The Thunder's championship was touching enough, and Durant's words to the Thunder fans in his final FMVP speech, "You are the MVP," became a classic.

Defeating the villain boss (Warriors) and finally winning the championship, this result can be said to be the most talked-about result in the current NBA.

However, this still cannot change the fact that this year's finals recorded the lowest ratings in nearly a decade.

To put it bluntly, the NBA cake was originally very big. Even if you didn't make it delicious sometimes, there would still be a lot of people willing to pay for it. But now the cake is less than half of its original size. Even if you make it fancy, the number of people who will eat it is still limited.

When the season ended, the bosses looked at the financial reports in their hands and fell into silence.

Their income did not become half as much as the ratings did, but it was much less than that.

The situation is better for teams like the Thunder and Warriors, which performed well last season, and the Knicks and Lakers, which have a solid foundation, but some small-market teams even have fiscal deficits.

This also led to many chain reactions.

The first is the salary cap. The salary cap for the new season will be lower than expected, which will disrupt many teams' plans for the new season.

The second is team investment. When a team has a financial deficit and cannot see the future (Xu Yong will be an assistant coach in the NCAA next season), the teams will naturally reduce investment, which is manifested in controlling team salaries and reducing advertising investment.

A further impact of these changes is that there are fewer transactions in the market and less player liquidity, which has led to a decline in expectations for the new season and a further decline in ratings.

It can be said that the NBA is now on the road to a vicious cycle and chronic death.

Xu Yong, who can change this situation, has already started leading the team to play NCAA warm-up games together with Sandek.

You may not believe it, but this warm-up match against a second-tier league team was held in a small stadium that could only accommodate more than 3,000 people, but it was already packed with fans. A large number of fans gathered in the aisles, stairs, and even outside the stadium, even though there was no large LED screen outside to watch the live broadcast.

The person who made all this happen couldn't be the opponent of the Devil Team, nor could it be the Devil Team. It could only be Xu Yong.

Because the opponent was weak, Sandek did not come to the scene for this game, but was replaced by assistant coach Xu Yong.

When the head coaches of both teams were introduced before the game and Xu Yong from the Devil team stood up in a handsome suit, the scene quickly became boiling.

It has been a whole year. They haven't seen Xu Yong in a formal competition for a whole year.

Although Xu Yong was wearing a suit, it did not affect their desire to watch the game at all.

The game started quickly, and the Devils team did not defeat their opponents as easily as expected, and the situation on the field was extremely intense.

When Xu Yong and his teammates led the Devils to win the championship, Arizona State University was considered to be in its heyday and attracted many star high school students to join. It was a regular in the championship for several consecutive years.

As time went by, the influence of the championship gradually faded, and star high school students no longer chose this place.

Because essentially, these star high school students want to become famous, have exposure, be noticed by scouts, and then be selected to enter the NBA.

Without high-quality students, the Devils' strength declined and they became the bottom team in the Pac-10 League again.

This season is naturally different. Xu Yong's joining means that the Devils will once again become the focus of outside attention. Finally, Cam Reddish, a five-star high school student ranked second in the 2018 class, and Jaylen Smith, ranked 16th, joined the team one after another.

I don’t know if it’s because they are too young to fight hard, or if the pressure on the scene affected their performance, or if the opponents wanted to use such an opportunity to prove that they fought hard. In short, the situation on the field was in a stalemate.

Xu Yong was very calm at first. After all, he had to realize that he was now a coach, not a player.

But later on, he began to feel a little restless, because these people were such bad fighters!

He walked to the sidelines, and because the bench was on the defensive end at the start of the game, he loudly reminded his players of their defensive positions, wishing he was the one standing on the court.

When he was standing on the sidelines and saw Reddish missing shots in open positions one after another, he couldn't help but slap his forehead.

Apart from anything else, he truly felt the tiredness of being a head coach tonight. It was not physical, but psychological and heart-wrenching.

And the key is that he can only watch, which is more torturous than playing on the court himself.

After a while, he was already sweating profusely.

The NCAA only has 20 minutes each half. When there were a few minutes left in the first half, he was so hot that he started taking off his jacket.

It was at this time that the commentator on the sidelines uttered the classic line: "The head coach of the Devil's team has already started warming up!"

A hot piece of knowledge is that the domestic CBA league allows head coaches to play on the court, but there is no such rule in the NCAA.

In the end, the Devil's team changed their mentality in the second half, played a wave of games to widen the score and eventually won the victory. Xu Yong also won his first victory in his coaching career.

At the end of the game, Xu Yong and the players of the Devils team bumped fists one by one, and also gave a big hug to Reddish who rebounded in the second half.

