At 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, a Boeing 757 is flying smoothly toward Milan, Italy.
Inside the spacious cabin, apart from a few accompanying business assistants quietly checking the itinerary in the back row, the first-class area in the front was so quiet that only the low roar of the aircraft engines could be heard.
Lin Qi sat in the spacious airline seat, a glass of soda in his hand. This trip to Europe to oversee the training camps of Olympia Milan and the Boston Celtics was just the surface of his itinerary. His real focus was on refining the vast sports business empire that was gradually taking shape in his hands.
Currently, Monster Energy's parent company and the long-established sneaker company Converse have been completely privatized by him, becoming his privately owned assets with absolute control. Lin Qi also holds more than 80% of Puma, another Europe sportswear giant, and its complete privatization and delisting are only a matter of time.
According to Lin Qi's plan, once Puma completes its privatization, it will directly become the official top-tier partner of the Europe Basketball League (EBA). Most of the top EBA stars will be signed by Puma.
With multiple identities—NBA team owner, EBA behind-the-scenes manipulator, and actual controller of multiple sports brands— Lin Qi's thoughts naturally drifted to the gray area hidden deep within the league's rules...
The boundaries of the transfer of benefits.
"If I use my lucrative Puma or Converse endorsement contracts to privately subsidize Celtics players, would that be considered a violation of the rules?"
Lin Qi tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest of his chair, his mind racing as he reviewed several famous cases from the league's history.
The most typical example of what not to do is the Minnesota Timberwolves. They gave Joe Smith a double contract, which resulted in David Stern penalizing them by stripping them of five first-round picks, and even suspending owner Glen Taylor. The reason is simple: the Minnesota Timberwolves were too stupid. They wrote down their "promise" to make up the salary in the future in black and white in the contract, giving their opponents a handle to use against them.
A positive example is the Orlando Magic and Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal. The Orlando Magic's owner, Richard DeVos, was also the founder of Amway. O'Neal not only earned a Amway contract with the Magic but also amassed huge commercial endorsement fees from Amway off the court. This blatant "transfer of benefits" was tolerated by the league. This was because it was merely a handshake agreement; legally, the league could not prove a direct exchange of benefits between Amway's commercial contract and O'Neal's on-court contract.
The more crucial difference is that O'Neal did not reduce his salary on top of his original contract after taking money from Amway.
Having grasped this logic, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Lin Qi.
While Stern's suspension of Pierce was certainly motivated by political motives—to curb Boston's dominance, prevent the Celtics from becoming too powerful, and maintain a balance in the league—this shouldn't be the primary reason for the internal meeting. What truly gave David Stern a legitimate reason to take drastic action was that Pierce had received several million dollars less in compensation.
In this league, you can sign players to tens of millions in commercial endorsements off the court, Stern might even turn a blind eye to it in order to maintain the prosperity of the NBA. But the premise is that the player's on-the-spot salary must be similar to that of players of the same level and quality in the league.
There must be no de facto salary reductions.
Once the door is opened for "superstars to take minimum salaries and make up the difference with off-court endorsements," big-market teams and wealthy owners can use endless off-court resources to hoard star players. The salary cap system will become a mere formality, and small-market teams will be completely wiped out. This touches the very foundation of the collective bargaining agreement.
As long as the players' listed salaries are in line with market value and there is no suspicion of malicious pay cuts, Lin Qi can use off-court resources to infinitely increase their total income. But that's not enough; he also has to procedurally avoid suspicion of "using endorsements as bargaining chips to recruit players."
Gazing at the sea of clouds, Lin Qi's memories resurfaced from the summer of 2015, the infamous " Jordan Ban " of his previous life.
At the time, Michael Jordan was both the owner of the Charlotte Hornets and the head of Nike's Air Jordan brand. That summer, Hornets player MKG faced contract renewal. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban offered him a near-$70 million max contract, but MKG surprisingly chose to stay with the Hornets for a "discounted" four-year, $52 million deal. In compensation, he immediately received an extremely lucrative Air Jordan shoe endorsement contract.
