God of NBA point guards

Chapter 265 New Season Tasks

On the 3rd, the Bulls' media day.

"Michael, Iron Fist is said to have had to leave the East. Some media believe that the league wants to recommend you to the Eastern Conference finals. Do you think so?" The New York Times reporter asked.

Jordan had a good time. Last season, the pressure of the media was on him, targeting him desperately and sucking his blood. But since the finals, the media's main attention has been on Zhou Quan. It made him anxious, and said angrily:

"What's that? What do you mean? Are you saying I'm afraid of Iron Fist? What does he have to do with me if he leaves the East? I'd rather he stay in the East and compete with me. Your question is ridiculous."

At this time, general manager Jerry Krause took over the topic and said: "Gentlemen, the reason why Tekken left the East has nothing to do with Michael. Michael will never evade any competition."

This problem was solved, and a reporter asked again: "Michael, your goal in the new season is the championship, that's for sure, so do you think the Pistons can stop you in the new season?"

"Who among them can stop me?" Michael Jordan asked disdainfully.

"What do you mean?" The reporter asked as if he didn't understand.

Jordan explained: "The lineup of the new Pistons is indeed strong, but they don't have an iron fist. Who can stand up at the critical moment?"

This is clear enough, and the media immediately understood what Jordan meant.

Indeed, last season's Supersonics made it to the Western Conference Finals, but in the end they fell under the hands of the Suns. The important reason is the lack of a person who can make the final decision at a critical moment.

George Karl is not good at using superstars. The Sonics play too well as a team. This is also a weakness. No superstars stand up to solve the problem at critical moments.

Like the last tiebreaker in the Western Conference Finals, Barkley stood up and scored 44 points and 24 rebounds, shooting 60% from the field, so the Suns had the last laugh. This is the role of superstars at critical moments.

In Phoenix, today is also the Suns' media day for the new season.

Barkley shook his big bald head with blue shaven, and stood in the middle with Lightning Kevin Johnson, accepting the baptism of the media cameras, the big bald head was particularly conspicuous.

"Charles, Iron Fist is coming to the West, what do you think about it?" The reporter who asked the first question asked a question that made Barkley feel bad.

He said unhappily: "I don't know how the league thinks about it, and I don't know what the media is doing. After the finals, they swarmed to push Iron Fist to leave the Eastern Conference. This must be a premeditated and purposeful behavior.

Too bad, I don't think Tekken wants to leave the East, if he stays in the Pistons, this season..."

Having said that, he didn't say any more.

"Sir Charles, are you afraid of competing with Iron Fist?" the reporter asked with a smile.

"Nonsense, I'm afraid of him? Just let him come here. If he comes to the west, he will come to hell." Barkley jumped up directly.

"Charles, do you think the Suns and the Sonics will enter into a very fierce competition in the new season? Is it possible that Iron Fist will affect your championship goal?" asked the second reporter.

"We killed them last time in the Western Conference Finals, and we will kill them again next year." Barkley was very annoyed, but he rationally avoided Zhou Quan's name.

"Do you think the Sonics are a Tier [-] team? Do you think the Iron Fist..."

The third reporter still asked questions about the Supersonics and Zhou Quan, but before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a dissatisfied Barkley.

"Hey, sir, please ask about the Suns and me. Don't open your mouth to talk about the Supersonics and Iron Fist. This is Phoenix, not Seattle. I think you should rush to Seattle now instead of staying here to waste time." Buck Leigh was very dissatisfied.

That afternoon, Zhang Lili and Sun Zhenping arrived in Seattle, the original five.

"Brother Zhang, Teacher Sun, why did you arrive today?" Zhou Quan asked casually by driving over to pick up the plane.

"It's been delayed for a few days because of funding issues. We're going to stay here for more than half a year. We want to raise the salary, and it took a long time to get it approved."

Mentioning this gave Sun Zhenping a headache.

"You are so far away from home, you really need to improve your salary and get more subsidies." Zhou Quan nodded.

Sun Zhenping said with a smile: "After this season, I may not come here, and my family can't take care of me at all. Teacher Xu will come over to help. Maybe I will pick a young man who doesn't have a family, but there are no good candidates for the time being. "

"Xu Jicheng." Zhang Lili added.

Zhou Quan didn't know him, so he just nodded and said with a smile, "Brother Zhang is more convenient, home is right here."

Zhang Lili was startled, sighed and said, "I just got divorced."

"what?"

