America 1919

But at this time there were no three-pointers, only mid-range shots, and even dunks were rare.

After playing for a while and sweating, Donnie stepped out and watched the kids playing with basketballs bigger than themselves on the court—it was quite amusing!

Seeing this scene, Donnie called John over to his side. John was having a great time and came over dribbling, especially since he had just seen Tang Fei's under-the-leg dribble and thought it looked cool. He was trying to learn it.

"What's... ┗|｀O′|┛ Oh~~...." At that moment, John wasn't just dribbling alone; it was as if he had the spirit of a fool.

Donnie amusedly watched John and said, "Why don't you take a break..."

"No need!" John bent over, trying hard to maintain his authority in front of the kids.

Donnie threw John a towel and said, "Didn't you want more investment before? I have a suggestion, do you want to hear it?"

John immediately asked Donnie, "What suggestion?"

Donnie explained to John, "How about organizing your own sports league?"

John got interested and asked, "What kind of league?"

Donnie looked at John, speechless, and asked, "What are we playing now?"

"Basketball!" John stated matter-of-factly to Donnie, "You still haven't said which sports league?"

Donnie pointed to the basketball that had attacked John's vulnerable spot and said, "Of course, a basketball league!"

It dawned on John what Donnie's suggestion was, and he laughed heartlessly, "Actually, even if you hadn't said it, I was almost thinking the same thing!"

Donnie: "...."

Fortunately, John wasn't entirely brainless at this point: "But it can't be easy to establish a basketball league, right? Look at Major League Baseball, it's developed over a long time and still growing, mainly because there aren't any venues!"

Having proposed this idea to John, Donnie naturally had his own plans, "Don't worry about the venues for teams for now. What do you think is the most important thing to establish a sports league?"

"I don't know!" John chuckled looking at Donnie.

At this moment, Donnie felt like giving up.

"The most important thing is to have influence. With influence, you can create profit, and once you have profit, more teams will naturally join, and then they'll have to solve the venue problem themselves!

To create influence, you need more teams to join..."

John was a bit confused by what Donnie said, "Isn't that a paradox?"

Donnie glared at John, saying, "Listen to me!"

"Oh!"

"Although there's no formal basketball league now, there should be some informal teams. You could find these teams and look for cities that are most receptive to basketball. In these cities, build a venue for them to compete in. Of course, to get these teams to participate willingly, you need to attract them with profits.

Set up a prize that's unattainable for these informal teams, and they'll surely want to participate and show their real skills.

This way, you can initially build the league's influence, and once that happens, other capital will naturally intervene, the teams will become more professional, and as long as this sport develops, I believe they'll invest heavily.

Additionally, arrange to have people promote in major colleges. As long as colleges take it seriously, many basketball stars will emerge who can then feed back into the professional league!"

There's not even an NCAA basketball league now, which shows basketball was really unpopular at this time.

"Even though I don't understand what you're saying, I feel that what you said makes a lot of sense!" John sincerely expressed his thoughts.

Donnie continued reluctantly, "The most important thing is, once your league takes shape, I can get Atlantic City's betting industry to collaborate with you. By then, the revenue sharing will be quite significant!"

John immediately asked excitedly, "So you're saying that if this league succeeds, it will make money?"

Donnie chuckled coldly, "It will make a ton of money!"

John happily said, "Now that you say it like that, I'm all in, I'm doing it!"

Knowing that this kind of thing wouldn't succeed relying solely on John, Donnie said to John, "All right, once the radium products issue is resolved, organize a professional team in various leagues to handle the professional aspects!"

John nodded and said, "That's no problem, as long as it can be solved with money, it's not a problem!"

Donnie didn't want to say anything more to him, but at this moment, he was really curious about how far the completely derailed NBA might develop with his involvement!

By now, Donnie had rested enough. He got back on the court, took a basketball from his son Michael, dribbled quickly toward the basket, and when he reached the three-second area, he held the ball single-handedly and jumped high.

Bam!

A thunderous dunk stunned everyone present. They'd never seen scoring like this before; such a combination of power and the aesthetics of violence left the crowd speechless.

This is how basketball should be...

Just as Donnie was playing joyfully with everyone, Randolph Roman came to the basketball court looking somber.

Seeing this, Donnie put down the basketball and walked over to Randolph Roman.

"What's happened?"

Randolph Roman spoke with a gloomy expression, "I just got a call from the research facility's security team; someone is trying to attack the research facility!"