Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA

On the 14th, the Warriors faced off against the Supersonic in their first China Game in Shanghai.

If Qin Yue's appearance caused the NBA in this timeline to completely deviate from its original historical path,

then the Supersonic is the train that has switched tracks—they are heading toward a new, unforeseeable destination.

The Supersonic acquired a breathtaking lineup this summer.

With Yao Ming, Garnett, and Ray Allen as the core, they also have quality pieces like James Posey and Morris Evans on the wings.

Plus, there are Nick Collison and Chuck Hayes always ready on the bench.

As per ESPN's evaluation, apart from a weakness at the point guard position, this is a nearly perfect team.

The aging Gary Payton and Earl Watson have introduced a flaw to the Supersonic's luxurious lineup.

But in the NBA...

Since a flawless galaxy battleship doesn't exist, experts, media, and even neutral fans unanimously regard this Supersonic as a title favorite for the new season.

However, compared to the lineup...

The biggest change for this Supersonic might be off the court.

After successfully bringing Yao Ming from Houston to Seattle through that great plan...

Supersonic owner Howard Schultz did not conspire with Stern to bring in the businessman Bennett from Oklahoma as he did in Qin Yue's memory.

This change is destined to rewrite the Supersonic's team history, and it means that many Supersonic legends, including Payton, will not become "rootless wanderers" like in history.

Moreover, Supersonic fans don't have to bear the blame for the forced relocation of their team.

Indeed, in Qin Yue's previous life, Supersonic fans were truly the most aggrieved group—they were never the culprits behind Supersonic's relocation, nor were they the ringleaders preventing the refurbishment of the KeyArena.

Since purchasing the Supersonic, Schultz has had to pay substantial rent to the local government annually for leasing the KeyArena.

For this reason, NBA commissioner David Stern even publicly stated that the rental contract between the Supersonic and KeyArena was the worst rental contract in the history of the league.

Since entering the 21st century, the basic facilities of the KeyArena have been unable to keep pace with the times.

This also meant that the Supersonic could never profit more from ticket sales, with the most direct economic impact being Schultz losing nearly 60 million US Dollars in the five years since acquiring the Supersonic.

Therefore, Schultz and Stern historically joined forces to pressure the Washington State Government.

The league hoped that the local government would respect the rent the Supersonic had to pay to the KeyArena long-term, and through renovations, upgrade the facilities of the KeyArena accordingly.

And as supporters of the Supersonic, how could fans disagree with refurbishing the stadium? Isn't it them who go to the KeyArena every night to watch games? Isn't it their tickets helping Supersonic pay the rent to the KeyArena?

In fact, every Supersonic fan, like the team, desperately wanted the local government to quickly improve the environment where they watched games every night.

But in that final pressure scenario, the Washington State Government successfully incited Seattle taxpayers.

In Seattle, not every Seattle person would attend Supersonic games live, so when those taxpayers without any ties to Supersonic learned that the government planned to use their taxes to renovate the stadium for those darn basketball fans, how could they not be anxious?

And it was precisely this incitement by the Washington State Government that caused Stern and Schultz to completely lose confidence in Seattle.

Because the Washington State Government completely ignored the league and Supersonic's reasonable demands, and through public relations, transformed what should have been a landlord and tenant conflict into a neighbor and tenant conflict.

In this major farce, Supersonic is the tenant.

KeyArena and the state government are the landlords.

Fans and taxpayers are the two neighbors living next to the tenant.

Because fans as this neighbor come to the tenant Supersonic's house to play every day, they pay a substantial meal fee (tickets) to the tenant.

But suddenly one day, the tenant's house had a burst pipe.

So, as the tenant, Supersonic asked the landlord to help fix the pipe.

However, the landlord ignored the tenant's reasonable request.

Even if the Supersonic tenant expressed a willingness to pay half of the repair costs themselves, the landlord still disagreed.

Finally, the tenant can't take it anymore and says, "Then can I at least pay to fix the pipe myself?"

But the landlord still disagrees, stating that the reason they won't fix the pipe is fear of affecting the taxpayer neighbor.

As tenants, Supersonic was very puzzled by this.

However, next the landlord managed to spark a war between taxpayers and tenants by claiming that fixing the pipes would cause the taxpayer's house to leak.

And the fans who come to the tenant Supersonic's house daily were unfortunately blamed by the taxpayers when the tenant (Supersonic) was forced to move out.

On this, the taxpayers' reason was that since repairing the pipe would also cause the fans' house to leak, wasn't it lucky a tenant (Supersonic) left? You should be thanking us; we helped you get rid of a big bad guy!

This is the truth of Supersonic fans being scapegoated in history (Note①).

But in this life, they don't have to take the blame.