Chapter 520 The end of the good times

Chapter 520 The end of the good times

Clay Bennett looked at the financial report of the latest game with burning eyes.

He checked over and over again and found that he was right.

The third game that just ended, from ticket sales to peripheral products and temporary sponsors, as well as the publicity expenses for upcoming movies like "Twilight" that seek exposure, brought him a total of 3,000. million dollars in net profit.

You know, the era of Payton and Kemp that the older generation of Seattle fans miss is that the Sonics have never made a net profit of US$30 million in a single season.

And this is just one game.

Moreover, the upcoming second one is also expected to bring in tens of millions of dollars in profits.

Experts have been saying that the birth of the NBA economy stems from ordinary people's unremitting pursuit of greatness. Bennett originally scorned these economists who could only chant scriptures, but now he has tasted the benefits.

Especially when the Sonics, as the only symbol of the empire, engage in a decisive battle with the Lakers, a bad team known as the evil empire, the resulting public opinion network and massive publicity make the Western Conference Finals more and more like a traditional sports concept. That matchup of the century.

The more money the Sonics made, the more Bennett wanted a new arena.

He believes the new arena can double immediate revenue.

However, the more money they make, the greater the resistance to building a new arena.

Bennett originally thought this would become a big trouble, but after the third game, those fanatical fans who had disappeared for a long time took advantage of the current hot football market and once again shouted the slogan that successfully brought back the Chosen One: "Save us The Sonics! ”

Fans like this can be found everywhere from city centers to suburbs.

The Sonics' urban influence in Seattle is no longer what it was before.

Even the Mariners and Seahawks have to say something.

This is a people's war and the people's wish. Those human rights fighters who plead for the people cannot ignore the wishes of hundreds of thousands of citizens and forcefully say "Let the citizens pay attention to more important things."

Frye Yu was ultimately right.

For some, keeping professional basketball in Seattle is the most important thing in life.

The night before, Yu Fei told the media that he would fight for them.

Now, it's their turn to fight for Yu Fei.

After a while, general manager Sam Presti walked in and said: "Boss, we just received a new movie announcement..."

Bennett asked: "Which movie?"

"'Iron Man 2,'" Presti said. "The movie that Frye is starring in, they want to show the trailer during the game tomorrow night, and Robert Downey Jr. will be there, he is Frye. Lai’s friend”

All Bennett cared about was income.

KeyArena is now a great promotional venue, and Hollywood needs to capitalize on the popularity of their home court to promote themselves, while they use it to generate additional revenue.

"I heard that Reebok is going to sell commemorative T-shirts with the theme of Frye's 50-minute night?" Bennett suddenly asked.

Presti said: "It seems that there is such a thing."

"If we also sell similar products, are there any copyright issues involved?"

"No."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Bennett was like a gold-eating beast. "Tomorrow night is the second anniversary of 50-cent night. We should sell products with this theme."

"But... it takes time to design these products..."

Presti is still a kind person, but Bennett takes it for granted: "Design for what? No need! Do you think fans care about our design? What fans care about is the emotional value, the immediate effect, 'Yes, I just felt like I was there, we just needed to tie that merchandise into the 50-cent night and the fans would pay for it.”

"We sell dreams and they realize their dreams. It's a win-win situation!"

Presti looked at Bennett. Sometimes, he often wanted to ask the other person a question.

How much money do you need to make?

In the past few years, the Sonics have created countless names and images for Flying.

The profits are gratifying.

But Presti doesn’t think the money will just fall into Bennett’s pocket.

Does the big man from Oklahoma City realize that his status in front of Frye is getting lower and lower every day?

The labor and management sides will renegotiate this summer. Under the current situation, it is very likely that the negotiations will break down. As a representative of the big cities, Bennett has become the target of the players union.

While other bosses complained about consecutive losses, Bennett had made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for two consecutive years. Moreover, the players union is very clear that all this was brought to Bennett by Yu Fei. As an owner, he actually advocates reducing players' income?

