Chapter 668 - 594: Walking with Idols

Chapter 668: Chapter 594: Walking with Idols

Chen Yu met David Stern.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Stern asked Chen Yu when he planned to visit China again.

"Soon. I’ll go as soon as the show is over."

Once the show ended, the most pressing matter at hand would be concluded. Chen Yu could then free up enough time to go to China and handle his business there.

The preliminary work had already begun; they were just waiting for Chen Yu to arrive.

"David, would you like to come with me?" Chen Yu extended an invitation.

For a moment, Stern was tempted. He had been to China several times, but the most memorable trip was naturally the one in ’89, when he had waited anxiously outside the CCTV station.

"Never mind. I’m getting old, and I was just there."

He had already been to China not long ago for the inaugural NBA China Games.

"Chen, China is a truly great country, and its market has enormous potential," Stern said with a smile. "When I was there last time, I saw their passion. So many people love basketball, so I think we will be successful."

Chen Yu nodded in agreement. This was precisely why he wanted to expand his own ventures in China.

The two chatted as they walked, soon arriving at the courtside.

Chen Yu was greeting the many celebrities by the court when he turned around and found Nowitzki standing before him.

"Chen, we finally meet."

Without another word, Nowitzki pulled Chen Yu into a hug.

He said it as if they were strangers. He probably meant it was the first time they had met since he was traded to the Suns.

After the new season began, Chen Yu had been busy. He spent a considerable amount of time just in Portland and hadn’t really managed the team much.

Besides, the Suns were basically tanking now. They were just going through the motions, so it didn’t matter how they performed. They didn’t need any special attention.

After the pleasantries, Chen Yu asked Nowitzki about his physical condition.

The Suns’ medical team also sent player health management reports to Chen Yu, allowing him to keep track of his players’ health at all times.

According to the reports, Nowitzki still had quite a few injuries.

They were mainly concentrated in his ankles and knees.

However, none of them were major problems.

Looking through Nowitzki’s career medical history, there were no major injuries like a ruptured Achilles tendon or torn ligaments.

For an inside player, this was actually quite remarkable.

It was also related to his shooting-focused playstyle. He was a pure floor-bound player; jumping an extra centimeter would be considered a sign of high spirits for the day.

The criticism he received for being "soft" was probably related to this as well.

But the benefit was fewer injuries.

However, Chen Yu did recall that the guy had suffered a rather comical injury once.

’It must have been in ’01. During his pre-game warm-up, he tied his shoelaces and stomped his foot on the ground to see if they were tight enough, and ended up twisting his ankle just like that.’

’It was completely baffling, a stroke of bad luck comparable to Jordan cutting his finger while smoking a cigar.’

’And if I remember correctly, the time Nowitzki got injured was in a game against the Wizards. He was facing the recently returned Jordan and got so excited that he rushed to the training facility early.’

’He was most likely shrouded in Jordan’s bad luck.’

Knowing what Nowitzki wanted to say, Chen Yu patted his arm and said, "Don’t worry. At the beginning of the season, I’ll set aside some time to properly tune up your physical condition."

Nowitzki nodded repeatedly.

The best thing about coming to Phoenix was never having to worry about injuries. With a miracle doctor like Chen Yu around, new and old injuries were no big deal.

After their chat, Stern didn’t rush off to the top-level suites. He had to give a speech later and present the MVP award at the end, so he just took a seat courtside.

"Chen, your show is getting a lot of attention. Look, the stands are full. By temporarily changing the finals to a single-game decider, you’ve lost at least this much." He held up three fingers.

With four fewer finals games, after deducting venue costs, he felt they would make three million less.

Chen Yu shook his head slightly. The show had already come this far; that amount didn’t make much of a difference.

The original plan was for the finals to be a five-game series.

But upon recalculation, they realized there wasn’t enough time.

If they really played five games, some of their plans would be impossible to realize.

For example, booking Madison Square Garden Arena a full five times was a scheduling nightmare.

The venue didn’t just host regular season games; it also held ice hockey matches, women’s basketball games, various concerts, and theater spectaculars. Some of these events were booked six months in advance, making it impossible to squeeze in five days, especially with a one-day gap between each game.

And if they held the games at another arena, it wouldn’t achieve the effect Chen Yu wanted: hosting the finals at the mecca of basketball.

