The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 418 - 36 Li

"This is just not fair, why should we come to Portland for a Christmas game instead of you guys coming to Chicago? Look at how many Christmas games you’ve had in Portland before? Fuck, I don’t even know how the League schedules these games."

"What’s unfair about it? You don’t have much clout in Chicago, people would rather go watch the Chicago Cubs than the Bulls. Plus, Chicago Stadium is one of the worst away courts I’ve played on, even worse than the Boston Garden, the toilets there are a complete disaster. Next time I go to Chicago to play a game, I’m asking to use the fans’ toilets."

In a bowling alley in downtown City of Portland, Gan Guoyang and Jordan were changing their shoes while arguing about whether the Christmas game’s schedule was fair.

Jordan was clearly not satisfied with being scheduled to play an away game in Portland on Christmas. Who would’ve thought you’d have to go play a game on Christmas, and on top of that, travel all the way to another division?

This was unprecedented in NBA history, but this year it happened because the matchup between Jordan and Gan Guoyang was too eye-catching, and the League needed them to appear on a shiny enough stage.

"You don’t even celebrate Christmas, so it doesn’t really matter to you whether you’re playing at home or away."

"Bullshit, if I weren’t playing the Christmas game, I’d go back to San Francisco to visit my family, then attend a friend’s party for a barbecue, instead of fucking bowling here with you. Damn it, who arranged this event? Good thing it’s not golf, if someone had arranged golf for me, I would’ve smashed their head with a golf club."

The meeting between the two tonight wasn’t private, but a business event organized by Nike and Avia.

Aside from Gan Guoyang, Jordan, and the executives from Nike and Avia, there were also Portland celebrities, major distributors, advertisers, and so on.

Nike initially wanted to arrange a golfing event, which is Jordan’s favorite, but Gan Guoyang really disliked golf, so it was changed to bowling.

The reason Nike and Avia collaborated on a business event is a fascinating story.

Originally competitors, the two companies discovered during their China trip in 1985 that by sharing resources with Nike, they complemented each other unexpectedly well.

Nike had an exceptional network of distributors with a global presence, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. They also significantly invested in the advertising industry, maintaining close ties with major New York ad agencies and decent relationships with newspapers and television stations, with influence spanning all of America. These were resources smaller companies like Avia lacked.

In the past two years, Avia had leveraged Nike’s resources to significantly grow its business, improving their distribution system, expanding into international markets, and building media relationships, gradually becoming a significant sports brand in America.

And what did Avia have? Avia had Gan Guoyang.

Yes, he was the only ace up Avia’s sleeve, their only trump card.

Although Nike was powerful, it was far from the top in the sports brand field.

Especially in the basketball sector they were trying to cultivate, Converse was the deeply-rooted leader.

Based in the same city, Nike and Avia joined forces, the second and third largest brands allied to challenge the leading brand’s position.

As long as they could take down the top brand, they could feast on its carcass, filling up before fighting each other to the death later on wasn’t too late.

Thus, Nike and Avia both competed and cooperated, just like Gan Guoyang and Jordan, opponents on the court but friends off it.

The event was Nike-led, and having it in Portland was a very prestigious affair as they managed to invite Gan Guoyang.

Naturally, with Gan Guoyang attending, the Avia brand couldn’t miss out.

"You’re such a bumpkin, actually not liking golf. You must be bad at it. I can totally whip you in golf."

Jordan was an avid golfer, sometimes got so hooked on playing golf that he’d gamble for money, not just play for fun.

Gan Guoyang, having put on his shoes, smiled and said, "In our socialist country, we don’t play golf, a sport that wastes land and water resources, meant for the elites. I prefer sports that the masses can participate in. Let’s see who beats who in bowling tonight."

When the two arrived at the bowling alley, they immediately became the center of attention and their ensuing games were as fiery as sparks, as if it were a rehearsal for the Christmas game.

Gan Guoyang had quite a knack for bowling, relying on power to work miracles, never playing with any curve balls, always using the heaviest ball, swinging his long arms, and sending the ball skimming along the floor towards the pins.

Sometimes people wondered whether his ball rolled over or just flew through the air at a remarkably fast speed, with incredible accuracy, achieving strikes with a high probability.

Round after round, Gan Guoyang scored several strikes in a row, quickly pulling ahead of Jordan, who wasn’t even a match for him.

Jordan only dabbled in bowling, whereas his golf skills were far superior since that’s the game he gambled on.

After the first game ended, Gan Guoyang won by a landslide, and applause filled the room, which made Jordan feel like he lost face. He said he found the knack and wanted another game.

