have to make use of it. You have to make good use of this money, your current status, popularity, and influence to build a business empire for yourself."

Build a business empire for yourself...

Zhuang Yu's heart was shocked and he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

He really hasn't thought about this matter carefully.

He has made a lot of money in the past few years and spent a lot of money, but it was mainly spent on the acquisition of the Sharks Club, and he has not made any other investments.

Now he has more money.

It is enough to pay off the acquisition of the Sharks Club, and even have more. Could it be that he really put it in the bank and earn interest?

At his point, he doesn't care about that little bit of interest.

"Uncle Zhou, what you said makes sense."

Zhuang Yu said solemnly: "Indeed, even if I don't squander, I can't just leave the money in the bank. I should make some money flow and invest it, just like Kobe did. When I retire one day, I can find something to do."

"Yeah." Zhou Zhiming nodded with relief.

He only needs to mention this. Zhuang Yu is very smart, and he has similar role models around him, such as Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming.

Both of them started making various investments and building their own business empires when they were players, and they quickly completed their identity transformation after they retired.

Yao Ming has many investment projects covering multiple areas, including websites, restaurants, real estate, stock markets, hotels and other fields.

When he was on the Rockets, he opened the "Yao Restaurant" in Houston.

In 2006, he invested 2000 million in Jujing Music Network.

In 2007, Yao Ming teamed up with the largest private fitness chain in the United States to open the "California Fitness Yao Ming Club".

In 2008, we invested in building a four-star hotel in Beijing.

In the summer of 2009, Yao Ming acquired the New York Sharks men's basketball team.

Later, he invested in UniStrong Technology Co., Ltd. In 2010, UniStrong was successfully listed on the SME Board of the Stock Exchange, and its stock price once reached a high of 113 yuan.

As the company's fifth largest shareholder, Yao Ming owns 5 restricted shares.

In addition, he has invested in many properties at home and abroad. With the hot real estate market, he has also made a lot of money from real estate investment.

Another example is Kobe.

In business, Kobe is more successful than Yao Ming.

Last year, Kobe said in an interview: "If you want to be a real entrepreneur, you have to do it yourself. At this stage, I am not too interested in taking any endorsements."

It can be seen that after retiring, he quickly transformed himself into a "domineering president" and shifted his focus from the basketball court to the business empire.

Now that he is no longer a player, he has no interest in brand endorsements because he is his own boss.

Kobe started building his own business empire a long time ago. He used his popularity and influence, as well as the large amount of money he had, to invest in business.

For example, he co-founded the investment fund Bryant Stibel with his partner Stibel.

The fund has invested in projects such as Players Tribune and VIPKID, and is also an investor in Alibaba's Pre-IPO.

In 2014, Kobe Corporation was officially established and its headquarters is located in Newport Beach, California.

The first investment project was the emerging sports drink brand BodyArmour.

According to Forbes, Kobe invested more than $600 million and acquired a 10% stake in the company, becoming the third largest shareholder of the beverage brand.

Today, the annual sales of sports drink BodyArmour have soared from US$2012 million in 300 to over US$2 million today.

In 2016, Kobe and his partner Jeff Stibel jointly established a venture capital fund with a capital of up to 1 million US dollars on the New York Stock Exchange. After that, he invested in 15 companies, two of which were projects from China...

It is said that Kobe's net worth has now exceeded 5 million US dollars.