Chapter 1540 1539. A Rogue in Despair (Asking for Monthly Votes)
Since she had to go to New Orleans with Liu Mang, little Loli asked for leave as soon as school started.
This made Liu Mang lament once again the corruption of capitalist countries!
Junior high schools in the United States can actually take travel leave very easily.
"Isn't it our Chinese tradition that it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books? How come the United States, which only has a history of more than 200 years, does it better?"
Since the Hawks played 7 games in the first 14 days of February, there are only 4 games left after the All-Star break.
From the 15th to the 22nd, it is the Eagles' All-Star weekend holiday, a total of eight days, with four games from the 23rd to the 29th.
This is the easiest time the Hawks have had since the All-Star Weekend in the past six years. They have four games in seven days. Their opponents are the Lakers, which will be the focus of the game right after the All-Star Weekend, and then three consecutive visits to the Jazz, Kings, and Spurs. During the trip, the Jazz and Kings are back-to-back. After the back-to-back, the 27th and 28th before playing the Spurs are rest times.
Seeing the two girls packing suitcase after suitcase, Alexia, who had learned many strange things from Liu Mang's mother, was worried and wanted Liu Mang to bring everything. Most of the things... were not used in the end, but Liu Mang was quite happy.
There is no rush to go to New Orleans to play in the All-Star Game this time because there are no commercial activities to do.
This All-Star Weekend is a non-profit event.
The Hornets' new arena was rebuilt in December. It is still called the New Orleans Arena. It has been expanded to a certain extent. The number of seats has increased from more than 19,000 to more than 21,000.
The first time it was used was as a venue for the All-Star Weekend. The Hornets will not move back here until the season is over.
This All-Star Weekend is a charity event jointly organized by NBA officials and the Louisiana State Legislature. There is no charge for tickets to this All-Star Weekend. A total of 2,500 local families who have returned to their hometown in New Orleans have been invited, a total of 10,000 People come to watch the game,
There are also volunteers from more than 30 other states in the United States who come here to help with reconstruction, as well as fans who have participated in the lottery since the beginning of the season. The NBA provides free tickets, and a total of 9,000 tickets have been given away.
Although tickets are not sold, volunteers from other places who come here and fans who win tickets through lottery will definitely stay here to help New Orleans revitalize the tourism industry.
Since the beginning of 2007, the reconstruction of New Orleans has actually been going very well. Some hotels have been opened one after another, and tourist facilities have been gradually repaired and built. However, there are too few tourists, resulting in those who have just returned to rebuild. Forced to go elsewhere.
NBA officials want to take this opportunity to help New Orleans. Of course, the main purpose is to improve the image of the NBA league.
The remaining two thousand or so tickets are, of course, given to team officials, league officials, media reporters, experts, players who participated or did not participate in the All-Star Weekend, as well as the players’ families and friends.
After the hurricane, New Orleans was basically in ruins. There are currently no large shopping malls or commercial districts. Moreover, doing commercial endorsements in a city that is being rebuilt will also have an impact on the image of the players. Agents of major stars Everyone was very resistant, so Liu Mang simply canceled all commercial activities during the All-Star Weekend and left it until the summer for BJ...
Liu Mang has many endorsement deals that only come once a year. Naturally, they would love to have this deal before the BJ Olympics.
However, Liu Mang can't wait until the 18th to go to the rookie game. There will be a charity event arranged by the league on the 17th, so he has to go tomorrow, the 16th at the latest.
Although the two girls were helping Liu Mang pack things on the 15th, Liu Mang and his family had a day off. It was a rare occasion that they didn't have to think about anything. They could watch TV, go shopping, and have afternoon tea together. They were not in a hurry.
On the afternoon of the 16th, the Liu Mang family took Wade, McGrady, Kwame Brown, Rondo, and Gortat to New Orleans on a charter flight that Levia had booked long ago.
During this All-Star Weekend, none of the Hawks players who were not qualified to participate in the All-Star Weekend wanted to go to the host city for the All-Star Weekend. This is quite rare.
Mainly, the hurricane in 2005 flooded 80% of New Orleans, almost completely destroying the city, and cost more than 200 billion U.S. dollars. This was because the U.S. federal government notified local people in New Orleans to evacuate in advance, which was precious. When the things have been shipped away long ago.
Fortunately, thanks to the advancement of modern science, the hurricane's path was predicted in advance and residents were notified to evacuate early. The hurricane that ultimately destroyed the entire city only killed more than 1,800 people in New Orleans.
