Bishop of the Devil

Judging from the players Richard chose, although Richard has traveled through ten years, he still has not left behind some traditions and habits.

For example, he prefers defensive players to offensive players...

The four starting players, Milicic, Varejao, Iguodala and Ariza, are all players who are good at defense.

Coupled with Payton at the No. 1 position, the starting lineup created by Richard is quite good defensively.

Even though there are many newcomers in the starting lineup, in terms of defensive strength, Richard feels that this lineup should be ranked at the middle level in the league.

…

Compared with Mourning and Payton, Pippen is far behind in guiding newcomers.

Although he did not miss the training camp, he obviously didn't have much interest in mentoring newcomers.

In the training ground, Pippen is often seen instructing newcomers to buy drinks or food, and he also laughs at the newcomers from time to time.

Regarding this situation, Richard didn't take it too seriously.

This is an NBA tradition. It is extremely normal for newcomers to run errands. It would be unreasonable if Richard even took care of this matter.

But ignoring it does not mean that Richard approves this behavior. At least among the West Lafayette players, Richard uses his behavior to subtly influence the West Lafayette players. They rarely do this kind of behavior that makes newcomers Errands.

…

When dealing with Pippen, Richard basically treated him like air. Unless there were any special circumstances, he basically treated him as if he didn't exist.

…

October 2, in Richard's office.

Tomorrow is the day when the first game of the preseason starts, and Golden Dragon has compiled an expenditure report for this year.

Player wages are definitely the biggest item.

The salary cap of a normal team is about US$43 million, while the Buccaneers' salary cap this year is only US$29.5 million.

But even with such a small salary cap, it is enough for the Pirates.

The three veterans, Mourning and Pippen are both worth US$5 million, while Payton is worth about US$2.5 million.

The total of these three people is 12.5 million US dollars.

Among the three new players joining the team this year, Iguodala has the highest pick and naturally the highest salary, 13 million U.S. dollars in four years, but his first-year salary is only 3 million.

As for Varejao and Ariza, their combined annual salary is less than US$2 million.

The total salary of the remaining Milicic and others is about 10 million US dollars.

The Pirates' total salary is less than $28 million, which is still some distance from the salary cap.

In comparison, the Knicks have to spend more than 100 million US dollars on salary this year. The Buccaneers' salary is simply pitiful.

Even Richard had to be convinced by the Knicks. It was really speechless to spend so much money and achieve such a garbage record.

I don’t know what their boss, Mr. Dolan, thinks...

Although the Knicks have a poor record and a lot of salary investment, they are still the most profitable team in the league, but if they can win the championship, they will definitely make more money.

James Dolan is definitely a typical example of people who are stupid and have too much money.

…

It is worth mentioning that the Pirates' current total salary of US$27.5 million is not as much as O'Neal's salary alone.

The following season, O'Neal's annual salary is as high as 27.7 million US dollars...

This salary is quite terrifying.

We must know that the second-ranked King Webber and third-ranked Alan Houston both have salaries of only more than 17 million.

As for Garnett, who was criticized badly for his contract before, he can't even make the top three. His salary this season is only 16 million US dollars.

…

This bizarre situation is also the first time since Jordan that a player's personal salary exceeds the total salary of a team.

…

In addition to the large portion of player salaries, other personnel salaries are not much, less than 15 million US dollars.

This also includes Richard’s salary of US$8 million and the salary of three assistant coaches totaling US$3 million...

Logically speaking, it is absolutely impossible for a team, even if it is a new team, to assemble a team with only such a small amount of money.

But the Pirates are in a special situation after all...

First of all, the two positions of general manager and president don't cost a penny. Secondly, the team didn't even recruit a single scout.

If there is Richard, why do you need scouts? Isn't it a pure waste of money?

In scouting alone, the Buccaneers have saved more than a million dollars compared to other teams.

Anyway, now Richard and Jordan are saving as much as they can to save money as much as possible to ensure that the Pirates will not lose money in the first season.

Of course, there are some necessary expenses that cannot be saved, such as cheerleaders.

The cheerleaders were high-quality products that Richard found through Paul Allen's connections.

All of them have gourd-shaped bodies, and their looks are also impeccable.

The price of such a top-quality product is naturally much higher than that of cheerleaders from other teams, but Richard feels there is no need to save this kind of money.

Some fans really like this. If the cheerleaders performed extremely well, they might be more interested in the Pirates' game.

…

"Well done, I hope God bless us and we won't lose so badly this season." Richard said with a wry smile at the Golden Dragon.

"BOSS, even if we lose money, we won't lose much. After all, we don't have much investment at all." Golden Dragon said with a smile.

