Chapter 48: Lord of the League! The Ambition of David Stern!

This night was, without a doubt, an absolute perfection for the people of Chicago! They had severely punished the arrogant SuperSonics, firmly reclaimed the throne of the league's top spot, and washed away much of the prejudice people held against them.

Michael Jordan's brilliant performance of 50 points in three quarters and Lin Tian's stunning one-versus-three display could truly be described as a double blessing for the Chicagoans!

What could possibly be more exciting than having an invincible super star and an invincible super fighting expert on the same team?

Nothing at all!

Starting from this day, Chicago fans would no longer fear or worry about anyone!

New York? Denver? Utah? Indiana?

As long as they dared to come, as long as they dared to provoke, Lin Tian would beat the living hell out of them!

In fact, quite a few Chicagoans were already chanting brand new slogans late into the night.

"Beat up Malone! Beat up Stockton! Beat up Barkley! Beat up Miller!"

What did arrogance look like? This was arrogance!

On this night, besides the excited Chicago fans and the dejected people of Seattle, there was another group of people who couldn't sleep—

The league's top brass, led by David Stern!

Before the game had even concluded, Stern had already summoned many of the league's high-ranking executives for a meeting.

They needed to discuss how to penalize this incident!

"Severe punishment, it must be severely punished!" roared the head of the league's public relations department, slapping the table. "Do you know how hard it is for us to build a healthy league image? We've worked hard for ten years! We haven't had a single form of brawl or bench-clearing incident for ten consecutive months! These two teams ruined everything! They ruined our hard work!"

"At least a 20-game suspension to start! As for the few who started it, not a single one should get away with it!"

"I think you've lost your mind!" the head of the marketing department frowned and said, "Do you have any idea what Chicago and the SuperSonics mean to the league? Their TV ratings are both in the top five, and their arena attendance and jersey sales are similarly in the top five! Their records are straight-up first in the East and the West!"

"With two teams like this, you're going to suspend their core players for 20 games? How about you step up and cover the revenue lost this season out of your own pocket?"

"But there has to be some kind of punishment, otherwise how are we going to manage the league?" said Adam Silver, Stern's chief assistant. "Otherwise, it will set a very bad precedent for all the teams. They might think the league management has grown lax again and that their opportunity has come!"

"We can't be too strict either. If it hurts the ratings and the league's revenue, then the loss would outweigh the gain."

"Adam, congratulations on speaking a few sentences of useless nonsense!" Not a single person present gave Silver any face, and they all let out cold snorts, completely ignoring him.

"Alright gentlemen, alright!" It wasn't until this moment that Stern finally spoke up. "I know what you mean, and I know the situation we are facing much better than any of you do!"

"I can still remember what kind of mess I faced when I took over as the league commissioner 12 years ago! Drugs, fights, gangs, promiscuity... terrible public opinion, terrible environment, terrible reputation, everything was so bad and desperate!"

"I still remember the massive shock caused when Len Bias died of a drug overdose the day after the draft, and I remember how desperate we were when 'Magic' announced his HIV diagnosis. But we survived all of that, didn't we? We got back on track and became an excellently developing, healthy league!"

"Compared to those true crises, what is a little brawl? It's not even worth us arguing over!"

"The reason I called you all here today actually has nothing to do with this brawl! For trivial matters like this, we'll just handle it according to the league's rules. Larry, according to our regulations, how should this conflict be handled?"

Larry, the head of the officiating department, said, "Payton initiated and provoked the fight, suspend him for 1-2 games, fine him $30,000 to $50,000. Johnson and Kemp escalated the conflict and aggressively rushed in to provoke. Logically speaking, they should be suspended for 2-5 games, but they didn't actually hit anyone, which is extremely rare in these situations."

At this point, Larry almost laughed out loud, shook his head, and continued, "As for Lin, suspend him for 5-10 games, fine him $50,000 to $100,000. That's about it."

Stern smiled and said, "Let's not make the penalties too heavy this time. I think Payton gets a one-game suspension and a $30,000 fine. As for poor guys like Kemp and Johnson who only took beatings without hitting back, let's skip the suspensions and give them a $20,000 fine. As for Lin, a 5-game suspension and a $50,000 fine. Let's do it that way!"

"Look, problem solved! It's that simple!"

"David, then why on earth did you call us here?" The head of the public relations department spread his hands, looking puzzled.

"It has a little bit to do with this brawl event! Or rather, it has something to do with a certain someone in it." When Stern reached this point, he suddenly paused his train of thought and shifted to a different topic.

"Gentlemen, although the league is currently thriving, and we have even successfully introduced two Canadian teams, we must also admit that the league's development has indeed hit a bottleneck! In the competition against the NFL, MLB, and NHL, we do not hold the advantage; we remain merely the fourth-largest major league."

"Therefore, if we want to continue developing and progressing, our best goal is to set our sights on overseas markets! This is also the most important reason why I have been frantically pushing for professional players to play in the Olympics and striving to get European stars of all backgrounds to enter the NBA to play!"

"We need internationalization, globalization! We need to cast our gaze upon the entire world! This is also the greatest reason why I have been flying around the world over the past 5-6 years, hoping to get them to broadcast, or even broadcast our games for free!"

Pausing for a moment, Stern continued, "We need to build our recognition! But we must admit that our progress has not been smooth. Whether it's Sabonis, Schrempf, or Kukoc—who carried the highest hopes I had—none of them managed to produce the performance and impact I desired. Our development in Europe has been far from ideal!"

"I know this is no one's fault here! It's just that soccer is too popular! Everyone across Europe plays soccer, and there are simply too few people willing to play and watch basketball! So I think we should shift our gaze away from Europe and look toward Asia!"

"A rapidly developing, economically booming region that is no longer a wasteland! Four years ago, I traveled alone to China! That massive country with a population of one billion! That country that was so utterly unfamiliar to us! The speed of its development would definitely exceed all of your expectations!"

"Tall buildings, all kinds of modern cities, and all sorts of new gadgets—their capital city is probably more prosperous and bustling than half the cities in America! I waited there for a full five hours just to meet with their officials."

"And the opportunity I secured was merely sending them a videotape every week so they could broadcast a 20-minute game highlight reel during their news or a specific time slot!"

"At the time, many people didn't understand why I was acting so humble, or why I was bowing and scraping before a developing nation. But right now, I want all of you to understand why I did that!"