The shooting contest is still in progress.
After all the players appeared, a relatively rare situation occurred. The top two players scored 12 goals, with the same score.
According to the rules, the two men have to play an extra match to decide the final outcome.
The fans at the scene were immediately excited. They were not satisfied with watching it yet! What's more, both players in the extra game made 12 goals, which was a even-match battle.
In the box, Chen Qiang showed a smile on his face, and a playoff appeared, making the game more intense. This is what he most hopes to see.
Around Chen Qiang, the bosses of other teams also looked smiling. As of now, the All-Star Game was held very successfully, and the enthusiastic reaction of the audience is the best proof.
Kettlers' owner Walter Brown has begun to look forward to next year's All-Star Game. At that time, the All-Star Game will come to Boston Gardens, which is the home court of the Celtics and the stadium is not smaller than Madison Square Garden. Walter Brown thinks that Boston's All-Star Game can not be worse than New York.
"Chen, I really didn't expect that a simple shooting game would be so exciting." Pistons owner Fred Zorner said.
It is not easy to be praised by this rich man.
Chen Qiang smiled and then said, "Mr. Zolner, next year's All-Star Game will be held in Boston, but the venue for the next year is not confirmed. Are you interested?"
Zorner thought for a while and replied: "Fort Wayne does not have that much population, and our stadium is far smaller than Madison Square Garden. I'm afraid it will not be possible to run such a large-scale event."
"That's true. Compared with New York and Boston, Fort Wayne is really too small." Chen Qiang paused and asked, "Mr. Zolner, have you considered moving the team to other places, such as Detroit."
"Detroit is indeed a big city, but my factory is in Fort Wayne." Zorner answered.
"I think you can move all the factories to Detroit. Your factory is used for automobile engines. Now the American automobile industry is mainly in Detroit. If you move the factory to Detroit, you will be closer to your customers." Chen Qiang replied.
"Detroit looks really good now, but who knows what it will look like in the future! After the war is over, they will not be able to get so many military orders like they are now," Zorner replied.
Fort Wayne is located in northeastern Indiana, not far from Detroit, Michigan. And because Fort Wayne is an important traffic beam, river, railway, and highway all pass here, Zolner chose to build a factory in Fort Wayne, with the purpose of transporting products.
As for Detroit, it could not be considered a "auto city" before World War II. Detroit first developed the shipbuilding and shipping industry. Later, Ford, Dodge, Chrysler and other companies built factories in Detroit, which led to Detroit gradually developing into the world's automobile industry capital. Especially after the outbreak of World War II, Detroit's industry had to provide services to the military, so the US government built the world's first urban highway in Detroit, and Detroit also entered a rapid development channel. If you want to be rich, the routine of building roads first was also established in the United States.
The development of Detroit lasted until the 1970s. The outbreak of the oil crisis hit the American automobile industry hard, causing Detroit to go downhill, and eventually even embarked on the road of bankruptcy. However, even so, Detroit is still a well-known "big ball market" in the United States.
In 1944, the expressway was just completed, and Detroit's advantages in the automobile industry had not been fully utilized. The main reason was that Detroit was producing various military equipment for the US military at this time. It can be said that Detroit was a city supported by the military industry. Therefore, many people were not optimistic about the future development of Detroit. These people felt that once the war ended, Detroit would lose its vitality and soon decline.
There were many economic experts who held this view at that time, including many entrepreneurs, who also believed that Detroit's prosperity was only short-lived, and after the war ended, Detroit would quickly fall into trouble, so they were unwilling to relocate their factories to Detroit, but instead missed the opportunity to develop.
Fred Zorner is also a businessman with this idea. In theory, automobile tycoons like Fred Zorner make a living by relying on the automobile industry and should actively embrace the car city of Detroit. However, at this time, Fred Zorner also made a wrong judgment on Detroit. He also believed that Detroit's prosperity could not last for a long time, so he chose to stay in Fort Wayne and did not move the factory to Detroit.
Perhaps it was because the factory was not relocated to Detroit in time that the future Zorner went downhill. In the 1940s, Zorner's factory provided products to Ford and General Motors and even the US Navy needed Zorner's foundry. In the golden age, Zorner foundry could provide 1,200 jobs at a time, but in 1999, when Zorner's company was acquired, there were only 230 employees left.
Historically, it was not until 1957 that Zorner moved the Pistons to Detroit. At that time, professional sports in the United States had begun to flourish. Baseball MLB and football NTL had gathered countless spectators. Although NBA was in a half-dead state, the bonuses for professional teams in big cities have been revealed. Zorner realized that the Pistons could not survive in small cities like Fort Wayne, so he decided to move the team to Detroit. But in fact, he had missed the best opportunity.
The Pistons had a very good record at that time and won the runner-up in the finals twice. However, the basketball atmosphere in the city of Detroit was relatively average. Before the Pistons came to Detroit, there was only one professional team in Detroit, called the Detroit Falcons. He had only played for a year in the Baa League and announced his disbandment.
After the Pistons moved to Detroit, although they were backed by the big ball market, they had no profit for 17 years. In 1974, Zorner no longer wanted to bear the burden of the Pistons and sold the Pistons to American glass tycoon Davidson for $7 million.
In the hearts of Chinese fans, the Detroit Pistons are a well-known team, but in the city of Detroit, the Pistons are the bottom of the four major sports leagues. The Detroit Lions of football NFL, the Detroit Tigers of baseball mlb, and the Detroit Red Wings of ice hockey NHL are all much more popular than the Pistons.
The Detroit Tigers of Baseball MLB have been staying in Detroit for more than a hundred years. They are also the only team among the founding members of the former Western Conference to stay in the original city. The historical heritage accumulated after a hundred years has been rooted in a city is really terrible. If it is in modern times, which city has a "century-old brand" will become a part of the city's culture.
