On the first day of July, Li Jianhui, as the honorary chairman of ABA, made a special trip to the ABA headquarters.
Today we welcome an important guest here, the new NBA president David Stern.
Currently, the two most influential basketball leagues in the world are the NBA and the ABA.
In such an era, the NBA's influence is more limited to the United States. In terms of global influence, ABA can still surpass the NBA.
Although the ABA has been established for several years, this is the first time the top executives of the two major leagues have met.
Chen Zhiyong may not know how powerful David Stern is, but Li Jianhui, who has memories of his past life, knows it quite well.
Especially this year's draft is known as the golden generation, with superstars such as Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley, and Stockton entering the league.
What makes Li Jianhui happy is that due to early preparations, the Clippers Club under the Meiya Sports Group has made careful preparations in the past few years and successfully selected Jordan, Barkley and Stockton.
For a long time in the future, the Clippers will have these three people as their core. I believe that the Clippers, which has been dormant for many years, will be a giant in the NBA for a long time to come.
After David Stern complimented ABA on its achievements, he changed his tone and said:
"Dear gentlemen, although our two major leagues are currently developing quite well, the influence of our basketball in the entire sports competition is still far behind, especially compared with football.
I hope our two major leagues can put aside their prejudices and hostility and work together to promote basketball to the world."
It's a pity that ABA's top management reacted rather dullly to David Stern's remarks. The main issue here is a matter of interests.
In terms of influence, ABA is booming in the Asian market, while NBA is only in the American market.
And due to the strength of the league's players, ABA executives naturally hope that the NBA will remain limited to the US market.
Once we cooperate, I'm afraid that NBA's influence in the Asian market will rapidly increase, which will harm ABA's interests.
Due to the strength of the players and the team, it is difficult for ABA to gain a foothold in the US market for the time being.
Seeing that everyone remained silent, Li Jianhui immediately spoke up: "Mr. Stern, we all entered this industry because we love basketball, and we also hope to expand the influence of basketball on a global scale.
For this reason, our ABA has been rapidly expanding in the past two years, and even the market of one billion people in the north has been attracted by us.
In the next step, we will continue to promote other regions in Asia to join in and make the ABA League truly an Asian basketball league.
As for the cooperation between ABA and NBA, in my opinion, the time is not yet mature yet, although our ABA clubs far outnumber NBA and our influence in Asia is not bad.
But after all, our ABA has not been established for a long time, and our experience in all aspects is still immature, so dual cooperation will only do more harm than good."
Although David Stern was prepared in his heart, he was still disappointed when he heard Li Jianhui's clear rejection.
The reason why he came to ABA to cooperate this time is because he hopes to expand the NBA's influence to Asia. He is even planning a pre-season match between the two sides.
It's a pity that ABA's senior management obviously pays more attention to their own interests instead of promoting the influence of basketball on a global scale.
However, David Stern did not give up, but began to use his feelings and interests to promote the development of cooperation between the two parties.
It's a pity that no matter what David Stern said, the ABA executives present were unmoved.
Seeing that he had no choice but to leave in disappointment, Stern said that if Aba was willing to cooperate, he could contact him at any time.
…
In the afternoon of that day, Stern came to Xinjian Building specially. Looking at this building, which is currently the tallest building in Hong Kong, Stern felt a sense of emotion in his heart.
He knew very well that without this monster in the Xiangjiang business world, ABA would not exist, and there would not be such a big resistance to the NBA's expansion to the world, especially to the Asian market.
Since the two major leagues are similar and have similar season schedules, and ABA has clubs from many countries and regions participating, major TV stations in Asia are more willing to choose live or recorded broadcasts of ABA instead of NBA.
Fortunately, he still has some reasons to talk about Li Jianhui. Perhaps ordinary American citizens don't know that the real boss behind the Clippers is Li Jianhui. As the president of the NBA, he got some information.
As an American, he has heard many legends about the Morgan, Rockefeller and other families, and is still surprised by Li Jianhui's wealth legend.
It is hard to imagine that a person who has lived in a poor squatter area since childhood could be worth hundreds of billions in just a few years, and his assets are as much as those of the world's top families.
Following the administrative staff to Li Jianhui's office, David Stern also met this legendary young man again.
Stern also knew that Li Jianhui's time was valuable. After Li Jianhui invited him to sit down, he did not beat around the bush and said straight to the point:
"Mr. Li, I think the cooperation between NBA and ABA can benefit both parties, especially for Mr. Li's industries, such as Hongyu Clothing Group, which will make it easier to enter the US market."
"Mr. Stern, I know you want to expand the NBA's influence to East and Southeast Asia.
But you have to understand that I am the director of the ABA League Board of Directors and the honorary chairman of the league. It is impossible for me to harm the interests of ABA.
And if you understand, you should be clear that no matter now or in the future, the US market is not a key development market for our industries, even if the US market is the largest market in the world.
In my opinion, the cooperation between ABA and NBA is more of a unilateral profit for NBA. It does not have much benefit for us at ABA.
As far as sportswear is concerned, I don’t know whether Hongyu Clothing can gain a firm foothold in the U.S. market. I’m afraid that Adidas, Converse, Nike, etc. will conquer the Asian market.”
Facing Li Jianhui's words, David Stern found it difficult to speak even if he had countless excuses in his heart. Facing a Li Jianhui who didn't pay attention to the US market at all, he had no choice.
And he also knew in his heart that what Li Jianhui said was true. NBA would benefit more from this cooperation. This was also the fundamental reason why he came to Hong Kong to seek cooperation in person.
The biggest difference between NBA and ABA is that NBA values more the role of stars and highlights individual heroism, while ABA, due to the participation of clubs from many countries and regions, values victory more than NBA and emphasizes teamwork. Relatively speaking, the influence of stars
It won't look too big.
Among the general public, it is obvious that good personal statistics and heroism are more admired. Once the NBA is promoted on a large scale in the Asian market, NBA stars will definitely be able to gain a large number of fans.
It's a pity that the first stop in Asia failed. Even the subsequent cooperation with Jiayi Sports Channel was not mentioned by David Stern. He knew very well that with Li Jianhui's attitude, it would be useless if he mentioned it.
Since the establishment of the ABA, even the Clippers games have not been broadcast live or recorded on Jiayi Sports Channel. This shows that Li Jianhui is determined to prevent the NBA from expanding its influence in Asia.
Although Li Jianhui is frustrated here, David Stern has not given up the idea of expanding the NBA's influence in the Asian market.
Next, he will visit major media groups in many Asian countries and regions, hoping to reach cooperation with these TV stations.
He doesn't believe that these people in charge are as defensive and resistant to the NBA as Li Jianhui.
Moreover, he will actively promote cooperation between the NBA and the U.S. government to allow NBA stars to represent the United States in world-class competitions, thereby expanding their influence and preventing the influence of NBA stars from being limited to the domestic market of the United States.