The player trading market in 2023 was particularly lively and exciting: On the eve of the draft conference, the wizard completed three heavy transactions in five days, and the light speed completed the demolition before reconstruction.

While the helm of the wizard at this time is a name that sounds strange: Michael Wenger.

For the fans, Wenger did not have a very bright resume, which was his first time as the top manager of the team. However, in the report, the annual salary of wenge hired by Qi Cai reached 9 million US dollars, this is enough to show that he is not a small role.

Wenger, born in 1980, has accumulated a large number of resumes and contacts in Knights, Thunder and Clippers. At this time, he walked to the front desk, more like a natural situation and was expected to return. His career was almost perfect, but what decided him to take the path of professional manager was actually a poster on campus.

In 2001, Wenger, a 21-year-old undergraduate student, walked under the dormitory building of the University of Miami. He saw a brand-new poster posted on the wall: Ron Shapiro, the famous baseball agent, will give a speech on the campus, all students can attend.

Wenger is very interested in this. He grew up in Ohio and is a die-hard supporter of NBA Knights and NFL Browns. He is very eager to work for the home team in the future. After returning to the dormitory, he searched the name of Shapiro on the Internet and was shocked by the brilliant resume of this predecessor: Shapiro graduated from Harvard and was an excellent graduate of Harvard Law School, starting from a lawyer, after that, he founded his own sports management company and negotiation consulting company. His consulting company has many top teams of the four major American leagues, including the Cavaliers and the Browns.

Shapiro’s name is almost unknown in the sports in the United States management circle. More importantly, his seven children and son-in-law are now in the four major alliances, his family is also called “the first family of sports management”.

Wenger, who has a strong interest in Shapiro, wrote a detailed email and raised many questions, including the benefits of attending law school, the prospect of baseball industry, etc, delivered to Shapiro’s email address, he soon got a reply: it was not a routine of official documents, nor a rejection. Shapiro invited Wenger to the speech site in the email, when asking questions to him.

The speech, which lasted only one hour, attracted only seven or eight students from the University of Miami. Compared with the simple questions from the students, Wenger’s questions were sharp and organized, shapiro appreciated him very much, and Wenger also accepted Shapiro’s guidance and went to Toledo University law school for further study.

Then, he got the opportunity to give Shapiro an internship, and gave his new book bullies, tyrants and impossible people: how to defeat them without joining them to search for literature. Of course, this is a cheap labor job, and there is no right to sign, but Wenger is enjoying it. He finished the job beautifully, and this book was on the Wall Street Journal’s Best Seller list immediately after its listing.

“He has a kind of gentle persistence and gentleman persistence,” Shapiro said. “I like young people and I am willing to give them opportunities.”

For Wenger, what really touched him was the friendly attitude of the Shapiro family. When he came to visit, Shapiro and his wife were not indifferent, there is no guest-“just like your own child”, which makes Wenger feel full of warmth.

The friendship between teachers and students was achieved. In the summer vacation of the next year, Wenger came to Shapiro’s company for an internship to learn how to teach senior executives and senior sales of top 500 companies to negotiate with partners and customers.

The important moment of his career also came soon:

In 2004, the Spurs planned to negotiate a new contract with Ginobili and Parker. Shapiro’s consulting company was invited to train a team of young executives of the Spurs to train quick negotiation skills. The senior management team sent by the Spurs includes general manager RC-Buford, basketball operation director Danny Ferry, and personnel director Sam Presti and others.

Shapiro took Wenger to San Antonio and asked Wenger to attend the meeting and take notes. The Spurs hired Shapiro to provide suggestions, and these details about the labor agreement were provided by Wenger, the Spurs executives looked at the 24-year-old young man.

Wenger, who is addicted to Sports Management, hopes to continue working in Shapiro’s company and does not want to go back to school to finish his law studies. Shapiro used his relationship, let Wenger finish his degree at the University of Maryland law school near his company. Wenger graduated smoothly and then entered Shapiro’s company. He worked hard and tried hard to save money. He planned to buy an apartment next to the company and continue to develop his business in the future.

At this time, the Cavaliers hired Danny Ferri as the general manager. Ferri wanted to have his own team. He Called Shapiro and asked him if he could poach Wenger and let him serve as a team consultant, responsible for the team’s negotiation details.

When the work of the home team was in front of him as a child, Wenger hesitated. He didn’t want to leave Shapiro and was not ready to leave the teacher to work hard.

But Shapiro told him, son, this is your opportunity and your good future will unfold from this moment.

Wenger, 25, entered the NBA world in this way. At first, their conditions were not so good. All the management members worked in one room. Ferry clearly remembered that when his children came to visit the class, Wenger could always play with them. He also remembered that every time the team introduced new members, Wenger would be the first to run out to greet them. During the period when international players were rare, these foreign players were not easy to integrate into the team, but “Big Z” and Valejo both praised Wenger and they formed good friends on the court.

“Wenger has three things to appreciate,” Ferry said. “First, he has a warm heart and knows how to care about others. Second, he works very hard. Third, he is extremely clever.”

