Chapter 322 The Beginning
Since its birth, the All-Star Game of the four major sports leagues in the United States, the selection system of All-Star players has been constantly changing. In fact, this change is a process of continuous compromise and coordination between fans, players and teams.
The operation of the commercial sports league is inseparable from fans. From a certain perspective, fans are God, so the selection of All-Star players must take care of the preferences of fans. However, if all the choices of All-Star players are handed over to fans, some unfairness will occur to the players.
Fans will only choose All-Star players based on their preferences. For example, if a player is crazy liked by fans, even if his strength does not reach the All-Star level, or he is reimbursed for the season due to injury, or his condition this season is very poor, fans can still push him to the All-Star.
On the contrary, a player has the strength of an All-Star, but because he is not popular among fans or is in a small football market with fewer fans, he will not be able to enter the All-Star in the end, which is obviously unfair to him.
In the history of NBA, in the years when fans selected All-Star players, the 24 All-Star players selected each year did not change much. There are even many so-called All-Star "nail users". No matter how they are in their data or what kind of injury status they are, they will firmly occupy an All-Star position. As for many powerful new faces, it is difficult to enter the All-Star lineup.
Compared with fans, the head coaches of each team, players of each team and those sports journalists are much stronger than fans in terms of professionalism. They do not only look at the data, but also look at the players' contributions to the team. The All-Star players in the eyes of professionals are often very different from the All-Star players in the eyes of fans. In theory, the most fair way for players to vote for All-Stars is also the most fair way for players, and it can also objectively reflect the players' strength this season.
But if the All-Star selection power is handed over to professionals, fans will be unhappy. If the fans are unhappy, the ratings of the All-Star weekend will drop. As a business league, you must never ignore the feelings of fans.
In the end, the All-Star selection rules have evolved over decades and have become a combination of fans and professionals. The voting of fans and reporters decides the starting lineup of the All-Star, while the All-Star substitute is voted by the coaching team.
Now, Chen Qiang decided to adopt this kind of selection method that combines fans and professionals, which can not only take care of fans, but also ensure fairness in the selection of All-Stars.
However, Chen Qiang's new basketball league has only nine teams, and all teams are concentrated in the eastern United States, so there is no situation of all-star confrontation between the east and west.
Chen Qiang simply borrowed the model of the future All-Star Game, first producing 24 All-Star players, and then asked the two All-Star head coaches to pick people and play a confrontation game.
Chen Qiang has a complete plan for hosting the All-Star Game, and the senior executives of other teams did not object. For them, this All-Star Game is also very new. If it can be held smoothly, it can indeed bring benefits to each team. Not to mention, even if one or two stars are selected for each team, it can also attract more fans to pay attention to the team.
So in the end, everyone voted to pass the proposal to hold the first All-Star Game, and the venue for the first All-Star Game was chosen in Madison Square Garden in New York.
...
The new season has begun, and the opening game is the New York Knicks vs. Rochester Royals.
As a fan of the New York Knicks, Martin booked tickets for the entire season early. Today is ticketing day. He excitedly ran to the ticket office in Madison Square Garden and then got tickets for the opening game.
"The tickets printed are different from last season, and they seem to be bigger than last season's tickets." Martin turned the tickets over and found that there was a blank area on the back of the tickets, and there was a line of small words next to them: "The first All-Star Game, vote for your favorite players."
"All-Star Game? I remember that baseball's mlb also has the All-Star Game, right? But baseball's All-Star Game is where the two strongest teams play one, and fans don't have the right to choose the All-Star player." Martin said to himself.
Immediately afterwards, Martin saw several ballot boxes in front of the entrance to Madison Square Garden.
"All-Star player ballot box, fans only need to write down their favorite players' names in the blank area of the ballot ticket, and then put the votes into the ballot box, even if the vote is completed." Martin nodded silently.
"Who should I vote for? There are several players in the New York Knicks who I like! Let's wait until the game starts and see how the players perform! Anyway, the voting deadline is over until the beginning of next year, and it's not too late to vote then." Martin said in his heart.
...
Max Zaslowski is a New Yorker and he is also the No. 1 pick this year.
A few months ago, Max Zaslowski was still worried about whether to join the army or participate in the new league draft. Finally, he accepted the trial invitation and came to Madison Square Garden for a trial. As a result, all teams showed great interest in this strong inside player with excellent scoring ability.
As a New Yorker, Max Zaslowski still hopes to play in the Knicks, but unfortunately things went against their expectations. The Knicks' ranking last season was impossible to have a high pick, and they could not choose an excellent athlete like Max Zaslowski. In the end, the Rochester Royals, who ranked last last season, selected him with the first pick.
After all, the Rochester Royals have been transformed into professional teams. If Chen Qiang had not given a large sponsorship, the Rochester Royals would have to struggle for several more years before they would become a professional team. As a team that has just moved into professional teams, it is normal that the Rochester Royals are relatively weak, and it was not surprising that they were at the bottom of the league last season.
But it was the league that was at the bottom, when they got Max Zaslowski, the top scorer.
The honor of Max Zaslowsky in history was able to maintain the honor of the youngest first team for 60 years, which shows that he had already had the level of top athletes when he was young. His honor was broken by LeBron James. It is no exaggeration to say that if the draft environment of later generations was applied to 1943, Max Zaslowsky received no less than LeBron James in 2003.
