Champion, please stay!

Chapter 63 62.Beat LA!

While the second semi-final of the Madness series was underway, on the other side of the ocean...

In the capital city, at the sports channel broadcasting center of the imperial radio station, more than 20 years later, another influential figure in American sports traveled a long distance to pay a personal visit.

Miles Brand, president of the NCAA, was born in the early 1940s and is now nearly 70 years old. He also suffers from pancreatic cancer, which makes it difficult for him to walk, and his personal doctor has come with him.

Fortunately, as the saying goes, "one generation plants the trees, another enjoys the shade," and unlike another powerful figure who spent half a day in the cold wind in the corridor, he was welcomed to the reception room as soon as he arrived and had a warm exchange with the powerful figures in the broadcasting center.

When Miles Brand presented a five-year broadcast contract with almost free video rights and a confidential figure for advertising revenue sharing (which was only done to save face), the other party happily approved the live broadcast of the final.

As a big shot who can shake the American college basketball scene with a stomp of his foot, Miles Brand's humble attitude is understandable. His descendants and business partners all covet this market and admire Stern.

But this market isn't one you can just enter whenever you want; it's not like the 1980s anymore.

They weren't really 'business people'; on the surface, they were still a 'campus association.' If it weren't for the Husky team making it to the finals and the Olympics coming up, and the other side needing more 'international cooperation' to demonstrate their influence, they wouldn't have been able to even make contact.

After finalizing the contract, the broadcasting center also began to promote the March Madness finals in full swing, contacting sponsors who have long invested in basketball events... The focus of the promotion was naturally Yi Shui, who became a sensation in the United States during March Madness!

As industry insiders, they actually knew about this student who was playing basketball overseas as early as when Yi Shui was selected for the All-Dong Basketball First Team. However, firstly, college basketball didn't receive much attention in China, and secondly, there was no real benefit to be gained from it, so they didn't pay any attention to it.

Now, the profits are in! Just like the NBA back then, they get free broadcasting rights, and whatever they earn goes to them. Of course, they'll make their subordinates work incredibly hard.

...

On April 5, 2008, the NBA suspended play for one day.

It's not just the NBA; almost all major sporting events in North America will not schedule games today to compete with the NCAA finals. No event organizer would be so foolish as to do that.

The only thing that could possibly rival this game is the Super Bowl, but the Super Bowl is in February.

And this year's March Madness was especially noisy!
Yi Shui scored 50+ points and then 40+ points; the NCAA hasn't seen such a crazy player in a long time.

Love dominated Hansbrough, becoming an overnight sensation and taking the "one of" from "one of the strongest forwards" and attaching it to Hansbrough's head.

Westbrook was the only super combo guard who was discussed alongside Mayo before Rose's emergence. Although his performance was a bit lackluster in the semifinals against the Tar Heels' strong zone defense, the Bruins won, and nobody mentioned it. His junior center saved his reputation, and he is still considered one of the 'three super combo guards'.

Thabeet, the rising star of this season, is described as a "plus version of the African mountain." In the semifinals, he single-handedly prevented the Pine Eagles players from entering the paint to shoot, demonstrating terrifying defensive dominance. In the first five games of this year's "March Madness," he averaged 4 blocks per game, second only to Yi Shui's 4.4 blocks per game. The two are known as the "strongest defensive twin towers" and are compared to the combination of Mutombo and Mourning.

The four super talents ignited the fans' enthusiasm for watching the game.

Larry Bird, general manager of the Pacers, who hosted the 3rd Madness Finals, commented in an interview: "Any one of those four players, if they were in front of me, I would be willing to give them the first overall pick. I hope I have good luck in May."

Besides these four, Darren Collison, Luc Mbah a Moute, Josh Shipp, Alfred Abaya, and James Keefe from the Bruins; and Jeff Yad, Stanley Robinson, and AJ Price from the Huskies, are all former top 4 high school players who made it in college and are attracting attention. These players all have a chance to be selected in the NBA draft.

It's worth mentioning that Westbrook wasn't among the top 100 high school players in the country. He was just over 170 centimeters tall in 9th grade and didn't complete his first dunk until he was 18. After graduating from high school, he was rejected by the Stanford Red Card team, which he had always wanted to attend. Only Ben Holland, the head coach of the Bruins, who recognized his talent, offered him a basketball scholarship.

Another thing worth mentioning is that Westbrook is the only player among all the participants in this year's 3 Madness finals whose academic performance is better than Yi Shui's. He had a GPA of 3.9 in his freshman year of college. When he graduated from high school, he originally planned to give up basketball and go to Stanford University to study fashion design. Stanford University's basketball club was unwilling to provide him with a basketball scholarship, but Stanford University's Plattner School of Design provided him with an academic scholarship.

In the afternoon, in the meeting room of Conseco Arena, a scene of exclamations unfolded: "What a coincidence, you're here too!", "What a coincidence, you're here as well!", "Why are you all here?"...

The SuperSonics general manager Sam Presti, the Clippers' new general manager and head coach Mike Dunleavy, the Timberwolves' vice president Kevin McHale, the Knicks' executive president Donnie Walsh, the Grizzlies' general manager Chris Wallace, and the Heat's general manager Pat Riley all gathered together.

Oh, and Larry Bird, with a slight smile, was also in the meeting room.