How can you cling to the most profitable player and at the same time reduce the player's income?

"I heard that Brandon has recovered well recently?" Bennett suddenly asked.

Presti said: "Yes, he is preparing to return to training, and if the doctor allows it, we want him to start with the most basic recovery training first."

"If Brandon can play, the Lakers can't be our opponent!" Bennett said, "They have nothing else to do except shout a few times outside the court!"

Since the start of the series, the issue of penalties has rarely been discussed.

Because it doesn't seem like a big problem.

And this is actually a typical case of "You are not me, how do you know how difficult it is?" The Lakers are very sensitive to penalties.

At home, they took fewer free throws than the Sonics, and on the road, they were forced into a physical game at the beginning of the century by a tough officiating style.

Forget it, it is obviously easier for Supersonics stars such as Yu Fei and Durant to commit fouls than Kojan.

So they sent a clip of the controversial penalty to the league the day after the game.

The Lakers believe that the referees have a double standard in treating shooting fouls on both sides.

After the incident came out, the Lakers became even more passive in terms of public opinion.

"This obviously doesn't make any sense." Bill Simmons, a Cammi Lake black man, directly sided with the Sonics. "Although both teams like to shoot three-pointers, the Lakers are on another level. They average three shots per game. 10 more free throws than the Sonics in this situation, how can you expect to get more free throws than the other team on the road? ”

This is a classic argument, where do the shooting teams get the free throws?

Media figures like Simmons siding with the Sonics was just the beginning, followed by those regional media who didn't like the Lakers.

As the victim of a historical single-game black whistle, the local media in Sacramento wrote after the incident: "We support the right of all competitive sports to pursue fair law enforcement, but this does not include the Los Angeles Lakers. They are the shady spokespersons of NBA history. You're not going to find a team competing at this level that benefits more from officiating than they do. The Sonics should be thankful they have the big market of Seattle behind them, and the entire state of Washington is watching them. This is something the Lakers can't do. Reasons why Seattle succeeded like it did in 2002.”

The greater the war between big markets, the more intense the disputes outside the market.

Public opinion first overwhelmingly overwhelmed the Lakers, and then the California media began to rebound from the bottom.

"Kevin Durant can wrap his hands around Kobe and draw a foul, but LeBron James can get punched and kicked by multiple people on the Sonics and still not get any calls, you gotta tell me. Is this because the Lakers are taking too many shots?" Adam Carolla, a producer who was born in Philadelphia but lives in Los Angeles, sounded the clarion call for the Lakers' counterattack.

The "Los Angeles Times" even used words like a sports reviewer to reproduce the times when the Lakers were hacked.

"Tim Donaghy's ghost wanders the court, and that's the reality at KeyArena."

The "Los Angeles Daily News" used sharp brushstrokes to describe how unfair G3's penalty was.

Later, Yu Fei’s assistant Lin Kaiwen quoted the news on Twitter.

"So far in the series, we have made 6 more free throws per game than the Lakers, but we have taken 11 fewer outside shots per game than them." Kevin Lin wrote, "I will not deny the existence of home court advantage. I think this Things aren't worth the fuss about, why do Lakers supporters like to complain about the referees? The psychology brought about by the "preferential treatment". In the first round and semifinals, the Lakers shot 14 more three-pointers than their opponents in each game but still got 9 more free throws in each game. Maybe this is the standard you are used to. , you need this advantage, so keep complaining, the world does not revolve around you!”

Since Kevin Lin replaced Anthony Lawson as Yu Fei's full-time assistant a few years ago, to the outside world, he is like Yu Fei's incarnation.

Everything that requires Yu Fei's personal opinion needs to go through him first.

And his speeches on social media are often considered to be Yu Fei's ideas.

This war without gunpowder has escalated.

From the internet to real life, there's a clear-cut opposition between those who support the Sonics and those who support the Lakers.

On the fourth game day of the Western Conference Finals, SuperSonics fans and Lakers fans had an offline conflict in Seattle.