This coaching experience is very special and meaningful to him because he needs to guide the players' mentality during the halftime.

He did not choose to scold his players, but instead asked them to forget about themselves and the audience around them and do what they were good at.

This ultimately worked because, essentially, they had more talent than their opponents, but they just didn't use it.

The Devils got off to a good start and then they won back-to-back games in their warm-up games.

It may sound strange to say it, but you can clearly feel that Xu Yong, who cannot play, has become the biggest source of confidence for the players on the field.

Such performance also brought subsequent impacts.

We all know that fans often watch things for the sake of novelty. Last season's NBA attracted a lot of attention at the beginning, but the ratings kept falling afterwards.

However, Xu Yong's gimmick, coupled with the Devil's team's record, has increased the outside world's attention on them.

One reality is that Xu Yong not only dominates the court as a player, but he is also winning as a coach.

This may be the biggest difference between him and Jordan. Jordan can't even understand people, let alone coaching.

When the new NCAA season began, the Devils continued to win games, even defeating Duke University led by Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett. Fans' attention to the Devils even exceeded that of the NBA.

The contrast is even more striking, especially when the new NBA season is still filled with a large number of fake matches and various monotonous three-point competitions.

Although the NCAA has the disadvantages of lower level and relatively poor commerciality compared to the NBA, its authenticity and purity have attracted a large number of new audiences.

The NCAA League Committee also seized the opportunity to increase its publicity efforts. Fans are much more willing to pay to watch the NCAA in the new season than the NBA.

Yes, you read that right. The NCAA seems to be the cradle for training NBA players, but in fact, they are still in competition with each other.

Of course, the premise of all this is Xu Yong.

Just like Tracy McGrady, who can no longer play in the NBA, can ignite the CBA league, even if Xu Yong is wearing a suit and not on the court, the way he directs on the sidelines is enough to attract fans to watch the game.

Now, the NBA is declining even faster.

If the NCAA was not essentially a student league, the capitalists would have already rushed in.

On this day, after Xu Yong led the team to another victory, an unexpected uninvited guest was waiting for him at the locker room door.

Xu Yong recognized him, although he pretended not to know him and was introduced by someone else.

Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft.

Unlike what Xu Yong knew, perhaps because the Clippers did not have Paul, Ballmer did not participate in the competition to acquire the Clippers in 2014, and he is not the owner of any team now.

However, after sitting down and chatting with him, Xu Yong felt from his words that he had the idea of ​​buying the team.

Ballmer, after all, is essentially a person who loves basketball.

In a sense, his current situation is similar to Xu Yong's.

Since he had retired from Microsoft, he needed something new to fill his life.

His second hobby is basketball.

"I want to know, will you go back? Or is there no possibility at all?" Ballmer asked Xu Yong a question that everyone would ask, but the way he asked it was a little different.

Although he loves it, and although buying an NBA team may be just like buying a big toy to him, he is still a businessman after all. Businessmen must pay attention to investment and return. He cannot invest money in an industry where he cannot see any return on investment.

Xu Yong looked at Ballmer.

Everything he has now is essentially to get the NBA back on track, rather than to ruin it. If a boss like Ballmer who is willing to invest in the NBA can join the NBA, it will definitely be a good thing.

"Mr. Ballmer, nothing is completely impossible," he replied with a smile.

Ballmer was stunned for a moment, then laughed and nodded.

There are some things Xu Yong won't say, but the hints are obvious enough.

Time flies and it is now November. The ratings of the new NBA season are terrible, and some bosses are already unable to sit still and are planning to withdraw.

The first person to withdraw was unexpected, but upon closer inspection it was also expected: Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Cuban is a boss who loves basketball so much that he is willing to continuously invest in the team, but he also likes to interfere in the management of the team.

Since Cuban took over, the Mavericks have basically exceeded the luxury tax every year. Whether in history or reality, the Mavericks' salary during their championship season has always been among the top in the league.

The reason why it feels like the weak team defeated the strong one is simply because the team has many veterans and the lineup is incomplete due to injuries.

But now that Nowitzki has retired, the current situation in the league does not allow him to continue to invest heavily. You know, his personal assets are much less than those of other NBA owners.

Even as a boss who loves basketball, he is no longer interested in match-fixing.

That's when Ballmer took action.

He bought the Mavericks from Cuban for $2 billion.

The Mavericks were originally valued at $3 billion before Xu Yong retired, but in just over a year, its market value shrunk by 50% with the decline of the NBA, and it can be said that it has almost returned to its value around 2012.

Moreover, Ballmer bought it at a premium because the other competitors only offered 1.8 billion at most.