Max Zaslowski's first game of the new season was against the New York Knicks away.
For Max Zaslowski, it is a blessing that the first professional basketball game can be played again in his hometown, but it’s a pity that he is wearing the visiting team uniform.
"That's my son, that tall man is my son!" On the sidelines, Max Zaslowski's parents introduced to the audience around them with a proud look on their faces.
A person next to him said, "It's quite hard for you to come to New York from Rochester to cheer for your son."
"No, we are originally New Yorkers, we live in Brooklyn," replied Zaslowski's father.
The other party was slightly surprised and then asked, "Why didn't your son go to Rochester to play in the Knicks?"
"My son is the No. 1 pick in the draft this year, and the Rochester Royals are the first to choose him!" The father introduced with a proud look on his face.
"So he is a newcomer, so I hope he can perform well!" The other party said casually, obviously not taking Zaslowski, the No. 1 pick, seriously.
The father seemed to have not noticed that the other party was just dealing with it casually, and he spoke, "If my son performs well, you should write his name on the All-Star votes. Remember, his name is Max Zaslowsky."
...
Two hours later, the game ended, and the man really wrote the name "Max Zaslowsky" on his name, even though he was a visiting team player.
In this game, Max Zaslowski performed very well, scoring 24 points, which was definitely a star-level data at the time. Although the Royals lost the game due to insufficient depth on the bench, Max Zaslowski's performance made people see the future hope of the Royals.
When Max Zaslowski came to an end, many spectators stood up to cheer him. Although he was not a Knicks player, he was a New Yorker after all, and in the city of New York, he could get the support and applause of fans.
The Martin, who bought the season ticket, also wrote down Zaslowsky's name on his ticket.
When counting after the game, unexpectedly, in the ballot box in Madison Square Garden, the one who received the most votes was not the New York Knicks players, but Zaslowsky!
The new No. 1 pick Max Zaslowski conquered the New York Knicks audience in just one game.
...
Philadelphia, the Warriors just won the game, and the team's star Joe Folkers scored 26 points with his ability to jump shot.
"Joe! Joe! Joe!" The audience at the scene were shouting Joe Folkes' name.
Joe Falkes smiled knowingly. Judging from the enthusiastic performance of the audience, the All-Star Game held at the beginning of next year will definitely have a place for him.
"Joe, your performance today is amazing!" Teammate walked up and continued, "I heard that there was a shooting competition in the All-Star Game in 2019. Do you want to participate?"
"Shooting competition? Is it a mid-range and long-distance shooting? Haha, this is a game tailor-made for me, of course I want to go!" Joe Falkes nodded with a smile. In his opinion, the championship in the shooting competition is no longer the only one.
...
Although there is no new league basketball team here, as the second largest city in the United States, the advertisements for the All-Star Game have also spread to Chicago.
At DePaul University, on the basketball court, a big man wearing glasses was doing back-and-back training.
The big man's movements seemed a little clumsy, and because of his glasses, he always had to hold the eyes on his nose from time to time, which made his movements even more funny.
Finally, the back-to-back running training was over, and the big man leaned against the wall and started to rest with his companions.
"George, have you heard about it? That new basketball league is going to hold the All-Star Game this year! The athlete selection and voting has begun!" said the companion.
"I saw this news in the newspaper. It is said to be held in New York. Unfortunately, it is a bit far away. Otherwise, I really wanted to go and see it." The big man with glasses said.
"George, I heard that there is a dunk contest in this All-Star Game, which is a special dunk contest. I think you can definitely participate, but you are 6 feet 8 inches tall! Among the professional players, there are not many taller than you," said another person next to him.
The big man wearing glasses smiled and then said, "It's not easy to dunk, and he is a professional basketball player, so he must be much better than me."
The big man said this, but his expression showed a look of yearning. Obviously, he really wanted to try the dunk contest.
This big man with glasses is George McCann, who is now just a freshman at DePaul University. At this time, George McCann has not yet mastered the skills of dominating the basket. He is clumsy, not fast enough, his ability to confrontation is not that excellent, his bounce level is relatively average, and he is still myopic. In addition to his height, this future superstar is useless!
...
The promotion about the All-Star Game is overwhelming. Since the baseball MLB has held the All-Star Game for ten years, Americans are not unfamiliar with the All-Star Game, and many people have even watched the All-Star Game with their own eyes.
However, things like skills challenge, shooting competition and dunk competition are unheard of and unseen. This may be the only place that the American people find fresh.
People who play sports will be competitive and competitive. Every athlete wants to win the game. Those with a more Buddhist mentality will definitely not become excellent athletes. So when the new league is about to hold the All-Star Game, every player in the league hopes that they can be selected. Even those substitutes hope that good luck will come to them.
For players, being selected as an All-Star is not only an honor, but also a recognition from fans.
After the first month of the new season, the league also announced the situation of the first month of All-Star players voting.
The top players are naturally happy, while the bottom players are not so happy. Some players even feel that their strength is not weaker than the previous players, and they are even stronger, so they should get more votes.
After this All-Star voting ranking was released, it stimulated many players, especially those who only think they are very capable, who are definitely unwilling to fall behind. In order to get more votes, they began to play harder and show their abilities on the field.
A voting for an All-Star Game actually aroused the players' sense of competition. As the competition among players became more and more intense, the game became more and more exciting.
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Chapter completed!