Zhou Quan was stunned, and quickly said to Sun Zhenping: "Mr. Sun, you should hurry back to your country."

"..."

Sun Zhenping was speechless. My little Zhang is not that kind of person, and he has a very good relationship.

Zhou Quan said: "It's not easy for you, you run around with the team, there is no fixed place."

"No way, I just like this line of work."

Sun Zhenping said with a smile: "When I was selling sesame seed cakes in a catering company, I had the opportunity to switch to this industry. I was so happy. I can't forget it now. No matter how big the difficulty is, I have to overcome it. And my wife is also very supportive of my work. , I will stay in China for a year next season, and maybe I will come again in the future.”

"Tell me what difficulties you have, don't be shy." Zhou Quan said.

"I won't be polite to you." Zhang Li said with a smile.

Sun Zhenping added: "This is probably the last free season for CCTV, and the NBA will collect copyright fees next season."

Zhang Lili said: "The competition is very popular in China, Xiao Zhou, you should feel it when you return to China this time, right?"

Zhou Quan nodded and said, "Everywhere you go, you know someone."

Zhang Lili said: "CCTV's advertisements are also selling well, so the NBA must charge for it, but there is not enough foreign exchange, and the number of live broadcasts will be limited."

Zhou Quan brought a few people to his villa, and after they got off the car, they sighed.

"Xiao Zhou, for the living environment, you are right to come to supersonic."

"Mansion, we can also enter a multi-million dollar mansion today."

He gave the Ford pickup truck to Zhang Lili and the others to use when they were in Seattle. Most of CCTV's live broadcasts were Supersonic games. They spent more time in Seattle, so it would be more convenient to have a car.

……

On the 4th, the day before the start of the new season, the NBA announced the number of live televised games in the United States for each team in the new season.

The Bulls are still the most popular team in the league, with as many as 38 live broadcasts across the United States, and nearly half of the games are broadcast live across the United States.

This fully shows that Michael Jordan is still the No.1 active player in the league. Even if he didn't score in the Eastern Conference finals last season, he is still the most popular superstar.

The Supersonics have the second most live broadcasts in the United States, with 36 games, only two games less than the Bulls. This shows that both the league and major TV stations believe that Zhou Quan's popularity is second only to Jordan.

The No.3 Knicks have 31 games, and the No.4 Lakers have 27 games.

In other words, there are only three teams in the league with more than [-] national live broadcasts.

Before the opening game, four of the 27 teams in the league completed season ticket sales, namely the Knicks, Bulls, Lakers, and Supersonics.

The season ticket sales of the defending champion Detroit Pistons are in trouble, with only [-]% sold and [-]% left unattended. As the middle class leaves in large numbers, the operation of the Pistons is becoming more and more difficult.

And so far, according to the statistics of the league, Jordan is still the leader in jersey sales of all players.

No.2 is Zhou Quan, the national sales volume is only half of Jordan's, the gap is very big.

But including overseas sales, mainly in Asia, Zhou Quan has caught up with a lot, adding up to 65% of Jordan's.

On the domestic front, piracy is currently the world, and the consumption power has not yet come up, but the NBA has put the plan of opening stores in China on the agenda.

……

1993年11月5号，NBA联盟93/94赛季揭幕战。

Thirteen openers are scheduled, including the Sonics, who host the Lakers.

The Lakers were classified as the fourth-tier team by TNT and ESPN this season. They are not optimistic about the Lakers entering the playoffs. Although the season tickets are selling well, the average ticket price is far lower than before Magic Johnson retired. It has fallen for three consecutive years. , less than half of the Magic's final season, operating income plummeted.

Participating in the competition for weekly rights during the offseason and not doing the Sonics, the rebuilding of the Lakers is nowhere in sight, and the management has received a lot of criticism from the media and fans.

In fact, David Stern most hopes that Zhou Quan will go to the Lakers. It is a pity that the Pistons chose to trade with the Sonics. Fortunately, the Sonics also have good market potential. Last season was ranked fourth. This season, based on the current situation, it should be able to improve first gear.

The Supersonics' home arena is the Seattle Center Stadium. This is an old stadium that can accommodate 5000 people. It has been difficult to keep up with the development of the NBA.

The previous owner, Ackerley, hoped that the Seattle city government would fund the construction of a new stadium, but the city government did not intend to pay for capitalists.

As an emerging international city with professional teams in the four major sports leagues, Seattle could have been built into a city with a variety of comprehensive sports cultures like New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, and the citizens of Seattle also hope that way.

