The basketball league established by Chen Qiang is about to enter its third season. Before the season begins, Chen Qiang received good news that a newly established team is willing to join the new league.

This newly established team is located in Chicago. The team owner Morris White opened a gear production factory in Chicago, so the newly established team is also called the Chicago Gear Team.

World War II made the United States' industrial system full of fire, and the necessary parts of gear machinery products, so Morris White also made a lot of money. As a basketball enthusiast, Morris White planned to set up a basketball team.

The Chicago Gears in history were also established in 1944 and then joined the NBL League at that time. This team persisted until 1948. That year, NBL and NBA merged. Teams such as the Lakers and Nuggets chose to join the NBA. The Gears formed another league called professional basketball league of the frame (PBLA) with other teams. However, this league was disbanded without even holding on for a season. After all, even the NBA was on the verge of bankruptcy at that time, and it was even hard for other basketball leagues to survive.

It is worth mentioning that when legendary superstar George McCann graduated from university, he signed with the Chicago Gears because George McCann attended the university at DePaul College in Chicago. George McCann also helped the Chicago Gears win the 1947 NBL championship. Later, the NBL and the NBA merged, and the Gears quickly disbanded. George McCann went to the Minneapolis Lakers, which is the future Los Angeles Lakers, and became the first legendary superstar in NBA history.

Now Chen Qiang has established a new basketball league, and the new basketball league is obviously more popular with the audience, so the Chicago Gears did not choose NBL, but chose Chen Qiang's new basketball league.

With a new team joining, Chen Qiang is naturally very welcome, and the city where the Gears are located is a big city like Chicago. You should know that in that era, the second largest city in the United States was not Los Angeles, but Chicago.

To develop professional sports in big cities, it is definitely much better than that in small cities. Team owners can get more profits, and sports leagues can also expand their influence. Chicago is also one of the famous "Sports Holy City" in the United States. Sports is very marketable in this city.

But unfortunately, in the 1940s, basketball was not even ranked in the top five in the city of Chicago. In the future, basketball can occupy a place in Chicago, mainly because Chicago had a Michael Jordan.

Chicago people love track and field athletics very much. The city often holds some track and field competitions, and Chicago's marathons will also be world-famous for the future.

In addition, the gambling industry has driven Chicago's boxing and horse racing, and boxing is very popular all over the United States. The very developed Chicago animal husbandry industry has also promoted horse racing. For many Chicago people, going to the horse racing park to watch a horse racing competition on weekends is an indispensable leisure activity.

Chicago is located in a relatively northerly location. The winter here is really cold. The average temperature in the coldest month can reach minus 10 degrees Celsius, and the lowest temperature of minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius is also common. Many people in the United States even think that Chicago is the coldest place in the United States. In this cold climate, it is inevitable that ice hockey is very popular, so since the 1920s, ice hockey has always been in full swing in Chicago.

Baseball is also very popular in Chicago. After all, before the 1980s, baseball was always the largest sports in the United States. In terms of popularity, basketball is impossible to compare with baseball. Even in the future, baseball still occupies a huge market in Chicago. Just imagine that even Michael Jordan would choose to play baseball after retirement. It can be seen how popular baseball is in this city.

Rugby is in a state of ice and fire in Chicago. College football is very popular. College football can attract more than 50,000 spectators. However, NFL in professional football has been very coldly accepted. It is difficult for the Chicago Bears to attract 5,000 spectators in NFL. This is also related to the general environment at that time. After all, that era was the most difficult era in the NFL league. In the future, rugby became the largest sport in the United States. The Chicago Bears, known for their defense, is also a team that is deeply loved by Chicago people.

In a sports environment like Chicago, it is not easy for basketball to gain a place.

Before 1939, Chicago had never had a professional basketball team. It was not until 1939 that Chicago had its first professional basketball team appeared and joined the NBL League, but it went bankrupt after only three seasons. Chicago Gears is the second professional basketball team in the city of Chicago.

The future Chicago Bulls was established in 1966. In the first twenty years of its establishment, although the Chicago Bulls had achieved good results, they could only barely gain a foothold in Chicago. The Chicago people's love for other sports far exceeds basketball. For the Chicago people, the Bulls' games are just a spare tire for other sports. When there are no other sports, they will watch basketball games. Fortunately, the Chicago Bulls chose Michael Jordan in 1984 and created the basketball era that belonged to the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s. From then on, in Chicago, basketball can compete with other sports.

Chen Qiang had a premonition that the newly established Chicago Gears might have to go through a long time to gain a foothold in Chicago until they are fully recognized by the Chicago people.

The Chicago Gears in history lasted for four years before they were disbanded. Now that the basketball rules have been revised by Chen Qiang, the basketball game in the new league should be more beautiful. Chen Qiang thinks the Chicago Gears should be able to persist for a longer time.

The operating costs of the team in the 1940s were not as exaggerated as later generations. If 2,000 tickets were sold in a game, it would be enough to maintain the team's operations. In a big city like Chicago, selling 2,000 tickets was not difficult.

The more people watch the game, the more the team earns. At that time, the Chicago Stadium could only accommodate 6,000 spectators. The owner of the Gears team, Morris White, obviously thought the venue was too small, so the Chicago Gears rented the Chicago Drama International Theater as its home stadium, which could accommodate 9,000 spectators.