The reason was that SuperSonics fans actively provoked fans wearing Lakers jerseys, but the other side also had a bad temper. The two sides exchanged a few words, and then the verbal argument turned into a physical conflict.

This mutual hatred began to rub off on the players.

To the Lakers, the Sonics are like another Celtics team.

It just so happens that the SuperSonics' jerseys also use green as the main color.

They are all on the green team, there seems to be no difference.

Moreover, Yu Fei himself is the victim of the Lakers.

Whether it was in 2004 when he led another Bucks team with the same green as the main color of the jersey to defeat the dissatisfied Lakers F4 in the finals, or after moving to the SuperSonics, he sent the Lakers home in the playoffs in consecutive years.

Kobe wanted to revive the Lakers, and the obstacle to proving that he could succeed without O'Neal was Yu Fei.

Fortunately, O'Neal's attempt to chase a fourth championship after leaving Kobe was also shattered by Yu Fei.

In people's eyes, the once arrogant OK is like Napoleon and Talleyrand of the NBA. No matter where Yu Fei is, he always wears a green jersey and fights for the green team.

This greatly provoked the ancestral Green Team PTSD among Lakers fans.

And this year, the narrative of the One Empire vs. the Evil Empire has raised the antagonism between the two factions to a critical value.

A series of disturbances after the third game catalyzed mutual hostility.

The game between the SuperSonics and the Lakers is still scheduled for that afternoon.

When the Lakers team bus arrived at the scene, countless fans chanted insulting slogans outside the stadium.

These feelings of hatred aroused Kobe's fighting spirit.

As a child, the player Kobe wanted to be the most was Magic because his grandfather always sent her Showtime Lakers game videos.

At that time, Kobe would have such a dream. He was playing for the Lakers at the Great Western Forum. There were only a few seconds left in the game. He counted down in his heart, three, two, one. He made the buzzer-beating shot and was bathed in the cheers of the crowd. .

The opponent in that fantasy game has to be the Celtics.

The dispute between Lake and Kai was the theme of the NBA in the 1980s.

Now, he has not had the chance to play against the Celtics in the finals. He has never tasted the feeling of a feud.

However, the away game in Seattle allowed him to find the feeling he had back then.

There was still more than half an hour before the game started, but his desire for fighting had already swelled beyond measure.

"Let's go!" Kobe was the first to get off the bus, "Let's kill them!"

A man who had never been good at motivating his teammates with words and deeds off the court suddenly affected everyone with his energy.

This is definitely a special moment.

The only non-combustible thing on the bus was LeBron James.

He walked out of the car calmly and was not affected by the atmosphere at all. The only thing that affected his heart rate was the "Da Fei Contempt Picture" that has become popular around the world in recent days.

The main characteristic of the social media era is the rapid spread of information.

This is unmatched by traditional news and television media.

The moment when Yu Fei despised James was perfectly photographed. It was Yu Fei's fans who first spread the word, and then it was turned into a meme by netizens.

This photo was made into a poster and can be seen everywhere inside and outside the Key Arena.

The heartbroken James was irritated.

He thought of the defeat in the third game and the insults he received from the outside world in the past two days.

All this is brought about by the protagonist on the poster.

They have to win tonight no matter what, they can't go back home with a big score of 3-1.

The stimulation from the outside helped James make up his mind.

In the Key Arena, stars from all walks of life performed on stage.

The big screen in the arena continuously played trailers for upcoming movies.

Yu Fei noticed that the T-shirts worn by many fans at the scene were not the common cheering T-shirts of the same color distributed on site, but commemorative T-shirts with "50" printed on them.

Obviously, these T-shirts cost money to buy.

He inquired about it and found out that it was indeed the "Frye's 50-point night commemorative T-shirt" that the team went on sale today.

Moreover, the official guarantee is that the sales deadline is the end of the Western Conference Finals, and it will be taken off the shelves and out of print.

