In mid-March, Boston was experiencing rain and snow again.
In the study of his suburban residence, Lin Qi leaned back on a single sofa, holding an unlit cigar. On the coffee table in front of him were Sports Illustrated and several nationally distributed sports tabloids.
At the top was a Cleveland local newspaper, with a striking photo on the front page: a brand-new silver Hummer H2 parked in front of a high school, with a high school student LeBron James standing next to it.
Lin Qi read the report.
This is the " Hummergate " that has recently caused a huge uproar in the American high school basketball world. The Ohio High School Athletic Association is investigating LeBron James. It all started with this $50,000 Hummer, and then it was revealed that he traded two vintage jerseys for several expensive suits at a sporting goods store, which even led to LeBron James being temporarily suspended from high school league games.
For amateur sports leagues that pride themselves on being "pure," this is a colossal scandal. But in Lin Qi's view, it's just a farce filled with hypocrisy and vanity. A sixteen or seventeen-year-old kid, before even officially entering the NBA, is already surrounded by hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in shady checks from various sports companies and shoe sponsors across the United States. That Hummer is just the tip of the iceberg.
Lin Qi pushed the newspaper aside; below was the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, its cover featuring the words " March Madness " in bold red lettering.
This year's NCAA tournament is witnessing a fierce clash between the old and new order.
Syracuse University, a prestigious school on the East Coast, is grinding down one opponent after another under head coach Jim Boheim's family-inherited "2-3 zone defense." But what's truly driving the nation crazy is the anomaly that has emerged from this rigid defensive system—freshman Carmelo Anthony.
In the traditional context of the NCAA, championship favorites must be like the University of Kansas: led by seniors and juniors like Kirk Hinrich and Nique Collison, running plays and pick-and-rolls in a methodical manner. But Anthony, as a freshman, broke the ironclad rule of juniors and seniors dominating the championship with his terrifyingly mature face-up isolation, jab step, and pull-up jumper.
Looking at the photos of Anthony and LeBron James, a crazy idea suddenly popped into Lin Qi's mind.
If he allowed EBA teams to forcibly sign LeBron James, Anthony, and Bosh —the " 2003 Platinum Generation " destined to change the landscape of the NBA for the next decade—by throwing each of them a multi-million dollar contract and imposing exorbitant buyout clauses, he could effectively block these talents from entering the NBA. This would undoubtedly be a devastating blow to David Stern's star-making campaign.
Lin Qi could indeed afford the money now. But he squinted, stared at the ceiling for a while, and then suppressed the thought.
That's too extreme. If they actually did that, it would be tantamount to declaring war on the NBA's broadcasters, the Players Association, and even the entire United States sports industry.
"I'll spare your life, David ( Stern )." Lin Qi snorted coldly, abandoning this unrealistic idea.
But his gaze shifted to a draft prediction list of international players on the table. While he couldn't touch the United States market, Europe basketball was now dominated by the EBA.
With EBA's ratings soaring last year and broadcasting fees rising sharply, EBA is no longer a poor, makeshift operation; they now have ample cash flow.
"If we don't touch United States rookies..." Lin Qi tapped his fingertips lightly on the coffee table, "Then what about all the other non- United States players?"
In addition to Nenad Krstić, Darko Miličić, and Zaza Pachulia, who have already been signed by EBA teams, there's also " France Jordan " Michael Pietrus, Carlos Delfino from Argentina's " Golden Generation," Boris Diaw, " France Magic " who was drafted by the Celtics last year and stayed in Europe, and Argentina center Luis Scola...
Let's just prevent them from ever playing in the NBA.
Lin Qi recalled the annual press conference at the 2003 All-Star Weekend in Atlanta just last month, where David Stern, with the Players Association president Billy Hunter, announced a new policy with great enthusiasm: international players aged 18 and over could directly participate in the NBA draft.
The old fox's ambition is obvious: he wants to take advantage of the NBA's globalization strategy to uproot the youngest and most talented basketball prodigies in Europe and even the world and inject them into the NBA's star-making pipeline as fresh blood.
