The establishment of the "Ming Feizhi" fund has caused an uproar in China, and for the first time, the eyes of the people of the whole country have fallen on these athletes who have won glory for the country.

The names of Zhang Shangwu, Zou Chunlan, and Caili have repeatedly appeared in major media reports.

People are calling the Ming Fei Zhi Foundation how it can help these helpless athletes.

And everyone also found out for the first time that the initiator of this fund has Wang Zhizhi's name, and the discussion about whether Wang Zhizhi is patriotic has caused a debate among fans on the Internet.

But in any case, the $2 million provided by Wang Zhizhi this time is almost all of his salary in the NBA, and Wang Zhizhi's image in China has been flipped.

The Basketball Association also expressed its gratitude to Yao Ming, Lu Fei and Wang Zhizhi for their dedication to athletes and the initiation of the Fund to Help Athletes at the first time of the establishment of the Ming Feizhi Fund.

On November 26, the day after the game between the SuperSonics and the Nets, Lu Fei, Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming appeared in Shanghai to hold a press conference on the establishment of the fund.

As soon as he got off the plane, Lu Fei received a phone call, and when he looked at the name of the caller ID, he couldn't help but smile bitterly - it was Battle.

"I said you have a fund, why don't you call me?" Battle's voice came from the other end of the phone.

Lu Fei smiled embarrassedly: "Didn't you just arrive at the Raptors......

"What happened to me to the Raptors?" Battle said directly: "What you are doing is not authentic, no matter how you say that I am the only player among you who has a championship ring, you must be jealous that I have a championship ring, I don't care, count me in, I will transfer 500,000 US dollars to you when I go back." ”

"......" Lu Fei said helplessly: "Okay, I'll add your name when I go back." ”

"No, what do you want that name for, you just need to use this money for business, it doesn't matter if you want a name or not, okay, I'll hang up, it's a game in a while." Battle didn't give Lu Fei a chance to speak again, and hung up the phone directly.

Wang Zhizhi glanced at Lu Fei and said with a smile: "Battle, right?" I'll just say that it's impossible for him not to call you because of his temper, and you shouldn't have called him about this."

Lu Fei smiled bitterly: "Didn't you think that he didn't have much money?" ”

Battle played 27 games with the Nuggets and earned a total of $84,000, before taxes.

After leaving the Nuggets, Battle was favored by the old Spurs, and his role in the horse team was very special, the team hardly used him to play, and his only role was to be Duncan's sparring partner.

The Spurs generously offered him a $510,000 official contract this year.

But after playing this season, Battle was cut again, and then he joined the Raptors with a small salary.

Excluding expenses, half a million dollars is almost as much as Battle earns in the NBA.

Coupled with Yao Ming's 8 million and Lu Fei's 8 million, a total of almost $18.5 million is the total amount of funds, which is all the funds of the Ming Feizhi Fund.

On the day of the press conference, Lu Fei told the media that Battle also contributed $500,000.

At the same time, it announced a series of assistance measures to help athletes who have difficulties in life after retirement, including contacting social enterprises to provide jobs, setting up technical schools to help them learn work skills, and providing relief funds for those who have serious physical injuries and illnesses that affect their lives.

It is hoped that people from all walks of life and relevant units will pay more attention to the life and work of athletes after retirement.

Gu Tang's father, Gu Weiguo, was appointed as the head of the fund.

After a busy day, the event finally ended in the evening.

At this time, Yao Ming came over and said, "Lu Fei, someone wants to talk to us about fund cooperation. ”

"Who?" Lu Fei was stunned.

"Li Ning." Yao Ming said.

"......" Lu Fei.

This is the first time Lu Fei has seen Li Ning, he is not tall, small and flat-headed, and Li Ning made a joke in the first sentence of the meeting: "I originally wanted to sign a sneaker contract with you, but the funds are not as good as foreigners, and this time I finally found an opportunity to cooperate." ”

Lu Fei smiled.

After a night of negotiations, the two sides signed an agreement on the cooperation of the Ming Fei Zhi Fund, and Li Ning Group provided support for the operation of the fund and provided employment opportunities for retired athletes.

The next day, Li Ning Group held another press conference, and Lu Fei, Yao Ming, and Wang Zhizhi attended the press conference again.

Two press conferences brought the event to a climax.

Lu Fei, Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi and Battle have become the focus of national attention, and because of this move by the four of them, basketball has become more popular with the people.

Coupled with the previous announcement of the Basketball Association a series of methods to combine sports and education, basketball has set off a boom in youth training across the country.

When the reporter asked whether the combination of sports and education could make Chinese basketball catch up with Europe and the United States, Lu Fei smiled.

He glanced at Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi beside him, the three of them had discussed this issue, and they knew that the media would definitely ask questions, for them, the current craze is a good thing for Chinese basketball, but it can also become a bad thing.

So after the three of them discussed, they decided to cool down this frenzy.

Lu Fei thought for a while, and then replied: "It is said that China's basketball population base is hundreds of millions, and it should be very simple in theory to catch up with Europe and the United States, but have you ever thought about how many people can really receive systematic training and have the opportunity to take their careers as their goals?" ”

"Teenagers who can target their careers are either from within the system, from CBA teams or youth teams under provincial and municipal sports bureaus, or basketball players from domestic leagues at all levels."

"For the vast majority of basketball enthusiasts, the career path is out of reach, and basketball is just a hobby in their eyes."

"With the continuous improvement of living standards, the uncertainty of sports schools is becoming more and more serious in the eyes of parents, we Chinese are the most pragmatic, in their eyes if it is not for reading is poor to not work, playing basketball is really not as good as going to school steadily, after all, education cannot be missing in the process of growth, which undoubtedly makes a part of the talent inadvertently lost."

"Is it important to go to school? Of course, it's important to look at the athletes we need to help, who are largely denied access to education, which leads to their unsatisfactory lives. ”

"But do students have to be athletes? Can the combination of sports and education in basketball produce a group of outstanding basketball players? Are these basketball players useful for Chinese basketball to catch up with Europe and the United States? ”

"The answer is......" Lu Fei paused, and there was a firm look in his eyes: "No!" ”

Lu Fei's words stunned the reporters who interviewed him.

The Chinese men's basketball team has just announced a combination of sports and education with the education department, in order to cultivate a group of outstanding basketball players.

Isn't this against the basketball association?