Then there were the celebrities. It’s not like they were free every day. It was already a struggle for them to clear their schedules for one event. This was especially true for active stars like Nowitzki. With the regular season about to start, squeezing out a single day was already doing him a huge favor.

Kobe, in particular, was busy with his newborn son.

After weighing all the factors, they decided to make it a single-game, winner-take-all final.

This approach created more suspense about the outcome.

Of course, the margin for error was smaller, which might seem a bit unfair to both sides on the surface, but in terms of the final result, the impact wasn’t significant.

Because the show was so popular, Nike had proactively increased the rewards.

They would be giving both Oden and Durant a three-million-dollar commercial endorsement contract.

These two were super-talents who were practically guaranteed to enter the NBA. For geniuses like them, giving an early endorsement to build familiarity and secure a spot was something Nike would consider a bargain.

Taking this opportunity, Chen Yu went a step further and proposed that Nike fork over another million to double the final grand prize.

It would then be distributed proportionally based on the two teams’ scores.

In other words, the winner would still take home the million-dollar prize, but the loser, by scoring over forty points, could still walk away with at least eight or nine hundred thousand.

It was a win-win for everyone.

Having pulled strings and spent cash to gather so many celebrities for such a grand spectacle, it certainly couldn’t be as simple as just playing a thirty-minute game.

Before the main game, there was another segment called "Play with Your Idol."

For these future basketball stars, the moment they were first exposed to and fell in love with basketball might have been when they were children, accidentally seeing a star player’s game on TV.

They would then become fans, diligently try to imitate them, follow in their footsteps, and use their inspirational stories to motivate themselves forward.

That’s why Chen Yu felt this segment was essential.

For these kids, it was both a form of motivation and a reward.

「Durant’s Team」

His idol, without a doubt, was Carter.

Little Jordan’s idol was Nowitzki.

Harden’s idol was Kobe.

On the other side, Oden’s idol was Garnett.

Then there were his teammates.

The guy had swapped out all his teammates during the final trade window.

His conflict with Jeff Teague was resolved on the surface, but as far as Chen Yu knew, the two still couldn’t stand each other in private.

So, taking the last opportunity, Oden had replaced both teammates.

The guard, Jerry Bellers.

The kid was a Phoenix local, a well-known basketball prodigy in the city.

His father, Brad Bellers, was a respected psychologist in Phoenix. Previously, when Chen Yu was leaving the team and looking for a psychologist for the medical staff, he had even considered him.

This kid was an athletic prodigy.

Local newspapers had reported that he learned to ride a bike in two days at age 3, learned to surf at 6, became a professional-level yo-yo master at 8, won a sprinting championship at 10, and even competed in professional golf tournaments.

His older brother, Justin Bellers, was also a skilled basketball player, attending the local Phoenix basketball powerhouse, Saint Mary’s High School.

The University of Arizona basketball star, Channing Frye, who had long been on the Suns’ radar, was Justin’s teammate and good friend.

He had told the media that when his younger brother was 10, his standing vertical jump was already an astonishing ninety centimeters.

All of this was enough to prove that Bellers was a rare athletic talent.

Later, he followed in his brother’s footsteps and enrolled at Saint Mary’s High School, becoming the team’s undisputed star from his freshman year and leading them to consecutive state championships.

In state competitions, he could easily dominate Curry.

His idol was Hardaway, whom Chen Yu had invited.

For the remaining spot, Oden replaced his forward with Patrick Patterson, a player who, like Durant, was also born in Washington D.C.

However, the two didn’t know each other.

Patterson came from a well-off family of civil servants and moved to Huntington shortly after he was born.

He now attended Huntington High School, where he was the team’s absolute core and star player.

If he was familiar with anyone, it was with the local Huntington basketball star, O.J. Mayo.

Mayo was born in ’87, a year too early; otherwise, he would have been on Chen Yu’s invitation list.

He had quite a few idols. In his own words, his favorite basketball star was Olajuwon.

Unfortunately, Olajuwon had already retired. Chen Yu had asked Hakeem if he would be willing to make an appearance.

However, he was busy training Yao Ming in Los Angeles and declined after some consideration.

So, he changed his idol to Grant Hill.