บท 27: Attention from a big boss
บรรณาธิการ: Atlas Studios
"Su, can you tell us what that dribbling technique you and Kobe used on the court today was?"
After all, he who strikes first prevails and he who strikes late fails. Mills stretched his recording device towards Su Feng while asking the question curiously.
Looking at the two short, middle-aged white men with boorish appearances and cameras around their necks at his left and right, Su Feng initially thought that he had met the "perverts" he had only heard of.
But after Mills asked the question did Su Feng quickly react.
I'm accepting an interview now?
Seems like it.
So, Su Feng subconsciously straightened his back and replied, "Are you talking about that technique where I first moved right like this then moved left like this?"
Mills and Markson nodded.
"This technique, eh. Kobe and I learned this technique from a friend in New York. We both call it the 'Shammgod,'" Su Feng replied.
"'Shammgod'? It sounds like someone's name?" Mills continued asking.
"Yes, because the friend who created that technique is called Shammgod Wells. He's the captain of La Salle Academy," Su Feng replied.
Markson, who did not have any chances to ask questions, saw Mills making notes on his notebook and quickly asked a question. "Oh right, Su, the new season is beginning soon. What's your school's target for this year?"
"Our goal this year is to win the state championship. You all know, we have an extremely talented player in Kobe. He's practically the 'Michael Jordan' of the high school league." Su Feng, who originally wanted to sing praises about himself, quickly changed to singing praises about Kobe instead after seeing him walk by with his peripheral vision.
"How about your personal future goals?" Markson continued asking casually.
"Me?" Su Feng scratched his head then replied, "I want to play in the NBA."
After hearing Su Feng reply, Markson was stunned for a moment, then he hurriedly glanced at Mills, who was still noting down what Su Feng had said in his notebook.
Thank goodness!
Thank goodness that dumb fool did not hear that!
That was huge news!
He had not expected to obtain such precious information with a casual question!
Although Markson felt that the Shammgod was very worth writing about…
When doing his research previously, Markson researched Su Feng's background very thoroughly.
After all, as a professional basketball reporter, Markson felt that if the first three questions you asked when interviewing an athlete were "What's your name?", "Could you introduce yourself?" and "What do you think your unique traits are?"…
Then you might as well not ask those questions…
Because that was way too unprofessional.
If you required the interviewee to answer everything, then what was the use of reporters?
Although he did not speak as fast as Mills, Markson, who had a keen nose for news, knew that this was possibly the true sensational news!
Because the Chinese international student in front of him… wanted to play in the NBA!
And to Markson, it was not impossible.
After watching two of Su Feng's matches in a row, even Markson felt that Su Feng had a bright future ahead of him.
Although it would be extremely difficult for Su Feng to enter the NBA…
What if he actually succeeded?
As the sports photojournalist of the Philadelphia Evening Post, Markson knew the personality of his chief editor, Johannson, very well.
Johannson was an out and out gambler who dared to place a bet even if there was only a 1% chance of winning.
"The chief editor will definitely agree to publish this piece of news! Although this piece of news will most probably be ridiculed by fellow reporters in the short term, if Su really starts playing in the NBA in the future… we would be the first newspaper to publish this news!"
Although he was already 47 this year, it was Markson's life goal to report sensational news.
Markson was very clear that if this piece of news became reality in the future, then this piece of news that the Philadelphia Evening Post published would be exclusive, one-of-a-kind, and the first of its kind!
"Su, can I take a picture of you?" Markson smiled at Su Feng.
For some reason, Su Feng kept feeling like the smile of the reporter in front of him was pretty creepy…
But Su Feng did not think too much of it because Markson and Mills had both introduced themselves when interviewing him.
Su Feng had read both papers after transmigrating, and he felt that they were more mainstream newspapers.
They probably wouldn't sensationalize me… right?
Click!
Just like that, Markson took a picture of Su Feng hugging a basketball while sitting on the substitute bench.
Meanwhile, after interviewing Su Feng, Mills asked Kobe the same question. Obviously, he was very interested in the Shammgod.
"Sigh… My precious first interview!"
One will always have many firsts in life.
Su Feng, who originally thought that he would only have reporters take notice of him after the season officially started, did not expect to have reporters start looking for him before the official season even began.
"Don't think too much. They're not here to write a feature on you. Trust me, they're just interested in the Shammgod."
Seeing how Su Feng was revelling in the attention given to him, Kobe felt a need to poke Su Feng and bring him back to reality.
"True." Su Feng nodded and felt that Kobe made a lot of sense.
That was why Kobe was an indispensable tool in his path to becoming a basketball superstar… cough, indispensable partner.
Not only could he have special training sessions with you, he could also counsel you and prevent you from losing your way after becoming too full of yourself.
Su Feng silently gave Kobe a huge thumbs up in his heart.
