Chapter 327: Skills Challenge
The first day of All-Star Weekend.
Just over an hour before All-Star Weekend officially begins, crowds are already pouring into Madison Square Garden.
Several cameras were set up on the side of the court in preparation for the television broadcast of the All-Star Game.
After all, New York is the largest city in the United States, with the largest sports market in the entire United States, and with the population size of New York City, it is easy to fill a Madison Garden Plaza.
Chen Qiang and the owners of several other teams sat in the box, and everyone smiled with satisfaction when they saw that the stadium was full.
"It looks like we're going to have a successful All-Star Game." Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown spoke.
Next year's All-Star Game will be held at Boston Garden, so Walter Brown is very concerned about the attendance of the All-Star Game, and he is a little worried that fans will not pay attention to the All-Star Game, but judging from the attendance of Madison Square Garden, Walter Brown's worries are unnecessary.
Chen Qiang is more concerned about the situation of TV broadcasting.
"The Skills Challenge is about to start, and we have no problem with the broadcast signal, right?" Chen Qiang opened his mouth and asked Edward Ireland beside him.
"There's no problem, I've just checked it myself, whether it's a radio signal or a TV signal, there's no problem." Edward-Ireland replied.
"I'm not worried about the broadcast signal, we usually use the radio to broadcast the game, and I am more worried about the transmission of the TV signal, after all, this is the first time we have done a TV broadcast of the game, even the national broadcaster, for TV broadcasting is very little." Chen Qiang said.
At this time, Chen Qiang was not the only one who felt worried, in the commentary seat, Wilson, who was in charge of the TV commentary, also wiped the sweat on his head nervously.
Wilson is a famous sports commentator in New York, he used to be an excellent athlete when he was young, and after becoming a sports commentator, Wilson is also good at commenting on many sports, the most proficient of which is basketball commentary.
Before that, Wilson had brought a lot of wonderful commentary on basketball games to the audience in front of the radio, and he also gained some fans, some of whom did not have a preference for the team, but would turn on the radio and listen to Wilson's commentary, because they liked Wilson's commentary more than the basketball game itself.
And today, Wilson was given the daunting task of commenting on the basketball All-Star Game. What's more, this time he is not commenting on the game for the audience in front of the radio, but for the audience in front of the TV.
Wilson has more than a dozen years of experience as a sports commentator, but this is the first time he has been a TV commentator.
Wilson knew that radio and television were completely different. Using the radio to broadcast sports games, listeners can't see the live game, and the game is all based on Wilson's narration, and it doesn't matter if you occasionally read it wrong or miss it, just keep talking. Sometimes, in order to make the commentary more exciting, he does use some exaggerated descriptions in order to attract a larger audience.
The TV commentary, the audience can see the game footage, and at this time, Wilson can't be allowed to talk nonsense. He can only describe what he sees, not exaggerate, and if he says the wrong thing, he will not be professional enough, which is also a test of Wilson's commentary career.
Not only that, but doing TV commentary is also very risky for Wilson, in case he doesn't say it well and is embarrassed in front of so many TV viewers, then the good reputation he has accumulated over the years will be ruined!
"It's so stressful!" Wilson let out a long sigh, and he even wanted to escape, but when he remembered the $100 commentary fee that Chen Qiang had paid him, Wilson mustered up his courage again.
$100 to narrate a game, which is a sky-high commentary fee. The average weekly salary of an ordinary American is $25, and $100 is equal to a month's salary of ordinary people, and Wilson only needs to explain the game for a few hours to get this $100, which is a temptation that Wilson cannot refuse.
"Mr. Wilson, get ready, it's about to begin!" The voice of the director came from the headphones.
The next moment, Wilson sat upright, then took out the manuscript that had been prepared a long time ago, and waited for the countdown.
……
Williams is a blue-collar worker in a mold factory.
Thanks to the outbreak of World War II, the Allies needed a lot of supplies, which led to a major development of American industry, with almost all factories running non-stop, and blue-collar workers like Williams becoming fragrant buns, working overtime every week. Thanks to the strong labor union organization in the United States, the factory owners are not stingy with overtime pay, so Williams's salary has increased significantly in the past two years.
Williams, who made money, bought a TV set at home, and every day after returning home from work, he opened a bottle of beer, lay on the sofa and watched TV, relieving the fatigue of work, which also became an indispensable entertainment activity for Williams.
That evening, when Williams returned home, he felt a little tired from the hard work, not only physically tired, but also mentally tired, he opened a bottle of beer as usual, then turned on the television, and lay on the couch and watched the TV program.
In this era, you don't need to change the channel to watch TV, anyway, only NBC has TV broadcasts, so turn on the TV set and you can watch a channel, and the audience will watch what is broadcast on it, which saves the trouble of choosing.
The screen of the TV set in this era is also very small, not much larger than the screen of the mobile phone in later generations, and the clarity is not high, so if you are a little farther away, you can't see the content played on the TV at all.
But even so, Williams still watched with relish, compared to listening to the radio on the radio, the visual experience brought by television is indeed much stronger than that of radio.
"Audience friends, what we bring to you next is the live broadcast of the Basketball All-Star Game Skills Challenge!" The announcer's voice came over the TV.
"Basketball All-Star Game? I read it in the newspapers, and it looked like it was held in New York, but I didn't expect it to be televised. It's the first time I've watched a basketball game on TV! "Williamston was interested.