Gan Guoyang obliged and continued to triumph with power plays, the balls thundering away as the onlookers watched in awe and trepidation.

With such a heavy ball flying off course, it could luck out and send a spectator straight to heaven.

Fortunately, Gan Guoyang had strong fingers and arms; he bowled as effortlessly as he would throw a baseball.

Jordan lost the second game as expected, and being competitive, he wanted to play again, but Gan Guoyang said, "I get you, Michael, you want to beat me, I suggest you save it for tomorrow’s game. Even though you can’t win, there’s no need to waste time on bowling, I’ll play cards with you later."

If it was someone else, Jordan would never let it go easily.

But Gan Guoyang... let’s forget about it, this guy is a monster.

You could tell from the way he threw a bowling ball that he could shatter those pins.

After finishing their bowling duel, Nike executives introduced Jordan and Gan Guoyang to Jim Riswold, the creative director from their advertising partner Wieden+Kennedy.

Nike was indeed putting great effort into advertising, their main advertiser being Chait-Day from New York; after all, New York was the advertising capital of America, and most of the advertisements for Nike and Air Jordan were handled by these advertising tycoons from New York.

Wieden+Kennedy was just a small partner that handled some business of the Oregon region.

But this time, Nike hoped that Wieden+Kennedy could pull off a major advertising feat—having Jordan and Gan Guoyang shoot an advertisement together.

Although they belonged to different companies, Nike wanted to leverage Gan Guoyang’s fame, being in Portland they were just too envious of him.

In order to borrow Gan Guoyang’s fame, they did not hesitate to introduce Wieden+Kennedy to Avia, sharing some advertising resources with the old-fashioned Avia.

This time Gan Guoyang and Jordan would shoot the advertisement divided into two parts, the first promoting Nike and the second promoting Avia, with both sides cooperating and helping each other out.

"We want to create the second Magic vs Bird, to surpass Converse," Jim Riswold said bluntly.

Gan Guoyang had objections, saying, "Michael is far inferior to me, he doesn’t have a single championship to his name."

No one laughed, everyone looked at Jordan, Jordan wasn’t angry, saying, "Don’t get cocky, I’ll have everything I should have, you show off your championship every day."

"That’s a fact, you haven’t even made it to the divisional finals, how can you be on my level? That’s just lowering my standard."

"You’re just luckier than me."

"Stop joking, you know I can beat you, Michael."

Jim Riswold looked helplessly towards Nike’s boss, Phil Knight.

Phil Knight said, "Don’t worry, it’s just friendly banter between friends, they are always like this."

Jim nodded, saying, "This might be a good advertising idea, two friends who are always bickering and competing, yet have a good relationship."

The Avia boss, Jerry Stubblefield, expressed his agreement, "Just like the relationship between Nike and Avia!"

Phil Knight smiled, but thought to himself, if it weren’t for Ah Gan, who the hell would want to be friends with you!

However, Stubblefield knew very well, he was aware that Nike had been trying every means to poach Gan Guoyang, and now cooperating with Avia was about laying the groundwork and building relations.

Stubblefield was clear, he absolutely would not let Gan Guoyang go, and when the contract expired, he was prepared to spare no expense to keep Gan Guoyang at Avia.

To please Gan Guoyang, Avia had signed up Gan Guoyang’s teammate Drexler and his good friend John Stockton this summer.

Stockton was still not well-known in the league, a white backup point guard with no attention, and Avia signed him solely to make Gan Guoyang happy.

Although Gan Guoyang and Jordan would bicker, and Gan Guoyang didn’t even think highly of Jordan, in the end, he agreed to film the advertisements for publicity.

Because Gan Guoyang knew that Avia indeed had a weakness in promotional efforts and needed Nike’s help.

Afterward, Riswold said he had selected two directors to be in charge of the two advertising films.

Responsible for the Nike part of the first film was the black director, Spike Lee, who had directed the independent movie "She’s Gotta Have It."

In this movie, the Air Jordan sneakers were a very important prop, and Spike Lee was a devoted fan of both Jordan and Air Jordan, he understood the significance of Jordan and Air Jordan.

The one in charge of the Avia part of the second film was a graduate from a film school in New York, unknown, with no directorial works to his name, who had only sent in a screenplay after seeing an advertisement in a magazine from Wieden+Kennedy.

Riswold showed Gan Guoyang the resume of this individual, saying, "He’s Chinese, claims to be your fan, but he doesn’t have any directing experience. I wonder if he’s up to your standards?"

Gan Guoyang glanced at the resume and said, "No problem, let’s go with him."

This person’s name was Ang Lee.