A newly established team is completely unfamiliar to the audience. Even if it is playing at home, it will not attract too many local fans. However, the stars of other teams are a highlight. Many Chicago people buy tickets to watch the game, perhaps not to watch the Gears, but to watch the New York Knicks, to watch the Boston Celtics, or to watch the Philadelphia Warriors.

It's like the NBA is coming to China to play a preseason game. Neither side of the game is a Chinese team, but the fans are very willing to spend a lot of money to buy tickets to watch the game, just to be able to watch a NBA game at home. For example, the Chinese Super League team invites the La Liga giants to play a friendly match in China, and it will definitely be full of the whole game. The fans are not visiting their own Chinese Super League teams, but visiting the La Liga giants.

This way of making money by using the reputation of the opponent is the best way for the new team to make money, and it is also the way for the Chicago Gears to survive in the past few seasons. The Gears do not expect many local Chicago fans to support themselves. They just hope that when those strong teams visit, they can sell some tickets for the reputation of the strong team.

...

After confirming that the Chicago Gears join, Chen Qiang launched a reform plan for the new season.

In the first year of the new league's establishment, Chen Qiang introduced new rules such as three-second zone expansion and 24-second offensive violations, and set up another draft rule during the season. By the second day, Chen Qiang planned an All-Star weekend, which was also a reform of the new league.

Now is the third year of the new alliance, Chen Qiang has once again introduced a reform plan.

"Add an annual award ceremony? After the season ends, select the major awards of this season and hold awards for the winning players?" Boston Celtics boss Walter Brown looked at him hesitantly, as if waiting for Chen Qiang's explanation.

Chen Qiang said, "Everyone should know about the Academy Awards? I also plan to create an award ceremony like that. The Academy Awards include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and other awards, and we can also create similar awards. For example, the best team of the season, regular season MVP, Best Defensive Player, Scoring King, Rebound King, Assistant King, Best Sixth Person, Best Rookie, Best Coach, etc...."

"Is this good for us?" someone asked.

"Of course there are benefits. First of all, you can create topics and expand the popularity and influence of the league. To put it bluntly, it is to build momentum for our league by holding an award ceremony. Don't forget that in the United States now, we are not the only basketball league, we have always been in competition with the two basketball leagues of nbl and abl; and in the United States, there is not only basketball, a professional sports, baseball, rugby, and ice hockey, but also our competitors. If our league wants to survive and continue to grow, we must constantly build momentum for ourselves." Chen Qiang said.

Everyone nodded, and no one would object to the survival and development of the alliance.

Chen Qiang continued: "Secondly, I hope to create a competitive atmosphere through this award ceremony. For example, the scoring champion I mentioned will be awarded to the player with the highest average score, so the players who want to compete for this honor will definitely work hard to score. By the same token, those who want to compete for the rebounding champion will work hard to grab rebounds, and those who want to win the assist king will try their best to make beautiful passes. In this way, the players will work harder to play, and the game will become more exciting. The more exciting games will also attract more fans, so that our league can develop better."

"Mr. Chen, what you said makes sense. A wonderful game is indeed the foundation of a sport. But I have a question, such as why is the scoring leader the person with the highest average score, not the person with the highest total score in the season?" someone asked.

"Because players will suffer injuries," Chen Qiang continued: "Injuries are difficult to avoid during the whole long season. If the scorer is evaluated according to the total score of the season, when a player is injured and has to suspend the game for three or five games, he will completely bid farewell to the scorer's competition, which is unfair to the player, and the player will also give up the competition for the scorer."

"It's like when a person knows that his test scores will not pass, will he still study hard? The same is true for players. Once a player withdraws from the award competition early, it is difficult for you to guarantee that he will play harder in the next game as before. The original intention of setting up awards is to stimulate competition among players, so I hope this competition can last longer, rather than letting many people choose to give up in the middle."

"Will there be such a situation where a player only played one or two games and averaged a very high score per game, and then he was injured and did not participate in the next game. However, because his average average was very high, he would still win the scoring champion according to the rules. Isn't this very unfair for other players who have played all season?" the man asked.

"So I set a premise that if I want to win the scoring champion, I need to participate in more than 80% of the season's games. This will eliminate the behavior of relying on only a few games to brush data." Chen Qiang replied.

Before 1968, the NBA's scoring champions were based on total scores, and the result was the situation Chen Qiang said. A certain player was ranked very high and had the hope of winning the scoring champion, but he missed several games due to injury and instantly lost the qualification to compete for the scoring champion. Because if the total score is relatively large, all-time players will definitely have an advantage.

Players who are absent from injury know that they are destined to be unable to win the award of the scoring champion, so they will not score desperately. If the players do not work hard, the viewing of the game will be greatly reduced. Therefore, as the schedule progresses, many stars will become less and less able to play.

So the NBA began to change the selection rules of the scoring champion in the 1969 season, using average scores as the evaluation criteria, and stipulated that elected players must meet one of the two conditions of participating in at least 57 games or having a total score of more than 1,400 points. At that time, the NBA did not have 30 teams, and 57 games accounted for more than 80% of all games. By 2011, the scoring champion, rebounding champion and assist king were changed to 70% of the game.

...

After the meeting, Chen Qiang's plan for the annual award ceremony was still approved unanimously.

However, Leicester Harris, general manager of the Rochester Royals, specifically called Chen Qiang.

"Mr. Chen, can you talk to you alone?" Leicester Harris looked around, then lowered his voice and continued: "I want to talk to you about the Royals."

Chen Qiang was shocked. He wondered if the royal team could not be able to support it and would withdraw!
Chapter completed!