Chapter 34 Meeting Fagan

Tang Tian, Walker, and Fagan met at a cafe in Queens, New York.

Fagan had a long face and a height of 1.8 meters. He looked like a very ordinary middle-aged American uncle. If it weren't for the gleam in his eyes from time to time, you might not even notice him in a crowd.

But Tang Tian was quite familiar with him.

Because he was also Yi Jianlian's agent, and he was criticized by domestic fans for instigating Yi Jianlian to fall out with the Bucks.

However, most people only saw the farce between Yi Jianlian and the Bucks, but few knew the story behind it.

The 2007 draft was at the end of June that year, but in March, Fagan specially invited officials from seven NBA teams to Dongguan to watch the CBA Finals that season. In April, he arranged for Yi Jianlian to go to Los Angeles, USA, for more than two months of special training. His team hired six full-time coaches for Yi Jianlian, teaching him basketball skills such as shooting, sliding steps, defense, and improving running and jumping.

During that time, Yi Jianlian's weight increased by 5 kg, his bench press also increased from 80 kg to 100 kg, and his shooting skills also improved greatly. There was even a special English teacher to teach him English every night.

Including the subsequent refusal to conduct individual trials and the filming of the chair confrontation video, all were the result of Fagan's constant operation behind the scenes.

Facts proved that the approach of maintaining mystery at that time was very successful, and Yi Jianlian was finally successfully selected as the sixth pick in 2007.

Even the farce with the Bucks was later proved to be correct. The Bucks' management was in chaos at the time and had no intention of training rookies at all. If he had really succeeded in going to a Chinese city team like the Hawks or Bulls, Yi Jianlian might have had a more successful career.

Moreover, when Fagan passed away unexpectedly, Yi Jianlian was the first to post a tweet to mourn him, which shows that his relationship with Fagan was not as reported by the media at all.

So, in terms of ability and judgment, Fagan met Tang Tian's requirements.

The only thing was that Fagan was greedy for money, which was well known in the circle.

But Tang Tian was not worried about this. An agent is just an agent, and the two parties are just in a cooperative relationship.

The conversation between the two sides went very smoothly. Fagan's attitude was simply too good. Two first-round picks took the initiative to make an appointment with him, one of whom was a lottery pick or even a top ten rookie. He was probably overjoyed in his heart.

"Dan, what are your fees?" Walker finally asked him a question of concern.

"That's easy to say. I'll charge a symbolic 1% fee for the rookie contract." Fagan said with a smile.

Walker was stunned for a moment. Generally, agents charge 3% to 5%, and at least 2%. Fagan's 1% was almost the same as free.

He turned to look at Tang Tian. Now he believed that Tang Tian really knew what he was doing.

"If you have no objection, let's sign the agreement." Seeing that the two had no objection, Fagan took out the contract from his briefcase.

"So fast?" Walker looked at Tang Tian worriedly.

Tang Tian took the contract and looked at it. Basically, there was no problem.

If it were an ordinary player, he would need to find a friend who understands contracts to confirm it, but he understood these things himself and knew that Fagan had not cheated in this regard.

He signed his name. When Walker saw that Tang Tian had signed, he also signed his name on his copy.

"I will do a good job of promoting you before the draft. I believe you can get a very good pick." Fagan said with a smile after putting away the contract.

With the contract signed, the meeting was basically over. Tang Tian asked Walker to wait for him at the door for a while, and then returned to the cafe to chat with Fagan for a few more words.

"I want to be selected in the front position of the second round. Can you do that?" Tang Tian said.

"What?" Fagan thought he had heard wrong. Tang Tian's current draft prospects were at the end of the first round, and he even thought that if he worked hard, he could be very close to the 20th pick. But now Tang Tian said that he wanted to be selected in the second round?

Tang Tian nodded without explaining.

Seeing that Tang Tian was serious, Fagan pondered for a while and nodded, "No problem."

"That's fine." Tang Tian said, then got up and left.

Looking at Tang Tian's departing figure, Fagan couldn't help but shake his head, but soon nodded again.

"Is this rookie so confident in himself? He's completely different from Yi." He couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Although Tang Tian didn't say it, he had been in the agent industry for so long, so he guessed more or less that Tang Tian didn't want to be a cheap contract worker.

"What did you say?" Walker asked curiously, looking at Tang Tian who came out.

"It's nothing, let's go." Tang Tian said, putting his arm around Walker's shoulder.

After Fagan signed with Tang Tian and Walker, he began to build momentum for their draft and find potential endorsement contracts for them.

Walker's sneaker endorsement went smoothly. Fagan quickly contacted UA for him. The two sides were in negotiations, and a multi-year sneaker endorsement contract could be reached as soon as around the draft.

After all, Walker was the new MOP and had a high draft prediction, which was all reasonable.

Tang Tian's side was full of unknowns.

However, he was not in a hurry for a sneaker contract. He asked Fagan to help him find other endorsements as much as possible.

That's what he said, but what he didn't expect was that there were results in less than a week, and it was the other party who took the initiative to come to him.

A cake brand.

"The topic of you eating cake during the NCAA game is very popular. They want to use this to promote their brand."

When Fagan told him in a serious manner, Tang Tian couldn't help but laugh.

Eating cake at the beginning was entirely to replenish physical energy, but he didn't expect it to become a way for him to make money now.

He really had to thank Olsen for this.

Thinking of Olsen, he suddenly thought of another very important thing.

"How much will they pay for this advertisement?" Tang Tian asked.

"About $5,000." Fagan said.

$5,000, after deducting taxes, it was estimated to be less than $3,000. The return was a bit low.

However, it was already very rare for a rookie who hadn't even participated in the draft to receive this level of advertisement. It was estimated that Fagan had also spent some effort.

"If I film with Elizabeth Olsen, can the remuneration be negotiated higher?" Tang Tian asked.

"Elizabeth Olsen?" Fagan had never heard of this name.

"The younger sister of the Olsen twins."

Fagan looked at Tang Tian in surprise. He didn't expect Tang Tian to know someone from the Olsen family.

He didn't know Olsen, but the Olsen twins were still very well-known in the United States.

"If we can find her to be together, I am confident that the remuneration can be at least doubled, no, tripled." Fagan said.

"Okay, that's settled then. You talk to them first, and I'll contact you as soon as I have news."

Olsen had now broken up with her two sisters, and it was no exaggeration to say that they were all worried about making money. If he asked her to film an advertisement at this time, she had no reason to refuse.

This was completely a win-win situation.