"If the league allowed it, and Nicole became the Lakers' owner, would you still not come back?"
Wang Yi shook his head. "You're LeBron James, not Nicole."
James immediately seized on the loophole in Wang Yi's answer. "So you're saying there's still a chance you might come back."
Wang Yi shook his head again. "Owner Tamim has treated me well. Besides, I've got a whole bunch of brothers in Toronto. I'm not going to leave the Raptors lightly."
"And on top of that, my annual salary is $300 million. Can you afford that?"
James gave a wry smile. "I can't afford a $300 million salary right now, but if you'd come, I'd sell everything I own to pay it. I'd even raise the offer if that's what it took."
Seeing that James was serious, Wang Yi shook his head and waved a hand. "Let me reiterate: I'm not going to leave the Raptors lightly."
James saw that Wang Yi had made his position clear, so all he could do was sigh and raise his glass. "All right. Let's drink."
The two drained their glasses, and James had one last thing to say about the subject.
"If there's ever a chance, I still hope we can team up again, like the brothers we are."
Wang Yi only smiled and didn't reply.
Wang Yi understood why James had invited him to join the Lakers.
Ultimately, it came down to his commercial value and the influence of his brand.
For starters, Wang Yi's name alone was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
These days, he didn't even have to attend several of his commercial events. Just letting the brands use his name earned him tens of millions of dollars a year from each of them—adding up to hundreds of millions.
It was easy