At first, Chen Yu was just a little surprised. ’The Spurs have gotten stronger,’ he thought. But subconsciously, he still believed they were no match for the Suns.
After all, the Suns had eliminated the Spurs 4-1 just last year.
And this year, not only had they kept their core lineup, but they’d also made significant improvements. The roster was practically perfect, without any weaknesses.
But now, at halftime, the Spurs were only trailing by five points. It was a bit incredible.
O’Neal was 5 for 8 from the field, scoring 13 points including free throws by halftime.
Hardaway, running the floor, had also racked up 11 points.
The newly-joined Miller showed his killer instinct, going 2 for 4 from three-point range for 9 points.
With 31 points in the first quarter and 27 in the second, the Suns were definitely not slacking off.
And yet, they were still only up by five.
Chen Yu stood up, unable to resist glancing over at the opposing bench.
’Even if it is the season opener, it’s still just a regular season game. Do they really need to go this hard?’
The biggest reason the Spurs were only down by five at the half had to be Duncan.
The guy had actually played the entire first half.
It was insane!
’His knee might be healed, but you can’t just run him into the ground like a workhorse.’
And playing the whole half wasn’t enough. He was handling everything on both offense and defense, plus playmaking and passing. Everywhere you looked, you saw Duncan.
At the half: 23 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks.
That halftime performance was better than what many All-Star-level big men put up in an entire game.
The key question was, if he kept playing like this, weren’t they worried about something happening to Duncan?
Shaking his head slightly, Chen Yu didn’t go to the locker room. Instead, he headed to the top-level suite.
Old Kolangelo was talking with Stern, Granic, Silva, and a few others.
Chen Yu greeted everyone and asked what they were discussing.
"Ratings," Granic said with a sigh. He mentioned that over the past two years, the NBA Finals ratings had been in an overall decline.
They were even lower than one of Chen Yu’s weight-loss shows.
He gave Chen Yu a reproachful look.
Compared to the Super Bowl, whose ratings were thriving and climbing higher every year.
Chen Yu glanced at Old Kolangelo.
’He’s taking a shot at the Suns.’
’He’s trying to say the Suns are so dominant that the Finals aren’t exciting or entertaining enough.’
It made sense. They had steamrolled their way through the West.
In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Magic and the Pistons had battled it out for seven games, only to be cleanly swept by the Suns without a shred of mercy.
And this year, before the season had even started, news stories were flying everywhere about the Suns going for a three-peat and the championship being a foregone conclusion.
When the competition is weak and everyone can predict the outcome, viewership is bound to be low.
"Simple," Chen Yu said without hesitation. "We can just copy the Super Bowl and put on a halftime show. Get a couple of top-tier stars, and the ratings will definitely shoot up."
’If you’re jealous of the Super Bowl’s booming ratings, then just do what they do.’
’Their halftime is 15 minutes, and our halftime break is also exactly 15 minutes.’
’Get someone like Michael Jackson, and it’d be a miracle if the ratings didn’t explode.’
Stern was taken aback for a moment, then said with a wry smile, "Chen, that won’t work."
It was an idea they had actually discussed before.
"The biggest reason is the cost. The Super Bowl is just one game, so they only need to hold one halftime show. But our Finals can go up to seven games. Are we supposed to stage seven halftime shows?"
"Average celebrities don’t draw that much attention, and the fees for top-tier stars are too high. Ticket sales alone might not even cover their appearance fees."
"They have an outdoor stadium that can easily hold 100,000 people, so they can recoup the costs through ticket sales. We’re indoors, and our arenas can hold twenty thousand people at most. Ticket sales alone definitely wouldn’t cover the cost of a halftime show."
"Most importantly, we want the audience to buy tickets to watch the game, to see the intense competition between the players, not to see celebrities."
’If you want to see celebrities, go to a concert.’
Chen Yu was just joking, of course. He knew perfectly well that copying the National Football League’s halftime show wasn’t realistic.
The core reason for the declining ratings was still that the games weren’t entertaining.
But Chen Yu definitely couldn’t say that out loud.
The Suns were the dominant team right now. Weakening them for the sake of more entertaining games would mean a loss for his own interests.
"That’s a tough one. I don’t have a solution," Chen Yu said with a smile, then proactively changed the subject, asking Stern what he wanted to talk to him about.
Stern stood up and walked over to the bar on the other side of the suite.
Puzzled, Chen Yu followed him.
’Whatever he wants to say, it must be something that requires a private conversation.’
A waiter poured drinks for them both and then tactfully stepped away. Only then did Stern say with a smile, "Chen, I don’t believe I’ve congratulated you yet on becoming the chairman of FIFA’s medical committee."
He also asked Chen Yu how his work with the medical committee was going, whether it was running smoothly.
"It’s going okay."
He was no longer a team doctor, but now he had this whole FIFA affair to deal with. Plus, with Blatter actually preparing to open a FIFA branch in Phoenix, Chen Yu’s workload hadn’t decreased much.
This was one of the reasons Chen Yu didn’t want to have children for the time being.
"Right now, one of my main jobs is to promote health certificates and to require national competitions to strengthen their medical services, such as by adding AED devices at the game sites."
