December 1, 2000, Celtics training facility, locker room.
Doc Doug Christie sat on the bench, angrily tearing open the laces of his sneakers, his face contorted in a grimace.
"My wife got angry again yesterday," he complained to Chris Paul Pierce next to him without looking up.
Pierce, who was struggling to strap an ice pack to his knee, smiled wryly upon hearing this, "Dude, it's news when Jackie ( Doug Christie's wife) doesn't lose her temper, isn't it?"
"This time she's really furious." Doug Christie jumped up, pointing outside the door. "Look at that so-called family lounge! It's as dilapidated as a police detention center! She came to see me train last week and stood in the hallway for two hours with a leaky ice machine, shivering from the cold! When she got home, she had a huge fight with me, saying that our team, a two-time champion, doesn't even have a place for family members to sit!"
"It's really run-down," Pierce sighed, walking to the window and looking at the gray Boston sky. "And it's too far. I drive here every day, and even a little traffic adds up to an hour. Two hours a day are wasted on the road."
Gary Payton, a towel wrapped around his waist, emerged from the shower, drying his hair as he remarked, "You guys are lucky. When I first entered the league, the Seattle SuperSonics ' training facility was a million miles away from downtown Seattle."
"But at least it's a new arena!" Doug Christie raised his voice, kicking the locker behind him hard. The rusty door creaked loudly, almost falling off. "Listen to this! The floor's hollow, the hoops are wobbly! Last week I dunked, and the rim was shaking so much I thought the ceiling was going to collapse!"
Doug Christie's tone carried a hint of helplessness. " Jackie just laid it all out with me a few days ago. She said if the team doesn't renew my contract next year, she hopes I'll go to Los Angeles or New York. It's not about the money, but the training facilities, arenas, and upscale residential areas are all in one place. You can walk to Michelin restaurant after a game, unlike here, where you have to drive on the highway even to get a salad."
The locker room fell silent for a moment. The players looked at each other, each processing these harsh but realistic words.
Just then, the half-closed door was pushed open.
Lin Qi, dressed in a well-tailored dark gray suit, stood calmly in the doorway. No one knew how long he had been standing there listening.
"Lin." Pierce was the first to react and quickly stood up.
Lin Qi nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the dilapidated dressing room... peeling paint on the walls, uneven floor, and rusty shower pipes.
"You two continue your conversation," he said calmly, without a trace of annoyance. "I was just passing by."
After saying that, he turned and left.
An hour later, inside Lin Qi's car.
Lin Qi leaned back in his seat, watching the first snowflakes fall outside the car window.
Doug Christie is right. This old, run-down training facility is an insult to our "two-peat".
What if we built a brand new comprehensive training base in the city? It would not only have a stadium, but also player apartments, family rest areas, a top-notch sports rehabilitation center... like an independent kingdom belonging to the Celtics.
Lin Qi's mind instantly conjured up a bankruptcy report submitted last week by his assistant Margaret —the abandoned " Federal Industrial Company " site in Brighton District.
Located on the Charles River, just 5 kilometers from the city center, the property comprises a full 120 acres.
etc.
120 acres.
Building a top-tier NBA training facility in the US would only require a maximum of 25 acres. What would be done with the remaining 95 acres? Plant grass?
Lin Qi's eyes suddenly sharpened.
Who said you can only build training halls? You can build other things too!
25 acres will be reserved for the team. 60 acres will be used to build up luxury riverside apartments. 30 acres will be used for shopping malls and office buildings. The remaining 5 acres will be used to create a community center to appease the locals.
Apartment buildings can recoup funds through pre-sales, shopping malls can be packaged into funds to raise money from Wall Street after completion, and even the team's training base can be legally Celtics through a "sale-leaseback" arrangement.
This project will cost nearly $900 million. After deducting the bank loans he can get in the early stages, he will still need to put up about $260 million in cash as start-up capital.
260 million. Lin Qi exhaled a breath of stale air and drew a circle on the car window.
He has the money. But the more than three billion US dollars he made during the Nasdaq stock market crash is currently all spread across 20 shell accounts in the Cayman Islands.
Legally, the individual " Lin Qi " has no connection whatsoever with those 20 overseas accounts.
If he dares to transfer $260 million directly from a tax haven into a personal account in the United States, IRS agents will be at his apartment door first thing tomorrow morning, armed with guns and a search warrant.
He needs a legal way.
Looking at his blurry reflection in the car window, Lin Qi's mind popped into his head the most commonly used legal tool by Wall Street financial tycoons: hedge funds.
This scheme is simple, brutal, and flawless. First, a wholly owned entity is registered in Delaware, called " Lin Qi Capital." Then, 20 shell companies overseas are used as "investors" to invest $3.5 billion in Lin Qi Capital.
According to Wall Street's industry practice of "charging a 2% management fee and taking 20% of the profits," as long as this money generates an income on paper, he can legally earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year under the name of " United States domestic fund management fees."
Even after deducting the taxes due, tens of millions of dollars still neatly flow into his personal pocket every year. The IRS not only can't find anything wrong with it, but they also have to give him a model taxpayer medal.
With this legitimate funding channel, it will be much easier to do whatever you want in the future.
As for the plan for those thirty sports commercial complexes in Europe, Lin Qi reconsidered it in his mind.
If you pay for everything yourself, the amount of capital tied up is too large, the risk is extremely high, and any mistake could drag the whole thing down.
A more prudent approach would be to only invest the initial startup capital and secure a mortgage loan from a local Europe bank for the bulk of the funds. Once the first phase is completed and operational, the stable revenue from daily ticket sales, shop rentals, and naming rights fees would be sufficient to support the business, repay the loan, and even fund the construction of a new pavilion.
This way, the risk is spread out, and valuable cash is kept on hand.
The funding issue has been resolved. The only obstacle now is that bankrupt piece of land in Brighton.
Lin Qi picked up his phone and dialed his assistant, Margaret: " Margaret, I need complete information on the ' Federal Industrial ' bankruptcy site in Brighton by tomorrow. The more detailed, the better."