In the final moments of the trade deadline this season, the league re-enacted an "earthquake" trade, with the Brooklyn Nets sending Harden and Millsap to get Simmons, Curry Jr., Drummond Jr. and two first-round picks from the 76ers.
The deal announced the dissolution of the Nets' Big Three, which has been established for nearly two seasons, and Cai Chong's vision of winning the championship and increasing the team's market value in confidence is afraid that this season will once again be "stranded".
Speaking of Tsai Chongxin, fans' first impression of him is that of the NBA Nets owner, and the Asian face and barclays center arena are full of Chinese elements, so that many domestic fans regard it as the home team to follow. But digging deep into its roots, the reality is far beyond the imagination of fans, let's walk into Tsai Chongxin's business life together.
Prominent family
In 1964, Cai Chongxin was born in Taiwan, Baodao, his ancestral home is Shuanglin Town, Nanxun District, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, his grandfather was Du Yuesheng's chief lawyer, his father was the first person in Taiwan Province to obtain a doctorate in law from Yale University, the two founded a law firm, the main clients are high-level political and business figures, has a good social network.
Influenced by his family, Tsai Chongxin was very interested in lawyers and business investments from an early age, and his high enthusiasm for learning and excellent genes allowed him to follow in his father's footsteps to enter Yale University and obtain a double degree of doctor of law and bachelor of economics.
After graduation, Tsai Chongxin chose to stay in the United States, engaged in tax law work at Sullivan Law Firm, and after only three years of study, he jumped to Rosecliff, a famous investment company in the United States, as vice president and legal counsel, and entered the gold collar ranks early.
In 1995, Chongxin's focus shifted from legal to commercial investment, as a vice president and senior investment manager at a subsidiary of Investor, the largest holding company in Northern Europe, focusing on private equity in Asia with an annual salary of $700,000. Subsequently, he met and fell in love with his wife, Wu Minghua, who was also from Taiwan, and entered the palace of marriage.
It is worth mentioning that Tsai Chongxin's wife Wu Minghua's family lineage is not simple, and his grandfather is the founder of Nanfang, a key figure in the "Tainan Gang" (Taiwan's largest business gang), and a proper business tycoon.
According to anecdotal rumors, the marriage of the two also has a bit of a commercial marriage meaning, but since the marriage, Cai Chongxin has not had any scandals, the two have raised three children, the eldest son is currently helping the family to take care of their careers, the daughter is studying in college, the younger son is not yet an adult, and the family of five lives very happily.
Tsai Chongxin and Jack Ma
If Alibaba is compared to a movie, Ma Yun is the director, deciding the story and connotation of the film to be told, Cai Chongxin is the chief producer, escorting the quality and publicity of this movie, the two complement each other, and the lack of one person The film will not be released as scheduled.
In May 1999, Tsai Chongxin met the "crazy" Ma Yun under the introduction of a Taiwanese friend, and the first meeting between the two was in Hangzhou, when Ma Yun's company was not established, and only a website that could be displayed was just launched, and the operating income was even more insufficient. But under Ma Yun's infectious speech, Tsai Chongxin proposed to look at his team structure, which completely changed the lives of Ma Yun and Cai Chongxin.
Cai Chongxin followed Ma Yun to the lakeside garden, and as soon as he opened the door, Cai Chongxin was startled by the scene in front of him, the floor was covered with sheets, the air was filled with the smell of food residue mixing, and the working table was laid out horizontally and vertically. At odds with the dirty environment, a group of young people are working with determined eyes and tireless efforts, even if they eat a large pot of rice and make a floor.
Cai Chongxin, who has loved challenges since childhood, has begun to re-examine Ma Yun, a unique leader, since seeing the strength displayed by this group of young people. At the same moment, Tsai Chongxin made up his mind to join this adventurous team, and it was not surprising that Tsai Chongxin's idea was unanimously opposed by his family, and only the pregnant wife chose to support her husband's decision, so Tsai Chongxin became one of Alibaba's famous "Eighteen Arhats".
