At this time, James Worthy said excitedly in the NBC commentary box: "Good news, for the first regular season game after King of Iron Fist's comeback, our national ratings have now reached 45 million."
"marvelous!"
John Moore said excitedly.
In New York, David Stern was also very excited when he heard this data.
Of course he knew that this was only temporary, and it would be impossible for Sonics games to maintain such high ratings in the future.
But last season, the league-wide ratings just exceeded one million. As long as the SuperSonics' national average ratings during the regular season can remain above three million, it will be a huge victory and can increase the popularity of the NBA.
"System, if I come back to the NBA, why don't you send a mission to celebrate?"
Seeing that the game was about to start but there was still no movement in the system, Zhou Quan couldn't help but urge in his heart.
With this urging, the system really started to move, and two new prompts appeared on the panel.
"Congratulations to the host for finding his way back from his lost ways. He will be rewarded with full-level injury resistance. The conditions for receiving it are to give up four professional boxing heavyweight gold belts."
He immediately opened the first item and was shocked. Is the system crazy? He couldn't believe it. It actually gave away full-level attributes for free?
His current injury resistance is level 95, and his full level is 99. He can directly upgrade it by four levels. This reward is too great.
However, the latter receiving conditions are a bit specific to him.
But it doesn't matter, because he has already completed the unification fight, and this achievement has been achieved. The system did not say that he can no longer participate in professional boxing matches in the future. He is just giving up the title temporarily and can take it back when he has the opportunity in the future.
He then opened a second prompt: "Please host to win the fifth crown, as well as MVP and FMVP, and be rewarded with full-level predictive vision."
"The rewards are average. I now have top-notch predictive vision."
Although I feel that the reward is not enough, because his full-level panoramic vision is so amazing, I have some ambitions for this full-level predictive vision. I wonder if there will be any magical functions.
…
At half past eight, the game starts.
Campbell and Michael Olowokandi jumped the ball.
Olowokandi was the No. 1 pick in 1998. He is 213 centimeters tall and has great physical fitness. The draft template is Olajuwon, which is why the Clippers chose him.
But after entering the league, his attitude showed that he was very lazy and did not want to polish his skills, so his quality was great, but his skills were close to zero. The only center skill he showed was to grab offensive rebounds.
As the No. 1 pick, he was only selected to the Rookie Second Team in his rookie season. In just one season, he proved that he was qualified to compete for the best parallel No. 1 pick in history, and proved that the Clippers' choice was extremely wrong.
"Snapped!"
Campbell's physical fitness was not as good as his opponent's, but he seized a better opportunity to take off and get the ball away first.
Zhou Quan received the ball and the SuperSonics attacked.
When he reached the top of the arc, he paused for a moment, then suddenly changed direction and struck Murdoch from the right, killing him.
Power forward Lamar Odom quickly came up to cover the defense. Zhou Quan turned around and passed by another person, then drove towards the basket from the front right side of the basket.
Michael Olowokandi returned from the left side of the basket. Zhou Quan held the ball in one hand with his right hand and jumped towards him without hesitation.
"boom!"
As the violent explosion of the basket sounded, Michael Olowokandi collapsed and fell under the basket.
"Oh ho!"
All the fans cheered excitedly.
"Dunk! The King of Iron Fist dunks the parallel import champion. This is his first goal, the first goal since his comeback." The roar of Henem Chrisman resounded throughout the Central Gymnasium.
McGimm shouted excitedly: "The Iron Fist King dunked the Clippers' No. 1 pick. He used an incredible dunk to tell the entire league that he was back!"
This goal is the beginning of tonight. This game is the real first show after his comeback. Zhou Quan broke out with all his strength and his offensive efficiency was very high.
In fact, his strength has declined now compared to before he retired, and his shooting touch has not returned yet. But this is the opening game, so he has reduced his outside jump shots and focuses on breakthrough scoring and fast break scoring, which improves offensive efficiency.
In 40 minutes, he made 18 of 25 shots, a 72% shooting rate, 4 of 8 three-pointers, and 13 of 15 free throws. He scored 53 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls.
His strong performance made all the fans cheer, and the atmosphere was very enthusiastic from the beginning to the end of the game.
