Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 156 Alliance shock, crisis public relations

It is an old tradition in the NBA for the team's veteran players to bully the newcomers.

No matter which superstar he is, he has experienced being bullied by the old players of the team.

But there is a difference between bullying and bullying.

In the 80s, "Old Oak" Oakley slapped Scottie Pippen in public because Pippen said he was the best player on the team.

This kind of bullying is humiliating in nature.

To put it bluntly, it is workplace bullying!
In the 90s, as David Stern "struck hard" to change the league's external image, the old birds bullied the newcomers, and the kind of bad bullying that Oakley did to Pippen rarely happened.

More often than not, they treat the rookie as a younger brother and ask him to run errands and buy things.

For example, as "Crazy Fan" said before, a Lakers player asked rookie Kobe to buy him a BYT and send it to a nightclub in the middle of the night.

For example, in his rookie season, LeBron carried sneakers for Ricky Davis, the then-team leader.

Now, Zhu Fangyu suddenly said that he was bullied in the locker room by old players, and he also said that the team's boss and "superstar" LeBron James turned a blind eye to the situation.

You know, tolerating bullying is equivalent to bullying.

This is very different from the image of maturity, stability and unity with teammates that LeBron James has always created in front of the media.

If this is confirmed, it will definitely have a considerable negative impact on LeBron James' image.

The reporters, who were eager to see the world in turmoil, suddenly became excited.

"Zhu, you have to know that you have to be responsible for everything you say now. If it is not true, then you will face very serious consequences!"

"I can be responsible for my words!" Zhu Fangyu took out his mobile phone and showed everyone the text messages McGinnis had sent him. The insulting text messages spanned a long period of time, from November 11 to December 15, which is almost a month.

During this period, McGinnis had been ordering Zhu Fangyu to run errands and often called Zhu Fangyu using insulting words.

"Then why do you say LeBron is blind to this? Maybe he really doesn't know these things?"

Zhu Fangyu said: "This is just a text message, you can see it. In fact, McGinnis also repeatedly called me similar words in the locker room. At that time, LeBron was present, but he did not stop McGinnis!"

"Especially last night!"

The reporter was about to continue asking questions when Zhu Fangyu began to reveal information.

For a moment, all the reporters pricked up their ears and listened attentively.

When they heard that McGinnis not only refused to let Zhu Fangyu eat his lunch box but also wanted to take it away, and was about to take action when Zhu Fangyu tried to stop him, they became even more excited.

Okay, okay, just this content, keep exposing it, keep exposing it!
Of course, as they continued to listen, their expressions became increasingly stunned.

"I saw him attacking, and I could only fight back. He couldn't beat me, so he hid next to LeBron. At this time, LeBron stood up to stop me and said I shouldn't do that! But before, when McGinnis wanted to take away my lunch box, he didn't stand up, and when he wanted to hit me, he didn't stand up. I saw him looking in my direction, and our eyes met. I can swear on my family that he must have seen it. If he wants to say that he didn't see it at the time, I also hope he will swear on his family!"

hiss~
The reporters gasped.

So cruel?

Everyone knows that LeBron has expressed his love for his mother in front of the media more than once.

"I was very angry that he stood up to defend McGinnis at this time. I ignored him and just wanted to drag McGinnis away from him. I thought it was a matter between the two of us, but LeBron grabbed my hand, and he also grabbed my hand. I was hit by McGinnis, and then Newbell rushed over and grabbed my other hand!"

"I want to ask, if this is not team bullying, this is not favoritism, what is this?"

Zhu Fangyu seemed to recall what happened last night, and he became more and more excited as he spoke. But a reporter noticed his point: "Zhu, you said that LeBron and his friends beat you up..."

He glanced at Zhu Fangyu from head to toe.

"But we didn't see any injuries on your body..."

Other reporters also reacted. They felt something was strange from the beginning. When this reporter reminded them, they realized that there were no injuries on Zhu Fangyu's body.

Zhu Fangyu regained his composure: "Of course I can't just watch them beat me up. I will defend myself and protect my own safety."

What this means is...

"You beat all three of them?" a reporter asked cautiously.

Zhu Fangyu corrected: "I just successfully protected myself and stopped them from bullying me!"

The whole audience was shocked!

The reporters looked at each other in bewilderment. They couldn't believe that LeBron, Newbell and McGinnis bullied one person and were killed in return.

However, when they reacted, the skin color of the person in front of them...

Yes, this is very Chinese!

"You didn't suffer any loss, why do you still want to talk about this?"

