Chen Qiang plans to create the NBA league in advance. However, Chen Qiang also knows that it is not an easy task to create the NBA, one of the four major sports leagues in the United States.

Chen Qiang is not worried about the financial problem, he has money now, even if he buys Madison Garden Plaza, he has more than 10 million US dollars in cash, which is more than enough to support a sports league at that time.

However, a sports league must first have enough teams, and if there is no team support, the sports league will be difficult to cook.

As early as 1925, the United States established a basketball league, the American Basketball League, referred to as ABL. Historically, this alliance lasted until 1955, when it came to an end.

The management of the ABL league is relatively loose, or they have not formed a standard management system at all, and the teams are basically independent, so the management of the entire ABL is also relatively chaotic, and therefore the mobility of the team is also relatively large, many teams are only established to play for one season, and they are disbanded the next year, and even some new teams sign up for the new season of the ABL, but they are disbanded without playing a game. In the 30-year history of the ABL, there have been very few teams that have been able to play three seasons in a row.

The Great Depression of 1929 was a huge blow to the ABL, and from 1931 to 1933, the ABL even suspended all competitions due to the Great Depression, and by the time the games restarted in 1934, there were only two or three teams left in the past.

There is a saying that the iron battalion is a flowing soldier, which is the best way to describe the sports league. In the future NBA, there are many fans who are fans of the team, even if the team has no stars and the record is not good, but the fans will still support the team. For example, the Los Angeles Lakers, there are a lot of "lake honey" in China, when there is Kobe, the "lake honey" will not miss any Lakers game, after Kobe retired, the "lake honey" still pays attention to the Lakers' every move, looking forward to the day when the Lakers can return to the top.

However, the ABL league is not only a flowing soldier, but even the camp is a flowing water, and a team can say goodbye after playing season after season, and it is impossible to accumulate a fan base at all. If there are no fans, let alone any commercial operation, and you can't even sell tickets. As a result, the team is not profitable, and the ABL league cannot develop.

And the inability to bring profits to the team owners, and the team owners have withdrawn, no one will do a loss-making business, so this has become a vicious circle, ABL is getting worse and worse, it can be said that the earliest basketball league born in the United States, originally had a good hand, but in the end it was broken.

After the establishment of the NBA in the future, the ABL was gradually marginalized, eventually becoming a niche league, and then completely disappeared.

In addition to the ABL, American basketball also has a National Basketball League, which is the NBL league.

The NBL was founded in 1937 as the Midwest Basketball Conference (MBC), founded in 1935 by the well-known company General Electric. Although it is called "Midwest", in fact, the NBL is all central teams, which are completely out of line with the American West. Before 1948, the westernmost team in the NBL was the Minneapolis Lakers in Minnesota, which in turn relied on the Great Lakes. In the future, the team became a Western team completely, and they moved to Los Angeles and became the Los Angeles Lakers familiar to fans, and the Lakers got their name because they had more lakes when they were in Minnesota.

However, the time of the creation of this NBL league is a bit embarrassing, in 1937, the Japanese army has begun a full-scale invasion of China, and then a war broke out in Europe, which makes the NBL league not develop much. Finally, in 1949, at the age of 12, the NBL merged with BAA, another basketball league in the United States, to form a new league, the National Basketball Associatio, which is now the NBA.

The third basketball league in the United States is the Basketball Association of America, which was established in 1946, and it is the predecessor of the NBA, BAA.

In the BAA league, there are many teams that are still playing in the NBA in the future, such as the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics, which have not relocated since the original BAA was founded. Then there are the Minneapolis Lakers, the Fort Wayne Pistons and the Rochester Royals, who made the switch from the NBL to BAA in 1948, the predecessors of the Los Angeles Lakers, Detroit Pistons and the Sacramento Kings, respectively. In addition, the Philadelphia Warriors, the predecessor of the Golden State Warriors, also joined the BAA league when it was founded, so the Golden State Warriors are also one of the oldest teams in the NBA.