"I can say with certainty that the two years have not made the Iron Fist King's athletic quality decline. His body and physical fitness are still at their peak." After the game, John Moore said.
"Judging from this game, his strength has not declined significantly, and his hit rate is still considerable. Of course, this is also the reason why the opponent is too weak. In short, the first regular season game after the King of Iron Fist came back was very successful." James Worthy said.
"I haven't played a game in two years. I scored 50+ in the first regular season game. It's already very good to still be in such a good state. As long as I play for a while, the strength of the Iron Fist King will definitely be restored to its peak state. ." John Moore said excitedly.
At this time, Zhou Quan was interviewed by NBC TV station on the spot.
"Iron Fist King, are you satisfied with your performance tonight?" the reporter asked with a smile.
"The data is okay, but the state is still a little worse." Zhou Quan shook his head and said.
"50+, many stars may not hit 50+ once in their lives. Why do you say that?" the reporter asked confused.
"The Clippers are very weak, very weak. They have neither outside defense nor inside defense. Facing such an opponent, when I exploded with all my strength tonight, I did not hold back. If I had retired, I would definitely have played better. data." Zhou Quan said.
"That's it." The reporter said in surprise.
…
"50+ in a single game, the King of Iron Fist is back!" NBC TV station.
"With 50+ points in a single game, the Iron Fist King is dissatisfied with his state." Los Angeles Times.
"Iron Fist King: Sorry, my state was too bad tonight. I only scored 53 points and shot only 56.3% from the field." The Seattle Times.
The next day, countless media rushed to report news about Zhou Quan.
New York, NBA headquarters, David Stern looked at a statistics table in his hand with great pleasure.
This is the viewership statistics of the eight opening games last night, five of which were broadcast live in the United States. The average viewership of these five games was as high as 11.75 million.
Of course, this is so high because the ratings of the SuperSonics games are too high, but excluding the Sonics, the average ratings of the other four nationally broadcast games also reached 2.53 million, which is much higher than last season's average rating of 1.2 million. Rate.
There is an element of the opener, but he is certain that the league's ratings are coming back and everything is looking up.
"Chris, publish the ratings data for the opening game." He said with a smile on his face to special assistant Bai Kesi who was standing across the desk.
"Yes, Mr. President."
Baikes took the statistics table and said with a smile: "Sir, the league's publicity is now focused on the Iron Fist King. How about the shooting guards?"
Stern knocked on the table, thought about it for a while and said: "Let's talk about it later. Their current role in the alliance is not even one-tenth of the Iron Fist King."
Baikes nodded and said: "Mr. President, I have observed the headquarters, including the referee committee, during this period, and I didn't hear anything against the Iron Fist King."
"Well done." Stern nodded appreciatively.
Baikes smiled and said: "But there is news from Chicago, sir. It is said that Jordan may join the MLB."
"Is he going to play baseball? Does he have the talent for Iron Fist? Not everyone can play crossover."
Stern was startled, muttered angrily, and said with some dissatisfaction: "Michael has made a great contribution to the league. Since he wanted to come back, he chose MLB. How does this make the media and fans view the NBA?"
"I contacted his agent, and David Falk said that Jordan wanted to be the owner of an NBA team, but there was no chance, so he chose to go to MLB." Baikes said.
Stern nodded and said: "Tell him, if I have the chance, I will fulfill Michael's wish. But he must continue to contribute to the league, instead of going to MLB and distracting our fans."
"I will contact Mr. David Falk immediately." Baikes said immediately.
David Stern nodded and motioned for Baikes to go out first.
He feels that this special assistant is okay. His ability is no worse than that of Adam Silver. He has worked in the company for seven years. He has a wide network of contacts in the league and a lot of news. He is not racist yet. He can focus on cultivating him in the future.
"Roger, just do as I say. I don't have time to defend my title in the next year, so just announce that I will give up the four gold belts."
Seattle, Zhou Quan’s home, he said to Phillip.
"Really give up?" Phillip said with regret.
"Give up." Zhou Quan nodded without hesitation.
Three hours later, Philip held a press conference to officially announce on behalf of Zhou Quan that he would give up the heavyweight gold belts of the four major professional boxing organizations.
