One Year Left to Play-Chapter 304 - 102: This Isn’t a Multiple-Choice Question

December 2nd, 10 AM, Time Warner Arena meeting room.

Jeanie Buss had been back home and asleep for less than an hour when she received a call from the team’s operations manager. Though initially annoyed to be disturbed, upon hearing what the matter was, she immediately perked up, collected data, analyzed information, and thought it through...

Then quickly called all the team management personnel needed to make a joint decision to the training facility for a meeting.

Once everyone was gathered, Jeanie Buss concisely announced the meeting agenda: "I received an invitation from Starbucks, they are interested in sponsoring us."

Jim Buss responded, "Jeanie, shouldn’t you decide this matter? The boss has given all the power to you."

Besides Miss Jeanie Buss, all five of the Lakers’ young masters and mistresses arrived at the arena.

Joey Buss is coordinating with the NBA to establish a new league NBDL, Johnny Buss is preparing to establish the Los Angeles Sparks, Jim Buss is Jeanie Buss’s competitor, and young master Josh Buss is an intern in the team’s operations department.

Jeanie Buss is in charge of the Lakers and the business development of the "First Ticket" sports channel, jointly created by the Lakers and Time Warner Cable Sports to specifically broadcast Lakers games. She holds the highest management authority in the team other than Jerry Buss.

The competition between Jeanie Buss and Jim Buss within the team has long been made public; no one was surprised by Jim Buss’s aggressive and sarcastic tone.

Jeanie Buss was used to it and replied, "But they have conditions."

"Conditions..." Logo Man chimed in, "I remember Aix is a partner at Starbucks, the conditions should be related to him."

After glancing at Logo Man, Jeanie Buss quickly softened her gaze and responded, "Correct, they’ve proposed a condition requiring both Jerry and Del’s consent, with Del’s opinion being the most important. If you disagree, we can refuse Starbucks’ sponsorship."

Del Harris, who had been irritable since the night before, was startled—What’s going on with me?

Not speaking of what the conditions are, Del Harris couldn’t fathom how the decision of whether to accept the sponsorship actually fell to him, the coach, who is the lowest-ranked in the room?

Everyone was surprised, initially thinking Jeanie Buss had called them here for some trouble the beloved eldest daughter needs help handling.

It seemed quite troublesome indeed, but not for them; they watched their team’s coach with a look of amusement.

Del Harris, bracing himself, said, "If there’s anything I need to do, I’ll strive to cooperate with the team."

Jeanie Buss said, "Starbucks proposed two conditions. If we agree, we can proceed to negotiate with them. The first condition is the sponsorship period; they will only provide sponsorship if Aix is on our team. If Jerry trades Aix away, the sponsorship ends."

Jerry West nodded and replied, "That condition is fine. The reason they’re willing to sponsor us is probably because we have traded Aix back. What’s the second condition then..."

With that said, Jerry West glanced at the hapless Del Harris.

Jeanie Buss continued, "The second condition is that Aix must start and have guaranteed playing time."

...

...

Watching the scowling Del Harris testing Zhang Hao on technical aspects at the training ground, Kupchek couldn’t help but laugh and said to Logo Man beside him, "Do you think Aix will be targeted by Del? Del really likes Vlade."

"I like centers like Vlade too, but what can be done? Even if the Brooklyn Nets are blind, they wouldn’t want Cedric, and Eddie alone can’t be traded for a rookie like Aix who scores over 15 points each game."

"The hardest part is that Del hasn’t even interacted with Aix yet, doesn’t know how good Aix is, but was forced by the eldest daughter to give Aix a starting role and stable playing time, he’s probably got the worst impression of Aix by now..."

"Jeanie is indeed assertive, but she’s very capable."

"We expected Del to be unhappy when we decided to let Vlade go; we just didn’t anticipate a newly arrived Aix would immediately have a big company sponsor backing him. Jerry, do you think this is a good thing?"

"Perhaps, at least we won’t need to discuss Aix’s playing time with Del as Jeanie has settled it for us. With Jason Williams coming, his rebounding is decent; this matching salary add-on can supplement our interior depth." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"I prefer Kenny Anderson."

"But what can be done? The Brooklyn Nets aren’t truly foolish. If we want to trade both Kenny Anderson and Aix together, we’d have to send out all our starters... The Brooklyn Nets might not even agree, they don’t need so many players that can win games."

"Such a shame, a top point guard who can make it into the All-Star starters at 23, we missed that bargain..."

"Yeah, such a shame, it’s unbelievable the Brooklyn Nets would actually trade away not only one but all their past years’ dual-core talents. I didn’t expect Duncan to be so attractive to the Brooklyn Nets, but anyway, our target is Aix."

...

Was Jeanie Buss really negotiating? It was more like an announcement!

Can he, a coach, take the blame for offending a sponsor?

Del Harris had no choice but to agree; at least this way, he could save face.