As for the T-shirt itself, there’s nothing unique about it other than the “50” mark, so a T-shirt that wouldn’t cost more than $30 sells for $155.

If there was a layer of golden magma in hell specially designed to execute those who were too greedy during their lifetime, Yu Fei believed that it was prepared for people like Clay Bennett.

Yu Fei decided not to care about these damn things. It is normal for the team to make money in his name. If there is to be accountability, perhaps we should first ask why this era has developed the idol economy to such a sick stage.

As a beneficiary of the system, does he have any right to blame anyone?

That's hypocritical.

Yu Fei began to focus on Zhan.

And his teammates were more or less attracted to the stars in the front row.

More celebrities came to watch the game tonight than in the last game.

The fares for the first three rows have also been hyped to an exaggerated level.

Robert Downey Jr., who had only confirmed that he would come to watch the game two days ago, spent nearly $50,000 to buy two second-row tickets for himself and his friends.

This is a number that any team owner would be jealous of.

However, the Key Arena is another perverted arena. Even though a gangster like Downey bought front-row tickets, he could not enjoy the high-quality service like Staples Center.

This is a short-term crazy hype that is divorced from actual market demand, just like a stock that skyrocketed overnight.

What gives them value is the face of the two major sports business empires, Nike and Reebok.

Tonight, No. 24 broke the mutual hostility in the previous two games and came to the midfield at this moment when both sides were already filled with hatred, just to avenge the previous game.

"We will return to Los Angeles with a score of 2 to 2." Kobe said, "We will win this series."

"Did you also talk like this at the Eagle County Sheriff's Department?" Yu Fei tried to imitate Kobe's tone just now, "I didn't force that woman, but I just accidentally put my dick into her body?"
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Kobe was furious: "Go to hell!"

Yu Fei laughed and said something that made Kobe even more angry: "This is O'Neal's reaction after learning that you betrayed him in the game."

The two sides broke up unhappy.

This is the second time in the series that key figures from both teams have exchanged pregame greetings.

This is expected to be their last pregame interaction before the series ends.

The referee tonight is Dick Bavetta, a veteran referee with nearly 30 years of law enforcement. What is disturbing is that the originally scheduled referee is Ted Bernhardt. After the Lakers complained, Bernhardt became ill and missed tonight. The league urgently summoned the experienced Bavetta to come to the rescue.

Old fans basically know Bavetta. The Hall of Fame MVP winner with the shocking black whistle in the 2002 Western Conference Finals once again served as the referee in the Lakers' Western Conference Finals.

Does this mean the league is giving in under pressure from the Lakers?

Before the game started, Yu Fei greeted Bavetta: "Dick, this is our home court, be nice to us."

Bavetta was as inhuman as he was old-fashioned: "Don't be so verbose, Frye."

Yu Fei still believes that the league's wish is to make the Sonics the "protagonist in the positive camp" this season and let the evil-born Lakers die in shame.

But they expect it to be a close series.

Therefore, necessary balancing measures are inevitable.

Bavetta is the one responsible for calming the Lakers' mood.

It seems that the advantage taken by the referee in the previous three games may be paid back in one go tonight.

Yu Fei was mentally prepared, but his teammates obviously didn't come to their senses.

At the beginning, Jordan once again won the jump ball for the team.

After Yu Fei dribbled the ball past half court, he was double-teamed by the Lakers in advance, so he passed the ball to Durant.

Durant felt that the opponent's defensive center of gravity was on the lower part of his back. This was a good opportunity to perform a big loop. He suddenly turned around and wrapped the opponent's arm with the ball in an attempt to outwit the opponent.

As a result, the heartwarming whistle did not sound as expected. Instead, Durant was troubled by it, the ball was knocked away, and the Lakers immediately counterattacked.

"Why?" Durant asked Bavetta, "They fouled!"

Bavetta said coldly: "From now on, I don't want to hear any complaints!"

Just like that, the good times when Durant could even use giant loops to cause Kobe to foul were over.

(End of chapter)