Since President David has planted the straw in the Europe youth training camp, Lin Qi wouldn't mind using the large sum of money EBA just earned to cut that straw off directly.
Lin Qi is not just to thwart David Stern's global expansion, but to usher in a basketball industrial revolution.
What the outside world may not know is that the average training and tactical system of the EBA has quietly surpassed that of the vast majority of NBA teams. This is because Lin Qi, as the driving force behind it, mandated that all EBA teams must benchmark themselves against the Boston Celtics in terms of data analysis, sports science, and tactical awareness. Apart from a few strong teams like Boston, the Lakers, and the Spurs, the remaining weaker teams in the NBA are even inferior to the current Europe powerhouses in terms of basic infrastructure.
Potential Europe players like Scola, Boris Diaw, or Miličić, once they go to the NBA, will likely be relegated to the end of the bench by rigid, old-school coaches, or simply and crudely transformed into role players. But what if they were forcibly kept in Europe and developed as the tactical core of their respective teams?
This will be a massive "breeding of venomous insects".
Lin Qi's labor union system, which he strongly promoted in the EBA, followed Europe traditions, with all contracts deeply tied to the team's performance.
In the NBA, players have fully guaranteed contracts, and even after a three-game losing streak in the regular season, everyone can still easily go clubbing. But in Europe, the mentality is completely different. Losing means a direct deduction from your paycheck.
In the EBA, every regular season game feels like a Game 7 of the playoffs. Every rebound, every possession, every tactical movement involves real money for everyone. Under that suffocating pressure to achieve results, the potential of these international talents is pushed to its absolute limit.
If these players are put through a few years of rigorous training in this pressure cooker, their future competitive level will definitely far exceed their original NBA ceiling. When the time is right, the final suspense and outcome of the " World Series " between the EBA and the NBA will be truly unpredictable.
Having figured this out, Lin Qi's lips curled into a wicked grin. Since Stern used a suspension to prevent him from interfering in Boston's management, he would use the EBA to give him a good beating.
Lin Qi tossed the list of Europe prospective players onto the coffee table and picked up the last document beside him.
That wasn't a newspaper, but a weekly report sent by a "special data monitoring team" under Lin Qi Capital.
Lin Qi didn't have time to sit in front of the TV every night to watch every NBA regular season game. But his company set up a data analysis team. Their daily task was to convert the officiating of every game in the league into data.
This week's report features a red curve that showed a strange upward trend in March.
The report's summary clearly states, "Since the beginning of March, the percentage of defensive hand fouls called in the first and early third quarters across the league has increased by 12.5%. The pace of the game has been deliberately disrupted, and the proportion of closely contested games has significantly increased."
"Forced suspense." Lin Qi looked at the curve and muttered to himself with a cold smile.
David Stern's art of "controlling the game" wasn't blatant refereeing bias, but rather disrupting the momentum of strong defensive teams by tightening the whistle at specific times, forcibly dragging the game into a close, back-and-forth battle. This not only boosted viewership but also subtly protected the superstars.
Looking at the report on the unusual refereeing decisions, another incident from last month instantly came to Lin Qi's mind.
In mid-February, at the All-Star Weekend press conference in Atlanta, David Stern also announced another major reform.
Starting this season, the format for the first round of the NBA playoffs has officially changed from a best-of-five series to a best-of-seven series.
Lin Qi initially thought this was just a purely commercial move by Stern to sell more tickets. But now, combining the "best-of-seven" format with the "trigger whistle" in March that deliberately created suspense, the entire conspiracy becomes crystal clear.
The best-of-seven format amplifies the physical exertion and margin for error in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the tightening of officiating standards subtly protects the ball-handling core on the perimeter, while ensuring that each series is as long and intense as possible.
Who will be the biggest beneficiary of these two combined measures?
It's probably a team like the Los Angeles Lakers, a "Showtime 2.0".
"You've got a good plan, David." Lin Qi tossed the report back onto the table and closed his eyes, feigning sleep.