The rest is just noise

In 1984, the NBA sent a mission to China to meet with the Basketball Association.

Louis was one of ten people on the delegation.

This is not the first time the NBA has had contact with China. As early as 1979, the then-champion Washington Bullets went to China and played several friendly matches.

When Louis got on the delegation's plane, he was not as relaxed as he seemed.

The NBA's representative on this trip is Stern's assistant, Harvard Law School graduate Garcia Lynn.

Lin En saw Louis' anxiety: "Aren't you Chinese? How can you be nervous?"

"Well, I don't know if I am Chinese now."

"How to say?"

"Psychologically, I identify as Chinese, but that's not what my ID card says. I am a citizen of the dependencies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

Speaking of this, Linn became a little interested.

"Hasn't China been discussing the return of Hong Kong to the UK recently? Maybe it won't be long before you can become a real Chinese."

"Indeed."

When he returned to China, his first purpose was to help the delegation promote cooperation with the Chinese Basketball Association, and his second purpose was to use the capital he had accumulated in the United States to establish a school similar to the Dongguan Basketball School.

He wouldn't have had the idea if the league office hadn't invited him to join the delegation.

Now, it's different.

He has enough capital, the ability, and more reputation.

Moreover, he is 10,000% certain that the Chinese basketball world has never taken full advantage of their demographic advantage (of course, football is even worse in this regard).

Now is a very good time. People born in 50-60 years have begun to enter the childbearing period. China is ushering in the baby boom. Since 1980, an average of at least 20 million babies are born every year.

Then, how many sports schools were there across the country in the 1980s? The answer is less than 50.

Although they can often pick out talents that are "visible to the naked eye", there are so many people who develop late. If these people do not receive professional training at the right age, it is basically impossible for them to become professional players again, and their talents will naturally be wasted.

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Louis hopes to simultaneously introduce the selection mechanism of Dongguan Basketball School and the Young Eagle study abroad mechanism launched by the Beijing team in 2017.

Send the best young players to the United States to grow and improve in the most intense environment, and unearth those once-wasted talents. Perhaps China can produce a few more NBA players.

Therefore, his goal is to establish a basketball school, select the right people to start the work, and then invest a lot of money.

From the moment the plane landed, Louis was busy working on this matter.

He learned that foreigners could not directly establish schools in China and had to find Chinese partners, so he quickly put up an advertisement.

There are many people calling, and most of them are scammers.

Louis takes up most of his energy just by doing this every day.

On the second day after arriving in China, he didn't even have time to take a breath and rest, so he went to the office building of the Chinese Basketball Association with Lin En and others.

This time the two parties are mainly discussing the issue of the NBA inviting the Chinese team to play friendly matches in the United States next year.

The NBA hopes to have real-time live broadcasts. This can increase the NBA's popularity in China and also allow the Chinese team to compete with the best teams in the world.

This is beneficial to both parties, but the Basketball Association has questions about the schedule, and they don't have that much money.

During this time, Louis spoke.

"Once the Chinese team lands in the United States, all funds will be borne by the league. This invitation is from us, and this is what we should do."

Louis stunned everyone in the Basketball Association by speaking Chinese with almost no accent.

"Mr. Lu, as far as we know, you grew up in the United States. How come you speak Chinese so well?" the basketball association's negotiator asked curiously.

Louis smiled and said: "No matter where I grow up, I can never forget where my roots are."

This is the first time Louis has spoken in negotiations, but it won't be the last.

It turned out that he was just a face in the delegation, just to show off.

The NBA wants to show China and the world that "outstanding Chinese Americans can also succeed in the NBA. We are an inclusive professional league."

Now, he has become Lin En's assistant and has proposed many things that are beneficial to the Chinese team.

For example, he proposed that the Chinese team train with the NBA team that plays friendly matches with them, eat and live together, and experience the training atmosphere and facilities of the world's top league.

Some of Louis' suggestions were adopted, and some were not, but he was very proactive and figured out many East Asian euphemisms that Lynn could not figure out.

It only took seven days for both parties to reach an agreement.

