Chapter 437 Two Consecutive Championships and the Group of Death

The playoffs are in full swing.

After the first round, Lin Dong was unanimously elected as the MVP of the 2003-04 season in a highly anticipated manner, and swept away important awards such as best first team, best defensive first team, dpoy, most valuable player and so on!

Coupled with the scoring, assists, and steals, the historical record of 76 wins and 6 losses is the beginning of a dynasty with two consecutive championships!

The undisputed king, the undisputed ascent to the top, also made this NBA season respectfully known as Lin Dongjie and Lin Dongnian by fans in the Dragon Kingdom.

Strength is certainly the undisputed basis for this series of honors, but to be honest, such a complete Grand Slam is still due to Nike's guidance and fueling of public opinion to a certain extent.

In the past few months, Nike has used an undisputed gesture to completely squeeze Adidas out of the ranks of competitors in the US market, forcing Adidas to completely shift its market focus to Europe.

Although Under Armor managed to survive with Plank's broken arm, it has almost returned to the size it was a year ago. If Plank hadn't held a full 78% of the shares, he would have taken the sold stocks as orders. Collect them all, I'm afraid the entire brand will no longer exist.

Nike, which had no competitors, almost dominated the American market. Then it signed Sakuragi Hanamichi and Yao Ming. Based on these three people, it began to seize the Asian market at an alarming rate. The 'Dragon Series' collaborated with Lin Dong once tied the market. AJ's sales have become Nike's most important sub-brand, with sales exceeding the 1 billion mark in just half a year.

This has brought Lin Dong generous financial returns as well as public opinion and honor returns, making both parties the biggest winners.

But Lin Dongneng began to feel that Nike, which had entered a stage of rapid development early because of him, was somewhat inflated. The price of Nike in Asia was nearly 120% higher than in the US market.

An affordable brand in Europe and the United States wants to take the luxury route in Asia, and its disdain for Asians has begun to emerge.

This will trigger a series of reactions. Perhaps consumers are not aware of it now because of the freshness, but this reaction will only be late and will not disappear.

Perhaps the expected break will come early... But unlike Under Armor, pure capital is not mixed with any emotions, and everyone just uses each other.

The money has been earned, and some of the future plans that I have envisioned since entering the NBA have no financial worries and can be implemented. Therefore, if the day of breaking up with Nike really comes early, then I will naturally not hesitate.

…………

The absolute king brought absolute topicality and popularity, but it did not bring the best results expected to the NBA.

Thanks to this year's most dominant team in NBA history, Internet buzz has increased significantly. But what troubles Stern is that the ratings for the playoffs are actually not as good as last year.

A few very simple reasons.

First, because of Jordan's retirement, many old fans will not be dissatisfied with the new because of the rise of the new king. This has actually caused the NBA to lose a large number of viewers, and this has happened three times in NBA history.

The second reason is that the game has lost its suspense. Starting from the Sonics' 4-0 victory over the Nuggets in the first round, they have swept the entire game.

In the second round, they swept the disintegrated Lakers 4:0, and in the third round of the Western Conference Finals, they continued to sweep the Spurs 4:0.

Even in the finals, facing the Cavaliers, who were highly hyped by the NBA and wanted to use the grudge between LeBron and the SuperSonics to boost ratings, they were still swept 4-0.

There was no defeat during the entire playoffs, and Lin Dong continued to average 46.6 points per game, setting a new NBA playoff scoring record.

The SuperSonics easily won their second championship, and they already had the aura of a dynasty, to the point where everyone believed that a dynasty would inevitably be born next season!

Without a suspenseful game or a strong opponent, no matter how popular it is, it will always be difficult to capture the hearts of the audience.

Only the last game of the Finals, in order to witness the SuperSonics' unprecedented 16-game winning streak in the playoffs, gave the ratings a strong boost, but it still failed to reach the height of last year's global audience of over 100 million viewers.

In addition, there is another reason, that is, the 2004 Athens Olympics is approaching. Compared with the NBA's solo carnival, the Olympics with a viewership of 1 billion people is the world's largest sports event.

The Dragon Country Basketball Association obviously attaches great importance to this Olympics.

There are a total of 12 quotas for men's basketball tickets in the Olympic Games, 1 for the host Greece, 7 direct quotas, two each from Europe and the Americas, one each from Asia, Africa and Oceania, and the other four are decided through the elimination round.

The qualifying rounds for the Asian Division ended as early as last year.

Because the J-League and B-League have not yet been unified, Japan was ordered to make rectifications by FIBA ​​and failed to obtain a quota. In addition, there is a lot of criticism in Japan, and coach Anzai has been pushed to the forefront. There are unprecedented calls to integrate the two major leagues. high.

But the integration of commercial and non-commercial leagues is obviously not just a matter of words. It involves disputes among many consortiums and clubs in Japan. Even though the whole country has made up its mind, this year's Olympics is already destined to miss out.

In the absence of Japan, Long Guo, which only fielded its second team, still won the ticket in an undisputed manner.

As for the teams such as South Korea and Iran that were entered into the losing round, they were all placed in the fourth, fifth or even sixth gear of the losing round. Facing the strong players from other divisions, in the losing round There is no way to resist.