"Because I was bullied. If I didn't fight back, the bullying would have continued. We international players don't have that many friends when we come to the NBA to play. Most of us come here alone. We come here for our dreams, for the highest stage of basketball. We thought we would be welcomed here, but in the end, we were bullied by local players. They were so rude! Is this really the NBA we aspire to?"

"I didn't suffer any loss yesterday, but in the past month, I have been bullied while I was swallowing my anger. McGinnis has been insulting me and others. LeBron turned a blind eye. Is this really the boss of the team? I don't want to endure it anymore, so I fought back!"

"Luckily, I protected myself!"

"But if I don't speak out about this, I might be labeled as someone who fights within the team and doesn't unite with teammates. I am an international player and I have to maintain the image of an international player. I can't give them the opportunity to throw dirty water on me..."

Zhu Fangyu became more and more excited. He mixed up half of what Su Wan taught him. But he looked at the reactions of the reporters in front of him and felt that the effect had been achieved. He immediately said the closing remarks: "I hope the league will give me an explanation. McGinnis apologizes to me. LeBron, as the boss of the team, also has to apologize to me!"

A single stone stirs up a thousand waves. Zhu Fangyu had just finished an interview with reporters in the morning, and soon the press releases were flying everywhere:
"Shocked, LeBron allowed the veterans to bully the rookies!"

"There is a hidden reason behind Zhu Fangyu's poor performance. The team's veterans have been bullying him for a month, and LeBron has turned a blind eye to it."

"Uniting teammates is just a persona in front of the media? Loeb is facing an image crisis and condones the veterans in the team to bully the newcomers!"

"LeBron tried to fight a group but was defeated by three people on one side. He is a disgrace on the court and also off the court!"

……

Moreover, each of these reporters is very good at choosing headlines. They all know who has the most traffic, so whenever they report this incident, the headline will inevitably include LeBron's name, as well as words like "bullying" and "group fight."

good news:
Now no one cares about the fact that the Cavaliers suffered a crushing defeat against the Pacers yesterday and LeBron was kicked out of the playoffs by Suwan again.

bad news:
LeBron's personal image is facing the biggest crisis.

Even the media outside the circle were alarmed, and some newspapers that often write about social security and humanity also reported extensively on this incident.

Su Wan was not surprised by this.

After Larry Brown was exposed for verbally insulting Nate Robinson, it quickly caused outrage in the industry and he had to retire and step down from his position with the New York Knicks. Why?
Because bullying is something that the whole society is paying attention to.

If the NBA is facing the entire fan base and is conveying negative images such as "insulting others" and "intra-team bullying", it will definitely become the target of some activists, who will demand that the frequency of conveying content to young people be reduced. The result of doing so is likely to cause a gap in the fan base when it comes to iteration.

If the consequences weren't so serious, how could Larry Brown, with his qualifications, just retire like this?

The situation now is similar to that time.

David Stern responded quickly and set up an investigation team to go to Cleveland.

Suwan felt that the current situation was not chaotic enough, so he immediately asked Bill Duffy to find the media and expose the fact that Larry Brown announced his retirement because his verbal violence against Milicic was recorded and used as a handle, so he had to retire. - At that time, I was just curious, so I asked Bill Duffy to check it out, but I didn't expect that it would come in handy now.

The main reason is that Zhu Fangyu did not perform well in front of the camera and did not achieve the effect Su Wan expected. Now he can only add fuel to the fire.

Although Milicic promised Larry Brown not to disclose the news at the time, now that someone else has disclosed the news, the reporters are only asking him whether he did this, so he will naturally not give Larry Brown face:
"Yes, but I have never been as brave as Zhu, so I was insulted by Larry throughout my rookie season, which seriously damaged my self-confidence!"

Once he admitted it, Zhu Fangyu was no longer an isolated case.

Now, bullying of international players in the NBA has become a real phenomenon.

Su Wan was the first to stand up: "Although Larry Brown has retired, he should still apologize to Dako. He delayed Dako's career, which should have been brilliant. He is Europe's golden boy, not a fake second pick in the NBA! As for Jeff McGinnis and LeBron James of the Cavaliers, I hope they will stand up quickly and bravely admit their mistakes and stop being cowards!"

Then more international players spoke up for Zhu Fangyu and Milicic.

As an international player, if he doesn't stand up now, can he still expect others to save him when something happens to him?

Su Wan continued to "fire" on Facebook: We are here for the internationalization of the NBA, not to be bullied. If the NBA officials do not give an explanation, I believe that the internationalization of the NBA will be difficult to achieve!
David Stern was so anxious in his office that he almost hanged himself. He couldn't help but call Danny Ferry:
"Why the hell haven't I seen the Cavaliers press conference yet? What are you guys waiting for?"

What he wanted was to conduct the investigation at the same time as the Cavaliers' press conference to show the outside world their determination.