But this city has too many city cards, such as Microsoft, Boeing and other big companies, so it didn't do that. The city's large sports facilities couldn't keep up with the development of the times, which was the key reason why the Supersonics moved away from Seattle.

The non-supportive attitude of the city government disappointed the NBA. Even Microsoft proposed to spend 1.5 million US dollars to keep the Sonics, but David Stern rejected them and moved to Oklahoma City.

When Zhou Quan visited this old stadium last time, he lamented that Seattle, an international city whose economy far exceeds that of Detroit, is far inferior to Detroit in terms of basic sports construction, and the newly built Palace of Auburn Hills is ten times stronger than here.

But the fans were very enthusiastic. Before seven o'clock, the entire central gymnasium was overcrowded. Zhou Quan's first Supersonic game made the arena full.

"Tekken, how do you feel about this arena?"

At 06:30, Zhou Quan drove to the Central Gymnasium. Several media reporters followed him, and a reporter from the Los Angeles Daily asked.

"Oh, the Sonics won their first championship here, there was glory here, I have to keep respect for this place. But I have to be honest, it's too old, look at the wall..."

Pointing to the large piece of peeling wall in the parking lot, he shook his head and said, "At least it needs to be redecorated."

……

At eight o'clock, the two sides announced the starting lineup.

Lakers: Divac, Eldon Campbell, George Lynch, Tony Smith, Nick Van Exel

Sonics: Sam Perkins, Rodman, Schrempf, Kendall Gill, Zhou Quan

The game was broadcast live across the United States by ABC television, and the commentators were Bill Walton and Lewis Williams.

Williams asked: "Bill, what do you think is the reason why the Lakers didn't win the Sonics? Is it because the Iron Fist doesn't want to go back to Los Angeles?"

Bill Walton shook his head and said, "I spoke with Iron Fist on the phone, and he didn't interfere with the deal, it's entirely because the Pistons are dissatisfied with the Lakers' chips.

Let's put it this way, among the four teams of the Warriors, Trail Blazers, Sonics, and Lakers, the Lakers have the worst chips.

It's not that the Lakers didn't give everything. On the contrary, the Lakers raised their team and added future draft picks, but the Pistons just don't like the Lakers' bargaining chips. "

Williams said with a smile: "I think the choice of the Pistons is still right. The Sonics' chips are indeed the best."

Bill Wharton said with a smile: "The Supersonics changed their bosses to facilitate the deal. Mr. Ballmer should be very optimistic about Iron Fist, and Iron Fist has also become the spokesperson of Microsoft.

You know, I got the news that just now, Iron Fist complained that this arena is too dilapidated, at least it should be renovated.

I think the city government, Mr. Ballmer, and Microsoft should take action. Look at Detroit, which is so financially difficult. They have built a Palace of Auburn Hills to accommodate 22000 people. With the strength of Seattle and Microsoft, and Ballmer's personal Financial resources, I think a new arena should also be built, so as to keep up with the progress of the times, otherwise, what is the purpose of trading Iron Fist, let him play in this arena that is about to collapse and the walls are falling from time to time? "

"Seattle is a pearl in the northwest of the United States. I also think you are right. It really needs supporting sports facilities. By the way, Mr. Ballmer is on the sidelines. I hope he can hear you." Williams laughed.

At eight o'clock, the Charlotte Hornets are at home, and the game between the Hornets and the Bulls begins.

This is the home court of the Hornets, but as soon as Jordan showed up, he became the master of the court, and this place became his home court.

Yes, Charlotte has always been his home, where he is more popular than any star.

On the sidelines, his family was there, including his father and mother.

"In the new season, I want to start again."

"Iron Fist, see you in the finals."

The moment he stepped onto the court, the fighting spirit that had been silent for several months revived again, igniting his blood.

At this time, in the Seattle Center gymnasium, in the locker room of the home team, Zhou Quan turned on the system, and the task of this season came.

"Please ask the host to win the MVP of the regular season, lead the team to the first record in the league in the regular season, and win the championship this season."

Zhou Quan blinked his eyes, is this year's task so simple?No, no, the task requirements are too concise, just three requirements.

However, this difficulty far exceeds the task of last season.

"Complete the task, reward prediction +5, physical fitness +1, injury resistance +2." There is also a reminder below, which is the task reward.

"The reward is good, but I don't know if I can get it."

……

(End of this chapter)