From an annual salary of 700,000 yuan to a monthly salary of 500 yuan, many people admire Cai Chongxin's boldness and desperate bets, but in fact, even if Alibaba fails to start a business, Cai Chongxin relies on Yale's doctoral degree in law, 10 years of work experience and family connections, and can easily find a good gold-collar job, but Ma Yun's team will lose very thoroughly, and it is only a matter of time before it is disbanded.
When Tsai Chongxin officially joined Alibaba, he began to help Jack Ma register the company, internally standardized the company system, clarified everyone's equity and obligations, and externally recruited Goldman Sachs's $5 million investment fund through personal connections, helping Alibaba survive the cold winter of the early stage of entrepreneurship.
Since then, Alibaba's financing, legal affairs, and finance affairs have been controlled by Cai Chongxin, and the company's scale has grown day by day, and after more than ten years of development, it has become a leading company in China. The story of Ma Yun and Cai Chongxin's mutual achievements has also become a good story in the business world.
Tsai Chongxin is currently worth
Regarding Tsai Chongxin's valuation estimate, we must first start with his shareholding ratio at Alibaba and the company's market value changes, after all, the Canadian billionaire's main source of income is still based on Ali dividends.
According to Alibaba's latest shareholding ratio, the largest shareholder is still SoftBank, holding 24.8% of the shares, Tsai Chongxin's shareholding has dropped to 1.4%, and Ma Yun's shareholding has decreased sharply after exiting Alibaba in recent years, and it is no longer in the list of major shareholders.
At the end of October 2020, Alibaba's total market value reached a new high of $856 billion, at which time Cai Chongxin's value also reached its peak.
However, in the next year or so, Alibaba's market value evaporated by 420 billion US dollars due to factors such as "monopoly fines", "female employee rights protection" and "double reduction policy", which also led to a sharp decline in Tsai Chongxin's value, which is currently worth about 9.5 billion US dollars, falling out of the ranks of tens of billions of billionaires.
Acquisition of the Nets
In 2018, the former owner of the Nets, Prokhorov (the former richest man in Russia), wanted to sell the team, and Tsai Chongxin, who learned of this news, first peddled a part of the stock to withdraw cash, and then successfully borrowed money from the bank with Alibaba equity as a value asset, spending a total of $2.35 billion in two years to buy all the shares of the Nets.
The $2.35 billion acquisition also allowed Tsai to successfully surpass Ballmer's $2 billion acquisition of the Clippers, setting a new record for a team traded in NBA history.
Prokhorov, who sold the team, bought the Nets for $856 million in 2010, and in his nine years as owner, the team has not achieved a brilliant record, and the late Big Five has become the talk of fans after dinner. But in terms of investment, making $1.494 billion in nine years is enough to be called excellent.
The reason why Tsai Chongxin chose to acquire the Nets, on the one hand, is that he is optimistic about the future development of NBA teams, and the Warriors are a best example, through the heat brought by the four-year triple crown and Curry's superstar effect, this team has more than ten times the market value in just ten years.
On the other hand, the Brooklyn Nets are located in New York, in this "dream" city, there is a team with a record of perennial low, but the team's market value is firmly ranked first in the league, and the fan market determines the value of the team.
In order to better manage the team while maximizing profits, Tsai Chongxin spent nearly $1.15 billion to buy the Barclays Center, which is a good explanation of why the Nets have so many Chinese elements at home, and as a businessman, Boss Cai knows the huge Chinese fan market.
How much money did Cai Chongxin make in three years?
The income of an NBA team mainly depends on three aspects: selling broadcast rights, selling tickets and undertaking advertising, and the popularity of the championship will make the team significantly increase these three revenues, while attracting the favor of fans, leagues and advertisers, and finally achieving the purpose of monetization.
In order to shorten the championship winning period, Tsai Chongxin, who is not bad money, began to spend money model, without considering luxury taxes, using the top salary and high-quality rookies and draft picks, quickly formed Durant, Irving and Harden, the offensive big three, and with the addition of Griffin, Aldridge and other all-star veterans, the Nets turned from a playoff team into the biggest favorite to win the championship.
