The car drove away from Renmin University, seen off by a crowd of officials.
"Dr. Chen, what did you think of those students?" Su Jun asked, turning his head.
Chen Yu thought for a moment. "Do you want the truth or a pleasant lie?"
Su Jun smiled. "Dr. Chen, you grew up in the United States. You know how to be diplomatic, too?"
In his experience, Americans were always straightforward.
Chen Yu laughed. "Of course. People are the same all over the world. Everyone likes to hear nice things."
After a pause, Chen Yu said, "To be honest, this group of players... take their captain, the one named Hou Ye, for example. It’s almost impossible for him to make it to a professional league."
Su Jun was taken aback, wondering why Chen Yu would come to such a conclusion.
’He couldn’t imagine the NBA, but Jia A should still be a possibility, right?’
As far as he knew, several domestic teams were keeping an eye on Hou Ye.
Chen Yu shook his head. "He was born in ’81, which makes him 23 this year. If he didn’t make his breakthrough during his prime development years, there’s even less hope now. At the very least, he’s still a long way from Jia A."
Su Jun fell silent.
Chen Yu was able to organize a rookie potential training camp and, against all odds, predict that Wade would become a Hall of Fame-level player. And in fact, Wade was proving with his performance that he was the biggest hidden gem of the ’03 draft class.
Riley had told reporters more than once that he had come so close to getting Wade.
It wasn’t that TJ Ford was bad, but Wade clearly had a higher ceiling.
Therefore, Su Jun really did trust Chen Yu’s judgment.
"As for their training level, don’t even get me started. It’s leagues behind," Chen Yu added.
The training philosophies, the training methods... they were completely out of touch.
Chen Yu thought of last year’s Women’s World Cup.
The Chinese women’s national team, which had been the runner-up in the previous tournament, only managed fourth place this time.
Looking at their physical conditioning, it was obvious they couldn’t keep up with the other teams.
This was clearly the fault of outdated training philosophies and methods.
Then there was their daily diet.
Setting aside whether greasy stir-fried dishes were suitable for athletes, the most crucial thing was the complete lack of nutritional planning.
Chen Yu had specifically observed that all twelve players were just eating whatever they wanted.
Hou Ye seemed to love rice, and he had a big appetite. He piled two large scoops of rice onto his plate and wolfed it down.
Eating that many carbs was really not conducive to maintaining peak physical condition.
Su Jun sighed. "That brings me to another important issue. If we want to model ourselves after the NBA, the problem is that Jia A doesn’t have a system like the NCAA that can continuously supply talent from the universities to the league."
"Jia A and the CUBA are completely disconnected. To get to the most fundamental problem, one belongs to the Sports Bureau, while the CUBA belongs to the Ministry of Education."
Su Jun clearly knew a lot about the situation.
He explained that the Jia A teams currently selected promising young players mainly from the sports schools in their respective regions.
And how did CUBA players get there? They were student-athletes who got into universities, a completely different system from the sports schools.
More importantly, they were all players who had been cut by the professional sports schools.
Since they’d already been cut and their skill level wasn’t high enough, how could they possibly emulate the NCAA and funnel players to Jia A?
"So that’s how it is."
Chen Yu was starting to understand.
In the plan proposed by Li Yuanwei, there were three steps. The second step was to hold a summer league, establish standard contracts, create draft rules, and link up with the CUBA.
Now it seemed that this was just wishful thinking on his part.
Just as Su Jun had said, they weren’t even part of the same system. What could they possibly use to change the status quo?
Su Jun had clearly given this issue serious thought as well. He continued, "With a draft system, the league is essentially offloading the cost of player development onto the schools. If there’s no benefit for the schools, why would they be willing to do it?"
"Besides, for many universities, having a basketball team or other sports programs is just about having a team, period. It’s to meet certain institutional requirements."
’If you’re a top-tier university and you don’t value sports development—you don’t even have a basketball or soccer team—what kind of message does that send?’
’Who cares if you’re supplying top players to Jia A? Whether Jia A does well or not doesn’t have a damn thing to do with me.’
"It seems like the NCAA is the only one in the world that has figured out how to make this collegiate basketball system work."
European basketball doesn’t have a draft. It’s all youth academies.
Chen Yu nodded in agreement. After a moment’s thought, he asked, "Then do you think the youth academy approach could work?"
If a draft system wouldn’t work, then the only other option was to build up feeder teams and go the youth academy route.
Just like with European soccer.
Su Jun sighed again. "I want to say yes, but it would be very difficult to actually implement. For example, we don’t have a comprehensive scouting system or a large number of lower-tier leagues, so we have no channels to discover basketball prodigies."
"In the NBA, as you should know, Dr. Chen, teams can scout high schools, colleges, and the entire world to find basketball prodigies. And those high school teams have their own scouting networks, too, discovering promising young players from elementary and middle school leagues in their local area and nearby cities."
Chen Yu nodded, recalling how a bunch of freelance scouts had shoved their business cards at him when he went to see Rose play over Christmas.
"Most importantly, parents aren’t willing to send their kids to sports schools to pursue a career in athletics, because that path is very difficult and far less promising than focusing on academics."
