Madison Square Garden, New York, the cold winter night could not stop the enthusiasm of New York fans, and the old Garden Square was packed.

As the largest city in the United States, New York has always had to be a cut above the charts when it comes to sports, so unlike Portland, all major sports leagues have clubs here.

Among them, the New York Yankees can be described as the "enemy of the world", which is unique in the MLB major leagues, and one team tops all other teams; The New York Giants, on the other hand, won the Super Bowl in the NFL in 1986 and were in full swing in the mid-to-late eighties.

In contrast, the New York Knicks looked too weak against the two big brothers, and after a knee injury to "The King" Bernard King, the team entered a rebuilding period in the mid-eighties, and then they won the first lottery draw in 1985, in a live TV lottery full of intrigue, and then they took Patrick Ewing without any suspense to officially start a rebuild around the superpower center.

Ewing won the Rookie of the Year with 20 points and 9 rebounds in his rookie season, and the following year, Bernard King returned, only to play in just six games, was injured again, and in the summer, he was traded.

The old king was traded, the new king officially ascended the throne, and at the same time, the players who assisted Ewing also came in droves, and in the 1987 draft, New York picked up the mediocre physical point guard Mark Jackson with the 18th pick, who knew that he won the rookie of the season.

This summer, New York traded for Charles "Oak" Oakley from the Chicago Bulls, equipping Ewing with a gold-medal fighter who specializes in dirty work.

Coupled with the acquisition of small forward John Newman from the Cavaliers and Grande Wilkins, a strong guard picked by New York in the second round in 1985, the team with an average starting age of 24 years old gave New York fans great hope.

You know, as one of the earliest teams in the NBA, the New York Knicks only won two championships in 1970 and 1972, and they haven't tasted the championship or even the finals for more than ten years.

Such a promising young team certainly attracts fans to Madison Square Square to buy tickets to watch the game, especially when their opponent tonight is the Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan.

Of course, Knicks fans at this time don't know how much damage Jordan and the Bulls will cause to them in this field in the future, anyway, in this game, the Knicks have always maintained the suppression of the Bulls.

Although Jordan is still difficult to defend, the Bulls are also unable to stop the Knicks' sharp offense, Newman came to a big explosion tonight, he shot 12-of-15 and scored 35 points with a super high shooting rate, and on the opposite side of the Bulls small forward position, No. 33 Scott Pippen can only sit on the bench due to injury.

The Bulls' interior line didn't suffer much loss, Bill Cartwright, the old center who originally accompanied Ewing in New York to play, was traded for Oakley in this summer's trade and came to Chicago to assist Jordan, and now he is not too afraid of Ewing in the face of the gradual growth.

In the one-on-one offensive and defensive matchup, Ewing did not take advantage of Cartwright, scoring 2 or two points less than Cartwright, but on the defensive end, Cartwright's role cannot be compared with Ewing.

Ewing grabbed 12 backcourt rebounds on the defensive end, 18 rebounds and five blocks on the defensive end, making the Knicks' three-second zone a no-fly zone for a while.

The explosion on the outside and the defensive advantage on the inside made the Knicks defeat the visiting Chicago Bulls 126-117 in the cheers of the fans, and although Michael Jordan scored 31 points and 9 assists, he still couldn't save the team and could only enter the player tunnel with his head down.

At this time, in the Madison VIP box, a tall white man leisurely lit a cigar and watched the Knicks fans slowly leave the court, and a big drama came to an end.

At this time, he picked up the landline in the VIP box, dialed a number, and said, "Let Patrick come out in the evening, I want to have a drink with him." ”

Then he hung up the phone and was about to dial the next number, but after thinking about it, he hung up the phone anyway.

………………

New York, a bizarre metropolis, is always full of sleepless nights, and for NBA players, New York has a colorful nightlife

is a big reason to attract them.

In the VIP box of a New York nightclub, the new king of Madison Garden Plaza is enjoying a drink through heavy wooden doors to keep the outside world at bay.

In fact, this simple and talented young man from Jamaica, although he is sought after by New Yorkers, has to bear as much slander as he receives in New York, not to mention that Ewing's taciturn personality is really incompatible with New York.

In the team, Ewing is the ironclad core, but in the locker room he may not have as much say as second-year rookie Mark Jackson, let alone Charles Oakley this summer, this tough guy has a bit of a gangster.