This news shocked the sports world, and Zhou Quan made headlines in media around the world.
"This news is great!"
After David Stern saw the news, it was like a shot of chicken blood.
"Level 99, not bad."
Zhou Quan also received the reward for max-level injury resistance.
He estimated that this ability did not mean that he would not be injured, but that the probability of injury would be reduced. He would not be injured by ordinary tossing, and injuries would not frequently cause major injuries that would affect his career.
…
On the 4th, the SuperSonics faced the Mavericks at home.
At 8:15, in the player tunnel, sophomore Dirk Nowitzki was very excited when he saw Zhou Quan, but due to Zhou Quan's high status, he did not dare to go up and speak.
He is a fan of Schrempf. Schrempf completed three consecutive championship dynasties as the main force beside the Iron Fist King. He is already the number one basketball player in Germany and can be called the king of basketball in Germany. His popularity is no less than Those football superstars, he also hopes to achieve such great achievements in the NBA, and everyone will know him when he returns to Germany.
Zhou Quan inspected the five starters of the Mavericks with an inspection gaze. Although the Mavericks did not have much strength, his habit was to study the opponent's information before the game, so he still had some understanding of this player.
Center Sean Lukes, a second-round pick in 1992, has little ability.
Robert Pike, the person he has to face tonight, was also drafted in the same year as him, but he was an undrafted player and has little ability.
Eric Strickland, the undrafted shooting guard in 1996, is also a blue-collar player and has little ability.
Michael Finley, the 23rd pick in the first round of 1995, had 20+5+5 last season and was a quasi-All-Star.
Nowitzki, like Schrempf, is a German. He was the No. 9 pick in the first round of 1998. His performance in his rookie season was average, 8+3, averaging 20 minutes per game. As a 213-centimeter power forward, he had a little less rebounds. , the hit rate is only 40%, which is too low.
Although Nowitz looked at him with awe, he didn't feel anything special, because this kind of look was too common for him. Michael Finley and several people around the German young man also had the same look.
"Hello and welcome to Seattle."
He nodded briefly and said hello.
"Hello, Iron Fist King!"
"Good evening, Iron Fist King!"
Several Mavericks starting players shouted excitedly, all of them looked like fans.
Although the Mavericks are very weak and have two undrafted starters, they are also a group of young people with basic salaries and there are several undrafted players. Zhou Quan did not dare to be careless in this game. He played for 35 minutes and scored He scored 35 points, 15 assists, 6 steals and 4 blocks, leading by 24 points before leaving the game in the 4th minute of the final quarter.
In fact, his form tonight was average, with a shooting percentage of only 46%, because most of his shots were outside jumpers. After two years of retirement, he needs to use constant jump shots to regain his form.
Outside jump shots are the main way for a defender to take shots in positional battles. It consumes less physical energy. Getting to the basket to score, scoring on a fast break, consumes a lot of physical energy, and it depends on the opportunity.
In the second regular season game, the SuperSonics' national ratings plummeted compared to the first game, from over 40 million to only 27 million.
On the 6th, the SuperSonics welcomed their old Western Conference rival, the Jazz, at home.
At one o'clock at noon that day, Zhou Quan came to the headquarters and met Ben Wallace outside the training hall.
Ben Wallace was squatting outside. When he saw him, he jumped up and asked casually: "Ben, are you waiting for me? Tell me something."
Ben Wallace took the bag in his hand and said, "Boss, which one?"
"Say," he urged.
Ben Wallace mustered up the courage and said: "Boss, can you tell the coach and let me play center? I am a center. I am not familiar with the forward position and cannot play well. Especially the small forward, I, I..."
Zhou Quan looked at Ben Wallace helplessly, and after thinking about it, he said: "Ben, your height is not good. If you really go to play center and you can't perform well, you know, by then you may be Lose all opportunities and risk being kicked out.”
Ben Wallace gritted his teeth, nodded and said, "Boss, I'm serious."
"Okay, I will talk to Paul. But the result depends on your performance." Zhou Quan nodded.
"Thank you, boss." Ben Wallace said excitedly.
(End of chapter)
