Surprisingly, while the SuperSonics won three of their five straight road trips in Cleveland, their last two on the road ended in defeat.

Since 2005, Yu Fei's team has not lost two in a row.

This is a kind of proof of the dominance he represents.

But the main reason for these two defeats came from the sidelines.

From Seattle, to be exact.

The other day, Sports Illustrated tried to ask local politicians about the difficulty of building a stadium at supersonic speed.

Nick Licata, Seattle's council chairman, said: "The fundamental reason is that the impact of hypersound on Seattle's economy and culture is close to zero. ”

This remark immediately angered thousands of black citizens, as basketball was the main sport in which blacks participated.

What is even more affected is the public's confidence in hypersound.

Early next year, SuperSonics will again submit a new proposal to the city government to finance the arena, and in this case, the public remarks made by local government officials will undoubtedly cast a shadow over the prospects of SuperSonics in Seattle.

Roy reacted extremely violently to this.

Playing with little emotion, he didn't show a normal game in his last two away games.

Yu Fei chose to take over, but the state of the whole team seemed to be affected, and the upward state came to an abrupt end.

Two consecutive defeats made George Carr aware of the problem.

They can't put the burden of controlling the field on Roy just because Yu Fei has transformed in his style of play.

Otherwise, if something goes wrong with Roy, they'll mess with themselves.

Carl decided to optimize the system, and as for the off-field impact, he didn't care.

When Supersonic returns to Seattle, there are a large number of reporters waiting for Yu Fei to respond to Nick Licata's remarks.

"I think it's a subliminal racism." "Basketball is not about skin color, but it's a major sport for African-Americans in the Seattle area, and supersonic has influenced countless people as a totem and cultural icon of the city for four decades," Yu said. Does he say that we have a cultural influence of zero, does that prove that he feels that the cultural influence of African Americans is not part of the culture? ”

As for the economic part, Yu Fei also has a rhetoric.

"Whether they admit it or not, the capacity of the Key Arena does limit the economic income of the SuperSonics, and if they want the SuperSonics to bring economic benefits to the local area like other big-market teams, they should support us as they did with the Mariners and Seahawks." Yu Fei asked rhetorically, "I don't understand, why can't we have a more beautiful stadium for the same Seattle team?" ”

The "racism" that Yu Fei emphasized really made Licata burn his ass.

This is a slide that cannot be touched in all walks of life in the United States.

Licata immediately clarified his remarks, saying that his words were too superficial and failed to convey exactly what he wanted to say. But he is unwavering in the assertion that the economic effect of hypersound is almost equal to zero for the locals.

A few days later, Licata appeared on the interview program and continued to speak on the topic of hypersound.

When asked by the moderator how much responsibility the city government would have to pay if SuperSonics relocated to another city because they couldn't get a new arena, Licata replied: "I think it's 0. It is not up to us to decide whether hypersound will go or not. It is the franchise itself that makes this decision. We've given them a beautiful arena and we've used taxpayer money to renovate it for them, and they shouldn't have to ask for more. ”

"If the supersonic are gone, we can only express regrets, but from an economic point of view, this will have little effect on us. You can talk to any economist about this, and they'll tell you that Seattle is still a major city in the United States, whether hypersonic is here or not. You can argue until the end of the world, but I stand by the point that the economic effect of hypersound on Seattle is 0. ”

Unfortunately, Yu Fei is not yet able to refute Likata's arguments from an economic perspective.

Because he was right.

SuperSonics don't make money, because before the arrival of the flight, they operate on their own, even if they have the highest attendance rate in the league, they will lose money.

That's because since the '90s, when Jordan's rise changed NBA economics, the SuperSonics have never held a superstar with commercial attributes for long. Sean Kemp used to have that potential, but the SuperSonics at the time were a "self-motivated" team.

They are more inclined to increase their competitiveness than to develop the commercial value of Kemp, so they do not hesitate to offer a mediocre white center a higher salary than Kemp and refuse Kemp's request for a raise, thus blowing up Kemp's mentality.

