"Reach the level of the NBA?"
Su Jun stared ahead, his eyes shining as if lit from within.
"Look, Da Yao entered the NBA as the first overall pick. And then there’s Da Zhi and Da Ba—they all made it to the NBA."
"On the National Team, we made history in ’94 by reaching the top eight in the world. Even though many from that generation have retired, Da Yao and the others are developing. We’ve even won the Asian Championship thirteen times, consistently dominating Asia."
"And it’s not just basketball. In soccer, we made it to the World Cup last year. I truly believe everything is getting better and better."
His voice was filled with emotion, his heart surging with excitement, because this wasn’t just his personal opinion—it was everyone’s.
Especially with soccer making a historic run into the World Cup, the nation’s passion for the sport was at an all-time high. The AFC Asian Cup was also coming up this year. Since the South Korea Team had lost several key players against the United States in the World Cup, their strength had seriously declined. So, even before the AFC Asian Cup began, fans were already chanting slogans about getting revenge on the South Korea Team and winning the championship.
Everything was flourishing.
But as he said this, the light in Su Jun’s eyes slowly faded.
He turned to glance at Chen Yu and said with some bitterness, "But my rational side tells me that reaching the level of the NBA is incredibly difficult."
"Dr. Chen, how about this? Let’s meet again tomorrow. I’ll take you around to have a look, which will also give me a night to really think about this question."
At this point, Su Jun had already guessed why Chen Yu was asking this question.
He knew Chen Yu had founded a sports consulting firm, and there were already rumors that the Basketball Management Center wanted to work closely with his company to improve the standard of the Jia A League.
"Alright."
Chen Yu nodded.
This was exactly what Chen Yu had been thinking as well.
Li Yuanwei and his group presented all sorts of statistics about how many basketball arenas had been built across the country and how many people were participating in the sport, but Chen Yu didn’t quite trust these empty numbers.
That was why Chen Yu hadn’t joined Heidi and the others. Instead, he planned to wander around and see things for himself to make his own assessment.
After all, his trip to China wasn’t just for his consulting firm. He wanted to work with Stern and his associates to secure the marketing and broadcasting rights for the Jia A League.
If you wanted to commercialize the league, you definitely needed a professional marketing company to handle promotion, packaging, and the distribution of broadcasting rights.
This wasn’t small-time stuff like sports consulting; you could really lose your shirt on a deal like this.
So, Chen Yu had to consider it carefully. If there was a profit to be made, he would make his move.
If the market environment was poor and there was no money in it, he would be better off pulling out early and just settling for his consulting fees.
「The next morning.」
Chen Yu met up with Su Jun alone.
"Where are we?"
Chen Yu looked around. It seemed to be a small park.
Su Jun led Chen Yu into the park, explaining as they walked, "I think it was last June. The Capital Sports Bureau proposed to accelerate the promotion of national fitness. They invested 1.5 million yuan to build 500 basketball courts throughout the city. This is one of them."
Chen Yu understood.
However, 1.5 million yuan to build 500 basketball courts meant an investment of only 3,000 yuan per court. Converted to US Dollars, that was only about four hundred dollars.
’Can you even build a court for that little money? It’s probably not even enough to buy a hoop.’
Just as he was thinking this, Chen Yu heard a THUMP, THUMP, THUMP from his right.
He followed the sound and saw an old man in a grassy area of the park. The man was leaning against a large tree and repeatedly slamming his back against the smooth trunk, producing a dull thudding sound.
Chen Yu couldn’t help but stop and watch.
The key thing was that there was still unmelted snow on the ground. Despite the cold weather, the old man was wearing only a single layer of clothing and didn’t look cold at all.
"Impressive."
Chen Yu couldn’t help but give a thumbs-up.
At that age, an elderly person in the United States would have long since been sitting by a fireplace with a blanket over their legs, just waiting to die.
"It’s actually quite similar in principle to the Five Animals Qigong you promoted in the NBA," Su Jun explained, leading Chen Yu to a court deeper in the park.
As it turned out, the court was surrounded by an iron fence, and the gate was padlocked.
A sign hung next to the gate, stating the opening hours: 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
But it was already ten in the morning, and it still wasn’t open.
"Reporter Su, are you trying to tell me that the utilization rate of these city-built basketball facilities is low?" Chen Yu asked.
Su Jun nodded and sighed. "This isn’t an isolated case. Their intention to improve the sports environment and build courts is good, but when it comes to implementation, problems like mismanagement arise. Take this court, for example. The community probably contributed some money, and the park management provided the space."
"Then, some people might worry that if the court is always open, it will get vandalized and cost money to repair. So they simply open it as little as possible, or not at all."
"Dr. Chen, let’s go check out some other places."
He drove Chen Yu to several other locations.
Chen Yu noticed that few of these courts were open, and there was hardly anyone around.
Of course, it was a Monday—a workday—and still daytime. To really see how crowded they got, it would be better to come back at night.
However, Chen Yu had already noticed that while the city was bustling, it was also overly crowded. Apart from a few parks, there were almost no public basketball courts.
"Professional basketball arenas are very expensive. The average person can’t afford to use them."
With the average monthly income around a thousand yuan, an indoor court with a proper floor was a luxury.
"And this is the Capital, which should have the highest standard of sports facilities in the country. My hometown is considered a major city, but the construction of basic sports infrastructure still hasn’t caught up."
"This is just for basketball courts. Soccer fields, which require more land and lawn maintenance, are even rarer."
As Su Jun explained the situation, he turned the steering wheel and drove onto a university campus.
Renmin University.