A total of less than 60 million US dollars was invested. This cost is not as high as the player salaries of other teams. Even if it is a loss, what will it be?

Losing millions of dollars was nothing to Golden Dragon's point of view.

Just sprinkle water.

"If you don't lose money, it would be better if you don't lose money." Richard said with a smile.

…

As soon as the golden dragon left, Richard received a call from Tiana.

This phone call made Richard's heart skip a beat.

At ten o'clock this morning, Tiana told Richard to go to the hospital...

It's not that there's anything wrong with my body, it's just that my aunt didn't come on time.

It's not that Richard didn't know anything about this. If his aunt didn't come, there was basically a high probability that she was pregnant.

Richard answered the phone excitedly.

"Tiana, don't say anything yet, let me guess, am I going to be a father?"

Before Tiana could speak, Richard asked with a smile.

"Well..." Tiana's shy voice came from the phone.

Richard suddenly felt that his mind was empty. He was going to be a father. After traveling for ten years, he finally had a child in this world.

"Boy or girl?" Richard grinned so much that he reached the back of his head...

"It's impossible to know the gender so quickly. It takes at least five months to tell the gender with a high probability."

"but……"

"But what?" Richard asked quickly.

"But the B-ultrasound showed three embryos..."

Richard was stunned, what does this mean? Three embryos?

"What do you mean? Bad situation?"

"It's just possible that there will be triplets..." Tiana said a little shyly.

Richard almost vomited blood, triplets? !

Good guy, did you use too much firepower to create triplets in one go? !

Of course, from Tiana's tone, it doesn't seem like they are necessarily triplets, it's just a possibility.

But even so, Richard is happy enough. It is very likely that he will be the father of three children next year.

"Lee, do you like boys or girls?" Tiana asked with a smile.

"I like them all!" Richard directly gave a snake oil answer...

But he does like them all. If he has a son, he will inherit his legacy, and if he has a daughter, he will be a caring little cotton-padded jacket.

And if they are really triplets, there is still a high chance that they will have both children.

It’s unlikely that the triplets were all boys, or all girls…

"Well, I have to stay away from that Kobe guy recently, but I must not be infected by him. If I give birth to three daughters, it will be embarrassing..." Richard muttered in his heart.

Kobe's ability to give birth to a daughter is simply unparalleled. He gave birth to four daughters in a row, which is scary to think about.

Although the slogan was loud, Richard still wanted his first child, Tiana, to give him a son.

It’s not that Richard favors boys over girls, but he has many magical props at hand and needs his son to inherit them.

In other words, Richard really has the throne to inherit to his son...

A super giant suit, which is enough to elevate a player to the level of a basketball emperor.

This is not what the throne is.

"Triples, they can have a son anyway, right? I'm not Kobe..." Richard muttered again.

Kobe's eldest daughter was born in January 2003. At that time, Richard went to the hospital to visit Vanessa...

From what Kobe said, he was thinking about continuing to have children in a few years and trying to have a son.

Richard wanted to tell Kobe, just give up the resistance, and you will not give birth to your son.

Later generations of Kobe would say that he didn't want a son, but that would be a lie.

Just look at how often Vanessa gives birth to children. After her eldest daughter was born, her second daughter was born three years later.

After ten years of silence, my third daughter was born in 2016...

Logically speaking, three children is almost enough, but Vanessa gave birth again in 2019, and this time it was still a daughter.

…

"I'm so happy today, so happy!"

"Hey, I'm so happy!"

On October 3, during the Pirates' opening game, Richard hummed a tune with a smile on his face.

"Coach, what are you so happy about?" Iguodala approached Richard and asked.

He has a lively temperament, and it didn't take long for him to become quite familiar with Richard.

"Go, go, you kid, just think about how to win when you come out on the court. Don't meddle in other people's business." Richard waved away without telling Iguodala.

Milicic looked at Iguodala with envy, even a little jealous.

He and Richard have known each other for such a long time. If you include the time they met in Russia, it has been many years...

But he still can't be like Iguodala, who can get close to Richard to make his presence felt.

This is a communication barrier, and Milicic himself is well aware of it.

Thinking about it, he and Richard have known each other for so many years, and they both have barriers to communication, let alone these new teammates.

Therefore, when other players gathered together in twos and threes, Milicic was alone and seemed so lonely.

Richard glanced at Milicic and sighed, this is a disease and needs to be cured...

If it cannot be cured, it will be difficult for Milicic to grow into the top star required by the system's tasks.

Richard already has an idea to help Milicic, but whether it will be effective remains to be proven.