This move infuriated Cuban, who publicly protested to the league that Jordan was using shoe contracts to indirectly subsidize player salaries. David Silver, Adam Stern's successor, quickly intervened and enacted a targeted " Jordan Ban."
But in Lin Qi's view, the scope of that ban was actually very subtle.
It merely prohibits Jordan from "personally stepping forward" to decide who gets shoe contracts, preventing the owner from using endorsements as bargaining chips. As a commercial entity, the AJ brand can still sign any Hornets player as long as the decision-making process is completed independently by brand executives, without Jordan's direct involvement.
In fact, before and after the ban was introduced, a large number of Hornets players were still wearing Air Jordan shoes and holding Air Jordan contracts.
This is the most ingenious loophole in the world of capital.
Having figured this out, Lin Qi smiled calmly.
Why bother with those clandestine overseas shell trusts? That's too shady and beneath his current status. Since David Stern's red line is against "public salary cuts," and the core logic of the alliance's restrictions on the transfer of benefits is merely "prohibiting the boss from personally getting involved," then he might as well just openly put this capital game on the table.
In the current climate where there are no explicit restrictions on bosses holding dual roles, he only needs to establish a "decision-making barrier" on the surface.
After landing in Milan, he will reorganize the commercial sponsorship departments of Puma and Converse, establishing a completely independent " Global Sports Marketing Committee " for each. He will publicly declare that all endorsement evaluations, offers, and contracts for professional athletes will be handled entirely by this independent committee. This will create a perfect separation mechanism on the surface, making the public and the league believe that he has completely separated himself from the day-to-day sponsorship decisions of the brands.
But in reality, this is just a compliant cover-up.
As long as he doesn't leave written instructions via work emails or personally meet with free agents to discuss shoe contracts, he still has countless ways to precisely control the committee's operations behind the scenes through verbal suggestions or agents, delivering lucrative endorsements to players Boston has their eye on.
As long as the official salaries are compliant, and given the absolute independence of this process, even if the entire league is aware of the situation, David Stern cannot find any fault with it in terms of law and rules.
This is an impeccable, overt strategy.
With this system, he can openly use his vast business empire to infinitely increase the off-court income of his players. He can not only keep Boston's existing stars loyal, but also use this tactic to lure potential young stars who are still on their rookie contracts and are eyeing huge commercial endorsements.
Lin Qi downed the soda in his glass and leaned back in his chair.
As his thoughts continued to wander along the business empires of Puma and EBA, a somewhat whimsical and crazy idea suddenly popped into Lin Qi's mind.
Kobe Brian will become a free agent next summer.
With the Eagle County Incident escalating and the public opinion environment across the United States extremely hostile, what if Lin Qi went along with it and signed Kobe directly to Olympia Milan?
Given EBA's current financial resources and Lin Qi's background, they could easily afford to offer a salary that matches or even surpasses the NBA's top salary. Furthermore, if Kobe were to play in Europe, his immense international influence and commercial value would undoubtedly cause EBA's broadcasting rights and Puma's shoe sales to skyrocket. This could even, to some extent, truly threaten the NBA's monopoly in the global basketball market.
But this tempting idea was quickly shattered by the realities of legal barriers.
The felony charges in Eagle County are no joke. The court will definitely grant Kobe strict bail terms. During the trial, Kobe's passport will most likely be restricted or even confiscated by the Colorado prosecutors, making it impossible for him to legally leave the United States to play in Italy.
Of course, in a more common gray area of practice, many wealthy individuals facing felony charges do indeed use private channels to flee after being released on bail, escaping to countries without extradition treaties. If Kobe really wanted to leave, his wealth would have made it absolutely possible.
But if he did that, the nature of the situation would completely change. He would become a wanted criminal throughout the United States. If he ever dared to set foot on United States soil again, he would be met with the cold handcuffs of federal marshals. To give up his right to return home and his vast business empire forever just to play basketball in Europe for a few years—even someone as obsessive as Kobe could never bear such a price.
"What a pity." Lin Qi leaned back in his chair and shook his head regretfully.
If it weren't for those damn bail restrictions and legal boundaries, sending Kobe to Europe to be a face of the EBA would have been an absolutely groundbreaking move that would go down in the history of sports business.