These people came to watch tonight's game. They got their tickets from the Pacers, and naturally they wanted to thank them as a sign of politeness.

Unexpectedly, Big Bird arranged for them to meet together!
Some general managers cursed the big bird in their hearts, while others could only smile helplessly.

Big Bird knew he had offended someone again, but he didn't care! Seeing the fortune teller unhappy made him happy!
When Pat Riley said he was going to say hello, he wanted to shut the guy out.

But just then, his good friends Kevin McHale and Donnie Walsh arrived. Both of them were his former colleagues, especially Walsh, with whom he had the best relationship and who was his mentor in his management career.

So he changed his mind and decided to entertain Pat Riley while entertaining his two friends, to let the guy know how unpopular he was. Presti, Chris Wallace, Mike Dunleavy... it was purely coincidental. Bird hadn't expected these three to come at this time, so he simply entertained them all together. Anyway, he wasn't familiar with Presti, and the other two were Lakers management members with whom he had a bad relationship.

Seeing Pat Riley, this fake gentleman, force a smile, made him incredibly happy.

However, Big Bird also had some regrets.

The teams these six players belong to happen to be among the bottom six teams in the NBA this season.

He was clearly after the three prodigies who were likely to enter the draft this year, as well as Thabeet, who might enter the draft next year. He was also interested in the three, but he didn't feel much for Thabeet, who had a better draft prospect. He felt that Thabeet couldn't leave the paint and was more suited to Europe than the NBA.

Unfortunately, the Pacers had already passed the rebuilding phase and started their push for the playoffs. If it weren't for Jermaine O'Neal's collapse and their weak interior defense, Granger would have already led the team into the top eight.

They're unlikely to make the playoffs this year, but their ranking won't be too low either. They won't get a high draft pick unless Stern accidentally dives into Manhattan Bay and loses his mind from being soaked in seawater.

Aside from these six players, no other NBA team management came to watch the finals, because those three prodigies had no connection with teams outside the tanking zone...

...

While Big Bird was having a great time teasing the fortune teller, Yi Shui was also having a good time at a training ground in Conseco Arena.

A domestic interview! And it's on CCTV!
The reporter... I've never met him, but the team confirmed that he's not a scammer; it's a genuine, officially authorized interview by the NCAA.

The interview was rather rushed, and they only asked some very basic questions, such as, "Where are you from?", "When did you come to the United States?", "What do you know about Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian?", "Are you confident of winning the championship?", etc., and that was it.

However, he was still very happy and took the initiative to ask if it would be broadcast on TV after the interview.

If he does, he'll call home and show it to his parents; he'll definitely want to show it off to his dad.

"Of course, the videographer has edited it and sent it back for broadcast immediately. This is a preview interview for your live broadcast of tonight's final. The arrangement for this live broadcast was too rushed. We didn't have time to prepare anything. We flew to Los Angeles last night and came here today... The interview after you win the championship will definitely be even more grand!"

After the reporter finished speaking, he and the cameraman, sound engineer, and other staff members left in a hurry. The competition was about to start in two or three hours. The publicity had already started in China, but the coordination for the live broadcast was not yet fully completed... The higher-ups just give orders, and the staff below are running themselves ragged.

Yi Shui stood in the empty training ground for a while, lost in thought, before finally realizing he had to take out his phone to call home... The number you dialed is currently switched off.

He then realized it was 4:30 PM, and there was a 12-hour time difference between here and Beijing, meaning it was 4:30 AM in China... Helpless, he could only borrow Yad's phone while eating his school meal to look up how to send an international text message and send a text to his mother's phone: "Watch your son's game live at 8 AM, on channel 5! It's not a scam, it's your own son! You won't get scammed if you just watch TV!"

After finishing his nutritious meal, Yi Shui turned off his phone. He wanted to let his parents know that watching his live stream was important, but seeing them win was even more important!

Focus on pre-match preparation and training!

Soon, it was 7:40 p.m. After warming up thoroughly, Yi Shui and his teammates walked towards the field. As soon as they reached the corner of the players' tunnel, they heard the unified cheers of the fans in the stadium.

“Beat LA!”… “Beat LA!”… “Beat LA!”…

'LA? Oh, right, the Bruins are also a team from LA, and their reputation in the US is no less than that of the Lakers. This is the Pacers' home court, no wonder.'

Yi Shui recalled hearing fans shouting this when he went to watch the game the night before last. Perhaps because it wasn't the final, the fans weren't very enthusiastic that night.

He walked out of the player tunnel, scanned the stands, and saw nothing but 'dog heads' everywhere. He estimated that nine out of ten people were wearing Huskies jerseys or T-shirts... Damn, how much money is this making the NCAA? I heard the most expensive courtside tickets are listed at over 50,000?
It's hard to say how many of these people are actually fans of their Husky team, but they certainly aren't fans of the Bruins.

However, playing the final in an unfamiliar city actually felt better than playing at home? It's a strange experience to be the opponent of a Los Angeles team.

Yi Shui glanced at the camera filming nearby, turned to his teammates, raised his hand, clenched his fist, and shouted, "Beat LA!"

Already caught up in the atmosphere, the teammates raised their fists and shouted in unison, "Beat LA!"

The Husky team, which was receiving support, was in high spirits, while on the other side...

Turtle: Are you sure this is Indianapolis? Not Boston or Connecticut?
(End of this chapter)