A Sudden Realization.

"If I had a few million, tens of thousands wouldn't be any different from a few bucks."

This was one of the most classic phrases Han Sen had seen online, and the only thing that could rival it was, "What if you had a billion dollars?" or "What colour is your Bugatti?"

From any angle, a gift worth more than 400,000 dollars was undeniably generous.

Especially for Han Sen, who was only worth around a million at this time, he truly didn't know how to react for a moment.

"Thank you, Shaq." Not accepting the gift would be a slap in the face to Shaquille O'Neal, so Han Sen compressed all his emotions into that short sentence.

You don't judge a person by what they say but by what they do.

Han Sen made a mental note of this favor.

"Wanna give it a spin?" O'Neal smiled as he handed him the keys.

He nodded and then took O'Neal out for a drive.

The car was a custom model, with a lot of space inside— plenty of room for, let's say, group activities. (TL/n: Very sus.)

With a press on the gas, the car roared to life, reaching 0 to 60 mph in just 5.3 seconds.

When they got on the city highway, Han Sen practically turned the luxury sedan into a sports car.

O'Neal was in the passenger seat, clutching the roof handle and howling in fear.

So even "The Big Shaq" had moments of fear.

The next day, O'Neal had the car's ownership transferred to him. Han Sen immediately decided to move into a new place, renting a small villa with a garage to prevent the car from being stolen.

Fortunately, this was Cleveland— few people, many houses— so he was able to find a place not far from where he used to live, improving his living conditions in the process.

Then he started working on his investment plans.

When he was just thinking about it yesterday, everything seemed great, but when it came to actually making decisions, Han Sen found it much harder than he'd imagined.

First of all, in his past life, he was into basketball, not business. Saying he had limited knowledge of business would be an understatement.

Secondly, even though he was a transmigrator, his brain wasn't a computer, and his memory had very little useful information about making money.

So now, he either needed to consult a business advisor or do some research on the internet.

In the end, he chose the latter.

After spending some time searching through a flood of information, he finally stumbled upon something familiar in the corner of his memory: Bitcoin.

He didn't expect Bitcoin to have just been created this January—it was still very new at this point.

Wasn't this like striking gold?

Then there was the stock market.

Amazon, Google, and Facebook stocks were all relatively low at this time.

Though nothing compared to O'Neal's $1 million worth of Google stock bought back in 1998, these stocks still held considerable investment potential compared to the future.

Finally, there was real estate.

Not in the U.S., where real estate prices were far beyond Han Sen's budget.

However, real estate in his home country was just starting to develop and was still relatively cheap.

For this, since his parents were back home, all he had to do was send them money and guide them to buy properties in prime locations he remembered.

Even with a plan in place, when it came to actual implementation, Han Sen encountered two problems.

The first was the anticipated issue of insufficient funds.

For the average person, a million-dollar net worth might seem like a lifetime's goal, but when it came to investments, it was still far from enough.

Especially with Bitcoin, which would take time to generate returns—the longer the time, the greater the payoff.

This meant that the money he put in would be like throwing it into a black hole in the short term.

The stock market and real estate were essentially the same.

Unless you could precisely predict their movements within a specific time frame, they were all long-term investments.

This reminded Han Sen of his experience betting on NCAA March Madness and the NBA Championship last season— those offered real short-term returns.

No wonder the NBA would eventually collaborate with gambling companies. As the partnerships deepened, the broadcast contracts grew larger— quick cash flow was the driving force.

The second problem was risk. Although Han Sen's ability allowed him to avoid investment risks, there were still legal risks.

Just like how you couldn't expect a basketball player to know much about business, you also couldn't expect him to know much about the law.

But when it came to law, Han Sen thought of someone.

He immediately called Chris Rondo, who had mentioned studying law earlier.

"Han? Han!"

As soon as the call connected, Rondo's excited voice came through.

"Do you know? We haven't missed a single one of your games! Just yesterday, the way you played in the first half— felt like we were watching Kobe on the court! Absolutely epic!"

Hearing that familiar voice and tone, and thinking of all the scheming since joining the Cavaliers, Han Sen couldn't help but feel a wave of nostalgia.

What people miss about their school days is that simplicity and innocence.

And Rondo said "we," not "I", so he must have been referring to his old teammates from Barry University.

"I'm coming back to Miami to play next month. I'll get you guys tickets, so you all better come."

"Really? We'll definitely be there! But don't worry about my ticket— did you forget who I am?" Rondo's laugh had a mischievous tone.

"Locker room attendant," Han Sen joked.

"Haha, I knew you'd remember! I'll go tell everyone now, they'll all be there for sure."

Han Sen could already imagine Rondo's wide grin.

After hanging up, Han realized he'd gotten so caught up in the conversation that he hadn't even mentioned the matter at hand.

But since the Cavaliers were heading to Miami in mid-November, there was no rush to solve it now.

Next, he called Thomas.

When it came to funding, he needed to look off-court.

Shoe deals were a big part of any player's income, but they weren't the only part.

Now that Han Sen was steadily securing his spot on the Cavaliers and rising in status, endorsement deals should follow suit.

Long-term contracts could be a disadvantage, so he aimed for short-term deals.

During the call, Thomas shared some good news: Under Armour's shoe design was progressing smoothly, and his first signature shoe would be launched by next summer.

That was indeed great news. Han Sen was still wearing other brands' shoes, which made him seem unprofessional as an endorser.

After the call, he opened up his social media.

Now that he had gotten used to floaters, he needed to speed up the process of accumulating [hater points].

At the moment, he had accumulated over 50,000 [hater points], but that was far from enough.

His Facebook account was buzzing with activity.

This was because he was being simultaneously attacked by two of the largest fanbases in the league.

The reason? His previous remark during the press conference about "creating a new path".

Kobe fans: No wonder Han Sen was attacking Kobe before— turns out he's a LeBron fan!

LeBron fans: Han Sen was a Kobe hater even before joining the league. What he's saying is that our King is just a bigger version of Pippen!

Honestly, Han Sen didn't know when Kobe and LeBron fans had become such fierce rivals.

Anything praised by LeBron fans was instantly criticized by Kobe fans, and anything criticized by Kobe fans had to be praised by LeBron fans.

The truth, the facts— none of it mattered. What mattered was the mutual bashing.

Compared to the scenes before he time-traveled, where things were akin to a blood feud, this felt almost civilized.

As for his remark, he had only intended to tease LeBron a bit, using a technique from the "Book of All-Time Greats."

Paving a new path— if you couldn't compete in scoring, you could compete in versatility. LeBron's camp loved data, and versatility was something they prided themselves on.

Whether LeBron was truly versatile or not didn't matter; filling up the stat sheet was what counted, and his stats from that game were certainly on point.

Watching the two fanbases argue while his hater points continued to rise, Han Sen suddenly had a moment of clarity.

Before, he thought he couldn't generate hater points within the Cavaliers.

Not only was it hard to present the facts, but it was also tricky to say anything sarcastic— LeBron and his team weren't fools.

But today's events gave him a new idea.

Who said flattering words had to be sincere?

There's a term in this world: "killing with kindness".