The root of this initiative was Vivian Foe nearly dying of sudden cardiac arrest on the pitch.
Chen Yu couldn’t do anything about reducing less meaningful competitions like the Confederations Cup, but what he could do was minimize such risks as much as possible.
First, health certificates.
Chen Yu was pushing for cooperation with various national football associations to implement a health certificate regulation, following Italy’s example.
In Italy, legislation had been passed as early as 1982 requiring all athletes registered with the sports federations under the Italian Olympic Committee, whether professional or amateur, to undergo medical examinations and obtain a competitive sports license before they could participate in competitions and training.
This, of course, included football.
Now, Chen Yu wanted to, one, promote this to other leagues, and two, add more items to the physical examinations.
Progress was slow. After all, it cost money.
For all the players in a league, adding screening for hidden diseases was not a small expense.
Next was improving the medical equipment at game sites.
This included adding portable AED defibrillators and providing specialized emergency response training for the medical staff assigned to games.
A broken bone or a shattered knee was manageable; you could treat it slowly after the game. But sudden cardiac arrest or a coma induced by heatstroke could be fatal if not properly treated immediately.
"David, I think our teams also need to equip their arenas with portable defibrillators and require their team doctors to undergo emergency response training."
Cases of sudden cardiac death are rare, so having a dedicated paramedic isn’t realistic. But equipping arenas with a portable defibrillator and providing some basic training doesn’t cost much, and if a problem does occur, it could save a life.
"Reggie Lewis is a cautionary tale we need to heed."
Stern nodded thoughtfully. "Chen, that’s a good suggestion. I’ll give it serious consideration."
After a pause, he got to the point. "Chen, because of what happened with the Women’s World Cup this year, you must have established a strong friendship with the Chinese Sports Administration."
Chen Yu didn’t understand what he was getting at, but he nodded.
For that whole Women’s World Cup affair, the Chinese Football Association and the Sports Bureau really did owe him a big favor.
He had helped them avoid losses of at least a hundred million, ensuring that the preparatory efforts of countless people didn’t go to waste.
It was just a pity that even on home soil, the Chinese women’s national team didn’t win the cup. They lost to Sweden in the semifinals and also lost to the United States Team in the third-place match, ultimately finishing fourth while Germany took the trophy.
At the time, the organizing committee had invited Chen Yu to attend the opening ceremony and watch the games live.
But in the end, Chen Yu was too busy with work and didn’t go.
However, Chen Yu had followed the news of that World Cup and had also watched recordings of the matches.
After watching them, Chen Yu could only say that the Chinese team’s loss was not undeserved.
Playing on home turf provided a certain advantage.
But it was obvious that in terms of physicality and confrontation, the Chinese team was far inferior to Germany and Sweden.
Especially the Germany Team.
Watching the Germany women’s team play gave Chen Yu the momentary illusion that he was watching a men’s soccer match.
In aspects like speed, strength, and physical confrontation, the Chinese women’s team was at a complete disadvantage.
It felt like their training and tactics hadn’t kept up; they had fallen behind.
Coupled with the retirement of the veteran players from the runner-up team of ’99, if there was a gap in talent between generations, the Chinese women’s team’s strength would continue to decline.
But regardless of the outcome, when it came to securing the hosting rights, the Sports Bureau truly owed Chen Yu a huge favor.
"David, what are you trying to say?" Chen Yu asked.
Stern smiled. "Chen, you know that for years I’ve been pushing for the internationalization of the NBA, to expand its market. I noticed some news saying that your consulting firm is preparing to cooperate with the Chinese Basketball Association, and that they’re planning a commercial overhaul of the existing Jia A League."
Chen Yu nodded. This was the so-called North Star Project.
"Chen, we want to get involved in this project. We want to use the NBA’s successful experience to help the Jia A build its own commercial league and expand basketball’s influence in China. In the long run, this will be beneficial for us."
The NBA’s single largest source of revenue is broadcasting rights.
And only with greater worldwide influence can those broadcasting rights be sold at a high price.
China has a vast market for basketball.
This was why Stern had pushed so hard to get Chinese players like Yao Ming into the NBA and had allowed China’s sports channels to broadcast NBA games for free.
And now, he saw another opportunity.
"I already have some initial ideas, like holding preseason games in China, and allowing retired star veterans or fringe players who can’t get playing time to go play in the Jia A to raise its level of competition."
"Only when the games are entertaining can the league develop in a positive direction."
When there’s money to be made, more people will devote themselves to the sport, making the games increasingly better to watch.
"To be honest, my network of connections in China isn’t as good as yours. Perhaps you could act as a bridge to help me realize this plan," Stern said, looking at Chen Yu with a broad smile.
He remembered how, years ago, he had to wait for an hour at a TV station just to meet the person in charge.
Back then, no one knew who he was, and no one took his promotional plans seriously.
Chen Yu gave a noncommittal nod.
However, these ideas Stern was proposing were nothing new.
As far back as ’79, the Bullets, the predecessor to the Wizards, had gone to China for an exhibition game.
And the Jia A had already started bringing in foreign players as early as ’95.
If this was the extent of the cooperation, Chen Yu didn’t think it would be enough to persuade the Chinese Basketball Association or bring about any real change.

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