2. The promotion of the legalization of gambling was expected by Min Congda.

At the time of seeing the news, he was eating watermelon at a hotel in BJ.

Such an event that will have a significant impact on the future of the NBA, and even on the future of professional sports in North America, has not been reported by the American media and public opinion, but only published a press release in an inconspicuous corner of the sports section.

In the history of professional sports in the United States, the MLB, NBA, NCAA, have all been involved in match-fixing and gambling scandals, which caused an uproar in the American society.

Especially the former American national ball baseball, the famous Black Sox scandal in 1919 was related to gambling, which became a major event that shocked the United States at that time.

Since then, MLB has strictly prohibited all things involving "gambling", and would rather kill by mistake than let go, just not wanting this kind of incident to hit the credibility of the league, which is the foundation of the survival of a professional league, once the credibility is gone, there are no fans and no market, there is nothing.

But the times have changed after all, and those mafias who use money, kidnapping, and murder to threaten players and teams in dark corners have changed, abandoned the rough and cruel methods of the past, and began to sell gambling and gambling products to ordinary people on the Internet and TV media.

You don't have to go to Las Vegas, you don't have to go to Monaco, you can make the game look more exciting with a little bit on your computer or phone.

As more and more people get involved in the game themselves, the gambling itself doesn't seem so sinful.

The huge capital flow and profits behind the gambling industry, as well as advertising space, business cooperation, etc., have made the shareholders of professional teams salivate.

For the capitalists, this is a virgin land that has not yet been fully developed, and in a highly developed commercial society, there are really not many such virgin lands.

Under the strong temptation of money, the legalization of gambling in professional sports is almost the general trend, and it is very difficult for individuals to easily stop this general trend.

The current American society is not the Puritan country of 1919, when the United States still enforced the prohibition of alcohol, and the whole country was not allowed to drink alcohol, in view of the current American values, this is completely a state act that infringes on individual freedom, but at that time it became a vigorous national movement and policy.

Since alcohol has long been unable to be banned, the legalization of gambling is naturally a matter of course, and this matter can hardly make any waves in the world of public opinion, and everyone is no longer surprised, after all, many fans themselves are involved in gambling.

Therefore, the public opinion circles are calm, and they just report this incident as an ordinary news, and people's attention is no longer on this kind of thing.

After Min Congda knew that the gambling legalization had a result, he immediately asked his subordinates to book a ticket back to New York.

He was at BJ to avoid the board's deliberations, and Silva didn't want him to attend the meeting, so Min Congda borrowed the donkey and stayed at BJ for a few more days.

Of course, Min Congda does not appreciate and does not like the legalization of gambling, although gambling can bring excess returns for a short time, but one day it will be as deeply tormented as a cancer.

It's just that the attack may be very long, a long time later, and for the alliance shareholders and Silva who are focused on the present, no matter what the flood is after death, the money that should be earned will be earned immediately.

NBA players will definitely not object, because the player's career life cycle is very short, most people make a lot of money in a few years, of course, the more the better, how will the NBA in the future, what does it have to do with them, good days are still long, as for the problems caused, we must believe in the wisdom of future generations.

In this general trend, even David Stern has to compromise, since Min Congda can't be tough and doesn't want to go along with it, he can only avoid it for the first time and not participate in this discussion and decision-making.

Anyway, as long as the referee association is in his hands, the road to gambling will not be able to bypass him anyway, and what Min Congda has to do is to wait patiently, and secondly, to stabilize his power and prestige in referee affairs, and establish a good relationship with the referees.

After returning to New York, Min Congda immediately attended a working meeting of the league office on the establishment of the new season game video replay center.

Preparations for the video playback center have long been on the agenda, and preparations began in 2014, but due to some process problems, the process was delayed, and the construction project officially broke ground this summer.

Located in Scowx, New Jersey, the replay center is equipped with 94 high-definition displays, ultra-high-speed bandwidth, and 20 professional workstations. The center is directly connected to all NBA venues, and you can directly contact the referee during the game.

Because there have been controversial penalties in NBA games before, the role of the replay center is to restore the scene from a neutral point of view through high-definition live replay technology in the event of a major penalty dispute, so that the referee experts in the replay center can judge the player's behavior and correct the wrong judgment of the on-site referee.

On the surface, this is a collection of referee power, and the referee on the scene can no longer do whatever he wants, but must be controlled by the replay center, which is a great challenge to the authority of the referee.

Therefore, Min Congda had a heated debate with the league executives at the meeting about the boundaries of power in the replay center.

Min Congda insisted that the replay center can only play the role of assistance and advice, and cannot replace the decision-making power of the referee. Referees may refuse to accept the recommendations given by the Replay Center in certain circumstances.