Wenger took a close look at all the details of James 1.0 in the Cavaliers. In 2008, when the Cavaliers fell into the recruitment bottleneck and the whole management was helpless, Wenger stood up and put forward an idea: introducing Mo Williams.

Many people in the management were skeptical about this, but Wenger argued and came up with his model, which led to the trade between Joe Smith and Damon Jones in exchange for Xiao Mo with a very convincing speech. It turned out that this was the most successful transaction of the Knight in James 1.0. The arrival of Xiao Mo increased the Knight from 45 wins to 66 wins, and he was also successfully selected as an all-star.

In addition, Wenger also led the Cavaliers to introduce Ben Wallace and O’Neal successively.

In 2010, James decided to join the Heat, and Ferri’s contract also expired at the same time. But Wenger was not unemployed for long. His other business partner Presti was in charge of Thunder and offered him a contract. Specifically, Wenger’s position is the assistant general manager and team consultant of Presti, responsible for talent picks, trade negotiations, player renewal, free-agent signing, etc. In other words, Wenger was actually the real behind-the-scenes boss of thunder in those years.

“What I have always admired about Wenger is that he is especially good at arranging his time and work, which may be related to his legal background,” Presti said, “He can give the most concentration to anything, and the efficiency is extremely high. He handles several things at the same time, but he never sacrifices quality. I think this is very rare.”

During the Thunder, he cooperated with three future MVP players and watched them reach the finals. Meanwhile, Wenger helped Thunder take off key players such as Reggie Jackson, Steven Adams and Andre Robertson in the draft.

In 2017, Wenger was dug away by the Clippers. His position became the general manager and the deputy of Frank, the president of basketball operations. Ballmer, the Clippers boss, proposed a goal for them: to introduce top players.

“Wenger took part in all the actions. His strategy was two steps faster than others. He told us that we should strictly handle everything according to the champion standard,” Frank said, “His work is meticulous, but he shows his love and kindness to all the people in the office.”

In the summer of 2019, the Clippers completed the operation that shocked the alliance: Paul George was exchanged with Alexander Kyrgyzstan, Gary Nelly, five first rounds and two first rounds of swap rights, then signed the Kawai-Leonard of free body.

The operator of all this is Wenger.

From the boss’s point of view, Wenger and Frank completed the task perfectly, even at a great price. But on the other hand, if it weren’t for Wenger’s friendship with Presti, they wouldn’t be able to sit on the negotiation table at all.

Then in early June 2023, Wenger was hired to come to Washington and signed the contract with an annual salary of 9 million. His role is quite peculiar, and he also served as the Washington Wizards (NBA), Washington Mystery Men (WNBA) and the capital Go-Go (Development Alliance) under the memorial sports and entertainment company. Basketball president of three teams.

His task was to complete the complete reconstruction of the Wizards in a secure Huairou way.

In fact, this is not easy: Bill has been in the team for 11 years, and the contract with an annual salary of 50 million has a trading veto, so the team cannot directly trade him; polzingis and Kuzma, who played the best performance of the season, both held player options, and it was not easy to renew the contract and trade; what Wenger has to do is to dispose of all the players who seem difficult to have prospects, but in the way of “Huairou.

Wenger quickly took over this task. What is important is that he can finally do his best and show his talent as the leader of the team. At this moment, Wenger is only 43 years old.

He made the first phone call to bill and showed the current situation that the team could not compete for the championship in a short period of time with a very tactful attitude. Bill soon understood that he began to take the initiative to find his next home, finally, the sun was chosen. The two sides successfully completed the transaction. In the eyes of insiders, the most difficult thing is that Wenger has never been difficult to be Bill.

Then polzingis was sent to another strong team Celtics-at first the third party involved was the Clippers. Obviously Wenger knew how to exercise convenience with acquaintances.

Then there was the super deal with the Warriors: The Wizards sent Paul to the Warriors, got Poole, the first round and the second round, and there were two young players as compensation.

This deal is also likely to involve Schlenk-he was an assistant to miles before and is now the senior vice president of talent’s player personnel.

In this way, Bill and Porzingis were replaced by Poole and Tyus-Jones, as well as a lot of compensation picks and swap rights. Then they will continue to rebuild. Wenger said he had already planned.

Indeed, at first glance, these three radical deals were somewhat incomprehensible. It seemed that Wenger did not try to seek more benefits, but Shapiro did give different views:

“Wenger is not very aggressive. His goal is to destroy the negotiators opposite. His aim is to reach a contact and make a deal that both sides are satisfied. Because in his view, the relationship after negotiation is as important as the transaction itself.”

The following Wizards may be very different and may lose their competitiveness in a short period of time, but for Wenger, who has always “planned two steps faster than others”, this is his first layout, for the first time, the next game will last for two or three years.

If it goes well, two or three years later, the Wizards will have one or two talented talents who can make up two space for top salary. Maybe by that time, it will be the time for Wenger to hand over his first answer sheet.

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