Chapter 484 NBA Team
Under the operation of Hutchison boss William Wellington, Hutchison was slimming down while acquiring other high-quality assets. After their failed merger with Wheelock, they set their sights on Whampoa. If nothing unexpected happens, next year, in 77, they will become Hutchison Whampoa, and then because of the lack of business improvement, they will eventually be acquired by Li Chaoren.

Wang Yuanchao was waiting for Wei Li to merge with Huangpu before he would close his net.

Given his current relationship with HSBC's Stephen Simpson, Li Chaoren will not be able to catch up with this opportunity.

Even if Shen Bi didn't support him, the shares he held exceeded those of HSBC. After the merger with Huangpu, he was still a larger shareholder than HSBC! He hid in the dark, and no one knew about it except himself.

Both Hong Kong and U.S. investment companies report to him individually.

It can also be seen whether the friendship with Shen Bi is stronger than gold.

After sorting out the business in Hong Kong, Wang Yuanchao calmly went to the United States.

In addition to verifying the little baby Davis, we also have to comfort our former father-in-law who lost the Republican nomination to the current President Ford. We must congratulate Zipperton who won the election for Attorney General of Arkansas, as he will be a big shot in the future.

There was no DNA testing technology back then, and verification was simple, just checking whether the child was mixed-race.

If he is a pure-blooded white person, he is definitely not Wang Yuanchao's child.

When she saw Davis, Patricia was still doing rehabilitation training.

After Reagan and Nancy moved out of the Governor's Mansion, they moved to Los Angeles. Wang Yuanchao had bought a house for Patricia that was big enough. But Patricia obviously still lived with her parents, who could help take care of the children.

Patricia saw Wang Yuanchao and said directly:
"Davis is your son! You owe me three more songs!"

Davis, how can I put it, Wang Yuanchao couldn't tell whether it was his own son or not.

After all, the eldest brother Ronan, although a mixed-race, looks more like a little foreigner, and Davis is not much behind.

To confirm the identity of this baby, we will probably have to wait for DNA technology to be developed in more than ten years.

Since Patricia said so, Wang Yuanchao couldn't question it. After all, the Reagans were watching. He said immediately:
"no problem."

Then Patricia said nothing more and went back to exercising.

She has been resting for so long and can't wait to make a comeback.

Seeing that his daughter hadn't said a word to Wang Yuanchao, Reagan couldn't help but stepped forward and said:
"You guys are like this, what do you think of having a baby? Patricia has a bad personality, I thought you Adam were steady enough."

The marriage was divorced and the child was born. In principle, Wang Yuanchao was immoral. What else could Wang Yuanchao say to his future partner? He could only apologize:

"We thought it would be a good idea to part ways amicably, but we didn't expect that... I will be responsible for the child. Davis Reagan Wang."

Reagan said:
"That's not what I meant. From what I heard you guys talking just now, are you treating having a baby as a transaction?"

Nancy came over and tugged at her husband, saying:

"The child is already born, why are you saying this? One of them is willing to give birth, and the other is willing to raise the child. Why do you care about them? Besides, I see that you are happier than anyone else when you are taking care of the child!"

It was indeed true that the mother-in-law loved her son-in-law. Wang Yuanchao prepared gifts for Nancy every year on holidays, birthdays, and even their wedding anniversary. Reagan couldn't do that.

Reagan was dissatisfied:
"These are two different things!"

But thinking that he had been exposed by his wife, he was too lazy to say anything more. Who asked his ex-wife's two children and the adopted son's children to be raised by his wife, and the eldest daughter had never had a child after getting divorced? When he got older, it was hard to control his emphasis on offspring.

Wang Yuanchao said:

"I heard that you lost the party's nomination?"

Reagan glanced at his former son-in-law and said:
“It’s a matter of course.”

Wang Yuanchao nodded:

"Well, no matter what, you will definitely be able to do it in four years!"

Reagan laughed:

"You think so too? They think I'm too old!"

How old is that? Four years later, Reagan was only 4 years old! Trump and Sleepy Joe were much older than him!
"In the East, there is a saying that goes, 'An old horse in the stable still has ambitions to run a thousand miles, and a martyr in his old age still has ambitions.' This was said by a founding emperor of the Wei Kingdom two thousand years ago. I think it's a good gift for you."

Wang Yuanchao explained in a lot of words.

Reagan was very happy and insisted that Wang Yuanchao tell him about this history that he didn't know.

Well, as long as the two men could sit together and chat, Nancy didn't care.

The two chatted about Eastern history, and Reagan became more determined!

Then the two talked about basketball again, because his brother-in-law Ron actually chose dance as his major. Reagan felt that his younger son could play more basketball and be more masculine, right?
Although he and his wife were both actors, they always felt that it was strange for boys to practice dancing. Wang Yuanchao remembered that when he went to the Sacramento Governor's Mansion, his brother-in-law ran out to play basketball.
"I remember he used to go out and play ball often?"

When Reagan heard this, he was immediately distressed:
"yes!
It was because his favorite Utah Stars team was gone, and he was devastated, and then he didn’t know why, so he had to practice dancing.”

Wang Yuanchao was very curious. There was such a team? He seemed to have never heard of this team before, so he asked:

"Bankrupt?"