The Detroit Lions team of NFL came to Detroit in the 1930s. And rugby is the largest sports in the United States, so it is naturally more popular than basketball. Not to mention that Detroit also has an NCAA League rugby Motor City Bowl. Although the value of this car city bowl is not as valuable as the six major bowl events such as the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl, the rugby atmosphere in cities that can hold bowl games must be very good.
As for ice hockey, it is even more popular among Detroits. Michigan is originally in the north of the United States, and it is very suitable for ice hockey. Detroit fans are also very enthusiastic. Detroit is even called "Ice Hockey City" by many Americans.
So for the city of Detroit, basketball is originally a latecomer, and it is normal for it to be ranked at the end of the four major sports leagues.
Chen Qiang didn't know whether his proposal would be accepted by Zolner. But if Zolner had moved the Pistons to Detroit, then the Pistons would come to Detroit more than ten years ahead of schedule. Perhaps there would be better development in the future, and maybe there would be a chance to get rid of the title of "Crane Tail" of Detroit Professional Sports.
...
At the end of the shooting competition, Williams forgot to get the beer again, and he was still savoring the shooting competition just now.
"I thought this shooting competition would be boring, but the result was still very exciting, especially the final extra game, which was quite exciting." Williams said in his heart.
After the reporter gave a brief interview with the championship of the shooting competition, the All-Star Game entered the next stage, the dunk competition.
The TV host Wilson once again introduced the rules. The one who appeared on the stage was not the athletes, but the five basketball celebrities specially invited by Chen Qiang, who were responsible for rating the contestants.
"Are these five people just judges? After hearing the introduction, they all seem to be basketball celebrities!" Williams nodded silently. He did not question the professionalism of these five celebrities. In the eyes of normal people, these five people must be experts in basketball, and they will definitely rate athletes from a professional perspective.
But in fact, the so-called celebrities may not be the ones who know basketball the best. Basketball develops so fast that it will change greatly every ten years. For example, in 2010, it was probably difficult for players at that time to understand the current three-point shooting tactics; and in the era when super centers dominated the court and emphasized defense in 2000, it was difficult for players at that time to understand that the three giants would have such powerful power!
Therefore, those superstars from 20 or 30 years ago may not be as good as ordinary character players today.
But Chen Qiang still invited them as a judge in the dunk contest, because what Chen Qiang needs is not their professionalism, but their fame.
As a time traveler, the dunk contest is naturally one of the most anticipated events that Chen Qiang is most looking forward to. Many people in later generations came specifically for the dunk contest. But Chen Qiang also knew that athletes of this era might not be able to make wonderful dunk movements.
White athletes' bounce ability is much weaker than black athletes. The physical fitness of athletes in the 1940s was far inferior to later generations. It is no exaggeration to say that most players two meters tall could not complete the dunk at that time. Because of this reason, dunks were a very rare scoring method in the game.
In the future professional basketball game, not to mention the world's highest level NBA, even in the CBA game, players can often see dunks. In the 1940s, they could see dunks once or twice in the whole month of games. Even if they were lucky, the dunks in this era are rare, which is similar to the kick-off and touchdown in the future rugby NFL.
Those who have watched "Forrest Gump" should have an impression of Forrest Gump's rugby scene. At that time, Forrest Gump made a return touchdown. Forrest Gump's return touchdown seemed easy, and it was enough to rush forward. In real high-level games, kick-off and touchdowns are almost impossible to complete. Among the professional players of active NFL, the highest number of times the return attacker kicks back and touchdowns is 13 times, which is a career statistics, not a seasonal statistics. This 13 times ranks second in NFL history, which means that NFL has a century-old history, has had so many return attackers, but only two people can complete 13 kick-off and touchdowns in their careers.
This is how basketball in 1944 is. If a player can dunk 13 times in his career, it would be something earth-shaking.
It is precisely because it is difficult for ordinary players to complete the dunk, so the players participating in the dunk competition this time are about 2.5 meters tall. They are centers in their respective teams. Moreover, the number of people participating in the dunk competition is much smaller than the Skills Challenge and the Shooting Competition, with only three people in total. For other players, dunking is really difficult.
...
There is a TV in a fast food restaurant near DePaul University in Chicago, and the young George McCann is sitting in front of the TV, watching the All-Star Game broadcast on the TV seriously.
When it comes to the dunk contest, it is obviously a war between giants.
The first player to appear was 2.05 meters tall, which was shorter than George McCann, but in basketball at that time, he was one of the few big men.
"The commentator introduced that this person is 6 feet 9 inches tall, only 1 inch shorter than you." A man next to him looked at George McCann and said softly: "He can dunk, but you can't seem to be able to dunk Blue, right?"
"Who said I can't dunk? I can!" George McCann replied with dissatisfaction.
"But I've never seen you hold back." The man showed a teasing smile.
"That's because I've deducted it in front of you, but that doesn't mean I won't!" George McCann retorted.
In fact, George McCann was also guilty at this time. George McCann, who was still in the freshman year, was a silly man with clumsy movements, slow movements, rough skills, poor bounces, and myopic eyes. Although he was 6 feet 10 inches tall, he could not complete the dunk.
At this time, on TV, the first player to play began his first dunk.
I saw him pick up the basketball, facing the basket, and then start running. When he ran to the basket, he jumped high and buckled the ball tightly in the basket with one hand.
This is just the most ordinary and basic dunk, with no aesthetic sense at all.
However, it was this most common dunk that made George McCann grow up in front of the TV with a shocked expression.
"Dunk, that's a dunk!"
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Chapter completed!