During the rest of the time, the delegation will go sightseeing at the invitation of the Basketball Association.

Louis then went about his business.

He found a partner, an artist named Liu who liked sports, especially basketball. He had heard about Louis' deeds and heard that he wanted to build a basketball school in China. He needed a partner, so he came to meet him in person.

Louis has spent almost all of his current cash, nearly $800,000.

According to the exchange rate in 1984, 1 U.S. dollar was converted into RMB 2.3 yuan.

Don’t underestimate this number. One yuan in 1984, adjusted for inflation, would have a purchasing power of about 40 yuan a few decades later.

The artist surnamed Liu was responsible for helping Louis, so he was not asked to pay more. He just put the school in his name, and Louis held 95% of the shares.

Next comes land enclosure, groundbreaking, construction, and all kinds of money-burning work.

Louis spent half a month investigating the staff he needed. He needed some pragmatic, sports-loving people who really wanted to do things for Chinese basketball.

Most of the people who signed up were college students, and many of them lacked relevant abilities. Louis could only choose the best among the best.

But it feels a little bit worse.

He worked hard for more than twenty days and only built a grass-roots team. Although it was very rudimentary, the foundation was basically there.

The next step is to wait for the school to be completed, find a suitable coaching team, and then use his influence to promote it. If everything goes well, the school can start next year or the year after.

There is still a lot to be busy with after this.

After being busy for so many days, Louis has no sense of accomplishment. The people he found are not professionals. They are enthusiastic but have no skills. How much can he learn in one year? Does the things he has done make sense in the end?

He didn't know, but since he was given the opportunity, he had to do it.

How many people know how sad he was when he saw Japan's Rui Hachimura and Yuta Watanabe establishing themselves in the NBA, while the most talented domestic players were still competing against each other in the CBA?

There are some things that just cannot be learned from abroad.

But in basketball, we have to find a way to send good prospects to the United States to lay eggs.

In the foreseeable next 50 years, it is impossible for any country to have a better basketball level than the Basketball Country.

Louis hopes his school can discover as many prospects as possible, so he needs excellent scouts.

The NBA delegation has been back for almost a week, and Louis is still here. He feels that he has a lot to do.

To find a group of high-quality scouts before the school is built, they need to travel across the country to find suitable prospects.

If there were no scouts and only relied on the school’s signboard, how many parents would send their children here?

Just thinking about what will happen in the future makes Louis' scalp split.

Before he left China, the Chinese men's basketball team invited him to watch a warm-up match.

He saw many people who had become big players in the domestic basketball scene when they were young before he traveled through time.

There was one person among them who was unforgettable to him.

He is almost 210 centimeters tall. He can run and jump. His physical fitness is extremely rare for someone of this height. His bullet speed is so fast that he suspects that Kong Yi has traveled through time with him.

His signature goal was to grab an offensive rebound and dunk his teammate, future national team interior coach Zhang Bing.

The moment he completed the dunk, he also shouted "I am Cao!"

"Well done, Xiao Song!"

"Coach Qian, who is that?" Louis respectfully asked Qian Chenghai, the godfather of Chinese basketball.

Qian Chenghai smiled and said: "Song Tao from Shandong is a good young man. This kind of quality is not common in people of his height."

Louis remembered that Song Tao was the first player in Chinese history to be drafted by the NBA. He remembered that the team that drafted Song Tao did not do it for fun, but actually couriered the NBA contract to China.

Song Tao had the opportunity to become the first NBA player from China before Wang Zhizhi. However, after signing the contract, he participated in the World University Games and suffered a devastating injury.

With the medical methods available at the time, this was a devastating blow to a person who relied heavily on physical fitness to play basketball.

There are not many athletic centers in the current NBA.

Song Tao's physical fitness is one of the best in the NBA. This is not an exaggeration.

Knowing what was waiting for Song Tao in the future, Louis naturally felt sympathy. He immediately learned about Song Tao's situation. After learning that he was not from the army, a smile flashed across his face.

As long as it's not the kind of team that comes with its own red line, there's room for maneuver.