Reagan shook his head and said:
“Yeah, they didn’t even make it to the merger with the NBA, they went bankrupt because they couldn’t pay salaries.

You know, the ABA teams play better, but they don’t seem to make as much money as the NBA, and their income is not enough to cover their expenses.”

Wang Yuanchao was a little confused. ABA? There is another ABA?

“What is ABA?”

Reagan was very surprised at first, but then he thought it was natural because Adam didn't usually watch football, so he explained it to Wang Yuanchao.

The Utah Stars were originally the Los Angeles Stars. At that time, Los Angeles had the Lakers and the UCLA Bruins, and the Stars were not very competitive. But Reagan was familiar with the Stars owner, Koster, so Reagan took his son to watch a few games of the Stars, and the child fell in love with the team.

In the fall of 70, the Los Angeles Stars were sold and moved to Utah by the new owner.

Children's feelings are relatively pure. In 71, the Utah Stars won the ABA championship, which further strengthened Ron's feelings for this team.

Wang Yuanchao only then realized that although the NBA was established early, the United States had always had two basketball league systems!

But when he heard that a basketball team only cost 300 to 500 million US dollars, his pocket began to empty.

He has even invested in Chelsea, so investing in a basketball team shouldn’t be a big problem!
Taking root in America and influencing generations, right?

He is not familiar with and does not understand baseball and football, but as for the NBA, Orientals do know a little bit about it.

So Wang Yuanchao immediately instructed the investment company to understand the situation of the NBA team.

The story begins in 1967, the year the ABA (American Basketball Association) was founded as a strong competitor to the NBA.

Compared to the NBA, which has been developing for 20 years, the ABA has elevated the basketball game to a more entertaining and eye-catching level. They use red, white and blue basketballs and set up an exciting three-point line. The league has explosive dunkers such as Dr. J (Julius Erving) and "Skywalker" Thompson (David Thompson). They advocate offense and stimulate adrenaline. Every game is a wonderful performance.

However, just like many young "companies", the ABA, despite its extremely impressive business content, lacks support and opportunities for commercial operations. They do not have the television broadcasting contracts and sustained, stable income that a sports league relies on for survival.

So at the beginning of 1970, just three years after its establishment, the ABA actively sought cooperation with the NBA, one of the important directions of which was the merger of the two leagues.

At that time, the NBA was very open to this because they also needed to absorb new elements to enhance their own entertainment, and the team owners voted 13-4 to pass the merger plan.

Everything seemed so smooth and beautiful.

The NBA has a good fan base, but lacks a little appeal; the ABA makes basketball games "good-looking", but is in urgent need of "traffic". The two leagues merged by learning from each other's strengths and making up for each other's weaknesses.

The ABA had already faced huge financial problems in the years since the merger was announced. Four teams had disbanded or withdrawn due to lack of money. Only the more successful New York Nets and Denver Nuggets (with Dr. J and David Thompson respectively) had the confidence to seamlessly connect to the NBA. Before the merger, the ABA had only seven teams left.

Four teams, namely the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs, have completed mergers with the NBA. There are also the Kentucky Colonels (which have nothing to do with fried chicken) who are "loyal to the ABA" and unwilling to get involved in the NBA, the Virginia Squires who declared bankruptcy before the merger, and the Soul Team of the Srner Brothers.

As for Ron's favorite Utah Stars, they went bankrupt a year earlier.

Since the big boss was interested in acquiring an NBA team as a toy, the investment company quickly placed several interested clubs on the big boss's desk.

Among the teams that Wang Yuanchao had the strongest intention to sell, the one he had a vague impression of was the Buffalo Braves, the predecessor of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Among them, John Brown, the owner of the Kentucky Colonels, is negotiating with Paul Snyder, the owner of the Buffalo Braves, to acquire 350% of the Braves for $50 million.

Irvin Cowan from Miami wanted to buy the Braves for $800 million and move the team to Miami, but the city of Buffalo sued Snyder for $1000 million in damages because Snyder had reached a 15-year cooperation agreement with Memorial Auditorium (Stadium) and leaving before 1990 was a breach of contract. His behavior of deceiving citizens into buying season tickets also caused great economic damage to the city.

The court ruled that Snyder could not move the team out of Buffalo, so he had to look for a buyer in Buffalo. Two weeks later, Snyder reached a settlement agreement with the city of Buffalo, under which the Braves would remain in Buffalo next season, but if the team's season ticket sales fell below 5000 within five years, he would be eligible to cancel the agreement.

John Brown's funding came from the sale of the team.

The NBA reached a consensus with the Colonels and bought out the team's ownership for $300 million in cash, and allowed other teams to purchase Colonels players with cash, solving the problem with actual money.

Because the Braves weren't allowed to leave Buffalo, the team's price plummeted, but Schneider still wanted to sell!

This is similar to Chelsea. Chelsea is British pounds and this is US dollars!
Wang Yuanchao instructed the investment company to intervene and acquire the entire company.

Faced with the huge sum of 700 million US dollars, Paul Snyder sold the Buffalo Braves without saying a word.

This is much more reliable than John Brown's 350 million to get half of the deal first!
(End of this chapter)