In mid-August, Akron, Ohio, was filled with the sweltering heat typical of the Midwest.
Outside a high school gymnasium, the diesel generator of a broadcast van roared deafeningly. The area was filled with luxury cars with out-of-state license plates, and scalpers, clutching cheap photocopied tickets, were frantically reselling tickets for the AAU ( Amateur Athletic Union of the United States ) Summer Invitational Tournament, promising to "know the security guards inside."
The stadium lacked modern central air conditioning. The smell of rubber flooring, the sweat of young people, the artificial scent of popcorn, and the cheap cologne from the stands all mingled together in the cramped space, making it difficult to breathe.
Lin Qi, dressed in a low-key shirt and wearing a baseball cap pulled low, sat as a fan in an inconspicuous corner near the baseline.
In this summer, when David Stern had strictly forbidden him from interfering in NBA affairs, Lin Qi turned his attention to amateur sports, which were not yet under the jurisdiction of the league.
On the sidelines, a reporter wearing a local newspaper badge was holding a telephoto lens, trying to scan the stands for celebrities. Lin Qi keenly noticed the camera's movement. He stood up very naturally, pulled his hat down low, and walked towards the arena's convenience store, perfectly avoiding any exposure that might arouse suspicion within the league.
The convenience store's freezer was broken, so Lin Qi could only buy a warm Coke. As he sat down again with the warm Coke, his gaze began to sweep over the distorted scene on the sidelines.
This doesn't feel like a high school competition at all; it's more like a blatant trade fair.
The best seats in the front row weren't occupied by parents. On one side sat Nike executives, and on the other, Adidas's renowned scout, Sonny Vaccaro. These representatives of the two rivals, amidst the same cheers, were simultaneously scribbling notes in their notebooks, as if assessing the value of their products.
Separating the two groups of well-dressed businessmen was a man Eddie Jackson. This former drug dealer, who was recently released from prison and was involved in a federal fraud case, was sitting there as LeBron's "father and family advisor." He was making loud phone calls while skillfully managing the seating arrangement courtside.
Beside Jackson was LeBron's mother, Gloria. She wore a custom-made #23 jersey with " LeBron's Mom" printed on the back. She wasn't the shy type of celebrity mom; her voice was incredibly loud, and you could hear her talking unabashedly about money and future prospects to those around her from several rows away. Behind them followed a large entourage of childhood friends and neighborhood buddies.
In February of this year, Sports Illustrated featured this 17-year-old on its cover with the headline "The Chosen One".
From that moment on, the cult of personality was completely out of control.
Lin Qi held his paper cup, his mind swirling with the various columns and internal scouting briefings he had seen on his desk over the past few months.
SLAM magazine, which has a significant influence in the street basketball world, has long ago hailed him as "America's No. 1 high school player." The New York Times even unprecedentedly sent a senior reporter who L'Équipe the NBA NBA Finals to follow a high school student's daily life for an extended period.
Lin Qi recalled seeing an absurd news story in a business sports newspaper not long ago: Time Warner Cable had started broadcasting St. Vincent–St. Mary High School games nationwide on its pay-per-view (PPV) channel, charging $7.95 per game. The broadcast fee for a high school student had surpassed that of most top NCAA schools.
Moreover, columnists from various media outlets practically used every word imaginable to shower praise upon him. The phrase "possessing Michael Jordan's physical attributes and explosiveness, while also having Magic Johnson's passing vision" was first uttered in an ESPN column.
In those inside reports filled with exaggerated language, Lin Qi also read many astonishing details. For example, last summer, Michael Jordan made an exception and invited this then 16-year-old to his private high-end training camp in Chicago. In that completely closed, high-level NBA game filled with physical contact and professional trash talk, LeBron showed a composure far beyond his years, facing a group of current starters and even All-Stars. A host of NBA superstars, such as Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal and Anthony Kemba Walker, would even fly to Akron on their rest days to sit on folding chairs in their high school gymnasiums and watch him play like fans.
Along with this frenzied exposure, tabloids and astute investors swarmed in like Shark smelling blood.
Lin Qi often saw juicy gossip about this genius family in the margins of newspapers: how top agents were scheming to get into his circle; how Adidas and Nike were even willing to pay exorbitant "consulting fees" for his fringe confidants in their competition for him; and rumors that certain behind-the-scenes figures were helping Gloria secure huge bank loans so she could live the luxurious life of an NBA superstar's mother ahead of time.
Looking at the large and noisy group of relatives and friends on the sidelines, Lin Qi meticulously pieced together the magazine reports with the reality before him, and a detailed background investigation took shape in his mind.
He knew very well about LeBron's background. Gloria gave birth to him when she was 16. In Akron, the mother and son moved from their family's old house on Hickory Street to a slum, then to a project house and a friend's sofa. Around the fourth grade, they hardly had a stable home. It wasn't until the football coach Frank Kemba Walker and his family took him in, Kemba Walker's wife baked him birthday cakes, made him attend school on time, and later helped Gloria find an apartment where she could stay long-term, that the boy was no longer sent to live with relatives in another city and was able to play basketball with his childhood friends.
"A child who wandered and moved from place to place since childhood, who learned to read people and know 'who can let me stay' from the age of 12..." Lin Qi took a sip of warm cola and secretly pondered in his heart, "This kind of mentality, forged from the struggles at the bottom, destined him to have an extreme lack of security; he only trusts his own people."
This also explains why he is always surrounded by his childhood friends and inner circle, and his almost obsessive desire to control the ball and the discourse power in business in the future.
"The Chosen One!"
As the DJ's raw, unedited screams filled the arena, the doors were pushed open.
The 17-year-old boy, who had already grown to 2.01 meters tall, strode into the arena. Lin Qi noticed that LeBron's left wrist was still wrapped in a slightly blackened wristband, a fracture he had sustained in early June when he landed hard after a dunk during a game in Chicago.
During warm-ups, LeBron always subconsciously protects his left wrist with his right hand, and his center of gravity is noticeably shifted to the right when he lands.
"He's probably not fully recovered yet. This is a comeback show forced by commercial pressure and the need for exposure." Lin Qi made a quick judgment.