NBA: Goat is actually me

Chapter 192: Confrontation with Monica Bellucci
"This will definitely be a great PR trip." Nautica's founder David Zhu said excitedly on the plane.

This was a public relations trip, and also Nautica's first public relations trip. They didn't know at that time that this trip would become the original template for the overseas tours of NBA stars in the 30th year this year.

"David, you look very motivated," Meng Jin said.

"Of course I'm excited and I'm confident about this trip to Europe."

David Zhu is full of energy. This year, Nautica's sneaker sales have surpassed Adidas. Now their biggest rival is Nike, which has recently experienced a public relations crisis. Jesse Jackson, leader of the United to Save Humanity in the United States, accused Nike of rarely dealing with the black community and pointed out that the Oregon-based company has no black members on the board of directors, no black vice president positions, and few department leaders.

A few days ago, Nike and Save Humanity United held negotiations, but the negotiations ended in a bad way. Save Humanity United demanded to see Nike's accounts, and Nike, not to be outdone, directly asked for the source of funds for Save Humanity United.

The two organizations collided violently like Mars hitting the Earth. The Save Humanity United Organization launched a campaign for black people to boycott Nike products. Their slogan was "Don't buy Nike, don't wear Nike."

This frightened Nautica so much that they quickly hired a group of black workers, and they considered appointing black people to positions such as department manager and vice president.

"What about you? What are your expectations for this trip?" asked David Zhu.

Meng Jin thought for a moment and then said, "I am looking forward to the sexy Italian girls, the Spanish gypsy women, and..."

David Zhu immediately interrupted Meng Jin: "Wait, Meng, I'm talking about what to expect at work."

"That's all." Meng Jin turned his head and looked out the window. He didn't have much enthusiasm for this kind of publicity work. For him, it was just overtime work.

Meng Jin's first stop was Milan, Italy. There was a reason for this choice. Italy was the first European country to come into contact with NBA culture and was also the country most influenced by the NBA. On January 1981, 1, a game recording the Lakers vs. Celtics was publicly broadcast in Italian cinemas. This was also the first game in NBA history to be broadcast overseas outside the United States.

After the huge success of showing NBA games in cinemas, Giorgio Gandolfi, a famous Italian basketball reporter who was a key figure in introducing the NBA, went to the United States alone to negotiate with CBS. He described himself as the Columbus of Italian basketball, who crossed the ocean to America.

Americans liked Gandolfi's idea, and eventually, with his help, the TV station owned by Italy's Rizzoli Publishing Group became the first non-American TV station to broadcast NBA games, and Canale-5, Italy's first national TV network just established by future Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, got the broadcasting rights for the next season.

As European basketball fans became more familiar with the NBA, game ratings continued to rise. In 1984, the NBA held a special Italian game, in which the Nets and Suns played a series of exhibition games in multiple cities in Italy, which were somewhat similar to future preseason games.

Gandolfi also invited Italian teams to play friendly matches with NBA teams, and invited the then NBA stars "Dr. J" Irving and Moses Malone. The rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers left a deep impression on Italy. To some extent, Italian fans are more likely to go to extremes than American fans, falling into the polarization of "either yellow or green".

A person is either a fan of Magic Johnson or a fan of Larry Bird, and there is absolutely no way to coordinate the two groups.

And now most of these people have become Meng Jin's fans.

The TV station broadcasts NBA games on Thursdays or Fridays, and if there is a Bulls game that week, the radio station's ratings will be higher. The Bulls' rapid rise in the past two seasons has made this team a favorite among Italian fans.

Similarly, Italy's connection with the NBA is the closest among all European countries. Nowadays, if someone can't play in the NBA, their first reaction is to try Italy, like Kobe's father.

Kobe also came tonight. He did not see Meng Jin at the entrance of the stadium because the crowd and the media were all outside. Meng Jin thought the scene was too crazy and chose to enter the stadium through the back door.

"Meng! Meng!"

