MTL - The Rest, Only Noise-Chapter 23 The most watched basketball game of all time

The 1979 NCAA National Championship captured the attention of all NBA scouts.

Louie is one of the first scouts to track Indiana University. Although Bird has been selected by the Celtics, he can still re-enter the draft.

His progress in his senior season is eye-catching. The praise of "once in a century" is not exaggerated, and the dazzling title of "The Great White Hope" has also fallen on him.

After watching a few Mountain Man games, Louie believes that this team can only rely on Bird to contribute to the championship.

The overall strength is too poor.

In the Elite Four, they faced the posh DePaul University Witcher.

DePaul, led by future No. 1 pick Marc Aguirre, has five players scoring in double figures, while Indiana State has only two.

This is Bird's last game before entering the finals. Celtics general manager Auerbach came to the scene. He hoped that Bird would return to Boston with him as soon as possible after losing.

Bird solemnly told him: "****! We will not lose!"

In the end, they narrowly won by 2 points and advanced to the finals, and the Michigan State University Spartans led by "Magic" joined the finals.

This is the most watched college basketball game in history.

One side is led by "The Great White Hope" and the other side is led by magicians with bright smiles, white and black. This is the most sensitive theme of our time, and it hits the G-spot of American society. Audiences across the United States were agitated.

It seems that the black and white duo will save the NCAA first before saving the NBA.

Actually, the word salvation is not accurate. In 1968, Evan Hayes led the team to break the undefeated myth in the "greatest game", and college basketball entered the media's attention; in 1974, "Skywalker" led North Carolina State University to once again The concept of March Madness was created by breaking the monopoly on the national championship.

Long before black and white, college basketball was saved by its predecessors. The next step is to accumulate strength over the years, the stage has been paved, just wait for the appropriate protagonist to appear, leaving a legendary epic to rush to the peak.

Magic and Bird are the best opponents on this arena.

They're to the NCAA what Jordan was to the NBA in the '90s, and the Spartans-versus-Mountain man strategy in a "must kill Bird to win" battle reminds Louie of 2019 In the final game of the Finals, everyone on the Raptors surrounded Curry and let the rest of the Warriors throw open spots. As long as they can't shoot open, the game can be won.

Bird's teammates, like Curry's teammates, can't shoot open.

The magician thus dominates the game.

It wasn't a game to watch, but it was the most watched basketball game of all time.

27 million Americans tuned in to watch the game live.

Louie wasn't as engaged as the Americans at the scene, sitting next to Blazers general manager Stu Inman.

He met Inman last month because he wanted to meet the youngest scout ever.

Louis naturally also wanted to expand his contacts. At the beginning, he regarded Inman as an idiot, but he found that Inman was not an idiot.

"Compared to Larry, Irvin Johnson's future is more worth looking forward to." Inman sincerely hoped, "I hope he will not be selected by the Lakers."

Louie joked: "Why worry about this, you don't even want to wait another year for Larry."

"Lu, I'm not shirking responsibility, but I'm not the only one who makes the decision." Inman said bluntly.

Louis knows a thing or two about the Blazers. They have a strong head coach who dominates the team's signings and transactions. Inman can only provide advice more often. There is also an owner who cares about the team, and he is not willing to take risks.

Sometimes, the outrageous operations of professional teams are not the subjective wishes of management.

Similar sadness and difficulty, Louie has seen on many teams. Even Auerbach has had a miserable experience with his own boss. If it wasn't for the strength of the Bostonians, maybe he would have gone to the Knicks.

In Boston's most desperate times, taxi drivers reasoned with Auerbach while waiting at a red light. Customers at the restaurant interrupted his dinner time. The radio host begged him to reconsider. In Boston, he was begged to stay wherever he went.

Then he stayed, provided owner John Y. Brown left.

Brown's partner Haver Mandrian bought Brown's shares and became the team's owner.

This is the fourth owner of the Celtics since the beginning of the 1970s.

The ownership of the team changed frequently, and Louie was just an unremarkable member who found a good player in the high-profile college basketball finals.

Jay Vincent, the Spartans' sophomore forward, is athletic enough to meet the standards of a modern forward with a variety of scoring skills and a willingness to stay away from the lights. As Louie later learned, he was the only person on the championship team who had no problem with Magic's exclusive spotlight.

At the end of the game, it rained colorful paper sheets in the arena.

Inman said with emotion: "This is a game that cannot be surpassed."

And Louie doesn't pay attention to things that have nothing to do with the game at all, he concentrates on writing down what he just observes.

Inman noticed him at work and asked curiously, "What did you find?"

"I'm thinking, can Irwin be as comfortable in the NBA as he is in college?" Louie said, putting away his report.

Inman's answer is like all conservatives: "No way, he can play a guard in college, would you dare to let him play a guard in the NBA? He'll be knocked to the ground by rude forwards, and if he doesn't master his shooting quickly , I think his future in the NBA is bleak."

Is this the general manager who will miss Jordan for Bowie in the future? Louis called the expert: "Well, I think so too."

Louis wanted to go back to the hotel to polish his scouting report, but UU Reading www.uukanshu.com was invited by Inman to tonight's party.

It's a party hosted by Inman, with a lot of scouts and management from all over the place.

Louie would not miss the opportunity to network, so he said yes.

He met a lot of acquaintances at the banquet, Jack McMahon of the 76ers, Jon Limbock of the Lakers, and Michael Hanks, a Clippers scout who sold scouting reports everywhere.

Knicks owner Sonny Webblin was the heavyweight of the night, and everyone tried to please him.

Weblin, known for his generosity and big money, shocked the sports world with the salary he paid Joe Namath in the 1960s and created the concept of a sports star. After the AFL and NFL merged, Namath led the Jets to the Super Bowl, the first time an AFL team won the Super Bowl. This also proves Webblin's vision.

Louie did not take the initiative to please Webblin, because too many people wanted to please him.

There are rumors that he has been on all the New York female stars who were active in the 60s, and Louie really asked him to confirm this.

It was "pretentious", but Weblin replied with a smile: "Sorry, I can't answer your question."

They switched on each other on this topic and had further exchanges.

Webblin was surprised that there were such young players in the sports industry, and he was even more surprised when he heard that Auerbach had a high regard for Louis.

It was an interesting night, Louie met a lot of bigwigs in the industry, and the reputation of "Little Devil" became more and more famous, and other teams invited him to join. But the salary they offered was about the same as Boston, and Louis had no reason to give up the career and contacts that had started smoothly in Boston, so he politely declined.