The extra 200 million was used to buy his love for basketball.

The completion of this deal also caused another impact on the NBA.

Because the previous market value valuation was higher than the price Ballmer purchased it at.

This becomes the same as the second-hand housing market, where there is a listing price, but the actual transaction price is lower than that price, a classic case of "price without market".

This means that when other team owners want to sell again, they may not even be able to get this price.

At this time, they have only two choices: to run and sell, or to change the status quo.

Different bosses have different choices, but after all, it involves billions of dollars in transactions, and some bosses have begun to reiterate Xu Yong’s original request.

[The only way to save the current NBA is to let Xu Yong come back]. After hitting the wall and trying every possible means, the bosses gradually reached this consensus.

But the situation now is not as easy as it was at the beginning, because it involves breach of contract with the gaming company, which is a considerable expense.

When it comes to money, and a lot of money at that, it's impossible for this to be accomplished so quickly.

However, even though many people began to regret in their hearts, they had to participate in the discussion because if they continued like this, they would only lose more and more money.

Finally, when the time came to 2019 and the bell of the first day of the new year rang, Xu Yong received a call from Tatum.

"Xu, we need to meet."

After learning that the league was ready to cut ties with the gambling companies, Xu Yong agreed to Tatum's proposal to meet at the New York headquarters.

Before leaving, he calculated the time and found that it had been exactly one and a half years since he left the NBA.

This was much faster than he expected.

In fact, although the NBA ratings, including all aspects, have fallen sharply, they have almost returned to the level around 2012.

For those owners who spent only a few hundred million or even tens of millions to buy NBA teams since the 1990s, they are still making a fortune.

But as I said, it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Once you have experienced the value of 3 billion, then it is 3 billion. If it becomes 2 billion, it is a huge loss. For capitalists, they will not compare it with the beginning.

Xu Yong arrived at the NBA headquarters and went directly to the conference room.

On the phone, Tatum had told him that this was not just a meeting between them. He said "we" instead of "I", and this "we" actually refers to the league committee.

So this is the first time in NBA history that players, especially retired players, have participated in a league committee meeting.

There were only two things discussed in the committee. One was already determined, that is, the league would end its cooperation with the gaming company ahead of schedule and pay liquidated damages, which would eventually be shared proportionally by the owners of the league's 30 teams.

The second thing is the reason why Xu Yong came here.

"So, Xu, what is the second condition for your return?" Tatum looked at Xu Yong and asked, and everyone else in the conference room also looked at him.

Xu Yong knew that since he was invited here, there would be no obstacles to his conditions on the second day, so he looked at Tatum and said directly without any cover-up: "You become the president of the league."

When these words were spoken, the bosses were stunned at first, and then there was a burst of discussion.

Because no one expected that Xu Yong’s second condition would be this.

The expression of one person attracted the most attention at this moment, Xiao Hua.

As the league's president, Silver was of course also present at the scene. After hearing Xu Yong's second condition, his face turned purple.

No wonder Xu Yong didn’t say what the second condition was at the beginning. It turned out that he wanted to oust him!

And the key point is that in such an occasion, Xu Yong's request was clearly intended to embarrass him.

Soon, the discussion stopped.

Although not every boss knows why Xu Yong made such a request, after all, there is actually no major public conflict between Xu Yong and Xiao Hua, but compared with the first condition, this condition is much simpler.

So soon, almost all other bosses turned their eyes to Xiao Hua.

In matters like this, we still have to be decent.

After all, Silver is the current president of the league. If word gets out that the league committee voted to vote him out, that would be very unpleasant.

"I..." Xiao Hua's words were stuck in his throat. He looked at Xu Yong with fire in his eyes.

Of course he understood what his bosses were thinking, and it was the most honorable thing for him to do by taking the initiative to resign.

But he obviously didn't want to, not only because the position of NBA president came with a lot of power and benefits, but also because how could he be willing to be ousted by Xu Yong like this!

But in the end, seeing Xu Yong's indifferent expression, he could only choose to say: "I will resign as NBA president."

Yes, he is not decent, and these bosses will help him to be decent.

Although he seems to have gained Stern's original voice in the league committee, he is not Stern after all and cannot become Stern.

"So Xu, when will you return?" Tatum looked at Xu Yong eagerly at this time.

This can be said to be the lowest period of the NBA. If Xu Yong does not return, then becoming the president of the NBA will not make much sense.

Xu Yong's expression was very relaxed at this time. He turned his head and looked at Xiao Hua, as if he was looking at his little tiger named "Joke". He smiled and said calmly, "Anytime."