Min Congda's reasoning is that "the referees must be given enough respect and power to control the situation on the field." If all the decisions are made by the replay center, then the players will not respect the referee and they will let the replay center handle every ball, and then the situation will be very bad. The fluidity of the game, and the emotions of the players, will not be controlled. ”

This remark was supported by representatives of the referee association, and some executives of the league who originally insisted on letting the replay center have the right to adjudicate chose to back down under Min Congda's well-founded offensive, and the referee's power was maintained.

However, Min Congda also proposed at the meeting that the "zero tolerance" policy introduced during the Stern period must be abolished.

Once a player has an objection on the field, complains to the referee, or even has some radical actions, words and deeds, the referee should give suggestions according to the situation, and the replay center will give suggestions, and no longer have zero tolerance, and immediately give technical fouls or penalties.

The former suggests upholding the power of referees, while the latter suggests abolishing the "zero tolerance" policy, and Min Congda's inconsistencies are puzzling.

In the face of doubts, Min Congda said: "The authority of the referee should be maintained in the stadium and in the game. And some of the emotional problems of the players are, in fact, something beyond the scope of the game, and the power of the referee should not be expanded for no reason. ”

"Also, I think that since the implementation of the zero-tolerance policy, not only has it not established the authority of referees, but it has made many fans and players hate referees even more. In fact, I think the image of referees has become even worse after the zero-tolerance policy. ”

"The United States is a free country, and we can even criticize the president for making mistakes in his work, but the referee can't criticize it. Moreover, in my opinion, zero tolerance is still an irresponsible act to transfer the responsibility that originally belonged to the technical team and the league office to the referees and players. ”

"So I propose that the zero-tolerance policy be abolished, and that conflicts and complaints between players and referees can be resolved during and after the game, and that the league office and replay center should set up a special working group to deal with such issues."

Min Congda used to work in a bank, so he pointed out that the so-called zero-tolerance policy seems to protect the referee, but in fact it is to transfer the conflict.

Because some banks adopt a zero-tolerance policy when dealing with conflicts between employees and customers, but they have zero tolerance for employees, as long as customers complain, it must be the employee's problem, and the employee will be punished.

This seems to give customers a good experience, but in fact, indiscriminately punish employees, the top has become a non-stick pan, all the contradictions, responsibilities are carried by the grassroots, the grassroots are miserable, the service is getting worse and worse, the customer experience is getting worse and worse, and there are more and more contradictions.

The NBA's zero-tolerance policy is the same, it seems that there is zero tolerance, giving the referee the power to immediately blow technical fouls, but in fact, the players' grievances and contradictions have not been resolved, but the players have become more and more hostile to the referee, and some referees have become more and more arrogant and obedient.

The league, which was supposed to mediate and give a fair penalty, became invisible, leaving everything to the referee and the players to solve, and was responsible for issuing fines indiscriminately, which did not play the role of a fair adjudicator at all.

Min Congda's remarks were supported by the representatives of the players at the meeting, and it was not a day or two that the players hated the zero-tolerance system.

However, President Silva did not immediately agree with Min Congda's suggestion, saying that the zero-tolerance policy has the meaning of existence and cannot be arbitrarily canceled and discussed later.

After reaching a basic agreement on various issues such as referees, court penalties, and replay centers, the league office signed a memorandum of understanding and formally established the replay center.

Joe Bozia was unsurprisingly elected director of the Replay Center, a position he has been waiting for for a long time.

He completed the basic structure design of the entire replay center, and as a referee, he dedicated his life to the work of basketball referees.

He deservedly became the first director of the center.

When Silva announced the appointment, Bozia burst into tears.

It's not easy to think about him in the past few years, and he has been tortured by Min Congda for many years.

Recently, he was closely entangled by this guy, and his one-on-one single defense made him extremely uncomfortable.

Well, now that he's finally gotten rid of it, he has his own replay center and can fight in the new season.

Bozia became the director of the replay center, and the position of vice president of refereeing was vacated.

Originally, Silva's number one candidate to take over this position was Delaney, but because Min Congda did not come out of the moth in the negotiation of gambling legalization, and Silva had the intention of wooing Min Congda, this position was given to Min Congda.

"Following the resolution of the Board of Directors and the nomination of myself and Mr. Bozia, the NBA League Office has decided to appoint Smart Min to take over as the league's vice president of refereeing affairs."

As a result, in less than two months, Min Congda was successfully promoted from assistant vice president to vice president of the alliance.

On the evening after he became vice president, David Stern called Min Congda to congratulate him and invited him to a Chinese restaurant near his home tomorrow night, saying, "I want to treat you to a meal and give you a brief celebration." ”

(End of chapter)