Before Tsai Chongxin was happy for a few days, the Nets had a series of bad news in last year's Eastern Conference semifinals, Irving and Harden were plagued by injuries, Durant was unable to fight with two fists, and the first season of the Big Three finally returned.
The championship is gone, the traffic and heat are gone, and the market value of the team has not been improved, which has led to the team's market value not changing much. To make matters worse, after Tsai Chongxin took over the Nets, the new crown epidemic also gradually broke out, and fans could not be present to watch the game, which led to almost zero ticket revenue at home.
As for how much money Tsai has made in these three seasons, the team's net profit is the most reliable reference, last season's Nets operating income was $347 million, excluding players, coach salaries, luxury taxes and team operating costs, the actual net income was about $75 million.
In contrast, the New York Knicks, which are just across the river from the Brooklyn Nets, had an operating income of $470 million last season and a net income of $200 million (the first in the league), which shows the gap in commercial value between the teams.
Referring to the ticket revenue of the first two seasons, the team's net income is only about $60 million, which leads to the fact that Tsai Chongxin has made a total of about $200 million in three years. It costs $2.35 billion to buy a team, a net gain of $200 million over three years, and an 8.5% return on investment is not a good thing for a businessman.
The Nets are in a situation at the moment
In the final moments of the trade deadline, the Brooklyn Nets, who had suffered four consecutive defeats, finally chose to change, sending the team's offensive engine Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers, getting Simmons, three-point shooter Curry, four-time rebounding champion Drummond, 2022 unprotected first-round picks and 2027 protected first-round picks.
In this transaction, I believe that the Nets are losing money compared to the 76ers, for the following three reasons:
(1) Lineup pseudo-reinforcement
On the trade paper, the defensive, organizable Simmons can take Harden's place, Curry Jr. has averaged 15 points and 4 assists per game this season, 40% of the three-point shooting rate is the league's top shooter, and the 2.08m Drummond is a good addition to the interior depth.
But in fact, whether Simmons can successfully debut this season is still unknown, and a player who has been away from the stadium for nearly four months is not worth looking forward to. Curry Jr. is average in ball-handling and doesn't have the ability to create space on his own; Drummond is currently a senior interior blue-collar worker with a poor defense.
(2) Substitutes are not trustworthy
As the so-called "train runs fast all by the headband", Harden, although his offensive status is sluggish this season, he is on par with the Suns' Chris Paul in terms of tandem teams. But the two teams currently have the first record in the league, and the other is suffering ten consecutive defeats and immediately falling out of the top eight in the East, which is enough to show that the gap between the strength of the two teammates is too obvious.
Griffin and Aldridge are too old, Mills is too unstable on the court, Claxton and Cameron Thomas are too young, and even Simmons, who is at the peak, has a hard time pinching them into a championship team.
(3) Core player stripping system
The current Nets can be described as an injury trend, Durant has missed 19 games after being mistakenly injured by his teammates, Irving can only play in away games due to vaccine incidents, Aldridge sprained his left ankle and has not yet returned, Joe Harris's ankle injury is undecided, and Clarkston is plagued by hamstrings.
Completing the deal in such a difficult situation and getting a superstar who could not play almost announced that the Nets had withdrawn from the championship race.
Although the deal did not strengthen the Nets, from the perspective of the boss, this transaction helped the team reduce the luxury tax of more than $15 million, and there are still bright spots to discuss from the principle of "spending less is earning".
Nets' key player stats this season:
Durant: 29.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists
Irving: 23.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1 steal
Seth Curry: 15 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4 assists
Mills: 13.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists
Aldridge: 13.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks
Write at the end:
Looking back at the history of Cai Chongxin's fortune, we can truly feel that he has a keen judgment, goal execution and advanced foresight as a businessman, and even if he did not meet Alibaba, he would achieve something in the business field with the above skills.
But in terms of investing in NBA teams, the way Tsai Chongxin chose is obviously a bit of "speed is not reached", coupled with luck is indeed not on his side, resulting in the current Nets' future is confused.