What Chen Qiang wants to create is an alliance similar to BAA.

In the first year of BAA's existence, there were only 11 teams, so if Chen Qiang wanted to form a new league, he had to find at least eight to ten teams, otherwise he would be a little weak.

Finding a new team to join is nothing more than two ways, one is to form a team by yourself, and the other is to poach from other leagues. Chen Qiang decided to take a two-pronged approach, he wanted to set up his own team to play in the new league, and at the same time, he also wanted to recruit teams from other leagues as much as possible.

But before that, Chen Qiang still has to find a few like-minded people, the so-called three gangs of heroes, if he is just one person, he has no ability to run a basketball league.

Chen Qiang first found Edward Ireland, a basketball promoter who was one of the eleven founders of the BAA league and the first president of the New York Knicks.

During the Great Depression, Edward Ireland often rented Madison Square Garden to hold some basketball-related promotional activities, and after Chen Qiang acquired Madison Square Garden, he naturally knew Edward Ireland.

In the mid-forties, Edward-Ireland events had an average attendance of more than 18,000 people, and these 18,000 people were the first fans of the New York Knicks when they were founded.

Chen Qiang wants to build a team in New York, and the best way to attract fans is naturally through Edward Ireland, a veteran basketball promoter who can get at least 18,000 spectators with him.

Basketball is not like boxing, and what gambling is involved, basketball promoters like Edward Ireland mainly rely on holding events to accumulate fame, and then write for the media for a living.

……

Chen Qiang pushes a check in front of Edward Ireland.

Edward Ireland looked at Chen Qiang with a restrained expression, because he knew that the person in front of him was the new owner of Madison Square Garden. Ordinary people will feel restrained when facing a multimillionaire.

"Mr. Chen, I don't know what you need me to do for you?" Edward Ireland asked.

"Mr. Ireland, I intend to form a new basketball league and form a new basketball team. I hope you can help me and join my team. Chen Qiang said.

Edward Ireland hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Mr. Chen, are you going to put me in charge of the publicity and promotion of the new team?" ”

"More than that, I know Mr. Ireland has a lot of connections in the sport of basketball, so I want you to be the manager of the new team." Chen Qiang replied.

Edward Ireland was immediately moved, and if he could join a team and take on the management role, it would indeed be his dream job.

"What exactly will I be responsible for?" Edward Ireland asked.

Chen Qiang pondered for a moment and replied: "Although I am an athlete, I am not very familiar with American basketball, and I don't know how to find some excellent players to form my team. So if you're willing to help me, you have to find the right players for me first. I want my players to be good enough to play a good game. ”

Edward Ireland nodded, he also understood what Chen Qiang meant, if he found a player who could satisfy Chen Qiang, then he would get some more important work in the future, and he could get more power in the team's management.

Edward Ireland looked at the check in his hand again, and then stretched out his right hand: "Mr. Chen, I am more than happy to serve you!" ”

……

In basketball in the United States, Edward Ireland has plenty of connections to find the right basketball players for Chen Qiang, the right basketball coach, basketball management professionals, and he can also find enough viewers for Chen Qiang.

After getting Edward Ireland, Chen Qiang rushed to Boston, and the person he wanted to meet this time was named Walter Brown, who was also one of the founders of the BAA league, and he was also the general manager of the Boston Garden Coliseum and the founder of the Boston Celtics.

Historically, Walter Brown was the initiator of the BAA League.

Boston has a large stadium called Boston Garden Coliseum, which is the home of the hockey NHL Bruins, and in the future will also become the home of the Boston Celtics, who have won nine championships here, so it is also the home of the famous devils in the NBA. The stadium was demolished in 1998, and the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins moved to TD North Shore Garden Course.

It is worth mentioning that the person who initiated the construction of Boston Garden was the "boxing promoter" Rickard, who was the third generation of Madison Garden Plaza. Rickard originally established Boston Garden to promote boxing betting, but the owner of Boston Garden was not Rickard, he was jointly funded by several local businessmen in Boston.