But Danny Ferry is holding him back.

But what can Danny do?

He is now also waiting for the boss to make the final decision.

And in the general manager's office, there was another person sitting:

LeBron James just returned from the hospital.

After a series of examinations, it was found that his nose was slightly fractured, his cheek was scratched, his eyebrow bone was cut, and there were some other cuts, which required about ten stitches.

His teeth are basically all broken and need to be replaced with porcelain teeth.

What’s more serious is that there is a minor problem with his tear ducts.

The doctor didn't find out, but he could feel it himself:
As his emotions came up, he felt his eye sockets getting hot and he couldn't help wanting to cry.

"Damn Chinese, I will make him pay the price!"

This is what he said after he came out of the hospital.

But at this moment, he was fidgeting and looking at Rich Paul next to him, his eyes were hot: "What should I do now?"

Danny Ferry ignored him. He was communicating with Nike people and wanted their help.

The Nike representative already knew the whole thing and was speechless.

Yesterday's game was already a terrible one, and just after one night, a bullying incident broke out... Instead of trying to find a way to solve it themselves, they had the audacity to come to them and beg them.

Who signed LeBron in the first place?

We have been pouring money and resources into him over the years, but have never seen any returns.

And about things like crisis public relations, ask Nike?

When they have image problems, they act like "ostriches". How can they find a solution?

"If it really doesn't work, don't accept any interviews recently. Just wait until the incident has died down." The Nike representative gave the final answer.

Rich Paul hung up the phone decisively, cursing in his heart:
dumbass!

Danny Ferry just got a reply from the big boss after talking to David Stern. He took a look at the text message and said to LeBron, "The big boss asked me to prepare a press conference. He wants you to appear as well."

LeBron was in a dilemma.

Ferry said, "We have already thought about it for you. When the time comes, you can say that you were not helping Jeff hold Zhu, but that you wanted to separate the two of them. Zhu misunderstood your behavior, but you can understand his excitement at the time, so you will not have any opinion on him. At the same time, you should apologize to Zhu for the misunderstanding caused."

and then?
After hearing the last part, LeBron looked at Danny Ferry in confusion, waiting for him to continue.

But Ferry was done.

Then was the beating I received in vain?

Ferry ignored LeBron, he understood what LeBron wanted to say. But at this time, being able to preserve his reputation is the best crisis public relations result. If he really delays any further, the hat of "bullying" will be firmly pinned on LeBron's head.

By then, it won't just be LeBron's image that will be in trouble, but the Cavaliers as well.

But Ferry couldn't convince LeBron, so he could only put his hopes on Rich Paul.

Richie is a smart man and he understands the current situation. After half an hour of ideological work, LeBron finally agreed.

The Cavaliers' press conference was held smoothly. LeBron apologized to Zhu Fangyu as Ferry said, and then did not answer any other questions as Rich Paul told him to. He also chose to remain silent on why he did not come out to stop Jeff from snatching Zhu Fangyu's lunch box.

Because he couldn't swear on his mother to tell a lie.

But if he said he saw it, then what he just said would not be true.

At this moment, he was not even as good as a high school student. If you didn’t know him, you would think he had just graduated from kindergarten and had no ability to take care of himself.

Danny Ferry then announced: "We will suspend Jeff McGinnis indefinitely until he has a good attitude of reflection. The Cavaliers are a team with a fine tradition. We will never allow or condone bullying."

After McInnis learned about Ferry's punishment of him, he knew that he had been sold out and became a "scapegoat". His status in the team was not high to begin with, and now he has been banned indefinitely. His career is almost over...

I'm not having a good time, and you can't have a good time either!

He went straight to his Facebook page, ready to drag LeBron into the water:
"LeBron knew about this from the beginning to the end, just like Zhu said, he just pretended not to see it!"

"LeBron wasn't trying to stop us from fighting. He just helped me grab Zhu's hand. If this was a misunderstanding, why was LeBron the one who got beaten the worst? Because when I took Zhu's lunch box, he saw it, but he didn't stop it. He hates Zhu. No, he hates Chinese people, including Zhu and Su Wan!"

The "dog-eat-dog" drama made reporters, who were already dissatisfied with LeBron's public relations, continue to focus on this issue.

It seems that there is no way to get rid of the label of "bullying" in the short term.

Seeing that LeBron's situation was getting more and more critical, Zhu Fangyu added fuel to the fire at this time: "I hate dishonest people. I also know that I have no misunderstandings. I will not forgive these people, but now, I just want to leave here as soon as possible!"

The fourth update is here, brothers, please continue to ask for monthly votes.

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(End of this chapter)