Kobe held up the Bulls No. 1 jersey signed by Meng Jin in the stands.

Meng Jin didn't notice Kobe at first because there were too many people and too much noise.

However, Kobe still attracted Meng Jin's attention through his unremitting shouting. Meng Jin waved at Kobe from a distance and said hello. He didn't dare to walk to the stands because the fans here were too crazy and he was worried that it would cause safety problems.

NBA fans can see Meng Jin many times in a season, but these overseas fans may only have one chance in their lifetime.

Meng Jin also knew this. At the beginning of the game, Meng Jin performed a dunk show, including dunks from the free throw line, gliding back dunks, and one-handed windmills. These warm-up dunks alone were enough to make them climax and feel that their tickets were worth it.

The two teams participating in the game tonight are Varese Basketball Club and Milan Olimpia Basketball Club.

When Meng Jin was warming up, players from both sides kept asking him for photos and autographs. These professional athletes became little fans of Meng Jin, which surprised Meng Jin a little. He didn't know that his influence had become so great.

As soon as the game started, Meng Jin launched a fierce attack, and the fans off the field and the players on the field were all fascinated by his performance.

"Meng Jin Super European Step!"

"Meng Jin made an emergency stop and pulled up!"

"Meng Jin slams it down!"

The commentator was beaming with joy and in high spirits, as if he could only see Meng Jin in his eyes.

Meng Jin did not let up just because it was an exhibition game, he played very hard. Perhaps these people would only have this one chance in their lifetime to watch him play. Meng Jin never disappoints his fans. He went into a frenzy mode in the first quarter and relaxed a little in the second, making a few three-point shots which he was not good at.

In the first half, Meng Jin played for Varese, and Varese led by 55 points 35 to 20.

During the halftime break, Meng Jin was in high spirits and changed his jersey directly, playing for Milan Olimpia Basketball Club in the second half. The players on the Milan side were very excited, as they had just been humiliated by Meng Jin, and now Meng Jin became their teammate.

The final score was 95 to 93. Meng Jin not only led the Milan Olimpia Basketball Club to complete a Jedi counterattack, but also completed the final buzzer beater.

9 seconds before the end of the game, Meng Jin made a continuous hip-diving breakthrough at the top of the arc, ignoring Varese's double-team defense and made a layup directly in the penalty area.

The ball goes in and the lights come on!
Then, the whole audience shouted "Meng Jin" in unison.

Meng Jin not only put on a wonderful performance, but also played the entire game. His professionalism moved the fans.

After the game, Meng Jin gave one of his MJ III shoes to a little girl and the other to Kobe.

Kobe was so excited that Meng Jin pointed at him and said, "Little Kobe, you can only wear my shoes when playing basketball in the future. You can only wear MJ series shoes. Do you hear me?"

After the game, many celebrities went to the locker room to take photos with Meng Jin, including director Dino Risi.

Dino Risi invited Meng Jin to attend the premiere of his movie "It's Hard to Be a Stepmom" tomorrow. Meng Jin thought that he didn't have any special plans tomorrow, so he agreed to go and have fun.

At the premiere, Meng Jin once again became the focus. The influence of NBA in Italy really exceeded Meng Jin's expectations. Reporters were frantically trying to get close to Meng Jin. Many celebrities whom Meng Jin didn't know came up to greet him. Dino Risi enthusiastically introduced the main creative staff of "It's Hard to Be a Stepmom" to Meng Jin.

"This is Giancarlo, this is Corini, this is Monica Bellucci."

When Monica was introduced, Meng Jin was stunned. After confirming with his eyes, he realized that it was indeed the Monica Bellucci he knew. It was just that at that time she had not yet filmed "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily" and was still just a fledgling young actress.

To be honest, Meng Jin prefers Monica in "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily". Monica in that period was more charming and a real young woman. Now she looks more youthful and beautiful, but still the best and still a top beauty.