"On top of that, the basketball culture isn’t strong enough. Fewer people play. The only exception is Yuehai, where the basketball atmosphere has gotten a bit better in recent years, producing a number of promising young players."
"In the end, this means the players who actually enter the sports schools and go the youth academy route aren’t necessarily the most talented ones. And we don’t have the channels to discover the players who truly are."
At this point, Su Jun looked at Chen Yu and said, "Dr. Chen, what I’ve shown you and told you is really just a small fraction of the issues. There are so many problems to solve here. It’s truly impossible to develop to the level of the NBA in a short amount of time."
"Just to give one reason: the NBA is a commercial league, a private entity. But Jia A? It’s not."
"It’s a good thing that Director Li wants to make his mark and change things. But his term is only a few years long. Once he leaves, his successor will have their own ideas. To make their own mark, they might propose some new ideas of their own."
"And what about support from the higher-ups?"
Su Jun lowered his voice. "Dr. Chen, I’ve heard some news... they say Director Yuan might retire this year. If he leaves, things might get difficult for you, won’t they?"
Chen Yu froze.
’Yuan Weimin is retiring?’
’If he retires, I’ll lose that connection. His successor won’t know me, and a lot of things might not get support.’
Chen Yu nodded and said, "Thank you."
Thanks to Su Jun, Chen Yu was really getting a thorough understanding of the state of Chinese basketball.
He was starting to feel pessimistic about this collaboration with the Basketball Association.
In Stern’s vision, he would bring in some team owners and, together with Chen Yu, fund an independent company to try and acquire the commercial marketing rights for Jia A.
But now, it was clearly a complete mess, a money pit. One step inside, and he’d likely lose his shirt.
However, Chen Yu felt a little unwilling to give up.
’China is such a huge country with so many people. If they could get the league off the ground, what an enormous market that would be. I can’t even imagine how much money I could make.’
’Just earning that little bit of consulting fee is barely enough to whet my appetite.’
After some thought, Chen Yu asked, "Reporter Su, in your opinion, do you have any ideas for the development of basketball and soccer?"
Su Jun shook his head with a wry smile. "Dr. Chen, you give me too much credit. If I had a way to solve these problems, I wouldn’t just be a sports reporter."
Chen Yu nodded and asked Su Jun where he planned to take him next.
"Schools again," Su Jun said with a smile.
Only this time, it wasn’t a university, but an elementary school.
Chen Yu saw rudimentary training facilities—or rather, no training facilities at all.
The training methods were the same as in a regular gym class.
The gym teachers didn’t take it seriously, and gym classes were often taken over by teachers of other subjects.
The students also prioritized their academic studies and rarely played basketball or soccer.
And this was one of the top elementary schools in the Capital they were visiting, one that actually had soccer and basketball teams. According to Su Jun, ninety percent of elementary schools didn’t have a basketball or soccer team.
The gym teacher leading the team had a background in soccer but was moonlighting as the basketball coach.
In his words, there were a few kids in the school who stood head and shoulders above the rest, but they were as frail as willows, the type to fall over at the slightest touch. Their parents would never send them to play basketball, and pursuing a professional basketball career was completely out of the question.
That evening, the two had dinner together. After a few drinks, Su Jun said emotionally, "Dr. Chen, I was in the first wave of reporters who went abroad to cover the NBA. I’m deeply aware of the gap between domestic basketball, the NBA, and the rest of the world. I really want to do something, to change something, but I feel powerless."
"Dr. Chen, about that question from yesterday... I never formally answered you. I can answer you now. I think it’s possible, even if the hope is faint."
"But if we don’t do anything, if we don’t try, then there really will be no hope at all."
"I know you’ve already made it clear that you came to China seeking a partnership to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s precisely because of that, because we have such huge market potential, that I think you should give it a try."
His eyes were a little red as he looked at Chen Yu with a sincere expression.
"Alright. I’ll think about it."
Chen Yu smiled and raised his glass.
After dinner, the two decided to take a walk in a nearby park.
There was a basketball court there, too.
When they arrived, the court was brightly lit, and a game was in progress.
A crowd of young people had gathered around the court.
A young man wearing a number 3 76ers jersey—likely an Iverson fan—was particularly eye-catching. His skill level was clearly a cut above the other players on the court.
Facing a defender, he first unleashed a flurry of flashy dribbles, then suddenly exploded forward, blowing past the defender with a Sam Goddard-like crossover.
With the defense wide open, he leaped up and threw down a two-handed dunk.
’His vertical seems pretty good.’
Because he was short, only a little over five-foot-seven.
And that play successfully electrified the entire court. The spectators on the sidelines all started cheering wildly.
Many people were chanting "Dongdan’s Number One" or something similar in unison. It was probably his nickname.
A thought struck Chen Yu, and he suddenly turned to Su Jun beside him. "Reporter Su, do you know why the NBA is so successful?"
Su Jun shook his head.
Chen Yu looked at the excited young people who were jumping and cheering. "David once told me," he said, "that the reason the NBA is successful is because, at its core, it manages to be a great show while also maintaining a high level of competition."
"In other words, the NBA is, in fact, a show."

Comments

Loading...