This not only ruined the supersonic championship prospects of the Peytoncamp era, but also ruined Kemp. After that, Camp was traded to the Cavaliers, and the SuperSonics began to sink, and they waited for Jordan to retire, ushered in a league shutdown, and then found that the market was depressed, and the key arena that was too small was too profitable compared to the big arenas that could rent hundreds of stores.

Schultz Howard's request to the city to give them a new arena was repeatedly denied.

Then, the supersonic began to swing and smash, and all their hopes were in the new arena, and that hope was becoming more and more slim.

The SuperSonics alienated fans during the Schultz era, and although the team still had a high attendance, the SuperSonics products were no longer popular in the Emerald City.

So they lose money every year and live a shame for the big market team.

Therefore, Yu Fei is now unable to refute Likata.

In recent years, hypersound has indeed lost money every year.

However, according to the information he has, his arrival has injected vitality into the surrounding market of hypersonic and has also regained the favor of sponsors.

Under this scenario, after the end of the season, the supersonics' earnings report may have a surprise.

But Yu Fei didn't know if he still had time.

Because the way hypersound works is very wrong.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, NBA teams are focusing their efforts locally.

They hold a lot of community events to bring the team closer to the fans, which is a seemingly ordinary job that allows the team to build nepotism with the locals.

Locals will feel like they are part of the team because they have easy access to players who are worth millions or even tens of millions.

However, hypersonic related activity is scarce.

When Yu Fei was in Milwaukee, the Bucks would take advantage of Thanksgiving to sell commemorative products every year, and as long as Yu Fei endorsed it, the products would be sold out of stock.

The Bucks can earn one-third of a season of ticket revenue just by relying on merchandise revenue from this kind of holiday.

However, the supersonic top management seems to be unable to get along with money, and the economic consciousness is extremely weak.

The week before Thanksgiving, the SuperSonics were mostly playing at home, but with the exception of a handful of players, no one was offered expatriate community events.

Ordinary players may be happy to be idle, just like Yu Fei hated this kind of activity at the beginning.

However, the superSonics are in need of fan support now.

The result of ignoring the community is to alienate the fans from the team.

November 19th

The SuperSonics are off today and have nothing to do but train on a daily basis.

Yu Fei took the initiative to come to Sam Presti's office.

Presti was watching the report that the scouts had just delivered.

"Derrick Rose is good, let's pick him next year." Yu Fei made a joke.

Unlike other general managers in the league, Presti is very young — and arguably the youngest GM in NBA history.

He is only 30 years old. What does this mean? This means that he hand-picked three MVPs, sent away two more, and led the team to rebuild until the 2023-24 season when he has the promising Thunder Youth Guard, he will only be 46 years old.

Young, Presti doesn't have the aura of an elder like other general managers, and he's willing to joke with his players.

Yu Fei wants Rose?

Simple.

"If you really want to play with Derek, I can arrange for you and Brandon to be reimbursed for the season, and then we can dive into the lotto zone at full speed," Presti said seriously. ”

That's a good idea, but it's time to wait.

Yu Fei replied pointedly: "I have no opinion, but by then, will the supersonic still be in Seattle?" ”

Presti knew that Yu Fei would not come to him if he was fine.

He casually put down the scouting report and said as sincerely as if he were telling the truth: "Our contract with Key Arena didn't expire until 2010, and until then, you don't have to worry." ”

"Even if we were in Seattle at that time, with the way we treat our fans now, we would have lost all our fans in a few years." "It's not a step forward or a step back, we need to have a presence in the community, but we have almost no community activities right now, I want to know what the team's plan is, why are we alienating the fans step by step?" ”

Presti didn't expect Yu Fei to come for this matter.

"I'll arrange it right away." Presti said.

Yu Fei asked, "What is arranged?" ”

"Lots of frequent, community events where fans can feel love." "I hope you don't get bored," Presti said. ”

(End of chapter)