So, sometimes Ewing needs to go to such a nightclub to relax himself, isolate himself from the pressures of the outside world, and have a chat with the elderly sitting across from him.

That's his agent, David Falck, and Ewing is doing what he says.

From 1984 to the present, four years have passed, David Falke has gradually grown from a small agent to a predator in the brokerage industry, he has more and more stars, and he has more and more resources at his disposal.

As he has more players on his hands, he often travels from city to city, meeting and chatting with them, maintaining a good relationship and understanding the needs and ideas of these young people.

This is the secret of Falke's success, he is willing to understand the needs of the players, to analyse the characteristics of the players, and then to develop the right business strategy for them.

For example, the "Air-Jordan" brand, driven by the efforts of Jordan, Falck and Nike, has occupied a huge market share, and a sneaker every year will trigger a rush in the market.

Ewing sitting in front of Falk is different, Falke can't run Ewing like Jordan, in his words, Jordan is the "Air Force", and Ewing is the "Infantry", and training the infantry with the same method as training the Air Force will not get good results.

Therefore, Falke did not sign Nike for Ewing, but chose Adidas, and instead of letting Adidas quickly formulate and launch the brand for Ewing, he played a small trick and let Adidas give Ewing a pair of unbranded white sneakers.

In this way, Ewing wore this pair of unbranded sneakers on the field for an entire season, which sparked speculation about the Ewing shoe brand and fully aroused the public's curiosity.

In the end, when Ewing announced his sneaker brand, he received a good response from the market, otherwise with Ewing's dull personality and simple center play, it is really not so easy to rely on personal performance to open up the commercial market.

Falck looked at Ewing, thinking about his classic business operation, and couldn't help but feel a little proud, now several of the most promising stars in the NBA are basically under his banner, and the future NBA agent market will be his David Falke's world.

"You did a great job today, and I think you're going to get a good chance as an All-Star this year, and you're going to try to do well." Falke is already thinking about Ewing's All-Star Game, which seems a little too early because this is the Knicks' third game.

However, Ewing's performance in the All-Star has not been very good, he did not play in his rookie season due to injury, he was not selected in the second year, and he was selected in the third year, and the result was mediocre, and he is too untalented to act.

"I'll do my best." Ewing said nonchalantly, speaking in a way and tone that he didn't look like a superstar at all, which is what Falck often criticized him.

Ewing then continued: "I wasn't good enough, Gan scored 44 points yesterday and had 21 rebounds, and the New York newspapers always compared me to him, and I was under pressure. ”

In front of Falck, Ewing always seems to be very honest, which is why Falke is willing to cooperate with Ewing, so that Falke can manipulate him more freely.

But at the sound of that name, Falck's heart twitched, and he scratched his head, thinking of what words to use to comfort and encourage Ewing.

But after thinking about it for a while, Falk didn't know what to say, because he couldn't even raise his head in the face of that person, how could he teach Ewing to hold his head high?

Of all the players under Falke's umbrella, Jordan has the greatest commercial value and is also the most difficult to manage, and he always has his own ideas, which can be seen from the small friction between him and management.

But Gan Guoyang is not "difficult to manage", because he is not managed by Falke at all now, and his business activities will still be handed over to Falck, but Falke only has the right to advise and the obligation to implement, but cannot influence Gan Guoyang's decision-making.

In several business decisions, Gan Guoyang used his strategic vision to prove that he was right, Falck, you can only listen to me, such as the 1985 Coca-Cola commercial, such as investing in the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", such as asking for the "Skyscraper" brand to be separated from the NIKE brand and become an independent system.

All of this is Gan Guoyang's handiwork, and Falke just does things according to the rules and gets paid according to his salary.

In fact, by Gan Guoyang's side, Falck can be regarded as the purest agent, doing some business work that an agent should do, in front of Gan Guoyang, Falke will never experience the feeling of strategizing.

"Let's not talk about this person, you have your own characteristics...... Well, be yourself, I'm sure you'll always get what you cope. Falk shook his head, and finally could only say a few dry words to Ewing like chicken soup for the soul.

Ewing nodded, but did not speak, and the atmosphere in the box suddenly became much duller, and both of them seemed to feel the huge shadow from the west coast hanging over their heads.