In this Olympics, there is only one participant in the Asian division, and that is Dragon Kingdom.

It seems to be the weakest competition area among several major competition areas, but facts prove that as long as you are really strong enough, it doesn't matter whether the competition area is strong or not.

Now he has Lin Dong, who is invincible in the NBA, and Yao Ming, the absolute first-tier insider in the NBA. The existence of these two people alone is enough to make this Dragon Country men's basketball team not to be underestimated. In addition, Zhu Fangyu, Yi Jianlian and other young players have also grown up in the CBA. The strength of the Dragon Kingdom in this Olympic Games is unprecedentedly strong. Not only has the idea of ​​​​wanting to win the championship has been formed within the Basketball Association, but also It is considered by basketball fans around the world to be the only team that has a chance to defeat the American Dream Team.

In the latest FIBA ​​rankings, Dragon Country has also set a historical record and risen to fourth place, followed by the United States, Spain and Argentina.

Regarding this ranking, fans all over the world, especially most NBA fans, are still dissatisfied. They think that if it is really based on strength, it should be ranked at least second. Many people even think that this Dragon Nation men's basketball team has already Qualified to compete with the American Dream Team.

However, the FIBA ​​rankings are basically based on the results of major competitions. Although the strength of the Dragon Country men's basketball team has been recognized by the world, there are currently too few major competitions and there is no way around insufficient points.

On June 27, Lin Dong, who ended the NBA Finals early with a 4:0 victory, returned to Yanjing and officially returned to the national team and began training with the team.

As early as the 15th of this month, Longguo's training roster had been announced, and the national team training had started on the 16th.

There are 26 people on the training list, including 19 athletes.

The team leader is Kuang Lubing, head coach Jiang Lao, technical advisor Zhang Guidance, team doctor Du Wenliang, and the coach is Adi Jiang, Min Lulei and former Nike Summit coach Yunus Kazlaus Kass, who is already familiar to Lin Dong, 7 A management team composed of people.

19 teammates participated in the training, including Lin Dong, Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi, Battelle, Yi Jianlian, Mo Ke, Du Feng, Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng, Sun Yue, Liu Wei, Tang Zhengdong, Hu Xuefeng, Li Nan, etc...

During this period, the Internet in Dragon Kingdom had already emerged, and the penetration rate of home computers had increased significantly. Lin Dong and Yao Ming's "Oriental Famous" combination had also become a hot search topic on the entire Internet, so much so that Dragons, who originally didn't watch basketball much, became Chinese people have changed their interests and started to pay crazy attention to basketball.

——The combination of Dayao and Lin Huang will definitely be a championship even if they are put into the NBA!

——Dayao's rookie contract will expire next season. The SuperSonics should quickly arrest him and let Dayao and Lin Dong combine!

——Lin Dong, Yao Ming! This is called a famous oriental combination!

——Isn’t this the Olympic Forum? Why are you talking about the NBA?

——They are all on the same level! In the past, we were not among the best, but this year is different. The sun rises in the east, and we are undefeated!

——Famous in the East! Famous in the East!

——I want to go to Greece. My mother won’t pay for it. I’ve been working during the summer vacation for two years and I’m still short of a few thousand dollars. Is there any kind-hearted person who can sponsor me? When I go to Greece, I can skip meals and sleep on bridges...

——Didn’t Dragon Kingdom broadcast it on TV for you to watch? Do what you can, little one!

——Shit, the basketball court in our community is full every day, and there is no room to play.

——The key is that they all wear dark green No. 23. Oh my god, the basketball courts everywhere are green now!

——It’s not just Lin Dong. In fact, this class is really strong. Sun Yue and Liu Wei are on the back line, and Wang Zhizhi, Zhu Fangyu, and Du Feng are on the forward line. Generally speaking, his performance in the Mavericks this year is not bad.

——Yes, we are really strong this year, the whole team is very strong! Looking forward to it!

This is an unprecedented and unprecedented enthusiasm.

In previous Olympic Games, the popular sports that Dragon Kingdom sports fans paid attention to were table tennis, diving, and weightlifting. But this year, the whole country is unprecedentedly unified.

Three major goals, a chance to compete for the championship!

This sentence alone is enough to make all sports fans in a country go crazy.

Of course, fans can shout championship slogans, but for the Basketball Association, which has always been prudent and low-key, public relations statements obviously cannot be too overdone.

Lao Li's attitude in the press conference was to strive to break through Dragon Kingdom's historical ranking and break into the semi-finals!

Taking the semi-finals as the threshold for this Olympic Games is also the safest threshold.

After Lin Dong returns to the team, the roster for the Olympic group has also been determined.

The 12 teams were divided into two groups AB.

Group A, Dragon Country, New Zealand, Spain, Argentina, Serbia and Montenegro, Italy.

Group B, Australia, Lithuania, Puerto Rico, United States, Angola, Greece.

For the former Dragon Kingdom, this was a veritable group of death. Among the other five teams, there were two world champions, and they also included the current international rankings of second and third.

And for the current Dragon Kingdom, this is also classified into the death group...

For other teams in this group, a nightmare group of death!