At this time, the voice of Wilson, the live commentator, sounded from the TV: "Dear audience allies, this is New Square Garden in New York, welcome to the first basketball All-Star Game, I am the commentator Michael Wilson......"
Next, Wilson began to introduce the upcoming All-Star Game. The TV was focused on the basketball court, and the props needed for the skills challenge were moved into the court.
"What are those humanoid cardboards for?" Williams stared at the TV with a puzzled expression.
At this point, Wilson also began to introduce the rules of the Skills Challenge.
……
Madison Square Garden.
"Are those items for the Skills Challenge?"
"What are so many props, cardboard in the shape of a human, a basket, and a basketball?"
"Listen, the on-site commentators have already started to introduce the rules of the Skills Challenge."
"Look, there's still someone demonstrating."
In the skills challenge of the All-Star Game in the future, the official will make a CG animation to introduce the rules, but there is no such condition in TV broadcasts in this era, so Chen Qiang simply found someone to demonstrate the process of the skills challenge on the spot, so that the audience can more easily understand the process of the skills challenge.
After a while, the person in charge of the demonstration completed the whole set of demonstration process, whether it was the audience at the scene or the audience in front of the TV, basically understood, as for the audience in front of the radio, they could only make up for it with a confused face.
"So it's like this, dribbling around those humanoid templates, then passing the ball into the frame, then hitting a ball, then going around and coming back, again with a pass, followed by a layup."
"It looks very simple, it's nothing more than dribbling, passing and shooting, I think I can do it!"
"These projects look simple, but they are not necessarily easy to do, you look at that pass, you have to pass the ball into the circle frame accurately!"
"What's so hard about this, you can definitely do it with a few more attempts."
"Don't forget, it's who can complete the whole set of moves faster. With you trying a few more times, everyone else would have finished the game long ago! ”
The fans at the scene began to discuss.
For fans, the Skills Challenge is indeed a very new thing, which everyone has never seen before, and since this is the first time that the Skills Challenge has been held, there is no past data to refer to, which gives fans a lot of room for reverie.
In front of the TV, Williams had no one to talk to, but he found the skills challenge interesting, at least much more interesting than the boring TV shows of the past.
The stars who took part in the Skills Challenge walked onto the court, and they were all point guards of each team, and they were no strangers to the fans who watched the game regularly, and there were even many fans of these players, and for those who don't usually watch basketball games on the television, these players were all unfamiliar faces.
Finally, the first player appeared on the stage, and the audience in front of the TV also heard these cheers.
"A lot of people are cheering, it seems that this player is very popular, is he a basketball star?" Williams in front of the TV said secretly in his heart.
"Ready, 3, 2, 1, GO!" With an order, the first player to participate in the Skills Challenge rushed out.
"He's got out there, nice dribbles, it's skilful, it's fluid, he's got past the first obstacle, then the second, then the third, the pass, oh alas, the ball hit the edge of the basket and it didn't get to the spot, he's going to have to try again." Wilson began to speak passionately.
Basketball players in the 40s were much worse than the professional players of later generations in all aspects, and it was not difficult to dribble around obstacles, which the players at that time could easily complete, but it took more time, and when it came to passing, it was a little more difficult for the players at that time. Players in this era are far less accurate than later generations, and if you look at the early data of the NBA, you can see that most of the top 10 players on the assist list have averaged less than 2 assists per game, which shows that the passing skills of players at that time were far worse than those of later generations.
The professional point guard made three attempts before he managed to pass the basketball into the basket and then continued to complete the rest of the project, perhaps knowing that his shot was not very accurate, he did not shoot from outside the three-second zone, but held the ball within the three-second zone to complete the shot.
The entire set of technical moves in the Skills Challenge, which took the player more than a minute to complete. In future skill challenges, if you complete a set of actions for more than 40 seconds, you will definitely be eliminated, and the winning results of previous skill challenge champions are basically within 30 seconds.
Chen Qiang is not surprised by this result, the level of basketball players in this era is not as good as that of amateur players compared with later generations.
However, the crowd gave the player a round of applause, after all, he was the first player to appear, and no one knows whether the result of more than a minute was fast or slow, but at least he completed the whole action.
"This game is a bit interesting, I don't know if the second person to appear on the stage will be faster than him." Williams in front of the TV picked up a beer and took a sip, then stared at the TV intently.
The second contestant appeared.
On the commentary bench, Wilson summed up the gains and losses of the commentary just now, and with the experience of commenting on the first player, Wilson felt that he had found some tips for the commentary of the Skills Challenge.
"Ready, 3, 2, 1, GO!"
The second player was also launched.
The audience also became nervous, some staring at the second contestant, while others stared at the timer.
Wilson also began to impassioned commentary again, he deserved to be the ace of basketball commentary, and after finding some tips for commentary, he quickly mobilized the atmosphere of the scene.
Then the third and fourth players came on one after another, and the reaction of the audience became more and more intense.
The Skills Challenge is just the first event of the All-Star Weekend, and it's an appetizer at best.
However, for these fans at the scene, this never-before-seen way of playing is simply too novel and unusual! Coupled with the increasingly lively atmosphere of the scene, it constantly infected everyone and made every audience fall into the game.
As for the audience in front of the TV, they don't have to choose, anyway, this is the TV channel, and they have to watch what they broadcast.
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