….
Five days had passed since the match between Lower Merion High School and Chester High School.
New York, Fifth Avenue, Olympic Tower, NBA Headquarters.
"David, I suggest you take a look at our financial report. The financial department estimates…"
"David, if our viewership continues to decrease, we might be unable to…"
"David…"
"Alright, let's end it here."
After yelling "f**k" in his heart, NBA president David Stern massaged his temples and looked out his window with melancholy…
Sigh, another difficult year!
If one had to use a sentence to describe how the diminutive Jewish man, Stern, was feeling, that would probably be-
Life's… too… difficult!
To the NBA, which was sandwiched between the other three major sports leagues in North America, they were in an extremely tough predicament.
Because the players kept committing fouls on the court and shouting vulgarities, even many American parents publicly called for the banning of the NBA to prevent their children from being negatively influenced.
Right now, Stern was very clear that, in America, basketball was no match for football and even baseball in terms of popularity.
The NBA required a new audience.
It required a giant overseas market.
Hence, in 1992, after professional players could play in the Olympics, Stern immediately called upon the basketball stars to serve their countries.
One could say, in Barcelona, the flashiness of the "Dream Team" made the world understand the allure of the NBA for the very first time.
However…
Because of what happened next, Stern could not help but feel that he was given the wrong script.
Wasn't he going to start advertising the NBA on various platforms and lead it towards a path of mediocrity?
No!
No way!
The 90s were not like the future. Except for a very small number of players, most basketball players in Europe did not really want to join the NBA.
Among them, the most famous one was the King of Europe, the "White Magician" Bodiroga.
Bodiroga felt that he could make big bucks by staying in Europe and that there was no point in joining the NBA.
As one of Europe's leading basketball players at the time, if even Bodiroga felt this way, one could tell how unattractive the NBA was for players from Europe.
So life was very difficult for Stern.
But that was okay. As a lively and energetic president, even if he could not enter the European market right now, he would not give up.
Because Stern discovered a new world for the NBA's expansion into the overseas markets.
China.
When researching China's history in basketball, Stern discovered that China has been playing basketball for almost as long as North America. In fact, Old China had even sent a basketball team to participate in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
All this history made Stern realise that China had a far better foundation in basketball than Europe.
That was because Europe was the center of world soccer. Even if the NBA could enter the European market, their influence would be extremely limited.
But China was different.
So in 1986, Stern, who insisted that he was right in thinking that China was going to become the biggest market for basketball outside of the US in the future, disregarded the objection of everyone and sent China's Great Dynasty TV Station a few videotapes of the NBA.
To Stern, although China was in a state of ruin right now, he firmly believed that China would definitely rise up and the NBA had to enter the Chinese market as soon as possible.
In 1989, to further advertise the NBA to China, Stern ignored the opinions of everyone again.
This time, the diminutive Jewish old man brought along videotapes of the NBA with him again and went to China alone.
Outside the Great Dynasty TV Station's building, which was still very run-down back then, the diminutive Jewish old man, Stern, finally got to meet the one in charge of sports at the Great Dynasty TV Station after waiting for two hours because he had not made a reservation.
Finally, Stern used his sincerity to move the Great Dynasty TV Station. If we were to describe Stern's experience in a more modern way, it would be something like this-
Stern: The NBA is very exciting to watch, we have Jordan, Olajuwon, O'Neal…
Great Dynasty TV Station: But our programs have all been arranged already.
Stern: That's alright, if there's really no way, you can use the NBA as commercials!
Great Dynasty TV Station: Commercials? You've gotten my attention. Right, speaking of advertisement, how much are you prepared to pay?
Stern: …
One could say that Stern's journey of entering the Chinese market was extremely arduous. But at the same time, all of this proved Stern's foresight.
In Su Feng's previous life, besides failing to predict the various decisions of Michael Jordan, the Jewish old man Stern's judgement was basically always correct.
Stern did not have the ability to predict the future, but he was full of sincerity.
In the early stages of his collaboration with the Great Dynasty TV Station, in Stern's own words, it would be, "Don't talk about money with me, that will hurt our relationship."
So, just like that, in the 93/94 season, the NBA officially invited the Great Dynasty TV Station to broadcast the NBA's All-Star Weekend.
And after that, the Great Dynasty TV Station would broadcast the NBA's All-Star matches.
That was until…
An idiot who felt that all of that did not matter and was dispensable…
"Sigh, although our cooperation with China has begun to take shape, we still lack a bridge between us and China."
Although Stern had never read Chinese webnovels before, this president understood more than anyone how important it was to have a Chinese player in the NBA to truly open up the Chinese market.
Stern, who had put in a lot of effort to study Chinese culture, knew that this was called… a sense of immersion.