After the movie, Meng Jin took the initiative to ask Monica out. Meng Jin was only staying in Italy for three days, so he wanted to make a quick decision and just let it go if he was rejected.

Monica Bellucci agreed to a date with Meng Jin. In fact, she was not very interested in Meng Jin as a person. She was attracted by Meng Jin's fame. At the premiere ceremony, she observed that everyone was chasing after Meng Jin.

Meng Jin talked to Monica for a few words and he realized that this beauty was not interested in him. This was normal, as not every woman was interested in Meng Jin. However, this did not mean that something could not happen between Meng Jin and her.

Since the emotional card didn't work, Meng Jin went straight to the point and asked Monica if she wanted to develop in Hollywood.

Meng Jin could clearly feel that Monica was moved. No female star would not be tempted by such an invitation. Meng Jin continued to increase his efforts and told her that he knew some people in Hollywood and that he was also planning to invest in a film company.

Under Meng Jin's attack, Monica wavered. Meng Jin seized the opportunity and hugged her the moment she wavered.

The next day, Monica got up from the bed exhausted. She felt like her whole body was about to fall apart. She didn't want to have this experience a second time.

Not every woman can adapt to Meng Jin's strong confrontation, and not every woman is called Madonna.

A day later, Meng Jin left for Barcelona. Although the Olympics were still two years away, the Olympic atmosphere was already strong there. Preparations for the 1992 Olympics were in full swing. Meng Jin made a high-profile visit to the Olympic Committee and even the office of the Association of Basketball Clubs, the Spanish League ACB.

They hope Meng Jin can go to Barcelona, ​​but this is not something Meng Jin can decide on his own. Meng Jin must first join the national team. So far, Meng Jin has not received any form of invitation from the national team.

That afternoon he even shoveled dirt on the construction site of the new stadium being built for the 1992 Olympics, held a press conference in Barcelona, ​​and refereed a dunk contest at a Spanish all-star game for young players hosted by Nautica.

The next day he played another exhibition match here, with the same format as in Italy.

Three days later, Meng Jin went to his next destination, Paris. He took a quick tour of the Seine River, the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe and the Palace of Versailles. Meng Jin also watched a show in Paris. Givenchy even specially prepared a men's evening suit for Meng Jin. Meng Jin had a great time in Europe and did not return to the United States until mid-to-late August.

As soon as he returned to the United States, he heard the news that Jordan was in trouble again.

Jordan was approached, through his mother, to endorse the campaign of Harvey Gantt, a black man who wanted to unseat the stubborn, conservative Jesse Helms as a North Carolina state senator.

It was an intense, racist campaign, the most famous of which was Helms's political ad "The Hand," which told the story of a white man losing his job to a minority because of unfair racial policies. The ad tried to incite white discontent. When invited to participate in the campaign, Jordan famously told Gant's supporters that he couldn't participate because "people from the other party also buy shoes."

Jordan's response angered many people, especially the black community. Looking back many years later, the 1990 election was considered a watershed in Jordan's public image.

JA Adandai of ESPN recalled that many of his friends used to be admirers of "His Highness", but 1990 became a dividing line. "Because of the election, some of my friends no longer want anything to do with Michael Jordan," Adandai said, "because they feel that he has abandoned his social responsibility. They can't forgive this. They no longer appreciate Jordan as a player because they no longer have any respect for Jordan as a person." Adandai himself didn't understand why Jordan was unwilling to fire at a notorious racist.

Meng Jin, on the other hand, understood Jordan's choice very well. He knew that Jordan was a pure player who did not like to get involved in these messy times. He just wanted to build his own basketball career instead of focusing on politics.

But no matter what, Jordan had a bad summer. He has been the target of criticism from the outside world since he won the championship. Now even the black community who have always supported him have complaints about Jordan's choice.

At this moment, Meng Jin was a little grateful for his skin color and nationality, which allowed him not to get involved in a lot of troubles and he just needed to focus on playing basketball.

(End of this chapter)