Walter Brown is the general manager of Boston Garden, and he also owns some shares in Boston Garden. In the mid-forties, Boston Garden was also facing a poor situation, and the Bruins' ice hockey games alone were not enough to keep Boston Garden afloat, so Walter Brown decided to hold basketball games to make money, and he advocated for the formation of the BAA League, and mortgaged his house to form the Boston Celtics.

Chen Qiang has read relevant content in some NBA historical materials, and he knows that Walter Brown is the founder of the Celtics and the initiator of BAA, so Chen Qiang plans to pull Walter Brown into the team.

……

At Boston Garden Stadium, Chen Qiang met Walter Brown.

Walter Brown was born into a family of athletes, a young athlete and ice hockey coach, while his father served as an official of the U.S. Olympic Committee and coach of the U.S. National Track and Field Team.

As a sports practitioner, Walter Brown has heard of Chen Qiang's name for a long time, and he received Chen Qiang very warmly. After a few words of greeting, Chen Qiang also explained his intention.

"Mr. Brown, I recently bought Madison Square Garden." Chen Qiang said very directly.

"I've heard it." Walter Brown nodded, and as the general manager of Boston Garden, he naturally looked out for the situation at other big city stadiums.

Chen Qiang continued; "But I found it very difficult to run such a large sports venue, and frankly, the current business model, Madison Garden Plaza is in a state of loss."

"It's true, it's hard for a big stadium not to lose money." Walter Brown paused, then asked, "So this time Mr. Chen came to me in the hope that I could give you some experience in running a large stadium?" ”

"It would be nice to be able to learn from you, but that's not the main purpose of my trip." Chen Qiang replied.

"Then what is the so-called matter when Mr. Chen came to me?" Walter Brown asked.

"I'm going to start a basketball team and make money by hosting basketball games at Madison Square Garden." Chen Qiang said very directly.

Walter Brown suddenly showed a "heroes see the same thing" expression, but he still said: "Mr. Chen, your idea is very good, but the ABL and NBL games are held on small venues, can a basketball game be held in a large venue like Madison Garden?" ”

At that time, in the United States, ABL and NBL games were played in small venues, and in some cases even in dance halls or high school gymnasiums.

This is like watching a movie, going to see the IMAX giant screen is definitely more than going to the video hall, no matter what movie, if you can go to the IMAX giant screen, you can lean on the blockbuster, and if it is played in the video hall, I don't know what kind of unhealthy little movie I think!

It's the same with basketball, going to a high school gymnasium to play a game, or even going to a dance hall to play a game, and the level goes down all of a sudden. On the contrary, if you go to a top stadium like Madison Square Garden to play a game, then basketball suddenly seems to be taller, and a more lofty sport is definitely more conducive to development.

After listening to Walter Brown's question, Chen Qiang began to say his plan: "I think that the current ABL and NBL are too small, and this kind of small-scale sports league will only drag basketball back, relying on ABL or NBL, basketball will never develop into a sport like baseball or rugby, so I plan to establish a new basketball league!" ”

Walter Brown was slightly surprised, he didn't expect Chen Qiang's ambition to be so big, he didn't just want a team, not just to make Madison Square Square money, but to have a new basketball league, even to the scale of baseball and football.

Chen Qiang continued: "Mr. Brown, I need your help, and I hope you can support me and build a new basketball league." ”

"How do you want me to support me?" Walter Brown asked.

"Start a new basketball team in Boston, and join us!" Chen Qiang replied.

Walter Brown gasped, apparently soothed by Chen Qiang's idea.

Historically, Walter Brown didn't have the courage to mortgage real estate to establish the Boston Celtics until 1946, and now it's only 1942, and Chen Qiang proposed the same thing four years in advance, which immediately caught Walter Brown off guard.

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