It was just like how a certain author named "Writing quietly" always likes to make his main characters handsome hunks. Wasn't that all in the name of making the story more immersive for readers?
In Su Feng's previous life, other than the widely-known Wang Zhizhi, Bateer, and Yao Ming, many NBA teams also sent invitations to Hu Weidong, who was known as the "Chinese Michael Jordan", during this period.
Because the Great Dynasty TV Station felt that they should reciprocate the kindness of the NBA, they also sent the NBA a CBA highlight reel after the CBA was established.
After that highlight reel was broadcasted, it made Americans become interested in that tall and skinny Chinese shooting guard.
He had an elegant style of play, could fly, and could slam dunk.
Cough… I seem to have gone on a tangent.
Back to the topic.
Worry!
Worry!
Worry!
Who would know the worry in my heart?
But just as Stern was sipping bitter coffee and experiencing the worry in his heart, suddenly…
Someone knocked on his door.
"Please enter." Stern gathered his emotions. After all, he was a president and therefore he should behave like one. There was no way he could let his subordinates see him sulking.
An executive who looked a little Asian and wore a gray suit held a newspaper in his hands while asking Stern, "David… I have a newspaper here. Do you want to take a look?"
"Mark, I don't think I'm in the mood to read newspapers right now," Stern stated while looking at Mark.
"No, no, no, I think you have to see it." Mark did not care that Stern had rejected him and placed the newspaper in front of him.
"Hmm?" Looking at the newspaper headline, Stern was stunned for a moment…
"China's first NBA player?"
Stern felt his vision blur. However… he was obviously wearing his glasses.
"Philadelphia Evening Post"?
"He's not writing about a member of the Chinese national basketball team?"
"Su, Su Feng? Pennsylvania… Lower Merion?"
Looking at Stern, who was throwing him all sorts of expressions, Mark chuckled. "This report is writing about a Chinese international student playing for Philadelphia's Lower Merion High School."
"The report mainly talks about some of this Chinese international student's achievements, as well as his playing style and his statistics from the past few friendly matches."
After listening to what Mark said, Stern furrowed his brows. "Friendly match? What about his statistics from 9th and 10th grade? Why are they not shown here."
"David, this Chinese player named Su has never appeared in the high school league before," Mark said.
"Never appeared before, and they dare to…"
Originally, Stern wanted to say that it was very daring of that newspaper to write about a player who had never even played in an official match before in that manner.
"This is the weird part. Because according to my research, the Philadelphia Evening Post is a pretty legitimate newspaper.
"But after they published this article, almost the entire profession is mocking them.
"Because to our colleagues in the industry, no matter how incredible this Chinese genius is, they should have waited for him to complete an official season first before reporting on him."
"And Markson, the reporter who wrote this article used nine 'I feels' in a row in the last paragraph of the article to affirm the ability of this Chinese international student.
"Hence, that makes our industry feel even more strongly that this article is unrealistic and only trying to sensationalise," Mark told Stern.
Actually…
Not only those supposed industry professionals felt that way…
After reading the entire article and listening to Mark's explanation, Stern also felt that way…
"So, Mark, today's not April Fool's day," Stern told Mark weakly.
"No, David. If it was just that, I wouldn't find it weird. After all, such sensationalization is quite common." While speaking, Mark took out another newspaper.
"Incredible skill appears in Pennsylvania's high school basketball match—the Shammgod"
"This is also an article that's been very popular in the past two days. Also, ESPN already played this video yesterday afternoon." While speaking, Mark took out a videotape. (Is he Doraemon?)
Very quickly, in Stern's office, he watched this scene via the videotape.
In the video, an Asian guard used a dribbling technique Stern had never seen before to break away from his opponent and complete a three-point shot. Next, a black guard used the exact same technique to complete his attack…
"I remember this kid with shirt number 33. His name is Kobe, right? His dad is named Joe and is a former NBA player," Stern remarked while looking at Mark.
"Yes, that's right. David, do you know who the player who first appeared in that video is?" Mark asked.
Stern shook his head then stared wide-eyed.
"That's Su, the Chinese genius high school student that Markson mentioned in his article.
"I don't know whether he could play in the NBA. After all, I can't get much information from just this video.
"However, David… I feel that this could be an opportunity," Mark commented while looking at Stern.
Stern knew what Mark meant.
The NBA had always lacked a bridge between themselves and the Chinese market.
But now…
What if this genius high school student named Su Feng could build that bridge?
To Stern, it was okay even if he could not play in the NBA in the future.
They could find a way to open a backdoor for him and allow him to come to the NBA for trials. They could just get a team to let him play the summer season after all!
Stern felt his mood improve immediately.
And right then, never in his wildest dreams did Su Feng, who was having a one-on-one with Kobe in Philadelphia, expect that…
The big bosses had already written his name in their notebooks.
….
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