Chapter 644: Chapter 199: You Call This Media Day? (Part 2)
At first, no one noticed, but last season’s playoffs, Jeanie Buss did—Zhang Hao was getting the superstar treatment when it came to whistles!
It’s not that the referees were biased towards him, but at the very least, when Zhang Hao faced any superstar, the referees weren’t biased towards the opposing superstar.
The reason why no one noticed this was because Zhang Hao had been getting this treatment from his rookie season.
After noticing this, Jeanie Buss deliberately focused on such matters and discovered that NBA Headquarters treated China very specially, especially in early September when David Stern unexpectedly granted China free broadcasting rights for 10 years.
Previously, they offered free broadcasts in parts of Europe and South America, but usually for only a year or two, before starting to charge.
Then Jeanie Buss specifically looked into the Chinese market and discovered something that 99% of people in the United States didn’t know and the news never reported—In the past 10 years, China’s GDP has doubled!
Moreover, in the past two years, despite the United States continuously suppressing economic development in Asia, China’s economic growth remained strong, surpassing the largest economy in South America, Buss, the second-largest in North America, Canada, and the fifth-largest in Europe, Spain, becoming the world’s 8th largest economy.
Jeanie Buss also saw the potential of the Chinese market. Last season, she only passively followed official arrangements, giving extra attention to the media from China. Now, she’s actively creating opportunities for the Lakers to break into the Chinese market.
As a player, Zhang Hao had to follow suit in socializing—he was quite helpless, but fortunately, he had experience in sales in his past life, so mingling wasn’t a problem.
After finally finishing the socializing and sending off the staff from Imperial Channel with large bags of gifts, Zhang Hao felt the team’s young lady sure was generous!
However, the young lady’s socializing skills were impressive too, and she handled it very well—those folks from Imperial Channel were almost becoming true fans, but while gaining favor, Jeanie Buss didn’t suffer any losses herself.
Zhang Hao didn’t drink, using his age to avoid it, and went to the parking lot to send Jeanie Buss home.
After sending Jeanie Buss to her door and just about to leave, Jeanie Buss clung to his arm...
Boss, I’m not exactly a decent person, don’t do this... Zhang Hao’s mind wandered for a moment, but he quickly restrained himself, just about to say something when Jeanie Buss spoke first: "Aix, the day after tomorrow, our new lineup will officially make its debut. I’ve thought of many introductions, but none seemed good enough, didn’t match our super lineup. Do you have any ideas?"
"..."
Despite being clung to, with her face pressed against his arm, there wasn’t any softness felt, and the distance was perfectly controlled... As a fan, Zhang Hao did feel a bit itchy but quickly dispelled the thought.
Thinking it over, Zhang Hao also agreed that when their lineup debuts, it should be somewhat different; it shouldn’t simply be a news conference. Something special should be done for media day...
"Got it!" Zhang Hao said to Jeanie Buss, "We can do it like this, like that—not just the lineup name and intro, but also the slogan, the way we debut on media day. We can do this and that..."
Jeanie Buss’s eyes lit up upon hearing this!
"Cool boy, you’re so smart, just like Logo Man says; you’re simply a perfect Laker. You go back and get ready; I’ll work overtime now to take care of this for you..."
After a playful exchange, Jeanie Buss swayed her hot figure and walked into the door, leaving behind a 19-year-old boy on the verge of losing motivation again.
...
...
At noon on October 2, 1996, Time Warner Cable Sports announced a program—the Lakers media day.
This was quite a jealousy-inducing move—since when did a media day for an NBA team get nationally broadcasted?
This drew some foul-tempered players’ curses, and media outlets used negative adjectives to describe the operations of the Lakers and Time Warner Cable Sports.
But nonetheless, once this operation was launched, the already high attention towards the Lakers exploded even further!
When some media arrived at the Great Western Forum Arena, which had been booked during the Lakers training camp, they were stunned at the first glance of the replaced poster and immediately took photos, sending them to the TV station onsite—this poster itself was news!
The newest poster put up by the Lakers at noon today featured only five players, with O’Neal wearing the number 34 Lakers jersey positioned front and center, holding the ball with both hands, bending forward slightly from the waist, raising his head, with half of his eyes showing the sclera, looking fiercely intimidating.
To the right of O’Neal was Magician, wearing a number 32 Lakers jersey, slightly turned, facing O’Neal, hands behind his back, showing his trademark smile.
To O’Neal’s left was Barkley, in a Lakers number 4 jersey, arms crossed, neck tilted arrogantly.
To the right of Barkley was Kenny Anderson, donning a Lakers number 7 jersey, hands placed in front, holding one wrist with the other hand. Since joining the Lakers, he had been losing weight since August and had early regained his figure, with beautiful muscles, paired with a buzz cut and goatee, he was genuinely a handsome man among black players.
In the far left position was Zhang Hao, in a Lakers number 8 jersey, wearing his signature indifferent expression, holding a ball with one outside hand while the other hand hung naturally, not making any special movements.
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