The Golden Age of Basketball
Chapter 1892 - 5: 11-Man Roster
Regarding the name "Light," Gan Guoyang agreed, although he personally preferred some slightly unconventional team names.
Deep down, the names he truly favored were "Las Vegas Twin Towers" or "Las Vegas Air Strike," or even "Las Vegas 91ers," which were also good ideas.
However, as a commercial team aiming for profitability, the name's neutrality and poise are very important; too strange or unconventional can be seen as a small team, and Gan Guoyang's ideas wouldn't fit the current American social atmosphere after terrorist attacks.
A straightforward name symbolizing positive power can attract more attention to the team.
Moreover, the name Light is rich in meaning and resonates well with the character of Las Vegas.
After the name Light was settled, the team logo's basic concept was also established.
Using Las Vegas's famous neon signs as the core design elements, paired with sunshine and basketball, it will have strong recognition.
As for the subsequent choice of team mascot, everyone's opinions were quite unified, choosing the famous Nevada big horn sheep as the prototype for designing the mascot.
Although images like rattlesnakes, vipers, scorpions, and vultures are cool, considering positive associations and profitability, the big horn sheep is a more beloved image.
In the American basketball scene, many schools use big horn sheep as mascots, they are very popular with Americans.
If selling merchandise in the future, families attending games are more likely to buy their children big horn sheep rather than snakes, scorpions, or vultures.
Gan Guoyang considers using these relatively unconventional team names and mascots for the future development league teams.
After deciding the team name, the design team immediately started working overtime to produce drafts in order to begin team promotion early.
The team's design team was directly brought over by Gan Guoyang from Avia; they were the ones who annually produced a bunch of Skyscraper commemorative editions, collectibles, and championship editions, making Gan Guoyang's Skyscraper the sneaker with the most styles and versions, and also the most eccentric in history.
So this design team is very experienced and has a good relationship with Gan Guoyang, ready to use and extremely efficient.
Three days after the first board meeting ended, Wang Fuxi held a press conference, officially announcing the new team's name, logo, jerseys, and mascot to the public.
The team's jersey colors mainly consist of gold, red, and white.
White and gold symbolize brilliant light, while red represents Las Vegas's fiery passion.
During these three days, the new team was not only designing names, jerseys, and logos, but also recruiting management personnel at various levels, organizing department work, and expanding personnel to quickly roll out all work.
In Las Vegas, the Glory team's various promotions and logos appeared in streets, buildings, hotels, and casinos in a very short time, the speed was astonishing.
The Nevada State Newspaper bluntly stated that it was "the speed of light," truly too fast.
However, while the overall team structure was rapidly built and quickly filled out, the Glory team still faced a major issue, which was the fundamental problem: team formation.
It's like a car, with a body, seats, steering wheel, and tires, everything resembling a car, but the most important engine is still missing.
The Glory team's basketball department currently has only one player who can be confirmed, and that is Gan Guoyang.
Moreover, up until now, the Glory team still doesn't have a general manager specifically responsible for basketball affairs.
This most important position has been left vacant, while Gan Guoyang is using his connections to urgently search for candidates.
Out of respect, his first call was to Pat Riley, asking if he wanted to come to Las Vegas for a change of scenery.
Riley certainly wouldn't come because he has shares in the Heat, not only as a general manager and coach but also as a minor owner.
So Riley knew this guy Gan was joking with him and vented his complaints to Gan Guoyang over the phone.
"Why did you have to come back now? Because of your return, everything is messed up. Players will be poached, schedules need rearranging, even training camps and preseason games will be affected."
"Sonny, our team is short-staffed now. When expanding the draft, please, be merciful and don't poach from me. Also, our team members are itching to go to Las Vegas, take it easy."
Riley has been up against Gan Guoyang for so many years and has never gained an advantage.
He learned long ago not to talk tough or act strong, just giving in would be best, otherwise, he'd be left with a head full of bumps.
Gan Guoyang also called Riley for another purpose: to understand the situation of each team.
Due to the new team needing to join the league at the fastest pace, the impact on other teams can't be said to be minor.
Rosters and schedules will be affected, and with Ah Gan coming back, the management staff are complaining endlessly, opposing the new team's entry or suggesting delaying a season or two.
But management is still just employees; the owners' thoughts are what truly matter.
And the offer from Ah Gan is simply too much, the owners don't want to bother with rosters or schedules.
Being paid so much, get it updated, work overtime and complete it, stop complaining.
It's just an extra team, missing a player in the division, have the league produce another schedule, what's the big deal?