"In ’98, we created the university basketball league, CUBA. This year is its sixth season."
"Renmin University has always been the champion of the Capital Division, but this year they were surpassed by Tsinghua and failed to win the division title for the first time."
Su Jun continued his explanation as they drove up to a gymnasium called Century Hall.
The two got out of the car. Su Jun pointed to Century Hall and said, "This was completed in August of ’02, but aside from important games or conferences, it’s not usually open to the public. So their basketball team practices over there."
He pointed to the outdoor basketball courts across from the gymnasium.
Chen Yu glanced over from a distance.
"Coach Li," Su Jun called out, waving to a middle-aged man in the distance.
The man hurried over and shook Su Jun’s hand excitedly. "Welcome! I honestly didn’t expect a big-shot reporter like you to still be paying attention to CUBA."
"And this is?"
He looked toward Chen Yu.
"Chen Yu."
Chen Yu extended his hand and shook it with the coach, whose name was Li Zhigang.
"You’re Chen Yu!" Li Zhigang’s eyes widened abruptly.
With Yao Ming entering the NBA, there was a lot more coverage of the league in China, and Chen Yu was frequently mentioned by reporters. Being in the basketball world, Li Zhigang had naturally heard of him.
He just couldn’t believe that such a prominent figure in the sports world would come to Renmin University.
"Welcome, welcome! I’ll go inform the university leadership right away," Li Zhigang said hastily.
"That won’t be necessary. We’re just here to take a casual look," Su Jun quickly interjected.
"No, no, I insist."
Li Zhigang was insistent and immediately ran off.
Su Jun couldn’t stop him and could only apologize to Chen Yu.
"It’s fine. Let’s just have a look around first."
Chen Yu shook his head to show it was no big deal and walked toward the distant basketball courts.
Chen Yu was actually quite curious about the university basketball environment.
In the United States, it was no exaggeration to say that the NCAA was the foundation of the NBA. Without the constant stream of talent from the NCAA, the NBA wouldn’t have become the world’s premier basketball league.
If the Jia A League wanted to commercialize and model itself after the NBA, then talent scouting was of the utmost importance. But from what he understood, the Jia A teams still relied mainly on their youth academies.
The basketball area before him wasn’t very large, consisting of six full courts and three tennis courts.
Most notably, the surface was concrete, the hoops were all old and battered, and the nets were completely gone.
Before long, Li Zhigang and some university officials hurried over.
After some brief pleasantries, they insisted on taking Chen Yu out to eat.
"Can we go to the cafeteria?"
An idea struck Chen Yu, and he asked.
It was just about lunchtime.
Seeing Chen Yu’s insistence, the official said, "That works. The cafeteria has a private kitchen, and the food is quite good."
The group headed to the cafeteria, and on the way, Chen Yu asked many questions about the basketball team.
When he heard Chen Yu wanted to watch the team practice, Li Zhigang quickly said it was no problem and that he would arrange it for the afternoon.
Their team had been eliminated from their division, so they wouldn’t be playing in next month’s regional tournament. This meant their season was effectively over.
"His name is Hou Ye. He’s our captain."
In the cafeteria, Li Zhigang had already called over a group of players and was introducing them one by one.
Chen Yu looked at the young man.
He was thin, probably only about 1.9 meters tall, with two thick eyebrows. He seemed very reserved in front of Chen Yu and the officials.
"Have you guys eaten yet?" Chen Yu asked casually.
The players all shook their heads.
They had just gotten out of class when Li Zhigang called them over.
"Go eat, then. It’s a good chance for me to see what you eat," Chen Yu said with a smile, getting up. He told them to go get their food just as they normally would.
The twelve young men exchanged glances, then all looked toward Li Zhigang.
Li Zhigang couldn’t figure out what Chen Yu was up to, so he could only motion for them to go ahead.
Chen Yu followed them out and watched them use their meal cards to get their food.
The food selection was quite abundant, with all sorts of stir-fried dishes.
Chen Yu took it all in but didn’t say anything.
After eating with the officials, they went to observe the team’s practice.
The officials had originally suggested they practice in Century Hall, but Chen Yu declined.
However they normally trained, that’s how they should train now.
Li Zhigang was in a bit of a bind. The Capital Division tournament had ended last November, meaning their team was already out. There were no important games coming up for the school team, and since the semester had just started a few days ago, he hadn’t scheduled any practices.
But if Chen Yu wanted to watch, then they would practice.
He first had the players go to the athletic field on the other side of Century Hall to run laps.
The group of officials surrounded Chen Yu. Seeing him remain silent, they couldn’t guess what he was thinking.
After they finished their laps, the group dragged a basket of equipment to the basketball court to practice.
They went through some standard training drills, followed mainly by scrimmage sessions.
Perhaps because Coach Li had given them specific instructions, everyone was playing with a lot of energy.
A crowd of students had also gathered on the sidelines, craning their necks to watch curiously.
"Mr. Chen, what do you think of Hou Ye’s skill level?" Li Zhigang couldn’t help but ask.
He also told Chen Yu about Hou Ye’s impressive track record.
For example, representing No. 31 Middle School, he had won the Asian High School League championship and placed fifth in the World Middle School League.
Chen Yu had no recollection of these competitions whatsoever.
As for Hou Ye’s skill level...
"He’s pretty good. He should work more on his core strength. His shooting isn’t consistent enough," Chen Yu commented after a moment’s thought.
Li Zhigang immediately gave a thumbs-up and flattered him, "Mr. Chen, you really have a sharp eye. That’s right, the kid’s shot has always been a bit weak."
Chen Yu just smiled and shook his head to himself.

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