However, New Orleans originally had a population of 730,000. Even though the U.S. government spent huge sums of money to rebuild New Orleans, a major tourist city on the south coast, in 2006, less than 200,000 people returned to New Orleans in 2007. It was like a ghost town. New Orleans used to be The largest city in Louisiana, whose GDP once accounted for one-third to one-quarter of the entire state, of course they want to revitalize this tourist city, so they teamed up with the NBA to organize this public welfare All-Star Weekend.
The NBA also uses this to enhance the image of the league.
After arriving in New Orleans, the Eagles and others rented five beach villas not far apart.
Liu Mang looked at the several bodyguards guarding outside the villa. There were also bodyguards at the gate and in various passages inside the villa. The key was that most of these bodyguards had guns...
This is the first time Liu Mang plays All-Stars and someone with a gun protects him...
These things were all arranged by Levia, who was much more thoughtful than Liu Mang.
The reason why no one wants to come back to New Orleans is not only because of the poor economic situation, but also because the public security here has been completely destroyed. In 2006, the year after the hurricane, it became something like Vice City in Grand Theft Auto. It looks like it's completely out of control.
Last year, Louisiana strengthened its security here and vigorously eradicated the evil forces that took root here after the disaster. It has been much better, otherwise it would not have invited more than 10,000 people from all over the United States to this city to host the All-Star Weekend.
But when you try your best to clear out things like evil forces, they often hide themselves, or move to another place after a single attack. Who knows if there will be any left.
Levia paid more attention to security and directly hired all 40 people in a security company, including 20 people inside and outside the yard of their villa, and 12 people on the nearby road leading to their villa. The remaining eight worked in pairs to help the teammates who came with Liu Mang guard the courtyard gate.
Liu Mang sighed that it was good to have a woman like Levia who had seen big scenes by his side. He didn’t have to worry about anything. He pulled Levia up to the second floor and locked the door behind him. He praised Levia with love and applause... …
…
On February 17, the two girls invited McGrady, Wade, and Kwame Brown’s families to their place for a party, because the four All-Stars Liu Mang, Wade, McGrady, and Kwame Brown plus Rondo and Gortat Two of the six players selected for the second-year All-Star Rookie Game team are going to help the NBA in charity activities.
In New Orleans, the two girls decided not to go out to see how the reconstruction was going. Safety was more important, so that Liu Mang could rest assured.
However, Liu Mang and others also brought more than 10 bodyguards with them on their way to participate in charity activities.
When Liu Mang arrived at the newly renovated New Orleans Arena, he saw that Kobe, Yao Ming, James and others were also the same, with four or five bodyguards around them...
Everyone has similar ideas.
The charity activities in the morning and after lunch went smoothly and were all arranged, such as volunteering to shoot promotional videos to help revitalize New Orleans' tourism industry, to care for those who lost their homes due to natural disasters, and to send some condolences... …
Everything went smoothly until everyone else left in the afternoon, and only three All-Stars were left...
Liu Mang, Tracy McGrady, James!
League Vice President Stu Jackson brought a man to talk to them about something.
That person is Hornets player Tayshaun Prince!
Since there were high-level people from the league, Liu Mang, McGrady, and James just said hello to Prince and came to the conference room of the New Orleans Arena together.
Being so formal, Liu Mang had a strange feeling - it was definitely not a good thing!
"Hello everyone, I am Stu Jackson. I serve as the executive officer of the NBA Publicity Department. I have a very important thing that I need your help with." Stu Jackson said.
Liu Mang and McGrady were both confused. How could they help?
Liu Mang and Maddie looked at each other and understood each other's thoughts through their eyes: "Do you want us to donate money? Impossible!"
Of course, the two of them thought it was unlikely, as their little money was looked down upon by the alliance.
Liu Mang felt that something bad was going to happen, while McGrady was just taking things as they came, while Prince seemed to have known about it for a long time and didn't say anything.
But James, the youngest player with the shortest playing experience among the four players, said angrily: "Stu, we are all old friends. If there is anything I can do to help, just tell me."
"Oh, thank you so much," Stu Jackson smiled: "This is a great thing. We have negotiated with the Dance Association. In order to help New Orleans revitalize its economy, we are preparing to take advantage of the opportunity after the All-Star Weekend. The All-Star atmosphere here is to hold a national dance king competition here. The league hopes that you, the four NBA dance kings, will serve as guest performers at the All-Star Game and announce this event to the world. We also hope that some of you can serve as The spokesperson for this national dance king competition.”
As soon as Stu Jackson said these words, Prince, who had known it for a long time, his eyes shone, and both McGrady and James looked happy.
Only one person was stunned.
"Little Zhanzhan is the dance king of bliss. Although he is a bit girly, he is already one of the dance types of the American Dance Association; Ma Ma Ma's Latin dance has always been a big dance type; the little prince's square dance is the best in the world. A great dancer...but I am a pole dancer!"